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Re: Longevity of Turbo Posted by Larry West [Email] ![]() ![]() ![]() In Reply to: Longevity of Turbo, KevinH, Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:35:55 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Seems that some 9-5 turbos don't last as long as the ones in older Saabs, but there is no hard-and-fast rule about how many miles it will last, regardless. I've seen turbos in Classic 900s go 150k, 200k without touching the turbo.
It can depend on maintenance (what oil/filter and how often changed), use (how much do you drive hard), and care (do you let it cool down after a hard run?).
Pending turbo failures usually manifest themselves in tailpipe smoke, though it is NOT always blue. For smoke caused by oil to be blue, it has to be burned in the combustion chamber, so the oil is getting past the seals in the compressor side. White smoke is also possible, and this is from the seal going bad on the turbine side. Look for white smoke on cold startups (it usually goes away - at least in the beginning) and blue smoke in normal driving and on lift throttle. The white smoke caused by a bad turbo will tend to be a very bright white, and will hand in the air a lot longer than the white "smoke" (actually steam) caused by coolant getting into the combustion chamber.
It's not **normally** a situation where you have to do it right now (unless, perhaps, you were planning entering the cannonball in the morning...), but it should be done as soon as possible.
That said, I see no reason to swap it out at the 120k if it is working well at that point. And I wouldn't buy in advance of needing it, as I'd prefer to have as much of the warranty on the part available as possible.
_______________________________________ Current: 2002 9-5 Aero Kombi Cosmic Blue 2000 9-5 SE sedan, Imola Red 1990 900S Rose Quartz, Auto Past: 1999 9-5 LPT Combi 1999 9-5 LPT sedan 2002 9-5 Arc 1990 900 5-speed 1986 900 turbo Convertible 1991 9000 turbo 1980 99 GLi 1986 900 turbo 1986 900 S 1991 900 turbo 1984 900 turbo 1976 99 GL
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