91 Subaru Legacy Turbo

84678467 Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Subaru
I own a 91 Subaru Legacy Turbo with about 120,000 miles on it. Up until now I have not had any problems with the turbocharger. I was wondering how reliable these units are and what the costs are to repair them when they break down.

Comments

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    You're probably getting close to trouble time. Cost varies with the type of car and how hard it is to get the turbo in and out and what other troubles you may have, such as bolts that break off, clogged oil lines, etc.

    As a starting point, you can often send a turbo out for rebuilding for around $350, if you know where to send it. Usually shops charge around $1,000 or a bit more in some cases to do a complete job.

    Signs of turbo wear are a) blue smoke on start up and b)excessive whining noise from turbo...sounds like a distant police siren.

    But just keep changing your oil a lot and you may go all the way to 150K with it.
  • 0patience0patience Member Posts: 1,712
    Well, since you are to a point, like Mr Shiftright mentioned, that it is getting tired, one thing you might think about, the drain tubes on the turbos have a tendancy to cake up and clog.
    I haven't looked at a Subaru in a long time, but if the turbo drain tube is fairly easy to get to, it would be a good idea to pull it and make sure it is clear and clean, may get you some extra life in that turbo.
    2 of the biggest causes of failures of turbos is contamination, from oil or air and the drain tube clogging and not allowing the oil to drain and pushing the seals. Once the seals push, then dirt and contamination make their way into the turbo and it eventually fails.
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