Hi All,

I spotted a very clean and tidy 06 plate Croma Eleganza (1.9 150 multijet) at the auction last week. Got it for £550 but it does have a few issues. I found this great forum, already downloaded the elearn and setting about putting the Croma right and will use it for motorway commuting for as long as it lasts.

The first and most signficant problem is some turbo noise. I get a "wooooo" noise on spool up and down, cant hear it on full boost but may be drowned out by the engine and normal turbo sound on boost. Not sure if I have a turbo problem (happy enough to have it out and sent off for a rebuild) or some kind of leak somewhere. Any suggestions what I should check first?

thanks and again cant believe there's such an active community here. Hopeful with some help I can get the Croma running sweelty.

just to add, the noise is most evident just as you apply thottle, before the turbo really kicks in and also once boost has dropped off when you back off the throttle, it's like an extended "woooooo" sound at what appears to be the point the turbo starts to spin or comes to a stop. I could maybe record it and post it up somewhere if helpful.

Croma40 said:

just to add, the noise is most evident just as you apply thottle, before the turbo really kicks in and also once boost has dropped off when you back off the throttle, it's like an extended "woooooo" sound at what appears to be the point the turbo starts to spin or comes to a stop. I could maybe record it and post it up somewhere if helpful.

Click to expand...

Hi,
Welcome to the world of Croma (I also have a mJTD 150 Eleganza, but paid a bit more for it). You should check the obvious first, Does it have an air filter fitted? Is it clean? Then check the pipes and ducts for splits, loose joints or other leaks. The next thing would be to remove the intake pipe from the compressor side of the turbo and check for excessive play in the bearings or evidence of oil leaks. A new turbo cartridge (bearings and rotating parts) is about £100 to £150 and not beyond a competent DIYer to fit.
If you do your own work on the car It's well worth getting an EOBD lead and copy of Multiecuscan to read error codes, reset them etc. An ELM 327 lead is under £20 (see ebay item 301626849586, I've bought from this seller without issue)Multiecuscan is about £30 (€50, http://www.multiecuscan.net/) but you can try the free version. It will let you check the boost pressure for starters.

Robert G8RPI.

Hi Croma40, welcome to the support group!

Is there a part of the rev band where the noise is particularly noticeable?

As g8rpi says get MultiECUScan (MES) and a cable as you can't change the oil properly without it. It will also give you plenty of clues about how it's been looked after including whether an oil change and indicator reset is overdue (very important as you'll eventually stuff the dpf if you don't reset the oil change counter after an oil change).

Other things to check are:
1) Does the car run better with the MAF unplugged?
2) Is the EGR clean and partially blanked (bullet hole or swirl mod gasket fitted)?3) Check the grease on the driveshafts as the 150bhp in particular is bad for wear?
4) If you've got the panorama sunroof try not to open it if rain's a possibility as they're not always easy to close.

Plenty of advice on all of the above and any issues just post and we'll try and help where we can.

thanks for the replies, I do need to get a bit systematic about this and will start at the air filter as suggested and work along. There is a lot of oil around the top of the engine in the area of the EGR and the boost pipe entering the head but I can't pin point a leak, there's oil covering a bunch of stuff there but I did find the underside of the boost pipe join with the inlet into the engine wet with oil so wonder if I have oil getting in the turbo.

If I disconnect the air intake side of the turbo, would any issue with oil seals or bearings be evident from visual inspection there? I will also check for play in the turbo itself as suggested.

I found a receipt for a DPF removal and remap which I hope is a good thing.

Not sure about the oil around the turbo - does sound like a seal but others more knowledgeable about these things will no doubt be along shortly.

The dpf removal and remap means that the engine won't report a check engine light because of a dpf fault. However, a visual inspection of the dpf is part of the mot so hopefully when they mapped it out they left the filter case and just bashed the insides out.

Excessive play in the turbo bearings should be obvious. If it's had a DPF removal and remap it's likely the EGR has been set to closed too. It may be worth checking that the EGR valve is actually closed or blanked. It's technically illegal to use a car on the road with the EGR or DPF deleted, but unless they fitted a straight pipe in place of the DPF it's unlikely to be detected on the MOT.

Robert G8RPI.

the car has had an MOT since the DPF delete so I assume the case is still there, I will check though. How can I tell if the EGR is set closed? I get taking it off will make it obivous if there is a blanking plate but not sure what "set closed" means?

I'm going to get the spanners out on the weekend and have a closer look at the turbo and air circuit.

to answer an earlier question, the turbo noise is just as you apply throttle so must be around 1k through to around 1.8k, after that it either stops or gets drowned out by other engine noise. Same on the way down.

thanks

Hi,
When you take the EGR off, it has a wedge shaped divider with two poppet valve disks. You just need to ensure they are both fully closed and seated with no power on the valve. I did a guide on fitting the blanking plate here https://www.fiatforum.com/miscellan...v-mjtd-egr-valve-restrictor-installation.html
There is also a turbo guide, https://www.fiatforum.com/miscellan...pping-rebuilding-garrett-gt-series-turbo.html but I've not looked at it.

Robert G8RPI.

I had another go this weekend, I'm finding it so cramped trying to work on the turbo and various hoses that I decided to be done with it and take the rad and intercooler off so I can see what's going on. I've got the front bumper off but got stuck when I read the aircon needs to be drained. I asked some questions about that on the main tech forum page, but after reading the e-learning in detail and looking at the car, I can see I will need to remove some of the aircon components so I have a local mobile auto aircon engineer coming to drain it on Thursday. Once that's done, full speed ahead on taking the rad and intercooler off and see what's what with the turbo. Pretty sure the turbo is iffy - it hoots like an owl on spool up and down, and there's a lot of oil in pipes on the boost side (wondering how much might have collected in the intercooler as well). Should know more soon, with luck I might have the car back on the road by Christmas!

worth getting intercooler out and inverting to drain..,
as you've got time..and can then inspect for other issues,

Charlie

a local air con engineer came today and de-gassed the system. Only £30 and will come back for another £30 when I'd ready to vaccuum the system and re-gas.

So I'm all set for the weekend and will get the radiator/intercooler out of the way and see what's what with the turbo. Getting there slowly...

some progress - I got the turbo off, it was not in a good way. I sent to a engineering firm and the rebuilt unit should be with me on friday with pretty much everthing bar the housings replaced.

Any suggestions on refitting the turbo - how can I prevent the engine firing but crank it with the starter to get a good oil supply through the turbo? I will prime it with oil before I fit the turbo, but would like to ensure it's had plenty of oil through it before I fire the engine and have read that cranking the engine is a good way to do this. thanks