Volvo turbos on the 2nd generation cars generally last the life of the engine, so it was unusual to see this car here with a defective turbocharger. Half the battle in repairing anything is to figure out WHY it failed, so a repeat failure can be avoided.
You’ll notice on the turbocharger below the impeller or fan which drives the unit is severely worn at the ends. This is caused by the turbo fan contacting the housing, usually because of wear in the turbo bushings or damage to the shaft. In this particular turbo the shaft is actually broken into two parts, indicating a catastrophic failure at high speed. Under full load, the turbocharger can spin at 100,000 rpm or more, so most likely this was a lubrication failure which allowed the shaft to seize and the torque causing the shaft to snap in two.
It is very important on turbocharged cars to use a high quality of oil, the vast majority of turbo failures are lubrication related, often for poor quality oil, or infrequent oil changes. I believe that was the case here, for the service tech found the oil filter cup sludged up, as if the filter had not been replaced frequently. Or if the filter was the replaced, the previous servicing shop had neglected to take the time to properly clean the filter cup. Unfortunately it is not an uncommon occurrence to even find some general repair shops who lack the special tool to remove the Volvo filter cup, and in so doing skip filter replacement during an oil change.
Fortunately the engine seems to have experienced no internal damage, and after a proper service, the engine oil pressure returned to normal. Just to be certain, a full visual inspection of the lower engine reveled no damage to bearings or other engine parts. Replacement of the turbo unit with a factory remanufactured unit, along with the proper cleaning of the oil supply and return lines solved the problem and the car was returned to service.
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| Failed turbo and Volvo factory replacement | Defective turbo unit |
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| Note drive fan damage at edges | “Hot” housing removed, fan damage visible |
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| Broken shaft and damaged fan | Back of damaged fan, note deep scoring |
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| Close up of damaged fan, note fan damage | Inside turbo, note broken end of shaft |