Turbo shaft play. How much is normal? Advice needed.... (3 Viewers)

[Peter P]

Video below. If you turn your volume right up you should be able to hear the clicking as it shifts side to side. This is a brand new turbo and I have no idea whether this amount of play is normal so hoping someone experienced here can give their opinion? Would be much appreciated!

My best guess is that I'm seeing about .4 to .5 of a mm of play from one extreme to the other. This is not enough for the compressor to touch the housing but it is close. Chat GPT has this to say: "Generally, a maximum radial play of around 0.05 to 0.15 millimeters (0.002 to 0.006 inches) is considered acceptable for most turbochargers." but then contradicts itself by saying "A radial play of 0.4 to 0.5mm (0.016 to 0.02 inches) is within a reasonable range for turbocharger radial play. While it is slightly higher than the typical maximum tolerance of 0.15mm (0.006 inches) mentioned earlier, it is still within an acceptable range."

 

[mudgudgeon]

The Toyota FSM for 1hdt shows how to measure radial play. You measure it at the centre of the CHRA, not at the compressor wheel.

 

[veiloctane]

Video below. If you turn your volume right up you should be able to hear the clicking as it shifts side to side. This is a brand new turbo and I have no idea whether this amount of play is normal so hoping someone experienced here can give their opinion? Would be much appreciated!

My best guess is that I'm seeing about .4 to .5 of a mm of play from one extreme to the other. This is not enough for the compressor to touch the housing but it is close. Chat GPT has this to say: "Generally, a maximum radial play of around 0.05 to 0.15 millimeters (0.002 to 0.006 inches) is considered acceptable for most turbochargers." but then contradicts itself by saying "A radial play of 0.4 to 0.5mm (0.016 to 0.02 inches) is within a reasonable range for turbocharger radial play. While it is slightly higher than the typical maximum tolerance of 0.15mm (0.006 inches) mentioned earlier, it is still within an acceptable range."

Woah that looks like a lot.
Better measure by Toyota guidlines

I have had both new and aftermarket turbo and there is almost zero shaft play. I can wiggle it just about a hair. Both turbos I’ve had are journal-bearing. Not sure about ball-bearing turbos.


***correction

A little In-out play= bad
Up down play = ok

 

[KiwiDingo]

A little In-out play= ok
Up down play = bad

Incorrect, up and down will always have some movement due to how the bearing works. There's an allowable tolerance for both axial and radial play as specified by Toyota in FSM. The specs for the CT26 allowable play is 0.13mm axial and 0.18mm radial or less.

 

[Peter P]

Incorrect, up and down will always have some movement due to how the bearing works. There's an allowable tolerance for both axial and radial play as specified by Toyota in FSM. The specs for the CT26 allowable play is 0.13mm axial and 0.18mm radial or less.

Hmm... ok thank you. How does one go about measuring this?

I found this below which looks as bad if not slightly worse from what seems a reputable manufacturer. Possibly my video makes it look slightly worse than it is, but it still seemed odd to me to see that much movement in a brand new turbo. Really I was expecting almost none. There is no in/out play however.

 

[Dougal]

A healthy turbo will no oil in it will have plenty of wiggle but the blades cannot touch.

When running it's got pressurised oil keeping the shaft pinned in the centre.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Hmm... ok thank you. How does one go about measuring this?

Download the 1hdt engine repair manual from the Resources section under the forum menu.

There's instructions and tolerances for checking shaft play.

 

[veiloctane]

 

[veiloctane]

 

[Peter P]

To cap this thread off I sent the turbo to a reputable local turbo servicing company as a precautionary measure realising it was far beyond my abilities to make a call myself. They got back to me once they'd pulled it apart to say it was a good thing I sent it to them as, in their opinion, there were a number of problems. They ended up replacing the entire core while reusing the compressor wheel which they recognised as being of good quality. They also increased the size of the wastegate as apparently it was too small plus made a couple of other small changes.

Interestingly there is definitely now less shaft play, probably only about half as much. Also it seems easier to spin the core up with my fingers. Based on this I wouldn't recommend CCT turbo, although I guess I'll never know how it would have gone without the rebuild.