Hi Guys

I was driving down the road and suddenly there was a loss of power and smoke everywhere and a high pitched whining and rattling noise coming from the turbo when revved.

When I took it to the garage we opened up the bonnet and noticed oil.

The mechanic said it was the turbo gone and took off the air filter housing and showed me the play within the turbo shaft and oil in the surrounding areas.

We then took off the inlet manifold and found only 5 swirl flaps

:o

Now I have no idea if that swirl flap had been sucked in and caused the turbo failiure but if it had i'm sure it would have damaged the engine. When the engine is on idle there should be a considerable amount of miss fire no?

The engine still idles smoothly and only when you put your foot on the accelerator does the turbo whine and rattle and there's smoke. More of a greyish black smoke from what I can remember.

Now would it be worth removing the cylinder head to check for debris? or should I count my blessings?

A new turbo will be fitted in a couple of weeks but i'm more worried about that missing flap. I'm hoping that it had fallen off with the previous owner and he dealt with it.

IMHO yes. Why would the previous owner have only removed one swirl flap?

It could be that all the debris is contained within the Turbo, but it is a big gamble.

If you replace the turbo only and then wreck the engine due to debris the bill will be huge.

I believe others have found missing swirl flaps with no other obvious damage. Your missing flap could just be a coincidence.