Classic Turbo trouble.

So Buttercup has decided to throw a bit of a wobbly, advice/help much appreciated.

1988 2.4 VM with 170.000 Kms. Shopping trip this morning when there was a nasty intermitant grating/grinding /rattling noise, seemed to be related to engine speed. Another mile up the road with fairly light throttle use and pulled into a big carpark for a shufti.
With engine running on tickover a bit of a rattle was coming from around the turbo/exhaust area, increased the revs to about 2000 and there was a fair bit of rattly/grinding noises coming from the turbo, I could also feel vibration from the turbo when I put my hand on the air side of it.
After a bit of thought I decided to take a slow drive home turning a 1/2 drive into 3/4 hour, never going over 1800rpm with very light throttle openings. Got home alright without hearing the noise again.
Took off the air filter hose and had a butchers, spindle has a bit more slop side to side than it should, probably about 3mm, impeller turns but will not spin freely. Took off intercooler hose and a fair bit of oil around, cleaned oil off the output spigot of the turbo and fired her up. Not a lot happening at tickover, but blipping the throttle produces a good flow of oil out the pressure side. Didn't get the horrid noise though, but by this time everything is cold again.
Am I right in thinking the turbo itself - or at least the spindle bearings - are on the way out,? certainly the oil seals are shot. I guess its time to change the whole turbo as I had arranged last Sunday to pick up a complete engine this weekend, I just hope it still has the turbo on it. I'm also thinking that the oil feed is OK so just need to swap them over.
Anybody got any thoughts please?? I have the brooklands manual and a fair bit of tooling, are there any clever little tips or warnings I should be aware of.

Think its safe to say turbo gone! Needs a new one.

+1 I'm no expert on the vm) last one I worked on was a land cruiser in Portugal 20 years ago) but yes it's goosed.
Don't even run it like that, if an impeller blade touches the housing, that's metal filings going inside the engine, never a good idea!

Agree to not running as bits in the engine are not a good idea, I have a 2.5VM which has done 120k miles, replaced a head & gasket at about 80k and fingers crossed no plans to strip engine yet. Martyn

Thanks for the replies chaps, not going to be run now until its fixed. I was very careful not to rev too high on my drive back home. If I hadn't forgotten my phone I would have called out a breakdown recovery to get me home, but I did think that any filings would have been held up in the intercooler if she wasnt breathing too heavily.

Took a trip out to my mates place this morning and joy of joys there was a turbo on the lump just waiting for me to strip it.
Gave it a dose of plus-gas while I was sorting some tools out and off it came sweet as a nut. Half an hour and it were in me grubby little mitts.
Got home and 3/4 hour later mine was off, then the fun started. I struggled and swore for over an hour to get the forkin intercooler out, even managed to use a crow foot wrench that hadn't seen the light of day for 15 years. well full of oil, wouldn't be suprised if it had started to run away but fortunately caught it in time.
Fitting the new/old turbo was more bleedin difficult and fiddly than it really needed to be but eventually back together, Neighbour suggested having a few bevvies so that was that for the day.
To be honest if I wasn't such an old farty, and me back wasn't hurting so much I would have liked to get it running. Still, summat to look forward to in the morning.

Finished fitting all the hoses/air filter etc, dribbled a good bit of oil into the top oilway while turning the impeller by hand.
Turned her over briefly without preheat to get a bit of pressure going and then started her, everything seemed to be ok so let her tick over for 10 mins then brought the revs up to 2000 and I get a good dribble of oil coming out of the pressure side.

So is this turbo goosed as well?? there is just a little play in the shaft, about 1mm or so, but I suspect the seals are gone.

Just how much oil would I see leaking past the seals on a good turbo??

Is it worth me looking at a rebuild kit, or just exchange for a re-con unit if I can find someone who will ship to France.?

I would say you should be getting no oil at all past the seals.
Not sure how much play is reasonable. The shaft does effectively float in oil so it will be a clearance fit but 1mm sounds excessive in general engineering terms.
I'd be looking for a reconditioned one myself. I'm sure someone will ship to France. I've had stuff shipped to Czech Republic from island 4x4 but I don't know if they will have your turbo.

Bloody hell, that's very reasonable.
I wouldn't be messing about if it's only 100 notes for a reconditioned one.

That's what I thought, even if you could fit new seals you need a tool to fit them and it's a rip off £40!!
In the listing it says for 89> Rover 800, but if the numbers match????

myfirstl322 said:

That's what I thought, even if you could fit new seals you need a tool to fit them and it's a rip off £40!!
In the listing it says for 89> Rover 800, but if the numbers match????

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Thats what I call service sir, thanks very much for your help.
That particular link is for the 2.5ltr, the same seller also has one for the 2.4 at much the same price. I shall be tearing their arm off in the morning, currently having a minor problem with paypal, who are choked up with monarch airlines problems.
Once again thanks a lot.

The turbos on the 2.4 do throw a hissy occasionally.

i fitted a recon unit to my 89 vogue and it rattled like a ****er!

so instead of dicking around with 2nd hand units i bought a rebuild kit off a land rover dealer if memory serves!

it was back in 2006 lol so i don't know if the dealer would still stock them.

despite this the VM is still my favourite diesel unit for the RRC lol