here's the thing.. there is almost zero shaftplay on the turbo. no more than what's normal of a turbo with a few k miles on it. this is a garrett turbo, mind you.

before i purchased it, i had asked the seller to send me pics with the housings off so that i could see the blades. is there any possibility that the housing was put on cockeyed and is now causing the blade to rub against it? i would just take it off and check for myself, but i'm worried about damaging the turbo further.

the turbo was purchased used from a very respectable shop, and they are insisting there was nothing wrong with the turbo when it was pulled from their car. the turbo has under 5k miles on it, and like I said, very minor shaft play, so i'm at a loss for why the blade is touching the housing.

thanks

 

The housings are going to need to be taken off either way to check for additional damage you may not see. When the journal bearing started to go out on my Turbonetics, there was a lot of wear under the turbine wheel in addition to the comp. blades rubbing from the horizontal shaft play. Unlikely that the comp. housing was cockeyed. See if the shop is willing to work with you on new parts and a balance.

 

Looks like I might as well just trash this entire turbo then, sounds like it needs a full rebuild.

 

my friends turbo did this, took off the housing and gave it a light sanding and now 10k later and still no problems

 

Interesting.. I had the same thoughts earlier, but I wasn't sure if it was legit to sand out the comp. housing or not.