[martin1977]

Where did you buy the red accents? I've got exactly the same car and it looks great.

Pardon our interruption...

the above is what I used......

 

[martin1977]

In my 2.5 years of ownership, the first ‘REAL’ problem had developed on my car…. Lack of turbo boost..
There are a number of things that can cause this issue on your car, the best way to diagnose is via an error code reader. Id noticed the issue very early by nothing other than the way the car drove and responded to my use of the ‘loud’ pedal.. as such I didn’t have any error codes yet…
My first suspicion was a vacuum leak.. a quick inspection of the hoses and all seemed to be a-okay…..

Next up… a check of the actuator on the waste gate… stiff as a board… we have a winner!
This item should move freely and easily to hand (It didn’t).. so a good soaking of WD40 and a couple of light taps with a hammer had this freed up and moving again. The problem being that as soon as the Turbo heats up that oil will burn off immediately and the actuator re-seizes… The waste gate flapper is inside the exhaust (hot side) of the turbo and is a royal pain in the ass to get to.
With 6yrs of crud and exhaust gases along with extremely hot temperatures its understandable why this would start to seize up.
There were two options here..

• I could take my car off the road and send my existing turbo away to get refurbished

‘or’

• Keep the use of my car (driving gently and off boost) and buy a second hand item and send that off for refurbishment.

I went for option 2.
An item was sourced via eBay using my existing part number…

I then sent this to Turbo Dynamics Turbo Dynamics | Turbocharger Replacement, Repairs & Performance Upgrades who did an absolutely smashing job of stripping this unit down and giving me a very detailed report of condition.
Three days later the now fully refurbished item was mailed back to me.
James Coulson is the main contact here James.C@turbodynamics.co.uk, a great help who kept me up to speed at every point in my refurbishment. If you need some turbo assistance, these are the guys to go to.. Their GOOGLE review and reputational score is entirely deserved.
At the same time I purchased a new gasket and bolt kit as this isn’t a job I plan on doing ever again or get stuck in the middle of doing.

First up…. Make sure the engine is cool and give all nuts on the turbo a good soak with WD40. Leave it 30mins and give it another spray to ensure maximum oil penetration.
I then removed the heat shield from the turbo – this is held in place by 3(of) 10mm bolts… that squirt of WD40 goes a long way here.

I then moved the air inlet from the turbo along with the outlet to the Intercooler.. these are also 10mm bolts….
Next I removed the vacuum hose to the Actuator (this just pulls off but can be a little sticky like mines was).
Bolts between the turbo Hot Side and Downpipe are up next.. These are 12mm … be firm but gentle with these… they’ll release and start to give way.. use WD40 here as needed.. Once removed, take off the bolt that holds the downpipe in place. Its on the RHS of the downpipe.. you can then now wriggle the downpipe to the right by maybe 30-40mm. This frees up space to get the turbo manifold bolts out. I also relocated the small radiator expansion bottle.. its easy to remove the 2x bolts and pull this out of the way

Before that, remove the oil feed bolt on the top of the turbo unit… it’s a hard pipe that’s a bit like a brake line so don’t try to bend or manipulate it in any way… (I think, but can’t remember that its 16mm)
There are now 2(of) bolts that hold that coolant inlet and outlet bolts.. 18mm… easily enough to crack these off… Be warned, you’ll lose a LOT of coolant here so it’s going to go all over your floor if you don’t have a bucket handy… once you’re thoroughly soaked and annoyed at missing this in advance… you need to remove the turbo to manifold bolts. These are 14mm. I used a spanner rather than socket to remove these and being honest, they came off without a fight.
You’re now left with the oil return hose that’s on the bottom of the turbo.. I removed this part ‘last’ as it’s a pain in the ass to access… again 10mm spanner is your friend here… you should now be able to pull the turbo out of location…

Give the flange faces a good clean up making sure you get no crap or debris into the lines you’ve now opened up (air inlet to turbo etc)..


Old Turbo (left) and New Turbo (right)

Your new fitting kit comes with gaskets and new copper bolts, copper washers for the oil line… (use these!!). I also put some copper slip onto my manifold and downpipe nuts should I ever have to do this job again

Installation of the new Turbo is the Reversal of the above steps…..

One main and critical exception to this!!!
BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE OIL FEED LINE: (the one on the top of the turbo)
MAKE SURE YOU PRE-LUBRICATE THE TURBO BY SQUIRTING IN SOME ENGINE OIL AND TURN THE TURBO BLADES BY STICKING A FINGER INTO THE TURBO AND ROTATE THEM ABOUT A BIT, THIS WILL MOVE THE OIL AROUND LUBRICATING THE TURBO BEARINGS ETC, IT TAKES MAYBE 50ml…. THIS PART IS VERY IMPORTANT.


After 5hrs in total… New turbo is in….

The recommendation is to change your oil at the same time, I only had mines changed a few weeks ago so I was happy to go with what I had… You also need to top up the coolant that you lost earlier on.

The new actuator issue is of course 100% cured and we’re back driving as we did previously.. Car response is really nice and smooth…

My old turbo is actually in really excellent condition, there’s zero scoring on the turbo housing… turbo blades are in great condition, no play in the shaft... the only issue is the sticky waste gate valve.. I’ve given this a good soaking in oven cleaner which seems to have sorted the problem….theres actually an actuator kit ofr £95 which would sort this!! all in all could have been much cheaper for me!!

Anyways, my repair - Cost wise – The 2nd hand turbo was £180 to buy plus £350 to refurbish.. gasket kit was £55.. Coolant was £10.

 

[Joër]

In my 2.5 years of ownership, the first ‘REAL’ problem had developed on my car…. Lack of turbo boost..
There are a number of things that can cause this issue on your car, the best way to diagnose is via an error code reader. Id noticed the issue very early by nothing other than the way the car drove and responded to my use of the ‘loud’ pedal.. as such I didn’t have any error codes yet…
My first suspicion was a vacuum leak.. a quick inspection of the hoses and all seemed to be a-okay…..

Next up… a check of the actuator on the waste gate… stiff as a board… we have a winner!
This item should move freely and easily to hand (It didn’t).. so a good soaking of WD40 and a couple of light taps with a hammer had this freed up and moving again. The problem being that as soon as the Turbo heats up that oil will burn off immediately and the actuator re-seizes… The waste gate flapper is inside the exhaust (hot side) of the turbo and is a royal pain in the ass to get to.
With 6yrs of crud and exhaust gases along with extremely hot temperatures its understandable why this would start to seize up.
There were two options here..

• I could take my car off the road and send my existing turbo away to get refurbished

‘or’

• Keep the use of my car (driving gently and off boost) and buy a second hand item and send that off for refurbishment.

I went for option 2.
An item was sourced via eBay using my existing part number…

View attachment 118469
I then sent this to Turbo Dynamics Turbo Dynamics | Turbocharger Replacement, Repairs & Performance Upgrades who did an absolutely smashing job of stripping this unit down and giving me a very detailed report of condition.
Three days later the now fully refurbished item was mailed back to me.
James Coulson is the main contact here James.C@turbodynamics.co.uk, a great help who kept me up to speed at every point in my refurbishment. If you need some turbo assistance, these are the guys to go to.. Their GOOGLE review and reputational score is entirely deserved.
At the same time I purchased a new gasket and bolt kit as this isn’t a job I plan on doing ever again or get stuck in the middle of doing.


View attachment 118472

View attachment 118471


View attachment 118470

First up…. Make sure the engine is cool and give all nuts on the turbo a good soak with WD40. Leave it 30mins and give it another spray to ensure maximum oil penetration.
I then removed the heat shield from the turbo – this is held in place by 3(of) 10mm bolts… that squirt of WD40 goes a long way here.

I then moved the air inlet from the turbo along with the outlet to the Intercooler.. these are also 10mm bolts….
Next I removed the vacuum hose to the Actuator (this just pulls off but can be a little sticky like mines was).
Bolts between the turbo Hot Side and Downpipe are up next.. These are 12mm … be firm but gentle with these… they’ll release and start to give way.. use WD40 here as needed.. Once removed, take off the bolt that holds the downpipe in place. Its on the RHS of the downpipe.. you can then now wriggle the downpipe to the right by maybe 30-40mm. This frees up space to get the turbo manifold bolts out. I also relocated the small radiator expansion bottle.. its easy to remove the 2x bolts and pull this out of the way

Before that, remove the oil feed bolt on the top of the turbo unit… it’s a hard pipe that’s a bit like a brake line so don’t try to bend or manipulate it in any way… (I think, but can’t remember that its 16mm)
There are now 2(of) bolts that hold that coolant inlet and outlet bolts.. 18mm… easily enough to crack these off… Be warned, you’ll lose a LOT of coolant here so it’s going to go all over your floor if you don’t have a bucket handy… once you’re thoroughly soaked and annoyed at missing this in advance… you need to remove the turbo to manifold bolts. These are 14mm. I used a spanner rather than socket to remove these and being honest, they came off without a fight.
You’re now left with the oil return hose that’s on the bottom of the turbo.. I removed this part ‘last’ as it’s a pain in the ass to access… again 10mm spanner is your friend here… you should now be able to pull the turbo out of location…

View attachment 118468

Give the flange faces a good clean up making sure you get no crap or debris into the lines you’ve now opened up (air inlet to turbo etc)..


Old Turbo (left) and New Turbo (right)

View attachment 118467
Your new fitting kit comes with gaskets and new copper bolts, copper washers for the oil line… (use these!!). I also put some copper slip onto my manifold and downpipe nuts should I ever have to do this job again

View attachment 118473
Installation of the new Turbo is the Reversal of the above steps…..

One main and critical exception to this!!!
BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE OIL FEED LINE: (the one on the top of the turbo)
MAKE SURE YOU PRE-LUBRICATE THE TURBO BY SQUIRTING IN SOME ENGINE OIL AND TURN THE TURBO BLADES BY STICKING A FINGER INTO THE TURBO AND ROTATE THEM ABOUT A BIT, THIS WILL MOVE THE OIL AROUND THE TURBO MECHANISM, IT TAKES MAYBE 50ml…. THIS IS IMPORTANT.


After 5hrs in total… New turbo is in….

View attachment 118466

The recommendation is to change your oil at the same time, I only had mines changed a few weeks ago so I was happy to go with what I had… You also need to top up the coolant that you lost earlier on.

The new actuator issue is of course 100% cured and we’re back driving as we did previously.. Car response is really nice and smooth…

My old turbo is actually in really excellent condition, there’s no scoring on the turbo housing… blades are in great condition, no play in the shaft... the only issue is the sticky waste gate valve.. I’m sure some oven cleaner would have this sorted no problem….

Cost wise – The 2nd hand turbo was £180 to buy plus £350 to refurbish.. gasket kit was £55.. Coolant was £10.

Great explanation of this job. Hopefully it will take long before mine needs a new one, but, this seems like a nice "do at home" job of you are a bit familiar with the parts and tools.

 

[martin1977]

Great explanation of this job. Hopefully it will take long before mine needs a new one, but, this seems like a nice "do at home" job of you are a bit familiar with the parts and tools.

Thanks ! it takes a bit of time and thought to do without stripping off lots and lots of parts.. Because the turbo is relatively small and there's space in the engine bay, it is achievable.
Its just one of those jobs that if you need to do it.. you need to do it.

The new gasket kit saved a lot of pain.. if you take off any nuts or bolts that are in poor condition.. you're not stuck waiting to find and order replacements.

 

[braack1110]

Excellent description of how you did it. Well done

 

[martin1977]

That time of year again when the winter wheels get fitted and the summers get banished to the shed….

 

[martin1977]

The past few weeks has thrown up an ANNOYING squeal from the OSR disk / brake….. as the brakes had only been replaced last summer.. this is a tad frustating…
anyways,
Chocks under the front wheels to stop you rolling away... handbrake off and car jacked up


we find this…

one damaged piston seal resulting in a badly worn brake pad, my guess is that the piston isn't releasing when used resulting in excessive wear,!!!!

so…….
ebay to the rescue with a new caliper £58, new pads £28, new fluid £10.. all in £95

I wont cover removal of the caliper as I documented this on the previous pages when I'd changed the rear pads last year...
next thing to do is remove the handbrake cable clip which retains the cable in place (the silver U shaped clip you can see below)...

a screwdriver and tap with a hammer is whats needed..... Pull the caliper away from w the handbrake cable ... this stretches the cable and pulls out the locking part.. next, unclip the handbrake cable itself...

followed by some mole grips on the brake hose.. this reduces the brake fluid that can leak out.. Put some cardboard or rags down to make sure any leaking fluid is captured. Brake fluid Is corrosive so don't get it on any painted surfaces

now disconnect the brake line nut, most of the nuts on this job are 14mm.. this one included.

some new pads to replace the damaged item.....

and the old & new calipers ready for change... you need to remove the handbrake retainer arm from the old and install on the new.. its a single nut.

first up I re attached the handbrake cable... hook this onto the caliper then pull the caliper towards you which moves the spring and allows the cable to locate into its recess on the calipers carrier like so.

you can now install the retaining clip that you pushed out earlier.. I used some copper slip on this to help her on her way....
now tighten up the brake hose nut to the new caliper and remove the mole grips...install the caliper onto the mount on the hub with the new pads and you SHOULD be ready for bleeding....

make sure your fluid is topped right up and start the bleeding process.. If you dont know how to do this, YOUTUBE is your bestest friend.... I had my daughter (12) sit in the driver seat... engine running... you press the brake pedal hard three times and on the third press keep the pedal pushed down... undo the bleed nipple slightly and the fluid will shoot up the hose along with the bubbles that were trapped in the caliper... re-tighten the bleed nipple slightly.... release the brake pedal and repeat.... after 3x attempts.. no more bubbles... check and top up your fluid!!!

job done!

Give your brakes a test at low speed to make sure you haven't got any trapped air bubbles as now is the time to find out as opposed to needing your brakes when out and about!!!!

 

[fordem]

make sure your fluid is topped right up and start the bleeding process.. If you dont know how to do this, YOUTUBE is your bestest friend

Some scary stuff in here - especially this...

The amount of trash I've seen on YouTube, if you don't know how to do this, then don't do it, get your brakes fixed by someone who does - you're literally putting you life and the lives of your loved ones at risk.

I have nothing against DIY brake repairs, but seriously, YouTube is not the place to be learning this from.

One last thing - please don't use mole grips/vice grips to pinch your brake hoses - there are inexpensive specialty tools designed for this job, and they don't have the sharp edges that mole/vice grips do - better yet, a square of "cling wrap" over the master cylinder will do the same job.

 

[martin1977]

Some scary stuff in here - especially this...

The amount of trash I've seen on YouTube, if you don't know how to do this, then don't do it, get your brakes fixed by someone who does - you're literally putting you life and the lives of your loved ones at risk.

I have nothing against DIY brake repairs, but seriously, YouTube is not the place to be learning this from.

One last thing - please don't use mole grips/vice grips to pinch your brake hoses - there are inexpensive specialty tools designed for this job, and they don't have the sharp edges that mole/vice grips do - better yet, a square of "cling wrap" over the master cylinder will do the same job.

View attachment 119220

" better yet, a square of "cling wrap" over the master cylinder will do the same job. " yep that would work too... when I mentioned and used mole grips, you of course have to consider how tight they'll be once applied and adjust them to suit !!!
one things for sure.... common sense isn't distributed evenly or universally!!! 😂

 

[martin1977]

Almost forgot about these guys!!

2x new gas boot struts installed . £19. Mines were losing their strength…

Boot struts

The photo here is of the removed items , the replacements took less than 2 mins to fit…. Use a small flathead screwdriver to prise of the retaining clips at both ends… the strut is then easily removed without issue… I found it easier to locate the boot end rather than the door end when installing the new items. Possibly as one had already been completed at that point.. who knows….

now 100% fixed.

 

[george1976]

Thank you for this nice write up and tips.

I did replace my own pads front and back with Febi, and found out that I had to file a little bit of a pad "ear" as was not allowing it to move freely in those clips.
I had squealing on the rears, and dealership said: binding, but ever so slightly so no need to worry......
My Vitara was acting like it had hill start assist (it does not). Turns out that one of my pads had 1mm at the top and 4-5at the bottom, interesting sight. Cause was the piston which seemed to release after a few back and forth turns and the pad not moving freely on the clips.
Couldn't get that small screw out from the rear disc, so my discs are still in a box till next spring I purchased a handy tool especially for this from ebay.
My biggest problem if you can believe it, was taking the wheels out! I got tired of kicking them, but I was successful in the end with some wd40 and a screwdriver....... Can see that a bit on the interior of my rim but no further damage.
I replaced my dab radio with a 9" android screen from AliExpres. It does a lot more than even the built in infotainment. Was worried with what I was going to receive, but lucky in the end and it also came with the trim directly fitted so it went straight in, no canbus no problems.

Did you have any mot issues because of you led headlights? Info it's a bit unclear to me on that.

Thanks

 

[fordem]

I did replace my own pads front and back with Febi, and found out that I had to file a little bit of a pad "ear" as was not allowing it to move freely in those clips.
I had squealing on the rears, and dealership said: binding, but ever so slightly so no need to worry......
My Vitara was acting like it had hill start assist (it does not). Turns out that one of my pads had 1mm at the top and 4-5at the bottom, interesting sight. Cause was the piston which seemed to release after a few back and forth turns and the pad not moving freely on the clips.

Generally speaking the pads should not move "freely" in the clips, and definitely should not require any filing - that makes me wonder about the quality of the pads.

Now - your idea of moving "freely" may be to different to mine, but the clips are there to prevent the pads from rattling, they are made of spring steel and shaped so that they apply some amount of tension to the pads, enough to keep them from rattling, but not so much as to prevent them from sliding - the uneven pad wear that you are describing is usually caused by binding slide pins, if you did not clean & lubricate the slide pins, it might be an idea to revisit that job.

 

[martin1977]

I had to file a little bit of a pad "ear" as was not allowing it to move freely in those clips..

I also noticed this on mines and resolved it with a quick run over with a file - this then had them installing and moving freely. I actually checked them at the weekend and all is now 100%.

Couldn't get that small screw out from the rear disc, so my discs are still in a box till next spring I purchased a handy tool especially for this from ebay.

Give the screw a good soaking with WD40..... see if that frees it up.. if not: you can use a drill and drill the head off of the screw... the disk should then pop off.. you of course have to remove the screw stub with mole grips and replace the screw afterwards with a bit of copper slip applied.. this is only to help align the disc holes / hub holes and as such doesn't need to be super tight.

Did you have any mot issues because of you led headlights? Info it's a bit unclear to me on that.

I take it you mean the LED full beam bulbs as opposed to the standard LED 'dipped' bulbs ?? no .. none.

 

[george1976]

Generally speaking the pads should not move "freely" in the clips, and definitely should not require any filing - that makes me wonder about the quality of the pads.

Now - your idea of moving "freely" may be to different to mine, but the clips are there to prevent the pads from rattling, they are made of spring steel and shaped so that they apply some amount of tension to the pads, enough to keep them from rattling, but not so much as to prevent them from sliding - the uneven pad wear that you are describing is usually caused by binding slide pins, if you did not clean & lubricate the slide pins, it might be an idea to revisit that job.

To slide with ease back and forth within the constraint of the clips according to their intended usage scenario.

 

[george1976]

I also noticed this on mines and resolved it with a quick run over with a file - this then had them installing and moving freely. I actually checked them at the weekend and all is now 100%.


Give the screw a good soaking with WD40..... see if that frees it up.. if not: you can use a drill and drill the head off of the screw... the disk should then pop off.. you of course have to remove the screw stub with mole grips and replace the screw afterwards with a bit of copper slip applied.. this is only to help align the disc holes / hub holes and as such doesn't need to be super tight.



I take it you mean the LED full beam bulbs as opposed to the standard LED 'dipped' bulbs ?? no .. none.

Not sure if yours had led bulbs from the factory, mine doesn't, and would like to use led bulbs if I can, but heard if they see it at an mot it could be a failure.

 

[martin1977]

Not sure if yours had led bulbs from the factory, mine doesn't, and would like to use led bulbs if I can, but heard if they see it at an mot it could be a failure.

if your car didn't come with LEDs from the factory, then it IS an MOT fail. same goes for HID bulbs.... if you need an upgrade to standard (filament) bulbs.. Osram Nightbreakers are a worthy improvement

 

[casper46]

if your car didn't come with LEDs from the factory, then it IS an MOT fail. same goes for HID bulbs.... if you need an upgrade to standard (filament) bulbs.. Osram Nightbreakers are a worthy improvement

Hi which ones will fit a 2019 vitara thanks

 

[fordem]

Hi which ones will fit a 2019 vitara thanks

There's a list of the bulb types in your owner's manual.

 

[casper46]

There's a list of the bulb types in your owner's manual.

I have looked and I cant find it in the manual can anyone help Its for a 2019 1 lltr Many thanks

 

[MikeJT]

In the manual for our 2019 Vitara the list is in the Specifications section, page 11-3.