Police Siren style whirring noise :S

[jonnyb]

Ive got an 04 golf 2.0 tdi, and i can hear a whirring noise, almost like a faint police siren when the turbo winds up (i think thats what is causing it).  Is this an issue, or am i just being over cautious? 

Any help would be super.

Cheers, 

Jonny

[Rhyso]

Its normally the tell tale sign that your turbo is about to let go 

Turbo's on these early cars were a well known issue.  Many were replaced before the car even hit 20,000 miles 

[jeynesey]

Not good times

[Wayne]

Sounds like a turbo bearing to be honest.

[jonnyb]

O oh!  Although since asking i have searched various forums and there seems to be a general consensus that this isnt an issue?  The noise suposedly isnt a big deal, and all of them have it?

I'd like to hope it isnt an issue, but do you think its worth a trip to the garage?

[Rhyso]

You do get a whistling sound as the turbo spools but if its sounding like a police siren then its normally an indicator its not very well

Only way a garage is going to find anything wrong really is by removing the turbo from the car itself and visually inspecting it

How does it drive otherwise? Have you noticed a dip in performance? Oil consumption? Fuel consumption?
Blueish smoke when you're booting it?

[jonnyb]

Erm well based on what you've asked Rhyso, there hasn't been any blue smoke, and power seems about right.  MPG is around 45 on motorways and high 30's for pottering around town.  Ive only owned the car for a month, so that MPG ive presumed was normal.  Does that sound right?  Oil is also fine btw.

[stevieC]

My dad had this on his bora 150tdi sport,f4cked turbo,£1000 fix from VW.

[PenguinGTI]

You able to get a clip of it up bud?

[TopsGTI]

My BM 320D had this same noise and even when i thought it was quiet my 80 year old Nan could hear it! I had the bearings checked for play which were fine. The next stage after this was checking the vanes inside the turbo which obviously incurs mega big bills due to the labour involved. I had no power loss issues or increased oil consumption but it was so much noiser than when I first got it I just didnt feel confident in it anymore. The failure rate on E46 turbo's were well documented and some of the guys had huge bills due to the turbo flying apart and trashing some of the engine internals. I could have got a exchange turbo for £650 and then a few hours labour for fitting but I just didnt want to keep pouring cash into it anymore. You may well be ok to keep running it but it starts to niggle away at you after a while and I just lost faith. On the plus side I part exchanged the BM and got myself a lovely little Mk5 Golf GTi and havent stopped grinning since