[semmco]

Turbo no longer whistles, not as responsive, Cat-EGR-Waste Gate or Turbo?

hi,
Recently got a 2003 rav4 xt4 2.0 diesel in the uk.
my neighbour has an identical car but different colour and I have noticed a difference between the 2 vehicles when driving them both.
Our rav4 does not create a whistle under acceleration from the turbo, even with windows open i cannot hear it, my neighbours does even with windows shut?
Also the acceleration is much more impressive from the neighbours rav4, ours is not bad but certainly not as so responsive.
Any ideas why so different and could there be a problem or perhaps theirs is chipped/remapped?
I have had many petrol cars over the years with turbo's so familiar with the common noise turbos normally make.
cheers
Andy

 

[Dr. Dyno]

His has a modified intake.

 

[semmco]

hi,
have not noticed any changes in his intake air filter sytem etc? or do you mean a different mod?
cheers

 

[Dr. Dyno]

hi,
have not noticed any changes in his intake air filter sytem etc? or do you mean a different mod?
cheers

I guessed it was an intake mod allowing more turbo wine noise out. That's from my 7.3L Diesel world where the louder ones invariably have modified intake systems.

If both RAV4s have the same intake and aren't chipped and yours is slowed and quieter, you may have a defective turbo.

 

[semmco]

Ok update,
Today i removed MAF sensor and EGR valve and cleaned them both. They both were not to bad since the Rav has only done 55,000 miles.
I also inspected the turbo and found a smear of oil sitting in the body inlet and very slight movement up and down with the turbo shaft, not sure if to much or not.
I also plugged in my diagnostics reader and no faults recorded anywhere in the ECU.
Beginning to think it may be a turbo problem, wastegate or perhaps even blocked cat on the exhaust causing restriction.

Has anyone had a turbo that has lost it's whistle/woosh noise.......

Please help, don't want to spend loads of money to find out may be something else....
thanks
Andy

 

[Blogson]

It would seem that Toyota would have taken steps to quiet any turbo noise in diesel RAVs. Is there another diesel RAV apart from your neighbor's which you can compare yours with? Turbo noise is evident with some diesel pickup truck engines in the U.S., but even over-the-road heavy duty diesel truck engines in North America generally have radically subdued or even no turbo noise. My sister has a turbo diesel VW Golf which has no evident turbo noise.


I suspect that Dr. Dyno's analysis explains the situation. If you feel that your RAV lacks the power which it should have you can conduct a timed acceleration test, for example from 0 to 60 mph, and compare your results with those of other published tests..

 

[RTexasF]

Folks here in North America have never even seen a Turbo Diesel RAV4. Hopefully someone from your side of the pond can provide some information.

 

[SlimJim16v]

Useful stuff

 

[pico]

hi,
have not noticed any changes in his intake air filter sytem etc? or do you mean a different mod?
cheers

Could it be that his turbo's bearings are going bad?

 

[semmco]

a 0-60 test and it came out at 12 sec which is about right for the rav4 d4d so i am going to have to assume maybe after checking the other areas that perhaps the neighbours is re-mapped.
Just need to try and find someone to do this as all local comapnies to me dont remap this model, at present i can only find plug in chips which would be a second choice really.
Anyone know of a remap in the hampshire area of England?

 

[Blogson]

Thank you for the update. Since your RAV performs as per specification it would appear that your neighbor's RAV's intake and/or turbo has been altered, as Dr. Dyno suggested. If you wish to have yours modified as well, wouldn't the simplest course of action be to ask your neighbor about who modified their RAV?

 

[semmco]

Hi,
there intake certainly not modified, the neighbours also purchased the car like this a couple of years ago so they were not aware of any re-map and have no history with it.
I have contacted over 10 companies and none can re-map this model, the only mod i can find is the external chip box, like DTUK which the neighbours does not have which is interesting.

 

[Blogson]

Since your neighbor's RAV apparently hasn't been modified and as you reported that it has more impressive acceleration than yours does, it would be interesting if you could persuade your neighbor also to conduct a timed acceleration run as you did and then to compare results.