Turbo rattle?

[highroof]

Hi. My '59 plate 110 Limited has today started to make a rattling noise. I first assumed this was the 'box, but after a period of time experimenting with it, I think it might be the turbo, which is a VNT item. If I sit in 3rd gear at around 1800 rpm and gently throttle on and off, it's most noticeable. As I understand it, this is where the turbo starts to spin. However, just to confuse the issue, I checked for play in the turbo shaft this afternoon and can find none. It has to be under load to make the noise, it won't do it when stationary and revved.

The van drives as if nothing is wrong, other than the rattle. However, I'm concerned that if the turbo is at fault and the worst happens, it takes the engine with it.

Is the turbo the most likely thing for it to be? The van's done 47k miles, and has full service history, plus oil and filter changes every 5k miles.

Cheers, Andy.

[Kenton]

Whilst the turbo spindle seems fine, are you sure it isn't clutch chatter? Maybe from an over heated / over worked clutch plate? If you have owned this van from new, by all means discount this. But i bought mine and it had spent it's life in south London stuck at slow speeds with constant stop - go, so the whole clutch needed a change. Don't wish that as it's expensive being a dual-mass bugger.. could be a loose heat shield thinking about it....
Just a couple of thoughts.

[highroof]

Thanks for the reply. I've been through the whole list I could think of with it today. I went around underneath it with a rubber hammer banging various things, including the exhaust, and checked all the shields. We talked about the DMF, but it doesn't make any noise on idle, I thought they usually did?

I'm scared to drive the bloody thing now in case the turbo lets go! I was wondering if there was anything specific in the way a the VNT works that would cause it to do this.

The turbo on my Evo 8 let go last year, I was very lucky to get away with no other damage, given the nature of the failure.

[highroof]

So, this sis getting worse quite quickly, which in some respects is good, as the nature of it developing means I can rule out the turbo. Having spent ages looking for someone with a similar experience, it's starting to sound like the dog bone gearbox mount has gone. It's a metal to metal sound, if I drive very gently up through the revs, I can avoid it happening. Absolutely no noise at motorway speeds. Driving it normally through the gears brings the noise on every time.

It's started to do it at lower revs now, just as I pull away, which rules out the turbo.

[Kenton]

The gearbox mount you speak of is very easy to diagnose, and quite ok price wise for a replacement! (very common fault) I have done mine - which was sheared in two! But it did make the world of difference. Not too tricky to replace either, providing you have access to ramps, or a very good trolley jack and an axle stand to lean the gearbox onto. It is very simple to examine, before attempting any work mate.

[highroof]

Cheers for that, replaced it this morning and ii's fixed it, so I'm a happy bunny. £56 for the mount from Ford, so not a disaster price wise.