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What Are The Symptoms of Bad Turbo Vane Sensor? Let’s Find Out

Do you know about the symptoms of a bad turbo vane sensor? The turbo vane sensor is a sensor located near the intake manifold that helps determine the amount of air drawn into the engine. When it malfunctions, the most common symptom you may get is a rumbling sound from the exhaust.

When the sensor indicates there is not enough air present, it causes the throttle to stay closed for much longer than it should. This results in the wastegate not opening as quickly as it should or not at all.

Let’s look at some common symptoms and possible causes of a bad turbo vane sensor.

Symptoms Of Bad Turbo Vane Sensor

There are a lot of symptoms of a bad turbo vane sensor. In the below guide, we will discuss those symptoms elaborately.

Exhaust Has A Rumble Sound

Sometimes, you can see that when you come to a sudden stop, in the beginning, the exhaust will have a Rumble sound. After a few seconds, it will come back to the typical Hiss sound. You will also get excessive smoke in this case. These are the symptoms of a bad turbo vane sensor.

Inaccurate Temperature

Your car’s temperature gauge may be inaccurate. The car’s computer may be to blame for this. When the vehicle operates under normal conditions, the computer typically keeps the engine at a specific temperature. When the turbocharger is working hard, the car’s computer may not be able to maintain that temperature.

Loss Of Engine Power

One of the most common symptoms of a bad turbo vane sensor is poor acceleration and loss of engine power. It’s generally caused by the electronic control unit, which disables the turbo vane sensor to shield the engine.

Decrease Fuel economy

The car’s fuel economy may decrease. The car’s computer uses various algorithms to determine your car’s performance, efficiency, and fuel economy. If the algorithm is faulty, the engine may be running on “low” or “no” performance fuel.

Black Smoke

The turbo vanes may get stuck in from being filthy or gunked up with diesel and carbon particulates. As a result, the turbo vane sensor could usually go bad over time or only be partly defective because of filth and gunk.

Relying on which position the turbo vanes got stuck in, you can face low power either at the high or low end of the revolutions per minute. You will also get black smoke from your vehicle in this case.

P003A And P2563 Error Codes

You will face problems creating a boost between 1500-2300 revolutions per minute for a lousy turbo vane sensor.

Also, when your vehicle is idle, the turbo vanes will open and close every five seconds or so. In addition, you will get the check engine light and P003A and P2563 error codes in this case.

However, if you are riding Duramax engine, check all about p003a duramax code and its fixes.

No Vibration

When a turbocharger is first added to a vehicle, it often produces tremendous vibrations at startup and during accelerated driving. Over time this can cause the wastegate to shut off or become unresponsive, and eventually, the turbocharger will stop working entirely. A bad turbo vane sensor often causes this.

Bad Vibration Shaft

A bad turbo vibration shaft also causes a lack of response from the wastegate. The shaft is connected to the compressor and turbine rotors, and it is responsible for transmitting vibrations from the engine to the rotor. The shaft may be a manufacturing defect or result from harsh driving conditions, such as street-brake friction, curbing, potholes, etc.

Extremely Loud and Vibratory

Suppose the turbocharger starts to over-compress the exhaust gases. In that case, the turbine produces more than enough pressure to overcome the electrical losses in the compressor and cause the engine to sound like an ERS or twin-turbo machine.

The excess exhaust gas pressure then over-comes the turbo-compressors, which, in turn, over-process the exhaust gases, increasing their pressure even more. This excess pressure then forces its way through the exhaust system to the atmosphere, where it is no longer contained. This excessive exhaust gas volume then back-pressures the engine, causing it to over-rev or rpm.

Excessive Turbulence

One of the most common blowby causes is an inadequate or disconnected turbo issue. The issue is the strip of rubber that connects the turbo to the exhaust manifold. You will often see this sensor on the intake manifold.

Suppose the turbocharger starts to over-compress the exhaust gases. In that case, the rubber sends the vibrations to a bell-shaped pattern inside the engine, creating an output vibration transmitted to the exhaust manifold. As the exhaust gasses move from the inlet to the outlet, they pick up vibrations from the intake and exhaust manifold, creating even more beats.

Also Read: P2599 Duramax: Know Your Duramax Engine Problems!

With too much engine noise and vibration, the driver can miss detecting a lousy issue or even be unaware that the turbocharger is not functioning correctly if the engine is underinflated. This can also happen with O2S sensors.

Turbos break up at High rpm

A loud, vibrating, and rough running engine is another common symptom of a bad turbo issue. The engine may sound good at idle, but once you start driving, it becomes increasingly stressful on the engine and causes it to sound rough.

This problem can be resolved with a good, versatile muffler. If you have trouble keeping your car’s engine noise down, a good tip is to buy a damper with a built-in pipe-cleaner holder.

Boost Pressure Would Be In Disorder

When a turbo vane sensor goes wrong, you will find out that the boost pressure of your vehicle’s engine is in disorder. When you run your car on the highway at full speed, you will find that the boost pressure climbs and drops between 5-20 pounds per square inch.

This Video Will Help You Too!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do you test a turbo vane sensor?

Firstly, ground the body of the turbo vane sensor to the body or engine. Then, you need to open the scan tool and choose the vane sensor option. After that, start your vehicle and gradually depress the plunger on the vane sensor. Finally, check that the voltage goes from around 0.3 volts to 4.8 volts and the percentage goes from 0-100.

What does a turbo vane position sensor do?

The turbo vane position sensor lets your vehicle’s engine control module or engine control unit regulate the variable geometry turbo vanes on your turbocharged engine correctly. This sensor calculates air density and the needed fuel delivery for the finest combustion. In case the turbo vane position sensor fails, the system can’t add fuel under boost, resulting in loss of power and probable engine damage.

Where is the turbo vane position sensor?

Generally, you will find a turbo vane position sensor in the turbocharger middle part to the driver side of the turbo fuel feed line. This sensor is a three wires sensor. In addition, it gives an analog voltage signal.

Final Verdict

Unfortunately, there’s no fix for a lousy turbo vane sensor. A bad turbo vane sensor is a frequent cause of blowby and excessive turbo pressure in car engines. While most sensors can be repaired or replaced, you should test the sensor before spending money on repairs just to be safe.

If your sensor is wrong, you will likely notice more vibrations and noise when driving and see an increase in fuel efficiency. If these symptoms are severe enough, you should take your vehicle to the automotive service advisor. Besides that, we have tried enough to put a summary of symptoms of bad turbo vane sensor.

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James Noah

Ah! Driving your King has no twist when you have zero knowledge! Yes, Noah is here with his core experiences about trucks, cars, suvs and atvs. Working as a cheif editor for Automasterx to make you satisfied with solid data driven post.

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