i recentley asked if anyone had any info on an engine, thinking all the smoke coming out of it was down to tired engine, but after reading some of the messages on here it seems the turbo is more than likely at fault rather than the engine itself.the turbo seems to be full of oil and it leaks like mad when engine running but seems to soon stop when engine of. a neighbour who used to work at GARRETS said if i can the turbo repair kit he will help fit it and get it ballanced and checked. He said there would be no problem if it was a ford or some thing allong that line as he could get the bits cheap for me, but unfortunatelly not for the toyota. Can anyone point me in the right direction and how much. On another subject can anyone tell me what preventitive measures i can take in order that i may minimize any potential nightmares as i like the look of my townace gut all the rightups i have seen on here seem to point to years of doom & gloom and lots of high maintenence. If someone could help point me in the right direction i would be gratefull, i know most of the problems will have already been discussed so even if its just which of the links to go to it would be appreciated as i have tried reading some of them but there are so many of them i dont know which ones are more of a priority, and i want to get it on the road again but dont want to rush in as girlfriend is due to give birth and our present car will be to small so i want it to be safe and reliable and dont mind spending a bit of time on it now. sorry this is a bit longwinded but i didnt know where to start

- (#1551) Jason, 27 May 05 18:20

Turbo Technics will sell you an overhaul kit, but it's around the same cost as a s/h turbo...

You'd need to confirm the model of the turbo (CT9/12/20) plus whether it's fitted with a carbon or mechanical seal.

- (#1551) David Miller, 28 May 05 04:05

My parents, sister, brother in law and two children are currently in the South of France in The Toyota TownAce Royal Lounge that I sold them last year. The T Belt warning light has come on but the van continues to run normally. The engine complete with T belt was changed less than 20,000 miles ago so I'm thinking that the garage that did the job didn't reset the warning system to record the belt change. Can anyone out there whose familiar with the details of this models engine and systems offer their opinion on whether they think my assessment is likely to be correct and if so do you know the procedure for resetting the warning light?

Any advice offered will be very very gratefully received.

(I advised against taking this old vehicle on such a potentially arduous journey, but I'll still never hear the last of it if a breakdown spoils their holiday)!

Thanks in anticipation..

- (#1551) Julian Treweek, 28 May 05 10:28

my townace has a ct12 turbo which seems to be causing me some trouble, i have been offered another turbo of a masterace but he isunsure of of which type it is, my question is if the turbo is not a ct12 would i be able to still swop over or are they not interchangable at all

- (#1551) JASON, 31 May 05 06:36

As long as it's not an OLD CT20 (with a flange at the compressor outlet, not a spigot...) it *should* go on...

- (#1551) David Miller, 31 May 05 08:14

i have just bought a ct12 turbo from prestiege engine products for £205, obviosely not a new one but it has been bench-tested and has a 60 day warrantie on it. I havent delt with them so was just checking to make sure no-one has had any bad dealings with them as they seem like a decent company.Do you think this was a fair/average price, i had a couple of cheaper quotes of scrapyards but would have to travel to take it of and also with extremely little if any warrantie.

The prices i was quoted for the repair kit was
(1) TURBO ACTIVE 01429-294004 £120+carriage+vat with an extra £15 for the bearings
(2) TURBO TECHNICS 01604-705050 £190+vat (not sure if that included carriage or not)

If anyone knows of a cheaper way to get a repair kit for these turbo's please let me know as i would like if possibe to recon the other as a spare just in case.

i have flushed the engine out now and put on a fresh filter as the engine has been severely neglected and sludged up, i am thinking of taking off the sump and rocker box cover to see if i can get rid of any more sludge that may be to badly carboned and burnt then give it another flush out before putting the fresh turbo on as badly contaminated oil seems to be the main killer of turbos i have found out, also taking of all the oil pipes/breathers and cleaning & checking them for cracks etc. I was going to add some STP Oil additive as well as changing the oil and filter again. have you any other sugestions as to what i could do to the engine as it had the turbo changed a couple of months ago and the oil and filter was meant to have been changed,although the old turbo was in the boot and has extremely bad wear in it i cant see any evidence of the oil & filter being done as like i said earlier it was like treacle and extremely badly burnt, at the time of buying it i thought all it needed was a bit of tlc and a good service to sort it but by doing this i have disturbed all the burnt on rubbish in the engine and made it smoke a lot more,to the point of not being able to see behind when pressing down on the accellerator but in spite of this i still like the feel of the car so will persivere. at the moment i am driving my mondeao but am hoping the townace will start to behave so i can let of the mondeao, jason

- (#1551) jason, 2 Jun 05 14:27

Very surprised at being quoted a price for a "repair kit" with no bearings. It's ? five years since I bought the kit from turbotechnics and IIRC the kit was around £140 then. But it was a complete kit alright, seals, flingers, bearings, thrust plate, gaskets, clips etc. Unless you you can confirm the completeness and quality of the the other kit, I'd recommend spending the extra few quid...

- (#1551) David Miller, 3 Jun 05 02:15

Julian - from the archives
The light is dumb, just coming on every 100kkm. If your belt has been replaced recently, you can discount it. It can be reset by operating a small switch in or under the dash, don't know where precisely.
Long trip? There have been several much longer, just keep an eye on fluid levels and don't push it too hard.
- (#1551) Clive(Bristol), 3 Jun 05 02:38

thanks for that about the kit, have you any sugestions on what i can do engine-wise to help the fresh turbo survive a bit longer than the old one. also have you heard anything either good or bad about prestiege engine products

- (#1551) jason, 3 Jun 05 05:53

Recently purchased a 1994 Townace and although I have had the tracking looked at and have been assured that the correct setting were used, vehicle still pulls towards the left. (Although not as bad as before tracking was looked at.) Has anyone else had this problem? Worried that I will be causing damage by running but need to get to work somehow. Tyres were unevenly worn when purchased and were replaced by dealer - also balljoints were sorted as part of pre-purchase MOT. Thanks

- (#1551) Phil, 9 Jun 05 10:12