I think the turbo on my '89 745 may be shot. Here's what just happened a half hour ago during my ride home from VA to MA.
I was doing about 60 mph on the highway, when suddenly the car decided it needed to downshift (automatic transmission) on a straightaway. I couldn't figure out why, so I started to monitor the gauges. I could keep the car's speed steady at 55, but if I tried to get to 60, the car would kick down. I slowed down at a red light about 30 seconds later, then tried to accelerate back up to 60, but noticed that the car was getting no boost on the turbo gauge- the needle would pick up and then stop about 1/8" before it got to the yellow "boost" zone. The car made it back up to about 50 this time. I was frantically looking for a gas station so I could pull over, but in central VA they are few and far between. I drove for about 3-4 minutes with no boost, I'd estimate.

When I pulled the car into the gas station, I popped the hood to find that the turbo was glowing red. When I say glowing, I mean REALLY glowing red. It practically lit up the engine bay.

I made sure nothing was going to catch fire, then tried to look around for anything that could be wrong. The coolant level is fine, the oil level is fine too. Here's what really threw me: there's this squirrel-tail looking thing that is sticking out of the tailpipe. It's definitely carbon or metal that has been spun into strands. I will attach two pictures of the squirrel-tail looking thing that I took from the trunk of the car (sorry, poor lighting).

The car has been off and sitting now for probably an hour at a gas station. I'm still here with it.

The engine and turbo have about 180K miles on them.

Did the turbo seize? If it did, then what the heck is the stuff in the tailpipe? Bearings?

Thanks in advance.
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'83 Mercedes-Benz 300D, '89 Volvo 745 Turbo, '99 Volvo V70 GLT