I have a new '89 760T with 106K miles that I am just getting to know. This is my first turbo and I am paying a lot of attention to the sound and feel.

A little history - The car was unused for about 1.5 years, however the PO made a lot of repairs before I bought it. He drove it about 6K miles after bringing it out of storage. The repairs including draining the gas tank and refilling with Premium gas , new main fuel pump, cat-back exhaust, changed the tailshaft bushing and seal, carrier bearing (?), headlight, talight, headliner, Radiator, and I put in a new heater core and new hoses.

I still have some of the under-dash trim out which may be an advantage for hearing whats going on in the engine compartment. I sometimes notice a small noise when I first take off from a stop. This noise sounds sort of like pinging, but I am not 100% sure. It happens when the Turbo gauge is perhaps 1/4 into the boost range. It does not occur all the time, maybe one of four starts, and does not seem to be load dependent. It occurs on uphil starts, level ground starts and even down hill starts. This sound will last for 1+ seconds and after that it is gone.

I checked the FAQ and the noise does not idealy fit the descriptions listed there for failing turbos. Is it possible that the Waste-gate or something else associated with the turbo is rattling? One other note: The lower rear exhaust stud is broken / missing. However I do not detect the distinctive tic tic tic... associated with an exhaust manifold leak. At least I don't hear anything at idle. I used a length of heater hose in attempt to listen closely.

This week I will order a complete set of tune up parts, but don't believe that I am going to see much improvement. This car just passed the State Emission testing with flying colors: HC = .0370 grams/mile, limit .8000 grams/mile; CO = .2215 grams/mile, limit 15.0000 grams/mile; NOx = .0178 grams/mile, Limit 2.0000 grams/mile; CO2 = 16.5348 grams/mile, adviory no limit. The car idles a little unsteady and it in fact died as I was pulling into the emission test station - not usually a good sign. The test technician also ran the dyno test with the OD off. I guess he didn't understand that it wasn't necessary to push the switch to select the gear position.

Any suggestions?

Dan