Turbo-charger strip down, refurbish and rebuild HDi 1.4 8v (KP35)

Turbo strip down, overhaul and reassembly guide - Borg Warner (KKK) KP35

This post is in a series of posts by RC3D about a lack of power and an oil loss on a Citroen C3 1.4HDi 8v, the previous post on removing the engine can be found HERE


Oh yes, i haven't forgotten the Turbo pictures, just been very busy both at work and on return working on the car. Yes I have ordered the seal kit from ebay (view it here), the kit arrived today.

Taking the exhaust outlet turbo pipe was a pain 2/4 nuts were so tight that the heads got ruined whilst trying to loosen the nuts, finally took the grinder to it. Guess what the Citroen garage wanted to charge £1.78 +vat & Peugeot garage was going to charge me £1.60 +vat per screw. I managed to get all four M8 X 125 for £1.58 from an Ironmonger.

Undid the suction pipe and the controller then took the housing on the air side off and then the exhaust side off.

It was clear where the oil was leaking from, the air side housing had plenty of oil inside. Then held the exhaust side turbine with a 7mm spanner and turned the air side with an 8mm spanner, the main thing to note here is that the nut has left hand/clockwise thread.


I loosened the nut until it reached the top of the bolt, then rested a piece of wood and tapped the shaft, the turbines came apart with the exhaust side still attached to the shaft. One of the bearing was still attached to the shaft, there was a spacer another bearing and a washer in between.



Taking the cover off the air side took some time, the two screws holding the plate came out without any problem but the plate was stuck to the middle housing. I had to put an old screwdriver (took the end off with a grinder) through the exhaust side and knock the plate out.


Please see next post

I will be rebuilding the turbo next, i read somewhere that the turbo has to be balanced after a repair. I spoke to a turbo specialist, he said that it only needs balancing if the bearings were removed from the shaft. I didn't remove the bearings on the exhaust side, i presume that means I do not have to get it balanced. I'll appreciate your thoughts on this matter pl.

update, the ebay kit didn't come with the right replacement bit for the middle of the air side, see picture below. I think this works like a piston, rotating with the shaft when the turbine is working and the metal ring which sits in the groove works as a seal. I have replaced the rubber seal around the middle piece.

Great pictures and words RC3D

RC3D wrote:i presume that means I do not have to get it balanced. I'll appreciate your thoughts on this matter pl.

As for any rotating and balanced system, when dismantling its important to mark the parts for alignment. This allows the parts to go back exactly in the same alignment (rotation on the shaft) to preserve the balancing that has been done in the factory.

Drives, blades, impellers and even the nuts on the shaft, have to be refitted in the same rotation relative to the shaft to preserve balance.

So for the turbo you have in bits, its all the parts that are attached to the central shaft that need to go back in their original rotation.

Looking end on to the shaft:

If the blue circle is the central shaft, the black outer rings are various parts attached to the shaft, that rotate with the central shaft. The red line shows the rotation of the parts on the shaft when they are all balanced, as you would get out of the factory and as it should be when its reassembled. this is the parts refitted incorrectly, with the original rotation on the shaft not preserved which in turn looses the balancing that was performed at the factory. The unit will need to be re-balanced with its new configuration of parts, or stripped and returned to the original alignment (if it was marked originally) The other scenario, not found in your case, but it does crop up, whereby one or more of the parts fixed to the shaft is replaced with a new part will require balancing of the system because there is no way to mark the original location (rotation on the shaft) as it never existed on the shaft when balanced at the factory.


Just some quickly drawn, rough images to demonstrate the point

Thanks Arfur Dent for your reply & explanation. Oh dear, I marked the outer casing and took lots of pictures but failed to mark the air side impeller and the nut relative to exhaust side impeller. I have tried to put it back as the way it looked on the photos. Is it worth me taking the risk? or should I get it balanced?

is it worth me taking the risk? or should I get it balanced?

The risk would be bits of turbo compressor vane entering the cylinders via the valves, expect total engine failure. I suggest getting it balanced, considering the time and effort you have put into the car already, killing the engine over something simple would be a real shame.

Diesel engines are known for their longevity, I don't know how long an unbalanced turbo will last, but it will fail at some point well before a balanced one will. I would go with the balance, like this:


Quite a simple theory.

You could find a Turbo Balancing service here.


I am thinking of a failure due to unbalanced parts like this


I know its a jet turbine engine and not a turbo charger, and much larger than anything fitted to a Citroen C3, but you can see how things go bad very quickly when it goes wrong.

I don't know how long an unbalanced turbo will last, but it will fail at some point well before a balanced one will. I would go with the balance, like this:

I take your point Arfur Dent, thanks.

The only problem is the kit I bought from this guy now turns out to be incompatible with my turbo.

I did the compatibility test before buying it, at the Compatibility test stage there were no notes to indicate that there were more than one turbo for this model nor to check the Turbo number nor to ring him to clarify the uncertainty, this was misleading. He told me this today after I queried about the size of the middle piston. It looks like I’ll have to take the bits out and return it. My turbo no is 5435 101 4861, this was on the aluminium casing. There was also a plate with numbers, pl see pics


It looks like the guy who can balance the turbine also sells the correct rebuild kit, this time I'm going to ring him and check the part no before buying it, i'll also send it back to get it balanced.

On the plate of the Borg Warner (KKK):

(size) KP35-435749
LADER-NR. EG5004 2169 00261
AUSF-NR. 5435 970 0007

on the casting: 5435 101 4861


I think you will find the plate (KP35-435749) will give more detailed information about the spec of the turbo along with the LADER-NR. EG5004 2169 00261 and AUSF-NR. 5435 970 0007 narrowing it down even more. The numbers on a casting can cover several different spec parts.

The part that didn't fit, I think is called by the flinger sleeve and can come in 2 different sizes on the KP35 turbo, 12.6mm long and the shorter 9.8mm long. Would this make sense with the parts you have on the bench?

Part numbers:
54311270402 FLINGER SLEEVE, KP35, 12.6mm TALL KP35
54311270405 FLINGER SLEEVE, KP35, 9.8mm TALL KP35

I think you will find the plate (KP35-435749) will give more detailed information about the spec of the turbo along with the LADER-NR. EG5004 2169 00261 and AUSF-NR. 5435 970 0007 narrowing it down even more. The numbers on a casting can cover several different spec parts.

thanks C3CAR for explaining things to me. You are right the repair kit I got has a 9.8mm flinger sleeve.

Turbo rebuild – One thing to note before you take the turbine apart that will save you £50 balancing charge is the following. After you have taken the turbo covers off you will be left with two wheels (turbine and compressor) and the housing in the middle. You need to put a mark with a pen on the turbine (exhaust side) wheel and another corresponding parallel line on the compressor wheel and on the nut. Then when you take it off make sure that you do not rub the marks off. Then you can change the bearings and seals and rebuild the turbine making sure that the lines on all three parts are on a straight line. This will save you sending it to be balanced.




The injector testing and repair part of the series of posts is here

KKK KP35 Turbo rebuild kit for Citroen C3 and others - here


Hi all. I used your guide to help me rebuild the KKK KP35 turbo on my 2003 Ford Fusion (aka Fiesta/Connect van) 1.4 tdci. The turbo and rebuild is identical, and I used a rebuild kit from ebay that cost 24 quid for a Renault 1.4 dci.

Giving back to the community, I wrote up my experiences. Hope it helps someone out there, and thanks for all the help I got here. My experiences below. I also posted on the Renault forum here: https://www.cliodci.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=312&p=21447 (broken link )

I was suffering some wear on the turbo bearings and the turbo was getting noisy, implying the fins were rubbing against the sides. It was a case of spending 24 quid now and a weekend to rebuild it properly, or 150 quid plus for a new turbo, or if I really left it a destroyed engine and writing off the car as it would not be economical to replace the engine.

The KKK KP35 turbos appear almost identical across all the cars that use them, and I used a rebuild kit I got on ebay for 24 quid, which was designed for a Renault 1.5 dci.

Look at the part number on the blue plate on the turbo. Mine was 5435 970 0009. Almost identical to the Renault one.

My tips (giving back to the community):

Its worth doing an oil and filter change at the same time as rebuilding the turbo. On the Ford it allowed to me to check oil flow to the banjo bolt (eg there is no blockage and the turbo is being lubed). With the top banjo bolt removed, with the oil filter cover removed, juggling the oil filter around resulted in some quirts of oil from the banjo bolt. That means I did not need to disconnect the other end of the banjo bolt (on the engine; not easy to access) to check it. The 1.4 tdci engine has a plastic internal filter inside a bell housing; its messier to replace than a screw on metal filter but its better for fixing any oil blockages around that area.

Take your time; it will take much longer than a pro who has done it many times before, and you want it to be perfect and the rebuild to last a long time! It took the weekend for me as it kept raining and the turbo was difficult to get off.

You need to remove the turbo from the car as I could not get off the three bolts holding the inner bit to the exhaust side!

Use a blow torch to loosen up the bolts/nuts holding the turbo to the exhaust/manifold. The physics is simple: heat expands steel and thus heat a nut or the steel surround a bolt to cause expansion and thus break the seal.

I didn't bother with new gaskets between turbo/exhaust. I didn't want to pay 15 quid for thin bits of metal and sealed using exhaust assembly paste (not too much as you don't want it breaking off and sticking to your turbo fins).

Getting those heat side of the inner turbo nuts off was tricky. There isn't much nut to grip on. I got a swan head spanner and angle ground it down to get a better fit on the nut heads. Be careful not to damage the nut heads with too many failed attempts because then you will have nothing to grip on to get them off! You should also heat treat those exhaust side internal 3 bolts before trying to take them off, as they will be roasted in and thus more difficult to remove.

Don't forget to mark the internal turbo assembly before disassembly and assemble it back so its balanced when manufactured! Otherwise it will be unbalanced, not spin as well and wear more quickly. Probably won't die and destroy your engine, but presumably you would address a noisy turbo before it gets to the point where it would destroy your engine with blade bits? As noted the thread on the internal shaft is the opposite to normal (tighten to untighten, etc).

Reassemble with clean engine oil. I used carb cleaner to get off the old gunge. Note carb cleaner destroys rubber seals/paint/etc, so make sure its cleaned off before fitting the new rubber o rings! Save old o rings before using carb cleaner just in case you need to reuse them!

Getting the right sized flinger sleeve in your rebuild kit is hit and miss! Mine was an 9.5mm one and the one supplied was a 12mm one. Don't get upset if you don't have the right one; just reuse the old one. The important bits to replace are the journal bearings (get rid of the play), then the steel oil seals then the rubber O rings.

Pre flight check before reassembly of the insert. With the internals replaced and lubed with new engine oil, check for good free spinning without any sideways and end to end play. Over tightening the nut will prevent free spinning, so try out different tightness until you get the optimal between tightness and smooth spinning. Make sure its reassembled balanced.

Prime oil in the inner bearing before reconnecting top banjo bolt.

Reassembly: don't put the heat shields back on until you have tested it and run the engine up to normal temperatures. Get the exhaust hot! Expect some oil burn off. Check for exhaust leaks. Give it some good reving to test. Should be smooth. Once all is good, let it cool down and refit the heat shields.

Finally, I did notice a markable improvement after rebuild. Probably because it spins more freely and can spin up quicker and thus give better boost?