turbo and cv's

When the turbo blows (If) then its pretty terminal with bits of turbo being sucked in the engine and you will know it.

The noise on full lock is it a clicking noise??
If so then its a CV.

The thud off the dunes could be the suspension bottoming out as you came of the dune crest.
Have you looked at the front suspension to see if its something obvious??
Otherwise get the car looked at by a good 4wd mechanic.

funny you mentioned the suspension bottoming out because thats exactly what I said to the missus (trying to put a good spin on it considering our isolation). Thats exactly what it did sound like though. Driving fine around town. I am confident my suspension is fine with new TJM shockers and the TJM coils are only about 3yrs old.

Turbo news is not good. If that's the case do people replace them before they die? If so at what mileage should I be looking at doing this?
The car is bullet proof and very happy with it so I have no problem in spending $ on preventitive maintenance if required.

The noise on full lock sounds like a cv. It is very hard to predict how long a engine will last as it depends on service history and how it has been driven. 4.2s do huge ks but I have never heard of a 2.8 doing over 400000ks. Their are some 2.8 owners on this site and they would be more knowledgeable then me.
Cheers Pete

so how/when do I avoid this happening? Do I replace it now or wait for 300,000 or 400,000 km's etc?

Gossy,
I have no idea about the cv sounds, just an opinion on the turbo question.
To be honest I am fairly unfamiliar with the 2.8td, but with any turbo, the trick is keeping the oil to it. Oldplodder says above about a turbo timer, and they do have their place, personally I prefer a pyrometer, AKA an EGT guage. (Exhaust Gas Temp) With an EGT guage, I monitor the temp of the turbo, and am able to "cool" it when it overheats.... mine is a 4.2 GQ with an aftermarket turbo, it regularly gets to 600 deg C, but when I want to stop somewhere, I idle the engine for a few minutes till the EGT is down to around 150-180 deg C. This prevents the oil from "cooking" the bearing in the turbo. My mechanic has stated that i should rebuild by turbo, maybe next year or the year after, (it's 3 yrs old now), but as long as i cool it and monitor temps uphills and things, it will be fine.
Have heard that when they let go, they really let go!!!!!

Hope this helps,

Cheers

Brian (Gold Coast)

Re turbo maintenance:
A trucky mate told me. Every now and again- after a hard run- before switching off, lift the bonnet, and with the engine idling listen for any "twinkle ticking" noise from the turbo. If so it's probably the blades contacting with the housing, bearings worn, time for an overhaul.

thanks all. I do service the car every 5000kms so I feel confident I am doing the right thing there. I also have a turbo timer. Hopefully with these two things good luck is on my side. Good idea about having a listen to it.

The reason behind my question was that when we coming down the Birdsville track the other week it was an absolute mess. We had to drive in High 3 for about 2hrs. Obviously this was hard work on the engine and turbo. One car from the night before had blown it's turbo (looked very new!) so I reminded myself that I would ask this question on my return. I made sure the turbo got a rest when I could (drive in a higher gear when not so muddy) to get the rev's below 2000 RPM.

Cheers,