I always thought it was the other way around unless we are getting muddled up?
If you hold the shaft with your finger tips and push it in and out there should be no more than 0.013mm-0.097mm by going by the manual.
1-2 mm is massive amounts of play, altho the turbo will still proberly work ok with this sort of play i would of thought the thrust bearing would be very worn indeed with that much play.
Where as i thought if holding the shaft with your finger tips and moving from left to right there is always ment to be a small amount of play due to the way the thrust bearing is designed,but again no where near 1-2mm?
No you're right, 1-2mm is ALOT of play if you're using some kind of a dial indicator to measure the play.
I said 1-2mm because if I was to say the measurements we go by which is 0.15mm side-to-side and 0.08mm in-and-out then in your head you're gona think well that's practically zero play either way.. correct.
But when buying a turbo, you'll pickup a second hand one and fair enough find that side-to-side it's nice a tight but you've got a slight bit of play in-and-out... okay technically this isn't PERFECT but it will no doubt do it's job providing it's not a lot of play.. you've really gotta get your fingers on a few turbos before you can tell what's a lot and whats not (unless of course you've got measuring tools).
So although you should find less play in-and-out it's almost always a lot worse when you've got too much free play side-to-side because if you're fins get damaged then it's a tad more expensive than just seals & bearings ;-) lol