Useful
1) What’s the expected lifetime of a turbocharger? It is infinite. The manufacturers believe that a turbocharger with high potential metal alloys lasts for as long as its engine is properly maintained.
2) When is it necessary to check a turbocharger? Precautious when there is a suspicion of recurrent damage, such as smoke, bizarre noises, oil linking or every time there is any damage on the engine related to the operation of the turbocharger, i.e. air systems, exhaust system, oil and water. Keep in mind that a turbochargers operating range in number of speed is from 70 to 230.000 per minute. A few seconds could be enough to damage a new or remanufactured turbocharger if something goes wrong even for a while.
3) When is the direct replacement of a turbocharger allowed in case of damage? When a customer with 500.000klm has a turbocharger failure and the cause is found (i.e. cut oil tube, dirt in air filter, etc.), then the immediate replacement is allowed. In cases when the damage is bigger or if the cause is not found, then the responsibility for replacement lies exclusively with the engineer and the customer, simply because the new turbocharger will fail again. EXAMPLES OF INCORRECT REPLACEMENT OF TURBOCHARGERS
A) A Turbocharger is changed to a combine due to damage that came from dirty air filter. The damage harmed the engine as well. The customer changes the turbocharger alone and in 5 days the engine breaks down. He stops the harvest and repairs the engine but does not change the turbocharger this time. The turbocharger is now broken again due to the engine failure although it’s only been a few days since it was replaced.
B) Motorist with turbocharger failure en route replaces it so he can travel another 300 kilometers. In such cases most of the times unfortunately the turbocharger will break down because the car had to be towed and checked thoroughly or repaired.
C) A new turbocharger is placed in I.X. and a bizarre whistling occurs. If the cause is unbalanced state then it will directly break down. If it breaks down in 3, 4, 5 months then a circuit problem existed that made the operation of the turbocharger difficult and eventually ruined it. The related noise existed because of that.
D) There is no relation to a turbocharger replacement of a EURO 1 engine to a EURO 4 engine. The method of repair of different generation engine is totally different, since the operating conditions and the circuit conditions of air, exhaust emissions, recycling demand great detail and specifications.
E) A customer replaces only the turbocharger believing that the rest of the engine is operating properly without making the necessary check or repair of the engine or without checking the regional systems (oil pump tubes etc.). The new turbocharger will break down again and the responsibility won’t lie with the turbocharger.
4) Aren’t there faulty turbochargers? Yes, there are. They are very few (one in 30.000) and usually covered by warranty from our company, after they are checked by the factories as well for obvious professional reasons. The warranty is solely and exclusively the value of the turbocharger and in case of damage of the second turbocharger THERE IS NO second warranty because it’s obvious that the damage doesn’t come from the turbocharger itself. Unfortunately in Greece, many companies use unskilled engineers that repair from small I.X. up to earthmoving machinery with result the turbocharger is the scapegoat of human ignorance of fellow engineers with much more warranties than the rest of Europe.
5) Which is the typical process of performance guarantee? The typical process is time consuming, that’s why our company in cooperation with its customers tries to escape from bureaucrats issues and directly service for every case of a turbocharger liability. If however, we find the cause of damage doesn’t lie with the turbocharger then we cannot announce warranty to the manufacturers for obvious reasons. The above examples hopefully answer a number of key questions related to turbochargers. For further clarification don’t hesitate to contact us.