Long Story short, bought the turbo from a ebay vendor (Real Street Performance) they have a 1 year warranty via Precision on the turbos. Turbo had minimal shaftplay up/down when I 1st purchased it, but the tech line guys told me if it wasn't hitting the housing no worries. I was still on edge about the shaftplay but they said it would be fine and it's under warranty, so I didn't worry about it.
I ran a 4AN line just like Precision stated, no restrictor, my drain line has no kinks or anything. Turbo started to smoke and leak oil from center section. So I pulled the turbo off yesterday, and took the filter off to find what you see below in the pics. Called precision today and they are saying they prob won't warranty it because something could have been sucked into the turbo. I told them it had a filter on it from day 1 and they are saying it could have sucked a element up from the filter. In my mind this is complete bullshit and seems like they are trying to weasel their way outta fixing my turbo or even giving me a new one. They want me to ship it to them so they can inspect it, but I don't wanna waste my time and money if they won't stand behind their product!! Can anyone help me that works for precision? This isn't my 1st turbo honda and not my 1st go around either, it's a shame my ebay turbo lasted longer than this thing.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6_2KWGvQw

 

yeah you sucked something up in it. journal bearing turbos always have a little bit of shaft play.

 

i don't see how anything got past the filter. I even inspected the filter and nothing inside of it came apart. With the large amount of shaft play it has, I think the wheel was hitting the housing and broke the blades off I will post a video of the amount of play it had, this seemed like alot of play even for a journal bearing unit IMO.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6_2KWGvQw

 

Unfortunately, the FOD that you experienced created the additional thrust bearing failure in the cartridge. As one that deals with turbochargers on a regular basis, it is very clear the compressor ingesting some foreign object (It doesn't have to be a hard piece of metal to do that.) considering that the damage to the compressor was evenly spread throughout the inducer, its apparent that part of the element, perhaps some plastic got through. Sadly, this is not warrantiable from any company. Since they don't control what kind of filter element is used by the user, or how the turbo is configured on the car, they are not obligated in any way to repair this for free. Its unfortunate, but it does happen.

You're looking at over $600 in repair costs for new compressor wheel, thrustbearing, internal rebuild kit, balancing and shipment.. Ouch. *moment of silence*

 

so where are the metal pieces that broke off the compressor wheel?

 

What kind filter

 

is this thread a joke? what do you want precision to do about that? OBVIOUSLY you sucked something in, the metal doesn't just shred apart like that for no reason. sucks, but it is what it is. no company, BW, garrett, etc would fix that for free. no one.

 

it goes to show when ppl say you get what u pay for this guy brought a name brand turbo and had problems during break in, he stated his ebay turbo lasted longer. i bet if he posted his ebay turbo have done the same thing ppl would have said "what you expect from ebay products", "another ebay turb blows up" and look what happens when you buy brand new. i honestly hope ppl build and buy there car to what they feels is right(no pun attended). because this is bullshit 2k miles, and i bet precision will not replace the turbo on there behalf unless your last name ends with miller

 

I think this had no relevance to the OP's issue, nor did anyone imply anything remotely about e-bay. His particular gripe was with the fact that the company he purchased from, (in this case , precision) would not repair his turbocharger for free after an unfortunate accident. This was about physics and the fact that 2 items can't occupy the same space at the same time. The OP had a first hand experience of it; This is not about which philsophy that one follows regarding e-bay vs. [put your name brand turbo company here] turbo.

Please keep it to the matter at hand, as your rant is not related to this issue. It will simply just stir the pot with BS and render this thread non-technical

 

I wish you were my dad^

 

LOL!!!!!!

 

*Spits drink out unexpectedly from laughter*

 

TheShodan is almighty....

 

Yep. hes my dad...no big deal

 

So you don't think the compressor could have contacted the housing and chipped a piece of the wheel off and then went on to destroy the rest of the wheel? I was really surprised the wheel didn't hit anything at idle (with the amount of shaftplay it had), could have been a different story under boost. the way I see it, it could go both ways. I've known various people to have turbos suck up things and they survived. Not saying everyone gets as lucky, but I just have a hard time believing something small enough to work it's way through my filter caused this type of damage. I just think precision should take a further look into it, rather than just jumping to the obvious conclusion.

 

From the pics id say that Mac is right. Doesnt look like it contacted the comp housing looks like it ingested something. the damage on the blades is consistant with a foreign object being sucked in. I been there it sucks.

 

No way the wheel did that from contact. It would be a consistent grinding pattern not a sudden onset of wheel destruction.

 

what kind of filter did it have on it? if it was one of those foam ones it could have sucked a small rock through the foam and it would be near impossible to find the hole it made.
if people use a filter on their turbo i generally tell them to use a steel mesh one for this reason.

 

I saw this turbo shortly after it was purchased. I had the car on the dyno. Boost wasn't very consistent and there was to much shaft play. Tooo much.. Nothing about it was normal. If any of you guys replying to this thread personally saw the amount of shaft play it had you wouldn't rule out the compressor wheel making contact with the housing and destroying itself. I personally thought the turbo should have been sent back before the tuning took place The shaft play was horrible

I think Precision should make it right on their end. The turbo was never right from the get go

 

or the ebay dealer

 

Look at the housing. if the blade actually struck the housing, you would see damage to it. i don't see any, but you can see from better angles than me. minuscule metal shavings from unfiltered oil can ruin a turbo.. it doesn't take much

 

I was running a steel mesh filter. Turbo was shipped off today, should be arriving at Precision on Thursday, we will see how this goes i'll keep ya'll updated.

 

YEP!!!!

 

what does it matter if shaft play caused that to happen? shaft play can form via user error, doesn't mean it's precisions fault