Thumper4995,
I cannot tell if you have lost any material from the compressor blades, in fact with my eyes I have a harder time than most figuring things out, so I'll ask you some questions.

Has the compressor blades impacted the housing? You'll know by seeing abrasions or witness marks in the housing.

If so can you grab the compressor shaft and attempt to move it in and out (end play) and side to side? If you can move it and touch any part of the housing that is a no-brainer get it replaced as a bearing failure.

If on the other hand you have fan damage without showing implications from the bearing, then ingestion would be suspect and the warantee could be a little more difficult to prove, unless you found what part was missing upstream from turbo that is tied to a defect in the equipment. I would suspect that some pieces of whatever was ingested would be found in the intercooler.

I assume you don't have significant compressor/fan damage or the turbo would have already torn itself to shreds. If it does so, the big pieces will probably get caught in the intercooler (hint - clean this out) but even the smallest pieces of turbo passing through the engine would cause me major distress.

I know I haven't answered any questions for you, but I do share your concern. The Garrett turbo that I replaced was just about to contact the housing due to the early stages of a bearing failure. When I handed the turnbo to the Garrett rep he confirmed my concern and added that it was common for these to turn 100,000 RPM at max throttle and 70,000 is a normal operational value. I don't know the specs on your turbo, but anything turning that fast has my attention.

Good luck and let us know how this is resolved.

 

Unless it's a funny shadow, I can see the mark on the housing that the wheel has cut into it. If that is the case then that turbo is trashed. I'd find another dealer, or just bite the bullet and buy a replacement. You can get a decent used stock turbo for less than $400.

 

What do you guys think about the remanufactured turbos that ford is offering? 12 month or 12,000 mile warranty........The dealer is asking $790 for one????

 

I concur with others on this. I have seen FOD (Foreign Object Damage) on compressor blades before. Small nicks in the blade tips are not a real concern, but could cause some imbalance in the turbo - leading to premature bearing failure. As someone else stated, reach in there grab the nut. Try to wiggle it back and forth or in and out. If there is any noticable movement, then the bearings are failing. Also if there are marks on the compressor cover, where the compressor wheel has contacted it, then the bearings are shot. FOD is going to be a difficult one to get repaired as waranty. Something got in there past the air cleaner. Unless some stock part of the intake system has failed, I doubt they would cover the turbo.

If they won't replace the turbo under warranty, I'd buy a good used unit. $790 is too much for a "remanufactured" turbo.

 

Anyone know where I can get a GOOD used turbo???

 

I had good luck getting a reman for my Garrett unit. Don't go to the dealer unless you want to double the cost. If it is a garrett unit try www.egarrett.com and use their locator.
Then give that person the garrett number of the turbo and ask if they have a reman unit available and how much...

http://www.egarrett.com/customer_car...tor_lookup.jsp

Good luck

 

I did some digging and found the wonderfull company that took care of my turbo replacement many years ago.

http://www.hatchkirk.com/

FYI - I don't have any association with these people and I'm sharing this only as a courtesy to my fellow FTEs.

 

I contacted Garrett and they told me that they only offer an upgraded bearing assembly....no remanufactured turbos for anything 99 or newer. I am not ******* Garrett at all just relaying what I was told. I then contacted the other outfit you listed and they no longer offer the garret turbos but they referred me to Alamo (I am obviously not affiliated with them but just passing on what I am learning through this ordeal) which offers the upgraded bearing assembly and will rebuild my turbo for about $500 and some change (including parts). What do you guys think?

 

$500 sounds reasonable to me, IF they warantee their work.

 

On second thought...

I do appreciate you refreshing my information which is 8 years old.

Have you done a 'Google' search using the Garrett #s off your turbo in hopes of finding it listed on a merchant's website?

If you would forward them to me, I'm willing to poke around a little - but there is no guarantee of success.

 

I talked on the phone with guy from a Garrett distributor last night who is their tech who rebuilds the turbos. This guy asked me to send him my turbo pics and after reviewing them, said that it looked fine. My dealer did offer to take the turbo off and do a thorough inspection of said turbo to insure its condition. If it comes out clean on their inspection and in conjunction with the turbo techs thumbs up, I am ready to call it good and leave it as is. What do you think? Just for future reference or if Ford says the turbo is shot, what numbers are you referring to? I have a part number but I am not sure what other numbers you would want? Thanks again for your time and efforts in this. That goes for everyone......

 

There should be a tag attached to the turbo that is a Garrett (not Ford part number), mine was attached to the bearing housing but remember we are working from an event eight years distant.

The point is, if you want to bypass the Ford mark ups, you'll need to locate the manufacturer's assembly/product numbers.


Glad to hear the turbo is good, but I'm sure you are happier ;-)

 

There should be a tag attached to the turbo that is a Garrett (not Ford part number), mine was attached to the bearing housing but remember we are working from an event eight years distant.

The point is, if you want to bypass the Ford mark ups, you'll need to locate the manufacturer's assembly/product numbers.


Glad to hear the turbo is good, but I'm sure you are happier ;-)

 

There should be a tag attached to the turbo that is a Garrett (not Ford part number), mine was attached to the bearing housing but remember we are working from an event eight years distant.

The point is, if you want to bypass the Ford markups, you'll need to locate the manufacturer's assembly/product numbers and use them in all interactions with garrett suppliers.

When I purchased my replacement turbo from Hatch & Kirk, and asked if they had a turbo for a xxxx they said 'NO'. In other words they had no knowledge of the turbo from an application standpoint. But when I asked them if they had a Garrett xxx-yyyz
they had it in stock.

That is all I am trying to share with you.

 

Sorry for the double post - I got a 'server busy', so I expanded the topic and resent.