Turbo failure

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

smokin5s

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2014
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Ohio
My car a few days ago started making a loud whining noise whenever the turbo would spool at all... I took it to a mechanic and he did a smoke test and then got it on a lift. said he could also hear grinding in my turbo by the firewall... said the turbo is toast. My question is,

What should I expect to pay a dealership to replace it?
Should I go ahead and replace both?
Is there a write up on how to replace the turbos?
 

smokin5s

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2014
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Ohio
96,000 miles.... I had an extended warranty on it, but that ended at 75,000 miles. I thought about reaching out to the dealership, but I have a feeling with that many miles, it's a lost cause.
 

SHOdded

SHO Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2011
Messages
9,045
Reaction score
4,390
Location
Maryland
Thats the difficult turbo to r&r. Subframe has to be dropped to get to it. Cost could be a 1000 bucks easy for a new turbo installed. Repairpal may have estimates. Try nondealer shop for better pricing.
 

smokin5s

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2014
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Ohio
1,000 dollars labor or total cost? $1,000 total is a lot better than the shop I already spoke with...,Anyone have any opinion on replacing both or just the faulty turbo?
 

bpd1151

Lurking Around
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
3,131
Reaction score
6,668
Location
SHOcago 'Burbs
Given your mileage, and suspecting your front turbo likely got overworked somewhat, due to the rear failing, if you had the means to do so, I'd suggest doing both simultaneously.

Prices have come down on them since that platform launched in 2010.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
 

smokin5s

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2014
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Ohio
having the means is just a CC swipe away... not saying I want that, but from what I'm seeing, there's not many other options.
 

smokin5s

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2014
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Ohio
I had a tune on my car, do we think the tune caused it? Or was it just a flaw in the turbo? for the record, I always have ran 93 octane in it and have RARELY have ever beat on the car at all
 

SilverSH0

SHO Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
896
Reaction score
827
I'll tell you because I talked to the dealer extensively last weekend about a failed rear turbo (actually the right hand turbo). They said it was a 6 hour job to replace the rear turbo. Here they charge $121/hour labor so that's $726 just for the labor. They also suggested I replace both at the same time and labor if you did both at the same time was 8 hours total or $968. Then the cost of the RH turbo is $573 after the core deposit. So for just the turbo and labor it's right at $1,300 and then you also have the additional cost of new coolant, washers, nuts, and gaskets. Overall it was going to be about $1,500 to replace just the rear turbo.

If you did them both at the same time I would expect a repair cost of ~$2,300.

I currently returned my turbo to Ford and I'm waiting on them to have the new one delivered. Apparently they are currently in the middle of a part number change and it could be up to 5 days before I get my turbo. In order to remove the turbo you have to drop the front subframe, remove the downpipe, I used the flex pipe and zipties to move the midpipe out of the way, drain the coolant, remove strut bar, remove various vacuum lines, remove the charged air line (from turbo to CAC), remove oil supply and return lines, remove coolant supply and return lines, remove lots of bolts that hold in various heat shields (that are going to be a PITA to get back in), and then disconnect the turbo from the exhaust manifold and mounts and take it out the bottom. Hopefully you have small hands like I do or else some of the bolts are going to be hard to remove. There were times where I was literally laying on the engine so I could see down the firewall.

It is definitely not a quick or easy task. I would say the hardest parts are removing any of the nuts/bolts on the exhaust including manifold to turbo, removing the oil supply line from the block, removing the ball joint without damaging it, and re-installing bolts is going to be terrible (since you can either see what you want to do or have your hands where you want them, not both). Overall it's going to cost me about $700 in parts/gaskets/coolant and probably 1 week of my own labor.

If you're going to do it yourself, I also suggest changing he PTU fluid while everything is removed. With the subframe and downpipe removed the fill hole is right there and it's EASY to put in a tube to pump oil out for replacement.
 

SilverSH0

SHO Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
896
Reaction score
827
I also chose to replace one at a time. Mine wasn't bearing failure it was the seal between the turbo housing and main housing (sorry, not real familiar with proper turbo terms yet). Plus if the front fails later, it's the easy one to remove. Just compare the 6 hours labor vs 2 hour labor Ford quoted.
 

SHOdded

SHO Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2011
Messages
9,045
Reaction score
4,390
Location
Maryland
I had a tune on my car, do we think the tune caused it? Or was it just a flaw in the turbo? for the record, I always have ran 93 octane in it and have RARELY have ever beat on the car at all
Who did you get the tune from? There are very few established vendors that can be trusted to tune the Ecoboost platform for reliability & longevity.
 

smokin5s

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2014
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Ohio
Who did you get the tune from? There are very few established vendors that can be trusted to tune the Ecoboost platform for reliability & longevity.
Torrie... Unleashed tuning

for the record, I'm not blaming him at all, just asking the question if the tune could cause it.
 

SHOdded

SHO Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2011
Messages
9,045
Reaction score
4,390
Location
Maryland
Hmmm ... the pendulum swings back to the PCV system and/or turbo seal failure, best guesstimate ...
 

SilverSH0

SHO Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
896
Reaction score
827
Torrie... Unleashed tuning

for the record, I'm not blaming him at all, just asking the question if the tune could cause it.
My personal opinion is that when you run a tune you're running the car harder. Regardless of who tunes the car it's going to put additional stress and wear on the components. Some might get lucky and have no issues as long as they own the car and others might have issues in a year or two. Either way my opinion is the parts failed [slightly] quicker due to the extra wear from a tune.

My car has 75k miles and the rear turbo was leaking oil before it was even tuned. Sometimes you just get the part that fails quickly.

Let me know if you're wanting to tackle this task on your own. I have several pictures from my disassembly and planned on doing a write-up but haven't got it done yet and I forgot to take some pictures that I was going to take on re-assembly. I can throw something together if you want.
 

smokin5s

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2014
Messages
49
Reaction score
5
Location
Ohio
I'm gonna try to visit a dealership within a week and we'll see what they say. I'm thinking about tackling it myself, but at the same time, I don't have alot of free time... of course I don't have an extra 2300 bucks either.
 

rubydist

SHO Master
Staff member
Super Moderators
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
7,521
Reaction score
3,399
Location
Denver
I am not at work now, so I don't have access to Ford's time, but Chilton's shows 3.5 hours for the left turbo r/r and 4.9 hours for the right turbo r/r. Most shops are $100-120 / hour, so you are looking at $500-600 in labor for the rear turbo.
 

SilverSH0

SHO Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
896
Reaction score
827
I am not at work now, so I don't have access to Ford's time, but Chilton's shows 3.5 hours for the left turbo r/r and 4.9 hours for the right turbo r/r. Most shops are $100-120 / hour, so you are looking at $500-600 in labor for the rear turbo.
I went to Ford and they got on their computer and looked up 6 hours for the RH turbo and their rate was $121/hour. Obviously adjust price for local cost but I would say it's going to be 6 hours as I think that's a number designated from Ford (not the local shop).
 

Forum statistics

Threads
107,077
Messages
1,181,195
Members
16,142
Latest member
Kaevorlly

Members online

Back
Top