All new Mitsubishi Turbos carry a one year warranty from Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries. If the turbine wheel has been clipped, the turbo warranty falls to
who ever clipped it. For us that will be either Texas Turbo or Turbonetics. Our
Garrett T28/28 upgrade turbos are built and warranted by Forced
Performance. Road
Race Engineering does not warranty turbos. Weather or not a failed turbo is
repaired or replaced under warranty is up to these companies and their
discretion. I have never seen MHI or Texas Turbo repair or replace a turbo under warranty. All failed
turbos we have ever seen have obvious damage from lack of lubrication,
contamination in the oil or the turbo ingesting something. Many failures are
blamed on "hot shut down". Unfortunately, with the way turbos are
designed, there are lots of things manufacturers and rebuilders can point to to
deny any responsibility.
Your turbo will NOT be covered under warranty by MHI, Texas Turbo, Forced Performance or Turbonetics if:
1) A new oil supply line is not used. You must use a new oil supply line. If you do have a problem, send a copy of your oil supply line receipt back with the turbo. We sell upgraded lines, or at least purchase a stock one from your local dealer.
| 2) There are heat marks on the shaft (pictured). Lack of oil will turn the shaft blue and make score marks in it. If there is a blue shaft they will not cover it. |  |
3) Any damage to either the compressor wheel or the turbine wheel. Bent fins will be caused by either the turbo ingesting something or serious compressor surge.
4) Damage from "hot shut down". This will appear as a lack of lubrication. If you are under full boost, the turbo will be spinning close to 100,000 rpm. If the motor is shut down or stalls under full throttle and high boost, the turbo is still spinning at extremely high speed with no oil pressure. Also shutting down a glowing hot turbo with out allowing time for it to cool down will cause coking (excess carbon deposits) that will block oil supply.
5) Shipping damage. Inspect your turbo the day you get it. That is the time to report and damage from shipping so that we can file a claim with the carrier. Turbos often sit around for weeks or months before they get installed. During this time, anything can happen to them that is not under our or your control. Everyone that touches your turbo when you are showing it off has a chance to damage it. You must report and fin or actuator damage immediately.
In the end, it is entirely at the discretion of the turbo supplier to judge if the turbo will be repaired or replaced under warranty. We have no control over this process. If the turbo is repairable but warranty is denied by the supplier, we will do our best to ensure that your cost is as low as possible. Labor to remove, install or shipping bad turbos is never covered under warranty by these companies if they do accept liability.
James Bond Smoke:
You were doing some grinding or porting near the motor with the turbo removed.
You blocked off the turbo oil drain pipe with a piece of tape. You forget to
take the piece of tape and install the turbo. Start it up and instant
James Bond smoke. The oil flow into the turbo has no where to go and gets pumped
out the bearing seals. If your turbo does this, check the oil drain for
blockage, remove it and start it up again. The turbo will be fine, it will take
a few minutes of driving to burn out all the oil from the exhaust system. Also a
plugged up crank case vent will cause excessive pressure to build up in
the crankcase. This prevents the oil from draining out of the turbo and
blows the excess oil out through the turbo seals.
The Shaft is Wobbly !!
Mitsubishi turbos use a sleeve type bearing. The shaft spins inside a bronze
sleeve (see above pic). The sleeve also spins inside an outer housing. This way;
if the turbo is spinning at 80,000 RPM, there is a 40,000 RPM speed differential
between the shaft and sleeve, and a 40,000 RPM speed differential between the
sleeve and the outer housing. This is what allows the insanely high RPMs common
in a turbo. There is a gap between the shaft and sleeve and a gap between the
sleeve and housing. These two gaps combined allow the compressor wheel tip to
move side to side in what may look like an alarming amount. This is normal. As
long as the wheel is not touching the housing, you are fine. There should be no
play axially (in and out) with the compressor wheel and shaft.
Waste Gate Actuator Damage:
The wastegate actuator can become damaged. We do our best to carefully
package the turbo assemblies but sometimes a UPS guy can decide to go bowling
with your package. The actuator (gold can) can get slightly bent or crushed.
Check that the bottom surfaces of it are not crushed in at all. If it does get
smooshed, it can be easily bent back before installing the turbo. Just pry it
back until all surfaces are at a 90 degree angle. There should be a slight pull on the
waste gate arm when the actuator is connected to the arm. Be sure the small
cotter pin is in place.
Fresh Head Job?
If you keep going through turbos after a recent valve job or other head
work, your problem is probably related to lots of left over crap in the oil
supply galleys in the head. If your machine shop uses abrasives when
cleaning the head, they had better take out the oil galley plugs and clean the
head for days. The stock 1G cars get their oil supply from these oil galleys and
when the junk flows into the turbo, it kills the bearings instantly.
Plugged-up Internal Oil Passages
Over use of thread sealer or silicone thread sealants can get inside the
turbo cartridge and block small oil passages. This kills the turbo bearings from
lack of oil.
Compressor Wheel Damage
When re-installing the turbo, be sure that you take out any rags anything
else you used to block off any inlets or intercooler hoses.
Your old turbo's demise
Think about what could have caused your old turbo to die. If things were
fine and you are just upgrading, no worries. If it was death by old age (100K
miles +) or you were over boosting a T-25 then no worries either. But if you
killed a fairly new turbo for no apparent reason, think about what could have
been the cause of the turbo's failure. If you simply bolt on a new turbo with
out fixing the problem, don't expect your new turbo to live long either.
Contact Road///Race Engineering