• Don't miss out on all the fun! Register on our forums to post and have added features! Membership levels include a FREE membership tier.

turbo bearings

H
Nov 26, 2007
40
3
8
Anyone had the bearings go out in their garrett turbos? What was the issue or the cause? Any warrentee? Any info. would help.
 

mountaintop

Member
Lifetime Membership
Premium Member
Jan 19, 2008
58
8
8
Buddies failed, lost power to oil pump, fried turbo, stator, voltage reg, computer, tearing down engine to see where all the metal ended up....Not fun or cheap. Keep an eye on your gauges/electronics turbo guys!
 

mountaintop

Member
Lifetime Membership
Premium Member
Jan 19, 2008
58
8
8
Not blaming the turbo at all, we know the electrical problems caused the issues... Sorry didn't spend a long time desciribing everything.
 
E

EricW

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
1,867
691
113
NE Washington
Lost the bearing on my garrett. Just heard from BD today that Garrett will not warranty, they claimed on inspection that something had gone through it. I don't believe this to be true. My sled ran great one day, three days later it lost boost and developed lag while going up the trail. I stopped and heard the turbo wind down with a lot of bearing noise. Pulled the intake and had noticable run out. Towed it back and sent it in along with bearing cage pieces found in the oil line and filter and an oil sample.

This bearing simply failed in my opinion. The more I ask around the more I hear about it. Some say that those who don't plumb the cooling are more likely to see bearing failure. Mine was not plumbed for 6 or so rides last year but has been plumber so far this year. I'm not aal that happy right now given that I am a low boost guy with very few miles on mine and I take top notch care of my stuff and inspect/check all the time.

here's a few pics

This is how she looked

Pics1019.jpg


Wheel, anybody recognize any damage here that is not from a sloppy bearing?

Pics1035.jpg


Housing

Pics1039.jpg


Spare bearing cage parts, but no sign in my engine that anything ever went through from the intake. To me this just looks like a bearing failure that I caught early,

Pics1044.jpg
 
H
Nov 26, 2007
40
3
8
Funny we had three turbos loose the bearings in three weeks, Garrett said the same thing "something went through them" . I call BS. 3 sleds, same kit,
about the same mileage. Ya think it might be an oil pump issue, or a bearing issue?
 
S

Spaarky

Well-known member
Oct 5, 2001
3,429
1,345
113
Chester, SD
Were they just put on this year? last year? I remeber on the Aero's turbo doc always wanted us to take the turbo off in the summer, put it in a plastic bag.. or something and put it in the house. That way it would stay out of the temp changes and humidity. Which in turn would cause corrosion on the bearings...

I am not saying that caused it... just something to think about.

Also how many of you guys are running BOV's? I am not a big fan, but it seems that everyone is preaching turbo life with BOV's.

Eric... I cant see how they say anything went through that turbo. You have to lock up the motor to do that...
 
E

EricW

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
1,867
691
113
NE Washington
HPI, I agree this is a bit of BS, a friend of mine that is a diesel turbo tech says Garrett knew they had a plastic bearing cage problem on some of last years releases. If there is an upside, he says that if you get a re-man center section you get a better bearing. Well yippie, that would be nice to have a bearing last more than 1000 miles before you replace it $525 and the oil pump $300 and some shipping and down time. Makes the race gas seem cheap all of a sudden. OK rant over.

On my application I don't think the oil pump played a part. The pics below show the oil supply I had after the bearing failure (with all the pieces still in the system) to the bearing and coming out of the return to tank journal. Bottom line, I had tons of oil flow. Take a look.

Oil supply line

Pics1026.jpg


Oil passing through bearing and dropping into tank (pop bottle in this case)

Pics1029.jpg


Outlaw, I hope the elements aren't an issue in my failure since my sled lives in a heated trailer and a heated shop while in use. I stored it last year (with turbo on) in a dark corner of the shop where it stays cool with the cover on. It was fogged through the turbo intake before putting it to bed. If the elements pooched me, there are a lot of these in way worse conditions.

I know we have Garretts on our heavy equipment and they sit out in all kinds of weather for years at a time. I think the turbos on equipment or in automotive applications have a way tougher exposure life than mine on my sled.

I did have a BOV in my intercooler last year at install but it leaked boost so I took it off. The guys at BD said that they felt it wasn't needed in a sled application (pump gas) especially as compared to the auto applications that these turbos run well over 100K miles on. 10% of that on a sled will be a milestone. Maybe there is more reliability with a BOV. I hope some more guys who have had bearing failure post up so we can see if there is a trend relating to the BOV. The other thing to consider is I have never gone over 10psi and run most days at 8.

I plan to follow up with Garrett to find out what what type of piece that could pass through the pre-filter (panty hose type material) and the screen could do damage that was not visible to the wheel causing such an imbalance that the bearing let go. That same piece that would have caused that damage also caused no damage to reeds, pistons, cylinders, or exhaust. The short answer will be ice chunk, but with a 40,000 BTU heater in my trailer and a 400,000 BTU heater in my shop that will be a tough sell to me. My clothes are always dry the next morning in my trailer and they dont get to sit next to a hot engine the first hour or two on the trip back. This would have to be some sneaky ice that got past all that and the waterproof pre-filter material. I have never seen ice anywhere inside my engine compartment anyway even on years where I had powder to ride in. Thats sure not the case this year or in the days prior to my bearing failure.

OK rant over for sure this time, I'm gonna go play with my stapler it always works no matter how I treat it.
 
Last edited:
B

Boyko

Well-known member
Nov 27, 2007
771
260
63
Alberta
I pulled this off another board, could be just internet crap.


""I work at Garrett Turbos, now called Honeywell Turbo Technologies which there so proud of. When Cliff Garrett Owned Garrett He used to brown bag his lunch everyday and cared for a quality Product. If he knew what Honeywell has done now he would turn over in his grave. Honeywell bought Garrett In 1998 or 1999. After this they opened up a turbo testing lab in shanghai China and quickly moved there turbo overhaul to Mexicali Mexico, quickly after Garrett overhaul went belly-up. So they moved there whole production to Mexicali Mexico, as if that first failure was not a sign.

Garrett Turbos made a quality product for a fair price. A turbo is a precision instrument. Garrett turbos was part of Garrett Air Research (on 190th st. In Torrance ca.) Where they have a huge facility designing turbine engines, and so on. Most of the senior technicians in our main turbo facility (Lomita Blvd Torrance ca) came from our air research. If you’re building jet engines a turbo is not all that difficult. Well Cliff Garrett dies. At that time ALL production of Garrett Turbos was at Lomita Torrance ca. Also all engineering and research was there as well. After we were bought and production was sent to Mexico to save costs. Our production numbers doubled. And cost was cut in half our failure rate tripled. Well who cares Honeywell is making money and lots of it. Turbos are considered Honeywell’s golden egg. They feel that turbos are going to take over big. Which it already has in the diesel market. We make ford diesel turbos, daf, Chevrolet, some Audi, vw, fiat, Perkins. Millions of turbos. And there now all coming from china and Mexico. Well up until lately the company figured if the product was designed in the US and assembled in Mexico we would be ok. Well to further there profit and **** the customer once again....the LAST of what makes turbo American leaves in January 2011. We will close the doors to the Torrance Lab. In Torrance we did all our racing turbos (wrc stuff, Audi racing etc..) then in the garret garage we did the turbos you people buy for your Subaru’s. Actually I take that back. They take turbos that were made on a production line somewhere else in the world, and change a couple of parts on a bench in Torrance (wheels, housing..etc) and send it to you the customer saying it was made in the us.....no it was not it was just repackaged and altered a little. Well as of Jan 2011 all your turbos will be made in Mexico or china or Czech Republic. This is the last Garrett facility in the United States.

We have huge law suits pending due to turbo failures. GM is probably going to leave us.... ford has already sued us. Caterpillar has one of the largest recalls in garret history in the process. Our name is becoming ****. The last few VERY smart guys left in the company are being fired to save costs, but see our profit is already good.....they just want more. Please don’t spend 1500$ on a gt35r. Now that it’s costing Honeywell less to build turbos do you think you will see a smaller bill when you order there product? NO!. They are going to charge you even more for even less. There are countless procedures that are being terminated everyday that made our turbos THE BEST. They keep cutting corner after corner. Did you know that we shave metal off our turbine and compressor housings until they are at the EXTREME minimum needed to contain in the event of failure they are shaving every nickel off the cost of a turbo. Did you know that 2000$ gt40 you buy is all mark up. I won’t dare say the actual cost to the company in fear of a lawsuit but lets just say your sales tax is more then the production cost.

Do not buy these turbos. BorgWarner and mitsu are trying there best to compete with us making a quality product. Honeywell is using its big name to back junky turbos Like Toyota is starting to do. I guarantee in the next 8 months you will see a huge decline in quality. All designing and production is in CHINA AND MEXICO. Honeywell is taking back all there benefits they used to supply us with as employees. That way when they lay us off its as cheap as possible. Instead of saying "Well after we take a hit laying those people off we will make tons" they are just taking back all there benefits so they walk away clean and clear. We used to get a severance package. Which they just took away. One of the head engineers involved in the t3 project. (Designing the first t3) he is still with our company. he was supposed to get 44 weeks of pay if he ever got layed off (30 days and 1 week for every year with the company. 40 years with the company)Due to the new Honeywell rules he gets only 16 weeks pay they stole all that pack after promising it to him for 40 years. My fingers and about to fall off typing all this and I am heated so I don’t care about grammar I’m concerned about you people not supporting a Nazi company. Take your business elsewhere. Somewhere where you will get what your money pays for. Have a nice day and don’t forget if you hear the name HTT Honeywell Turbo Technologies Stay away

(They still use the garrett stamp on the turbos)""
 
S

Spaarky

Well-known member
Oct 5, 2001
3,429
1,345
113
Chester, SD
Eric... I was just trying to come up with ideas. I am amazed, but not suprised that these Garrets are going down. Good luck, I feel for your pain!

I love my Mits, you can run it out of oil, drop it off a cliff, and put a stick of dynomite in it... and still will be perfect.
 
E

EricW

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
1,867
691
113
NE Washington
Eric... I was just trying to come up with ideas. I am amazed, but not suprised that these Garrets are going down. Good luck, I feel for your pain!

I love my Mits, you can run it out of oil, drop it off a cliff, and put a stick of dynomite in it... and still will be perfect.

Ohhhh Yaaaa.......well try putting an alleged ice droplet through it if you think it is so tough. LOL. Couldn't resist. EW
 
S

Spaarky

Well-known member
Oct 5, 2001
3,429
1,345
113
Chester, SD
No problem... it will only cost me $75 to fix it.... :face-icon-small-ton

None of the turbos are perfect, but they are all a lot of fun.
 
Premium Features