Aftermarket Turbos

[Mr Hagg]

In the past month in our shop we have had 2 aftermarket turbos come through here that was only a few weeks old and had failed.
The first one blew the pressure side seal (boost side) The company sent us a replacement as you see in the first picture it was only the center part and we had to install the housings our self. However, It was a week down time to get it.

The second one the truck came in with Actuator problems with fault saying no communication with Actuator. I pulled the fault tree and started looking at wiring and checking the ecm. All of which was ok. Then we removed the actuator from turbo. Thats when we found the problem. Coolant came out from under where the actuator meets the turbo. At first I thought the actuator was leaking so I pressure tested it and found no leaks.

I blocked the lines going to the actuator with some bolts and pressured the coolant system. THen I found the issue. One of the freeze plugs on top of the turbo was leaking. It was not driven in good and was about to come out. I drove it on down and leak was gone. However now we got a bad actuator that was bought new at the same time the turbo was installed from a cummins dealer. at about $1000 or so. I called the turbo company and explained what happen and had pictures to email them. A few days go by and we get a email stating they would cover turbo but not the actuator. So sad.

So my advice to any one would be: DO NOT buy the cheaper turbo it will cost you more in the long run.