Blew $200 on a cheap turbo rebuild kit from eBay that lasted 3 months before the seals went

Lesson learned the hard way after that compressor wheel started chewing itself up on I-95 in Tampa and I had to tow it 50 miles, anyone else get burned by those bargain rebuild kits?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlie26913d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah man I feel your pain, I went through the same thing with a cheap rebuild kit on my Duramax a few years back. Ended up losing oil pressure on a job site and had to have the whole turbo rebuilt by a shop because the kit didn't even come with good thrust washers. What finally worked for me was swapping over to a genuine Garrett core with OEM bearings and seals, cost more upfront but I haven't touched it since and I put over 40k miles on it towing heavy. Those eBay kits just don't have the right clearances and the seals are always Chinese rubber that hardens up fast in the heat. You gotta pay the extra hundred or so for a quality kit from a known supplier like DieselSite or just buy a factory rebuilt unit and call it done.

patricia_lee13d ago

My buddy Mike bought one of those kits for his Cummins, had the thrust bearing fail at 60 mph on the interstate. Cost him triple that just to fix the damage.