Turbos: do you know what you’re fitting?

With motorists increasingly focused on price, the market for remanufactured turbochargers is thriving and highly competitive. So it pays to know exactly what you’re buying, as the experts from BTN Turbo explain.

Although demand for brand new replacement turbochargers is still strong, there’s no doubt remanufactured turbos are more popular than ever, with attractive savings for older vehicles. That’s all well and good – as long as you know what you’re fitting.

Buyer beware
For example, the reman turbo you’re about to fit might say Garrett on the casing, but can you be sure whose parts are inside? It may look and sound right, and you might not get any fault codes or warning lights on the dash (yet). But can you be sure it will perform as it should? Are you confident your customer won’t come back with turbo-related problems?

Choose a trusted supplier
BTN Turbo recommends that rather than risking your reputation, you should choose a supplier you know you can trust.

Obviously the ultimate safe route is to buy a brand new turbo from your factor, and BTN makes that easy by stocking over 18,000 turbochargers from all the major manufacturers – Garrett, BorgWarner, Holset, Mitsubishi, IHI and Schwitzer. In fact, BTN Turbo is the only UK distributor to do so.

From the original manufacturer
If your customer doesn’t want a brand new turbo, there’s an equally safe choice from BTN: Original Manufacturer’s Remanufactured turbos available through BTN’s exclusive OMX exchange programme. As the name suggests, these turbos are remanufactured by the manufacturer that made them originally.

The full works
When Garrett remanufactures a turbo, for example, it’s a complete and exacting process. They strip, clean and minutely inspect the unit, to make sure it’s suitable for rebuilding. They replace every critical part, such as actuators, compressor wheels, bearing systems, seals, O-rings, piston ring seals, bolts and clamps – with new original Garrett components. So you can be confident every part has been made from the correct materials, to the correct spec.

The turbo is assembled with tolerances checked within microns. Finally it’s calibrated to precisely match Garrett’s brand new units, so it matches the original performance in every parameter. In every respect, it’s 100% OE.

You can watch a video of how Garrett does all this at: https://garrett.honeywell.com/products/reman/

Warranty and FitKit
Like the brand new turbochargers available through BTN, the Original Manufacturer’s Remanufactured turbos are covered by a two year warranty. They also come with BTN’s famous FitKit, which contains gaskets, studs and nuts so you can fit straight from the box, plus an oil-filled pre-priming syringe for vital first use protection. Also available from BTN Turbo are oil feed pipe kits, recommended for applications where there are known issues with oil supply to the turbo.

A question of quality
Those turbo remanufacturers who want to undercut competitors while maintaining their profit margin inevitably have to compromise somewhere, and that shows in two areas: components and assembly.

Components sourced for the lowest possible cost are likely to be made from inferior grade materials. As a turbo spins at up to 6,000 revs per second with temperatures reaching over 900°C, any inferior components will be prone to premature failure. And since tolerances in modern turbos are absolutely critical, components that are not to precisely the correct dimensions will result in below-spec performance.

Then there’s the issue of assembly. When turbo remanufacturers can’t afford to invest in sophisticated, highly accurate balancing and alignment tools, their end product won’t be able to replicate the original factory settings.

Given the sophistication and complexity of today’s turbos, that’s a problem. If it’s not set up precisely to the original settings, the turbo won’t respond properly to the engine management ECU – resulting in warning lights, higher emissions and a potential MOT failure. Plus poor fuel consumption and performance.

Genuine Garrett parts are restricted
The problem of substandard assembly is one of the reasons why Garrett won’t supply spares for its VNT turbos. Garrett turbos are made with micron-perfect calibration, which can only be achieved using their advanced production facilities. Obviously they don’t want to see turbos that outwardly look like Garrett units, but are not giving 100% OE performance. Consequently, the only reman Garrett VNT turbos using genuine new Garrett components, are those remanufactured by Garrett themselves.

Satisfaction guaranteed
Original Manufacturer’s Remanufactured turbos from BTN Turbo save up to 40% compared to the equivalent new turbo. True, they may cost a little more than some of the reman units out there. Is the difference worth it? Put it this way: with BTN, you know you’re fitting a remanufactured turbo that’s 100% OE: built using original parts, on the original production lines, to the original settings by the original manufacturer.

So they’ll provide original standards of performance and reliability. And you won’t have that nagging doubt that something you’ve just spent hours fitting might soon be back in your workshop and need replacing again.

For more information about brand new and Original Manufacturer’s Remanufactured turbos from BTN Turbo, plus expert advice and tips, go to www.btnturbo.com