Turbocharger reman continues to face many challenges – but it is up to the market to take advantage of any opportunities and maintain quality standards, says Darren Johnson, Sales Manager of Melett.
The decline of diesel engines across Europe remains a concern. According to industry data expert GiPA, with the fuel type widely demonised, several countries saw diesel’s share of total registrations drop by 20% or more between 2014 and 2018.
But there are still millions of diesel cars between one and five years of age with their ‘prime’ workshop years ahead of them. With nearly half of the diesel parc falling into this category, GiPA fully expects the importance of diesel to the aftermarket to increase in the coming years, as more and more of these younger bracket vehicles age.
This, coupled with the growth in gasoline turbos does mean that, at the point of entry, turbos have a bright future.
Overheating is a term used to describe components that have been subjected to abnormally high exhaust temperature or insufficient cooling.
Causes of overheating:
Hot shut down
DPF issues, such as regeneration, resulting in increased exhaust gas pressure and temperatures which leads to overheating of the turbine side of the turbocharger
Remapping, chipping or over-fueling
Find out more about Overheating…
To find out what causes overheating, the signs of oveheating and how to prevent overheating. Check out of latest out our latest Common Turbo Failure documents here – Read More
For further common turbo failure topics, check out our other helps guides
Common turbo failure modes create much discussion between our customers and technical department. To help identify common failures in warranty situations and to provide advice on how to prevent future failures occurring, we have created a series of help guides:
Oil leaks can cause catastrophic damage to the bearing systems and occur within seconds of the turbocharger commencing operation.
Oil leaks can be caused by a variety of factors, the main factor being incorrect pressure within the compressor and turbine housings.
When a turbocharger is installed correctly, it should NOT leak oil, however, there can be cases where oil leaks occur.
Find out more…
To find out more about the main causes and signs of oil leaks, as well as, information about how to prevent future oil leaks – check out this article!! – Read more…
For further common turbo failure topics, check out our other helps guides
Common turbo failure modes create much discussion between our customers and technical department. To help identify common failures in warranty situations and to provide advice on how to prevent future failures occurring, we have created a series of help guides:
It is not uncommon for some turbocharger repairers to compare turbo products visually and assume that if the products look the same, then the products have been manufactured to the same standards. Here, we offer advice as to why visual comparison cannot be relied upon when considering the quality of products.
When new turbocharger components are under development, the cost of producing new tooling for that component can be very expensive. To aid development of components, manufacturers will often source parts from foundries that already have existing tooling for those components.
For such high-volume turbo products, foundries will develop their own tooling, enabling them to sell their castings to many different manufacturers. This enables the manufacturers to price their parts more competitively as they have saved in tooling costs.
So, what are the differences between these ‘quality’ turbo products?
Even in cases where the same tooling is used, a foundry will produce castings to the specifications of their individual customers. These requirements can include completely different material specifications. Different post-casting processes (such as heat treatments or surface treatments) and different ‘pass/ fail’ quality criteria.
For example, quality manufacturers, including Melett, specify 100% high pressure oil/water gallery testing on all bearing housings; an extra cost which some lower cost manufacturers often prefer not to pay. Quality manufacturers may also specify strict dimensional controls on turbine wheel castings to ensure the balance quality of the end product. This means that the foundry typically incurs extra costs as it has a higher scrappage rate of substandard parts.
Another difference can be the tolerance levels requested on the design drawings. High tolerances on drawings mean more parts do not meet strict machining criteria. This again increases scrappage rates. For instance, for every 100 pieces produced, a manufacturer may have as many as 30 out of tolerance parts. This means that these 30 pieces will be scrapped and the production costs of these added to the overall price of the remaining 70 pieces.
To reduce such out of tolerance failures, some manufacturers will accept tolerance changes which reduce the machining quality required. In the above example but with lower tolerances, 85 items of the 100 pieces produced could meet the revised criteria, with only 15 pieces scrapped. Therefore, whilst the cost of the parts may have dropped, the component quality will also have reduced.
A low quality BV50 thrust bearing (left) and a Melett BV50 thrust bearing (right).
More than meets the eye
When comparing a high quality product with a lower cost alternative, it is risky to assume that they are equivalent parts, even if they look the same. As explained above, it is important to consider more than just the visual appearance of a component. If it appears to be cheap, it can be worth asking; ‘how do the manufacturers make this product so cheap?’ and ‘what corners may have been cut in terms of quality to achieve that low cost?’
Melett UK will be closed for Public Holidays from 5 pm on Friday 30th April until 8 am on Tuesday 4th May 2021. Any orders which are not picked or despatched on Friday 30th April will resume preparation when we return on Tuesday 4th May. If you would like any more information or guidance on the above, please contact our customer care team at your earliest convenience +44 (0)1226 320939.
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