UKH

So the turbo has gone on my 07 Ford Transit Connect (leaking oil into, and blowing holes in the hoses). The dealership quoted £1800 for the new part. Eurocarparts have an aftermarket one for about £600. There is also the option of getting a specialist to refurb my current one, however I dread the cost spiralling once they dig around (the base cost is always cheap but the final bill never is!).

Any tips to save me a wad of cash?

Not sure you are in the right forum here, but anyway, if the casing is damaged then you are done either way, if its just the core then that wouldn't be not too bad, just had my T5 done and refurb was about £350 with a new core.

"2007 connect turbo" on ebay, there's loads of them for £100.

Sounds too good to be true - is that the right part?

It is too good to be true if it hasn't been refurbished and lets go first run out !

Well the core is about 100 quid, a refurb 300 or so with guarantee so depends on your mechanical abilities (they are actually dead easy to change ONCE it's off the car. Sometimes you can do the core without removing the turbo as well.

Sorry mods, I meant to post in Off-Belay but apparently I failed!!

I just spoke with a company in Guilford who could exchange my current failing turbo for a refurb for £180. That also sounds a bit too good to be true? Good reviews on Google, worth a punt? 

With 2 years guarantee? Then I'd go for it, just looked on my buddies computer (a tractor dealer) and the core kit is €44.00 trade so if they don't mind working for a "moderate" wage then it's o.k.

I've done plenty of bigger turbos and you either buy the original as a spare part for thousands or just pull the centre section ( the core) apart, slam in a new bearing and seal and screw it all together again. They are suprisingly crude internally, the whole gubbins is around €30 on eba*.

They offer 12 months guarantee for the refurbished one. My dealership mechanic said they can't work on them as they are quite complicated. I personally have no idea! The van is on about 137k miles so spending crazy money on it isn't really feasible

Get it refurbed at Midland Turbo in Bullwell Nottingham

Had my previous T5? turbo refurbed there and ran it for 5 years afterwards with no issues 

Turn around time was less than a week

Complicated? They mean they can't rob you blind.

The three important bits on a turbo are the exhaust side, the air inlet side and the centre section. When turbo's start blowing oil it means the bearing in the centre section is worn (it's a plain bushing pressure luricated from the engine), to check you get hold of it and see how muc the shaft waggles (or measure the play). When they are screwed it's one nut, one circlip, press the bushes out, replace them and put it all together. I do our MAN diesel ones in under an hour including taking them off and re-installing.

I took a punt and bought a reconditioned Turbo for an Audi A4 from Gap Turbos in Birminham. Couldn’t fault the price or the company and the paperwork that came with it appeared to be from Turbo Technics (it could have been fake but why would they bother).

Just got the refurb turbo for £180 (had to pay an extra £80 deposit on top of this which should be refunded when I give them my old turbo). Will report back with success or failure  

Well - after I received the turbo the engine never turned over again. Turned the key this morning and nothing happened, after following my mechanics advice and pushing it in gear, when I turned the key an awful grinding sort of sound came from the engine. Looks like it's a goner

Seems kinda weird that it was running fairly normally until the day after my mechanic poked around with it to investigate. He's a Ford garage mechanic so I doubt it was him, but could running the car with a small hole in the Turbo (on the left side) have sucked bad things into the engine? He never told me not to run it.

Hopefully I'll be able to return my wasted turbo purchase. Sad times for my business.

Could it be some sort of failsafe? IF turning the key does nothing it sounds like the ECU isn't letting the car start? 

I bought a turbo from GAP too for my Volvo V50, I think it was around £350 plus I had to ship them my old one for them to refurb and sell on. Anyway, the local garage fitted it according to GAP's instruction sheet and then it ran without problem until I retired the car 100,000 miles later. 

Earlier it made a 'clonk' noise when trying to start. After pushing it in gear for a few metres, when I start it's making a really bad creak/grinding noise, seems to me like it's seized up. I'd love there to be a quick fix, but it doesn't look good  

I'd say he's broken it if it's never run since.  If your turbo hadn't shed any bits of blade into the intake duct then logically nothing will have been sucked into the engine.

It's just all to vague to give an opinion, let alone blame a qualified mechanic. Most turbo failures originate elsewhere and if you are sloppy with oil changes, don't observe basic cool-down procedures, keep the EGR clean, keep the DPF  up to scratch and so on you are destroying the engine and the turbo. We don't even know whether it's a one previous owner with full service history or a clapped dog with 300,000 on the clock.

Don't turbos run off exhaust gas (hence the name)? 

If the engine has to be pushed to turn it over before it starts then any clonking or grinding will be from the engine, not the new turbo, or are I missing something?

The new turbo isn't on the van yet. I believe the noises are from the engine.