Impeller Blaed Broken On Exhaust Side

[EmmaSmith04]

Hello

I have a 4 year old 1.6 TDCI at 80k miles and after numerous issues, the turbo started wineing. when the turbo has been tested, the oil pressuer is fine, the flow through it is fine, however when it was taken off the car, there was a broken impeller blade on the exhaust side of the turbo.

the warrenty people have refused to pay for it based on the term, they will not accept liability for parts which are of faulty manufacture or design which is what the garage think has been the problem, they have never seen this kind of damage before and cannot work out how it would have happened.

i am trying to get a photo attached but i'm struggling to get it off my phone on to my work laptop! I will attach as soon as i can upload it.

Has anyone else ever seen this kind of damage at all? its like a 1:1,000,000 chance that a stone has gone through the blades at the input end, worked its way through the turbo with no damage and exited the blade at the other end with such a perfect hole in the blade without damaging it more.

where do you think i stand legally? do you think there may be some recourse against Ford? i was going to fight the warrenty people but i am in insurance executive and having read the small print, i know i wont get anywhere but do you think there may be a claim against ford at all?

thanks in advance

Emma

[artscot79]

i doubt theres any claim ford will class it as wear and tear a decent warranty company such as warranty direct would have honoured the repair under the wear and tear clause looking at the pic im not sure how it would have happened either you could call ford uk and explain the situation and see what they say if the cars at a non ford garage they may not accept that explnation and insist on seeing it themselves

[EmmaSmith04]

thanks for the reply. i have been down to Ford at lunchtime and they have given me a number to call - he did describe it as 'play the game with them' so thats filled me with all sorts of confidence........

[artscot79]

its one of those you have to prove it scenarios so you have to prove the impeller was faulty which is near impossible and if debris caused the damage then theres the question of how all you can do is call ford explain the garage has stated its a design fault and youre warranty company will not honour the repair ill cross my fingers but im not hopefull i think in the end youll have to pay the bill

[EmmaSmith04]

its one of those you have to prove it scenarios so you have to prove the impeller was faulty which is near impossible and if debris caused the damage then theres the question of how all you can do is call ford explain the garage has stated its a design fault and youre warranty company will not honour the repair ill cross my fingers but im not hopefull i think in the end youll have to pay the bill

how right you are......Ford wont even look at the turbo which is currently off the motor unless its attached to the car and in a ford garage. they wont guarantee financial support with this either so i dont even see the point. The Garage i have taken it too are trustworthy, i know they do good work, the national company i work for use them for our fleet vehicles and my boss entrusts his aston martin to them so i think a ford focus should be ok! they have spoken to me like a human being who isnt stupid and also taken me through the problems and how they have fixed them. i dont want to mess them around now. they are hopefully doing me a good deal anyway, they are getting a garrett approved reconditioned part with new feeder pipes just in case all in including labour at £900. this is on top of the £289 bill currently waiting payment on service and injector seal replacement.

hey ho, thats life i guess!!!

[FOCA]

I cannot comment on the legal etc issues

Im not an expert on turbos but i have a basic grounding (enough to tune motors - not fix turbos)

The exhaust side or "impeller" is called the turbine / turbine wheel (the inlet side is called the compressor)

The inlet is completely seperate from the exhaust, if a small stone got sucked into the air inlet, it would need to get through the air filter first, it could get sucked into the compressor, but could not reach the turbine through the turbo shaft spindle, instead it would need to go round the boost hoses, through the intercooler, in the inlet valves, out the exhaust valves, through the exhaust manifold, before reaching the turbine

So its highly unlikely a stone caused the damage

Its possible part of the VNT mech came off and hit the turbine wheel, or it broke up due to the turbo over - revving, or overheating, (possibly due to carbon build-up)

Finally metal fatigue / small cracks in the blades due to the design or construction / the metal expanding / contracting due to heating/ cooling could have caused the failure

Remember this is all jus my opinion

[artscot79]

ive got to agree with foca its highly unlikely it was debris being sucked in if it had been there would be some indications on the other blades of an impact as you say what can you do ford normally just say that since someone else looked at it they wont touch it

[EmmaSmith04]

FOCA - any opinion is greatly appreciated, I havent a clue on these things.

the over-revving could be part of it - Halfords Autocentre have had the vehicle in recently due to them being the warrenty preferrd repairer when i thought the issues i was having could be warrenty issues. they replaced the DPF on it but the original fault was still there, they were out in it for 2 hours and i can honestly say it went in with half a tank of fuel (About 300 miles) and it came back with 60 miles left. he said he has been out in it for hours and couldnt make it replay the fault i had been experiencing. but did say it had been driven at high revs - it was only after this point that the turbo started making a noise - before that there hadnt been any hint of a turbo issue. so it could all tie in back to them saying the DPF needed replacing - carbon blocking, over revving etc.

never mind.......empty savings account here i come !.....

thanks everyone