[lowvoltage]

Well, my supra is down for a bit with blown stock twins....I know, it happens.
Heres the story behind it. About a month and a half back, I had my car in the shop getting new wheels/tires put on, and the tranny checked out. Since it was already there, I had them hook up my EVC III as well so I didnt have to run the bleeder mod anymore. Pick up the car when everything is finished, pulls slower, with an electrical high pitched whine. Definitely doesnt pulls as hard as it was, even with the boost controller on 19 psi. AFR was fine. After a week or so, it develops a faint whistle and starts running rich. I checked/replaced hoses trying to track down a boost leak, but couldnt find one. Car also feels like its only spooling on one turbo. Take it back in to the shop, explain the problem, find out that they hooked the boost controller up completely wrong. Shop redoes boost controller, car feels slower than ever. Whine gets louder over the next few weeks. (yes it was the death whine ultimately) All ends last week with car running slower than a moped and smoking like a chimney. Diagnosis from shops: blown twins. Had headgasket checked out to be safe as well, but it is fine. Now, keep in mind, this car only drives about 15-20 miles in a week, including the trips to and from the shop. I tell shop I think they may have sent my turbos to an early grave by hooking up boost controller wrong causing it to only boost on one turbo. Shop says that stock twins dont last long at higher than stock boost. I know the life span is reduced, but this seems like a pretty big coincidence that they went from non-leaking, pulling hard twins to smoking pieces of shit over a 6 week period that the car was in and out of the shop. I also found out that since that time, the mechanic working on my car was fired for undisclosed reasons. So now, basically I feel like Im takin it up the ass and having to find a set of stick twins to replace mine ASAP since I'm down to one car. Shop takes no responsibility. etc. Those that have ridden in my car before the shop visit can attest to the turbos being fine.
/rant



Cliffs: took car to shop, had boost controller installed. shop hooks it up wrong, feels like only spooling on one of the stockers, shop corrects mistake a week or two later, within another month my turbos are both shot. shop claims no fault. I'm pissed, requesting input from you guys on whether this is just a coincidence or if it sounds shady.

 

[lowvoltage]

and no i cant just "go single" at the moment, all my money is being shelled out for my wedding at the end of this month. (perfect timing for this crap to happen)

 

[Chucky Doll]

You can buy a used set for $250. Honestly it's not worth the time to replace them. You'll understand this once you start to remove the blown set.

Let the car sit until you have funds for a budget kit. Enjoy your wedding as it is more important than a car.

The blown turbos could of been due to the stress that was put on them with the boost controller, but it could of just been it's time to go. My stockers died out of no where, no warning signs, nothing. GL.

 

[SupraTico]

those turbos came from me. I had them for 25k miles. Before that they were on my buddy's 98 for about 25-30k miles. I helped build Jon's car. It was an NA to TT conversion like mine. The turbos were fine when I had them and they were fine when Jon had them. They were boosting great with the bleeder on Jon's car and they were very strong. No smoke, no nothing.

Here comes Jon to this shop and they hook up a boost controller all backwards making the car run like shit from the get go and now they die out of nowhere, not even being run at high boost since they wouldn't really boost. Seems like a crock of shit to me.

Worst part about it is the shop isn't even cooperating one bit!! Lame..

 

[Chucky Doll]

those turbos came from me. I had them for 25k miles. Before that they were on my buddy's 98 for about 25-30k miles. I helped build Jon's car. It was an NA to TT conversion like mine. The turbos were fine when I had them and they were fine when Jon had them. They were boosting great with the bleeder on Jon's car and they were very strong. No smoke, no nothing.

Here comes Jon to this shop and they hook up a boost controller all backwards making the car run like shit from the get go and now they die out of nowhere, not even being run at high boost since they wouldn't really boost. Seems like a crock of shit to me.

Worst part about it is the shop isn't even cooperating one bit!! Lame..

No shop is going to cover turbos after a boost controller is hooked up. Think about it from a business stand point.. how do they know that the customer did not over run the turbo's themself? I know thats not the case in this situation but it's not the case in ALL situations.

It's a $250 lesson.

 

[Hefti2]

It's a $250 lesson.

PLUS a 10 hour lesson BTW
But even though I agree to that the shop could do at least a bit since it happend almost directly after the (wrong) install..

Gerd

 

[cord4530]

Ya, this is a crummy (but unfortunatly all to common) situation. If you knew exactly how they had hooked up the BC, then we may be able to figure out if that wrong install would have added stress to the #2 turbo. But we really don't know that information.

If the car wasn't boosing very high, the most likely thing that would have stressed the turbos is if there was a large boost leak somewhere. Could it be that the "whistle" noise you first heard was actually boost coming out of one of the hoses that was installed backwards/incorrectly? It doesn't take *that* much of a leak to keep boost down in the 9 psi range. If that were the case, then both turbos would have been working overtime just to put out the 9 psi.

I do agree with others though....if you can, let the car sit for the next month or two. Putting the wedding as a higher priority will pay for itself many times over....long after the car is just scrap metal. Alternatively, putting the car first will be something you'll likely never hear the end of in the relationship. UNLESS.....your fiance is the one pushing you to get the car fixed before the wedding so the two of you can cruising in the Supra and hit a few race tracks on your honeymoon. In that case, pawn off the rings, head to vegas for the wedding, and get a single! <ha!>

 

[spankyouverymuch]

Buy mine for 300$ plus I probably have all the new gaskets from a rebuild I did. mine only have 20,000 miles on them. I'll take a picture of the speedo in my car now that only has 30,000 miles on it. And if you search my name you'll see Iv'e had my single on for about 4 years now. It was bpu for about 2,000 miles. I first had a T78 without fuel thus the reason for the rebuild.

 

[lowvoltage]

Well the car was boosting 17psi or so, it just didnt feel like 17psi at all.. it felt like only one turbo was coming online.
As for the wedding being the priority, thats not the issue.. the wedding is def the priority, hence why I cannot slap a single kit on there right now. I would love to just leave it in my garage until I could go single, but with other issues we're down to one car now for two workers. Thats why it was being driven (very conservatively) 20 miles a week instead of 0. When the boost controller was hooked up the first time, it was pretty far off when i compared it to the diagram from HKS (which they had sent to the mechanic)

 

[cord4530]

Cool that you've set your priorities. But unfortunate that there's only one car for two workers. Where I'm at, the town is pretty small. I used to have ~7 cars (all insured, daily drivable...not broke down 76 Camaros!) and found that I rode my bike to work more often than I drove! But Miami is just a tad larger than Moscow, Idaho <grin>.

I wonder how much work it would take to get your car back driving as a N/A car. No doubt it will take time, but if you have your original parts left over (manifold, exhaust, intake pipe) you could consider trying to get it on the road again for now. Then save up for a small single conversion. If you wait around you may find a great deal. For instance....I was able to find a Turbonetics cast manifold, Racegate, newly rebuilt T60-1, oil lines, downpipe/midpipe, and misc fittings for $1400 on the classifieds forum. It was too hard to pass up. I've been happy ever since.

 

[gmacrae]

It definitely sounds like the shops 'handy work' helped kill the twins. But there is no way you can prove it, so unfortunately you cant expect them to foot the bill.

If you cant afford to have the car out of order for a while, and you cant get the cash together for a small single setup (man, i know what that feels like), then buy the stockers from "spankyouverymuch" and spend a solid weekend putting them on ...you might want to leave your current manifold and turbine housings on to speed up the swap?

One thing i'd do; Write a letter to the shop explaining the whole situation. Let them know that you understand there isnt much you can prove, and that legally you probably dont have a leg to stand on, but that you're pretty certain their screwup killed the twins and that the whole ordeal has caused unwanted stress at the worst time and put the 'bridal car' out of action for your wedding.

That probably wont get you any compensation, but should ensure the shop is more careful for the next guy.

...oh yea, dont go back there, and leave their business name up on this thread.

Good luck

Gene

 

[cord4530]

Totally agree with everything gmacrae said. Definitely write the shop a letter. Be as professional about it as you can (people tend to discredit others when they're too angry about anything). And if you're comfortable with it, post the shop name and location so others can be aware of your situation.

Personally I do as much of my own work on the car as I can. I take a LOT longer than any shop would, but I know the details of what's been done. I also know that if I mess up, I'll be the one who's paying for it. But I also understand that no everyone has the time/resources to do that. I just feel sad hearing *so* many cases where shops mess something up and the customer ends up footing the bill.

 

[mifesto]

yeah this winter it just seemed my supra was EXTRA quick.. pulled like a bus at stock level... pulled like a train. i shrugged it off as lower air temp and alil boost spiking. i was suspicious though as the spiking often times never really leveled off when very cold but i was too afraid to take it past 5k cuz of it.

then i inspected things and found the vacuum line from the wastegate to the stock solenoid was off..... basically turbo is boosting to max if i stuck w/ it to redline (if it wasnt cold and slippery i woulda). im just lucky i didnt really get to push the car while the turbo was spooling like a madman or i would be in the same position as you..... looking for a new turbo. i think ur situation w/ the incorrect boost controller is basically the same, wastegate left out in the equation basically.

 

[SupraTico]

I wonder how much work it would take to get your car back driving as a N/A car. No doubt it will take time, but if you have your original parts left over (manifold, exhaust, intake pipe)

impossible to do unless you gut the turbos.

He'd have to swap his head for the NA head again and I'm sure he's not going to do that, are ya jon... :doh:

 

[gmacrae]

I wonder how much work it would take to get your car back driving as a N/A car.

I've wondered about this too, wouldnt be too much to it, easiest way to do it would be to make a y pipe joining the 2 stock tt manifold outlets into one, then into the DP. Then get some cheap 3" flexible hose from the throttle body around the front to the MAF.

If you have a buddy that can weld it's worth thinking about in Lowvoltage's situation.

 

[shupore]

If I were in your situation, I would just buy a really cheap beater since you need a car to get to work. swapping twins takes a lot of labor and I wouldnt trust a shop to do it if they cant even get a boost controller in right. When i went single last year, I bought a 1992 honda civic with 300k miles for a couple hundred while the supra sat in my garage. If you look around on craigslist, you could find a beater that would be the equivalent or cheaper than buying a set of twins plus labor. After pulling the twins, I can tell you that swapping in stock turbos is a complete bitch and not worth the time.

The shop sounds real shady if the problems started with your tranny if you only brought it to get wheels mounted. Did you at least write down the mileage on the odometer before u dropped it off? Of course they're not gonna want to pay for the damages and if you can't get them to, burn the fucker down.

 

[BLKLABL]

I think supratico should be banned :banhim: for selling duddd turbo's to a fellow member :rofl:

In all seriousness John, i think the answer to your problem relies in who did the work. I've never liked Herbie, kinda shaddy with everything he's ever done. As for being a mechanic and being fired for undisclosed reasons, he was a service writer at Lexus, not a mechanic. He has his Master Tech diploma and all, but i have also met people with PHD's they bought online. Tony called me last night and told me what he says Lance told him about the stock turbo's. Sounds like total BS to me, i honestly don't think Lance would have said that, as he even witnessed my car pump out 417RWHP on 18PSI for 2.5 years straight (no shaft play when they were removed to go single)... Just cut your losses short and walk away from that idiot...

good luck,
dan

 

[SYONARA]

I had to drive my car with a non-spooling #2 turbo for a couple months, I didn't like it but had to do it, nothing should happen if you just drive from point A to point B, and drive calmly.

 

[SupraTico]

I think supratico should be banned :banhim: for selling duddd turbo's to a fellow member :rofl:

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