I posted before about this issue and wanted to ask a few more questions from the wisdom on here. So Mini Maintenance has told me that the issue is in fact my turbo. They are saying that the wastegate is slapping back instead of nice gradual close or open. They are blaming it on internal corrosion on the exhaust side of the turbo. Has My car is a 2009 with 70000 miles on it. Do all Mini owners have to replace their turbo at this mileage? That was a joke. I am struggling to swallow this cost on something that seems related to their alloy.

 

Yes we've seen this before. It's just the metal on the wastegate has worn out. Not any corrosion build up.
We have new ones if you need one
http://waymotorworks.com/stock-coope...8-r59-r60.html

 

I remember your other post about this. Mine didn't fail until 100,000 miles. As always, your mileage may vary. It is a Borg Warner turbo so it is not a MINI design issue or metal alloy problem. Turbos get hot. Really hot. Parts fail.

You can save a lot of money by doing the repair yourself. Or, trade in your car on something else.

To be brutally honest, I just went through this whole process and spent my summer buying parts for my car and doing all the work myself. While it was gratifying to complete such a project, AND my car runs like a bat outta heck, I'm not sure I would do it all over again if I had the chance.

I have had very good luck with my 2 MINIs however in the last year I have put a great deal of money into a car that should be my daily driver. No argument that the MINI is really a lifestyle type car and fun to drive. But I can move to a different brand and still have a good time in a car that doesn't cost as much to buy or to maintain.

 

Can the wastegate not be replaced on its own (sorry if that's dumb)? It does integrate into the turbo but I would figure it could be replaced without an entire turbo. If not, what can we do to prevent this issue?

 

Preventing a part from wearing out is kind of tough here. I mean, you can always keep up on oil changes, rotate tires, keep up on car washes in the salt/snow months to prevent things from wearing out or rusting too quickly, but parts do wear out.

As for the turbo specifically, keeping up with oil changes and making sure the oil doesn't get low is the best you can do to prolong it's life. It's going to wear out at some point. Moving parts in a very high heat and high pressure situation, things will fail eventually. This, to me, is an older train of thought, but I've always had the mindset that a turbo is a 100K mile maintenance item. It's just goin to wear out by then. I don't beileve with modern technology that that should be the case, but it seems with these K03's at least, it is.

 

Just curious, would love to have this clarified:
"This is a brand new turbo, not a reman...etc".
But you want a core? I don't understand. If it's not a reman, why the core charge? What do you do with my core, of not rebuild it for the next customer? Core parts, in my understanding, were always for that reason.

 

Yes. Think of a turbo as 3 components. Exhaust housing, compressor housing, and cartridge in the middle.

You can buy an exhaust housing from o line shops like jmturbocoopers.com. I did. It replaces the exhaust housi g which includes the waste gate. I also bought a new waste gate actuator.

However the cartridge was also toast once I got it apart. The deals had leaked oil. So in the end I had to exchange the parts for an entire turbo.

I decided on a re-man'd upgrade turbo. It is the next size up from the JCW turbo I had. Car runs great.

The oem turbo uses a journal bearing that let's the impeller shaft float in a bath of oil. Start losing oil and you start to speed up the failure of the turbo.

 

Yes it is a brand new unit. We want the cores for our other rebuilt turbochargers as we use about 3 different turbos to make one good rebuilt.

 

Understandable. I guess in my mind if I buy a reman'd turbo, I expect a core fee to come with the savings I got. But if I buy brand-new, it's at a premium price to begin with and I shouldn't be forced to send in my old one. What if the old part is 100% destroyed or unusable? I know, let's say I have a CV shaft snapped in half, I won't get my core charge because they can't rebuild it. Buying brand-new, I shouldn't be forced out of that core charge as I'm already paynig full price.

Just my thoughts on that, sorry for getting off topic so much.

 

We could offer it without a core but that would raise the cost. As we've found most dealers selling these for about $1800. We did it with a core to offer the customer a lower price as we can use their core for other things. Most people are just going to sit the core on the shelf or scrap it if they don't send it back so it's a win-win. Customer gets a lower price, doesn't have junk to deal with and we get a core to rebuild or use for parts for a rebuild of our own.

 

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.