Ok so to shorten the story, I blew the original turbo in my 2012 Impreza wrx. I need a car to use but I do not have the money to drop on a brand new oem vf52 turbo. eBay came up (I know it’s always a terrible idea to buy from there) and that was the site that had turbos I can actually afford, but I’m trying so hard to avoid that choice. What’s y’all input on this and what other options are there??? I know some websites have a monthly payment option, but I got too much monthly payments to begin with lol.
eBay turbo in my subi??
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When I saw the use of two consecutive question marks in the title plus the "word" subi my first instinct was to delete the thread. However I've had a chance to think it over and since you're going to put something from eBay on your car, that's punishment enough.
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I second this, Why buy a wrx if you knew you couldn't afford it if something went wrong (or buy a extended warranty when you buy your car). Throwing a ebay turbo will actually cost you more down the road when something goes far worse. My advice, either 1. Borrow the money from someone and pay them back. 2. Get a small loan for the amount from a FCU. 3. Refinance your car if you're still paying for the extra amount.
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Like you said some sites use Affirm, ect. You get to pick the length of your loan, I'd go this route if you don't have someone to borrow the $s.
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thats funny, I didn't read that he just bought a new WRX or just threw down 15-20k on his 5 year old car.
When most people buy cars, they don't buy it with the expectation that something as drastically as a turbo charger, engine, transmission will fail. If they did, everybody would buy Hyundai's because they offer 200k warranty's.
OP, sort through the bs complaints from people out of touch reality and see the good advice here. I'll help, the good advice here is to buy a used or new OEM turbo instead of an ebay replacement. Ultimately, you may have tuning, reliability, and fitment issues when changing your turbo. Your best bet would certainly be an OEM turbo where you can remove the old, install the new.
Good luck in figuring out an affordable solution; an OEM turbo is definitely the way to go on that matter.
Thank you for everything! I apologize for posting in the wrong area, still new to the website and these cars overall. As much as people had their 10 cents to say, I understand what y’all are saying and it was a bad idea from the start yea, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen so when it did it sucked so bad, but OEM turbo it is! I’ll see what affirm is looking likeand hopefully have the car running like new by New Years 
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Correct me if I'm wrong Steamspeed makes direct fit turbos; at least for the 2015 they do. Plus pricing wise they start at $100 more than OEM.
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Moved - no worries. Best of luck sorting it all out. Used OEM all day, every day over anything eBay.
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What's cheaper the eBay turbo plus custom tuning solution or a factory turbo?
What one is going to last more than a year?
What one is made using superior materials, tolerances and manufacturing processes?
What one should you buy?
The answer to all of these is likely the factory turbo.
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Everyone always hates on ebay stuff, but honestly a turbo is a piece of machined metal. It's not that complicated. If the turbo is that much cheaper, find out all you can about it by just searching searching searching. Try and find forums or people who have put it in, get as much info as you can. Could you link it? I'd be interested in looking at it.
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I'm a machinist. Where would you like me to start tearing your argument to pieces?
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:rotfl:
Oh god, you really have no idea...
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Ok, than why is it so bad? Whoever is making the turbo's has a 5 axis mill, and they aren't cheap. I haven't looked into the turbos. Obviously they haven't been put through testing as much.
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Machining is highly complex. As is the design of a turbine and it's housing. Tolerances alone on something that spins 100k RPM is insane. Not only does everything have to be located right. It has to be located to other features perfectly(what we call best fit). so you will say have a hole location, of x+1.375" y0 with a size tolerance of +.0005 a location tolerance of +/- .001 with a true position tolerance of .001", a best fit of .0005".Then you have dimensional tolerances of the part itself. Size, roundness, flatness, squareness, parallellness and many more. Let me tell you chap. On brand new million dollar equipment it's a nightmare hitting tolerances for turbine parts. I can assure you that Chinese factory is not using good equipment.
Now this thing needs balanced. Because no matter how perfect your cnc lathe may be, that part is still not balanced enough to see 150k rpm. Balancing equipment takes a lot of effort to use properly, and even more effort to keep calibrated. This i can assure you your cheaply made eBay turbo is not doing. Calibration is insanely expensive and needs to be done multiple times a year by certified personnel.
You then have different surface finishes that not only impact the look, but the strength of the part and the flow of air around it so what's better an surfsce finish of 125, or maybe 16? From my experience in working in the turbo machinery world when some of these things are capable of 150k rpm the surface finish is dead critical to it's material strength. I've seen parts with 2" walls peeled apart like pop cans from centrifugal force where the surface finish was far too rough near the start of a radius into a flange .
Let's go into material selection. Not all aluminum is the same. Cast aluminum will be different that billet aluminum. Then you have different grades of each of those. All with different properties. Are they using the right material? I can't answer that you need a mechanical engineer no of some sort that I'm sure they didn't use when they half assed copied a whatever turbo they are selling.
That's just the head of the problem. I can go on but I'm on a cell phone and won't.
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Now this thing needs balanced. Because no matter how perfect your cnc lathe may be, that part is still not balanced enough to see 150k rpm. Balancing equipment takes a lot of effort to use properly, and even more effort to keep calibrated. This i can assure you your cheaply made eBay turbo is not doing. Calibration is insanely expensive and needs to be done multiple times a year by certified personnel.
You then have different surface finishes that not only impact the look, but the strength of the part and the flow of air around it so what's better an surfsce finish of 125, or maybe 16? From my experience in working in the turbo machinery world when some of these things are capable of 150k rpm the surface finish is dead critical to it's material strength. I've seen parts with 2" walls peeled apart like pop cans from centrifugal force where the surface finish was far too rough near the start of a radius into a flange .
Let's go into material selection. Not all aluminum is the same. Cast aluminum will be different that billet aluminum. Then you have different grades of each of those. All with different properties. Are they using the right material? I can't answer that you need a mechanical engineer no of some sort that I'm sure they didn't use when they half assed copied a whatever turbo they are selling.
That's just the head of the problem. I can go on but I'm on a cell phone and won't.
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I would NEVER have the patience to tap that all out on a phone.
There is indeed a lot more to a quality turbocharger than meets the eye.
One more thing to consider - you do not want to do a turbo swap any more often then necessary. It is grueling. Go with quality so this does not happen.
There is indeed a lot more to a quality turbocharger than meets the eye.
One more thing to consider - you do not want to do a turbo swap any more often then necessary. It is grueling. Go with quality so this does not happen.
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Quality machining is tough to find. Espically on something that's going to need balance and efficiency at blistering speed.
When I first got into machining I started in a shop that was a well established billion dollar organization that moved a plant to my location. Because they killed a union shop we had to learn how to make parts correctly the hard way. It's not easy
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When I first got into machining I started in a shop that was a well established billion dollar organization that moved a plant to my location. Because they killed a union shop we had to learn how to make parts correctly the hard way. It's not easy
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
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