That sounds like a pretty clever idea!

Al?

Knuckles, Did you get my PM?

All this seems odd on the coolant leaks. Though I haven't seen their design, typically, most turbo housing incorporate a water jacket around the bearings that does not contact the shaft or require any form of seal. The coolant could never get into the compressor or turbine.

Replied

I had a 1984 Daytona Turbo Z with the water jacket around the bearing and the wall was so thin, that it actually cracked and caused major leaking into the exhaust manifold. Funny, I had been losing coolant for a few years (never could find a leak) and it turned out to be the water jacket around the bearing...

:happydance:

Would be nice is Sasha chimed in here..

Just mailed the turbo back to Comp and spoke to them. I asked them if they have seen anything like this and basically they have not. They are going to send my turbo to engineering and R&D I guess so everyone can get a better idea on what potentially happened. They said this version of the oil less CTX 4 is the latest version .....the one with the zert fitting. I guess cooling seal issues have been present before but nothing to this extent. They said when they take it apart that they will have a better understanding on what went wrong. I asked if turning the housing (aka clocking the turbo) causes this and it did not seem like it would cause this type of failure. He did say though that removing the nut that the actual turbine is secured by would be an issue, like dissembling the turbine itself which I did not do thankfully. Comp did say that actual engine damage from this failure is likely minimal to none, intercooler probably caught most of the metal dust / particles. I offered to send photos of my air filter to show how its in all one piece and they didn't seem to want anything more at this time.

Overall, so far so good for customer service. They sent me a return shipping label and have been a pleasure to speak with.

I will keep everyone posted with what their findings are once they examine it.

Are they sending u a replacement right away? Or waiting to see wat happened to the other one first?


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They want to inspect it first.

I guess that makes sense on their part. I wouldn't be to happy being out a car until they decide that oh ya it was a design flaw or quality control issue. But wat can u do!! Good luck keep us posted


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I don't know if this is proper etiquette but here is Sasha's post from the other forum on my350z.com just to keep everyone updated on the Forum.
I also received a email from Comp Turbo today asking for my phone number to discuss what they found. I should be able to update everyone tomorrow evening.

"OP, sorry about your troubles with this turbo. This is a very extreme and unfortunate case, not seen before.

Based on your description of the failure, there is no way anything would have made it's way up past the FMIC. Metal is of course heavier than air, and will simply sit at the bottom of the IC (provided it even made it that far).

these turbos feature a triple ceramic ball bearing centre section, which is water cooled. The centres section is billet aluminium, and features a grease nipple. The bearings get greased once per oil change, so the bearings stay lubricated. The water cooling prevents the grease from liquefying, so the bearings are kept lubricated. So despite being Oi-less, there is grease in the centre section to keep the bearings lubricated."

And to add to this, I have been in touch with COMP as well regarding this particular case. It is indeed the first time they have seen a failure of this nature. COMP is striving to reach a 1% or less failure rate, which is much better than what Precision turbo was when I compile failures and the number of kits/turbos sold.

The worst part about Precision is that it was never their fault. Typical answer was "oil contamination" and this is why the turbo blew up...which of course is a load of BS.

COMP is the exact opposite. They will take care of any and all repairs, no questions asked. The turnaround time has also been extremely good, with 2nd day air return of turbo to customer, which I appreciate.

I have now sold 26 of these oil less units, this is one of those that failed. There were two more, one was where a customer removed the zerk grease fitting, causing issues. COMP repaired it and had it back to the customer within a week. Another turbo had a small coolant leak, which again was repaired and returned to the customer with a very quick turnaround.

EDIT:

I would have chimed in a lot sooner, but didn't know there was a thread here.

Also, to clarify... The original oil less design did not have a grease nipple so the entire centre section was sealed with the grease that is put in at the time of assembly. There were issues with those units, but that was in the year 2010-2014. I researched the crap out of these new units, and simply could not find a single bad review on the new versions of the turbo which have the grease nipple. For that reason, I made the switch to COMP turbo.

Wonder what caused the failure.