I have a diesel Focus estate. Three weeks ago, the turbo blew. I got towed to a local garage near my parents' place and blew a significant chunk of my wages on getting it fixed.

Three weeks and 800 miles later… it goes again. I get towed back to the same garage.

Conveniently for them, the replacemement turbo has blown as the result of an oil pressure problem which, according to them, couldn't have caused the original problem.

Now, they don't know why the original turbo went ("it looked like it had worn out" (at 90,000 miles) "there was no reason to look any further").

Speaking to Ford – who haven't seen they car – they would be surprised if the two were unrelated.

What do I do? Argue with the garage (I know very little about engines, and naff all about turbos)? Believe the garage and pay up (they don't seem interested in goodwill gestures or discounts)? Tow the car to a Ford dealer and pay a shed load more?

Mention trading standards, damages and seeking legal advice…. might focus their minds on a bit of customer service…

Nice, nice.

(And the pun wasn't bad either…)

A turbo should last a lot longer than 90k miles. I too would be extremely surprised if the two were not linked.

Did they mention what the fault with the turbo actually was?

spend £50 or so on obtaining an independent engineers report on your vehicle,whils't its still at the garage, and write to them to inform them of your actions. Also inform them that the engineers report will form the basis of any evidence for a small claims court action against them, and you will seek to recover this reasonable disbursment.

They win't give a toss over trading standards, who in most areas of the country are grossly overworked, but a small claim, unpaid, leading to judgements and baliffs entering and confiscating tools is more of an issue.

Or invite them to reconsider.

How did you know the turbo had blown the first time? If it was leaking oil down the exhaust causing the thing to smoke like a train then you would have to put this down to a bearing close to failure. The exhaust side of most turbos seals like a piston ring (the only decent way to cope with the heat) and these tend not to fail without some movement in the bearing/bushes. Turbos turn at over 100,000 rpm and need to be made well to cope with this speed. IF there is/was play in the shaft (there should be a little up and down movement as the shaft runs on a film of oil) then you would expect bearing failure and would therefore replace the oil pressure feed pipe to the turbo as a matter of course. Turbos tend to last a very short period of time if there is a lubrication problem, as it looks like you've found out…

However without looking at the turbos I am throwing blind darts…

How do I know the turbo went first time? I don't… and I wasn't driving at the time… now I'm really paranoid!

Might have to look into independent assessments, but the originial turbo is long gone. Also, I could just be being a total ass here.

Cheers though!

TurboTechnics are worth a call , they might not want to comment directly on the situation but, they are the experts on turbos.
If the original turbo failed with bits of the vanes breaking off, and then if these are not all removed / cleaned out then they can damage the replacement turbo.

http://www.turbotechnics.com/turbo/faq.htm

90 k seems a bit premature for a turbo to blow if the car has been serviced properly. One of the problems with a Turbo is oil starvation to the bearings. If you have been caning the car and then stop suddenly and turn the ignition off, don't forget that the oil pump has stopped supplying oil to the engine including the Turbo. This may still be spinning at several thousand RPM. I was always told to allow the car to idle for a couple of minutes to allow the Turbo to cool and slow down. Saab 900 T16. Maybe different to a diesel Turbo but I doubt it. If the next Turbo has blown after 800 miles it would seem to me that either the turbo was faulty or the supply of oil to the turbo has been suspect or poor , again due to poor servicing or failure of the oil pump to supply the oil at sufficient pressure due to blockage. By the way the Saab T16 had done 285000 miles on the same turbo before I sold it.

90000 doesn't seem to be particularily premature for the focus diesels, it's one of the things i've been repeatedly warned about with mine and it's just over 100K… (the other 2 being clutch and DMF) Not that it's given me anything to worry about but quite a few folks on FFOC have had theirs die around the 100K mark.

Mine's still running smoothly at 190,000miles(touchwood) sound a bit sus to me.

Had to change my clutch and dual mass flywheel after 45,000 miles, which wasn't cheap…!!