now, my understanding of factory replacement means it is as close as humanly possible to a perfect replica of the factory unit so it fits correctly with no drama's. WRONG!!!!!!
I went to some lengths to find a factory replacement purely for the fact I wanted the thing to fit without any hastles, and on this basis, my mechanic quoted 3 hours to fit it.
The only thing that lined up correctly was the body to the dump pipe.
The actuator housing was bolted on to the turbo housing, where the factory one was spot welded. the bolt heads were perfectly placed where the oil drain pipe flange needed to bolt on. this took 3 hours alone to rectify. the oil feed pipe flange bolt holes were 4 mm closer together than the holes in the turbo body.
same with the water feed & drain flanges. all the holes were 4-5 mm closer together than the mounting holes in the turbo housing.
there was a zip lock bag with several gaskets in it, but no gasket for the water feed, easy enough to cut one, but it should be supplied.
due to all this I copped a 9 hour labour bill, and yes, I was there trying to help solve all these issues, so I know exactly how long all this took.
I contacted the turbo supplier and they were very upset that I was not happy with their product and immediatly offered me a refund, but I said I cant return it after all this drama to fit it. they did offer me a reimbursement amount half of what I asked for. asked for 50% of the labour to be reimbursed.
I have since found out that the dump pipe mounting face is on a different angle to the original, causing the entire exhaust to sit in a different place, and the further down the car it went, the further out of place it got,
I fixed this myself today, but it took 6 hours that I could have spent with my kids playing footy or taking them to the beach, but no, "dads fixing his car....AGAIN"
sorry kids.
the out of line exhaust doesn't sound like a big deal, but one point of the exhaust was forced hard against a bracket on the gearbox, the resulting noise from vibration was horrific.
all is good now, I hope, and I havn't bothered to contact the people regarding the exhaust issues.
now, I'm not going to "name & shame" anyone, and I did offer to take photos of the factory turbo & point out the differences, and they have given me v.i.p. status in there shop that gives me a substantial discount on any further purchases I make, assuming I want to purchase something else that will give me nightmares fitting........
I will reveal the supplier in private to anyone who wants to know, but not on a public forum.
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