My official China TD04 16T eBay turbos
- Thread starter vegasboy
- Start date
Actually ... as one of the guys that spoke on this ... I pointed out that name brand guys are $2k all day long and that the warranty Toimoka or whatever they were called in the prior post (a Chinese turbo with a warranty) were the same money.Wow, lots of posts, lots of shitposts..
OK, so lots of you guys recommend other brands that cost "just a bit more". We're talking $ 900 vs $ 2500 or more (+ core charge and all extras). Oh, and then comes shipping and 25% sales tax. By the way, as I live in Norway, the US warranty is not worth more than the Asian warranty as getting a replacement will be just as much trouble both ways.
Of course I'd like a reliable car, but I'm not sure if the eBay turbos will be less reliable anyway. Maybe I'll try them, maybe not.
BTW you don't want to rely on the warranty because you are screwed if you have to do all that work twice, along with the downtime, and the shipping costs. You want the stuff to go in and just work. Or at least, that's what I would want. In that regard, known track record trumps. Especially if paying shipping from to Norway or shipping back - I imagine that's not cheap.
Filippo
Rob@RBTurbo
Lieutenant
Got a guy who called a month or so back, actually bought a set of these as OEM replacement Chinaframes. They were rebranded by Dorman which is actually a fairly good name in "American" Auto parts, but he burnt though 2 sets in less than 6 months.
These units ended up being about $250 cheaper than our RB OEM's, which to date have yet to see any issue (2 years @ ~200 sets sold). He was talking about cutting the losses and ordering a setup from us, however never did possibly due to timeline issues. Anyway perhaps a fluke deal, but a sample nonetheless.
Rob
I think that's my post you're referring to - the reason I even rec'd the tomioka is because I was told they *aren't* Chinese built, but are built in another Asian country thus keeping the cost down. I didn't realize OP was not from the US, and my rec was based mostly on the shoo probably wanting to keep a decent reputation and either making the warranty work (which yes is still a pain in the ass when you factor in labor) or eating the cost and replacing them themselves.
However as usual, I agree with you in every other regard Filippo, and I for one am happy I spent the extra money on turbos known as being reliable with a company who has good customer service. Having to do the labor multiple times was definitely on my mind, but more so than the cost, I don't like not having my car around for days at a time - whether I'm driving it or not lol.
Edit: I do hope some of these cheap Chinese turbo options work out for some people, but however way you look at it, I think this is always going to be a concern :
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Holy crap, you actually paid to send them back to China? I believe it is an ebay rule that returns must have a US address. If they try to get you to return them to China, you can decline and if they refuse to give you a US address, ebay will refund your money. Or they can pay to have them shipped back to china. It's much cheaper for them to give you the product than have them pay to return them to china. They probably have less than 100 bucks in a full set.
Rob@RBTurbo
Lieutenant
The power is questionable- at least if you take some stake away from mostly vendor provided dynos (most all of which provided in kill modes) and put more into real life drag racing results (to date).
As for spool we highly doubt the spool and/or response of any other offering is superior in anyway over our offerings.
We have numerous N54 offerings and they are all different in their own ways but ultimately they are built for a reliable power objective along with optimum spool, this all comes down to physics and we pride our work on appropriately matching wheel sets to achieve this as best as possible.
Rob
Can someone try out those aliexpress GC?
turbocharger for bmw n54 1m e92 e90 e93
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/b0J1JnCU
turbocharger for bmw n54 1m e92 e90 e93
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/b0J1JnCU
Rob@RBTurbo
Lieutenant
fmorelli said:
It's funny isn't it? You asked me a question. I turn the question back to you ... and YOU don't answer your own question. So what are you saying - I don't know shit, and neither do you, but you're going to school me? Hahahahaha ... wow.
Yeah right about now I look like a prick, but I'm not the guy being taken to task am I? Oh wait. I am! Gee no surprise to the response then, eh? I'll hand the shovel back now.
Clearly from your many years of fixing turbo installs from people like this, right? Sorry, I'm still working with your original question of experience as basis for having an opinion.
I have a bunch of experience with Chinese and Taiwanese products in general. That includes having products not only manufactured in China, but also reselling them and having to stand behind them.
One buys from RB, VTT, and others because it's a f'ing $2k+ expense with a $1k install job, with another $1-2k+ remove, ship and re-install if something goes wrong. Not to mention downtime. THAT is why one buy from someone who's reputation is behind it - at least that one knows they cares about their reputation in that regard, who sells the stuff for a living and has a dog in the hunt and it's just not one's own ass two sheets to the wind, blowing Benjamins out one's tailpipe..
As I've said before - someone wants to take a flier ... I totally get that. Recommending people buy turbos from random Chinese sellers - not sage advice. This reminds me of the story as to why the poor are poor - if one cannot afford to pay for known-to-be-reliable turbos, then one certainly can't afford to get screwed by bad turbos.
Filippo
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Wow, I don't know if the issue is just that tone cannot be gleaned from text, but it seems like I got under your skin. I didn't understand why you would say that my question was stupid, but I guess it was to you. I was asking a legitimate question, not a rhetorical one, and had no intention of taking you to task.
My reply regarding brand name loyalists wasn't directed to you specifically, but more in general to those that are afraid of anything that doesn't have a major advertising campaign.
Perhaps you are being funny, but I'd say, yeah, you are looking like a prick, but it could be that tone can't be read. I really didn't mean to get under your skin so bad.
I totally understand why people buy from major vendors - I bought from MMP for many reasons, with warranty being one. I did a DIY install, so labor wasn't an issue, and while re-doing things would suck for sure, from my perspective, at the time there really wasn't this influx of hybrids from China. Had there been, as well as some results and not just having it be guesswork as to what kind of power they are capable of, I may have made a different decision.
I'll be honest - had RB done better advertising and communicating of their products, I may have even chosen them. At the time though, their webpage didn't have much info, and I definitely don't recall the TD03 and TD04 differences. You still can't get any info on what Pure uses, and VTT's GCs were a good bit more expensive than MMP for a TD04 CHRA.
We can agree on the premise of "one that cannot afford to pay for known to be reliable turbos", but with this platform, you could argue that EVERY vendor has had their fair share of issues in the past or recently.
Again, my apologies if my initial post came off wrong. I usually enjoy your posts and think you're a great contributor, and I was really trying to have a legitimate conversation. Anywho, back to shitposts in this thread!
I agree that Rob's website could be a lot better but anyone who has been around this platform for long enough knows that those RB turbos have been in the 10's for a long time. Before inlets/outlets, before we had MHD and good tuning options, etc.
The problem is that these cars back then were actually expensive to buy, $20-30k used. Now that they are in the $10k range it has opened them up to the younger generation that just wants it because it's turbo y0. Unfortunately these people fall victim to marketing of "1000 hp turbos" and "fuck engineering, just make it bigger".
For all the "advancements" we have had in the last 5 years you would think that cars would be light years ahead of what the 15T RB turbos did but aside from a few full on race cars they really haven't made much progress.
The problem is that these cars back then were actually expensive to buy, $20-30k used. Now that they are in the $10k range it has opened them up to the younger generation that just wants it because it's turbo y0. Unfortunately these people fall victim to marketing of "1000 hp turbos" and "fuck engineering, just make it bigger".
For all the "advancements" we have had in the last 5 years you would think that cars would be light years ahead of what the 15T RB turbos did but aside from a few full on race cars they really haven't made much progress.
Rob@RBTurbo
Lieutenant
just had a customer come in for turbo replacements. same set op has, blown the fuck up after 6 months.
Tons of shaft play on both and it pours oil from front chra.
Well, I've had the same set for 12-15k and dynode 586whp at 25.6 psi on e40 custom flash . Was very happy. Don't run them hard but once or twice a month but they are performing fine so far knock on wood. Realized it was a gamble buying them in the first place.
Still buying cores bro?
I've got like 3 sets of OE Turbos that are actually all completely fine and where removed for upgrades.
