Chinese K03s turbos.. Fail! (Beware)

**Preen59** · 29-07-2011, 01:52 PM

You get what you pay for.

I know that a lot of you guys know about and are wary of these, but here's some proof..

This turbo was fitted to an essentially standard Mk4 GTI. Bought off ebay a while ago and finally fitted. It has ALL the KKK/VW markings and it's pretty hard to pick it's dodgey. One give away is the casting quality of the impeller.

The big give away is the fact that it cost $450.00 US, new. I mentioned this to Sam from INA in conversation and he said "If it's less than about 900USD, it's Chinese and it's junk."

Nothing went thru this except air (and bits of itself). The impeller is that poor quality that it simply disintegrated under boost (10psi... Whacko). It lasted a total of 60km (not 60k km, 60!!) before smoking badly and was removed. The centre bearing has failed also... It's got more shaft play than a gay porno!

I'm pretty sure there's plenty of stuff on Vortex about these, but I thought it was worth posting here for people unaware.

FYI:

-I DID NOT sell this turbo.
-I know the car well, i have driven it prior to this turbo being fitted and there was no other contributing factors.
-I saw it before it was fitted.
-I was there when it was installed.
-I was there today when it was removed.
-I took the picture above myself.

Cheers guys,

-Chris.

**gldgti** · 29-07-2011, 04:54 PM

From the look of the photo, it looks like bits of impeller have impacted the other impeller blades quite a lot..... probably the impeller casting is not up to scratch (because of the way it is broken in different places on every blade) but i think the problem probably originally arose from the bearing - if there was so much play to allow the shaft to move that far from side to side (look closely you can see how the impeller has worn away to the contour of the inducer on the sides).

I'm curous - why did it take 60km's to stop driving? It must have been howling something feirce with the impeller touching the inducer - I know i've heard it before myself!

ALSO FYI to anyone - its very easy to put a chinese made turbine wheel, compressor wheel and bearing set into genuine KKK housings - there's no way to tell the difference, as Preeny has pointed out (apart from maybe "excessive" shaft play, but even genuine turbo's can have enough shaft play to allow one of the wheels to contact the housing if you push it to the side, depending on the turbo)

**Mk3 AAA** · 29-07-2011, 05:48 PM

I was talking to someone at the Nanjing Motor Show, and apparently VW had this problem even with the Chinese turbos built in house, Cayenne Turbos kept blowing them. The cars were built in Germany, but they build the turbos in China to save money.

**vwthunder** · 29-07-2011, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by Preen59

"If it's less than about 900USD, it's Chinese and it's junk."

Well I guess my Frankenturbo is junk then lol

**Preen59** · 30-07-2011, 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by gldgti

From the look of the photo, it looks like bits of impeller have impacted the other impeller blades quite a lot..... probably the impeller casting is not up to scratch (because of the way it is broken in different places on every blade) but i think the problem probably originally arose from the bearing - if there was so much play to allow the shaft to move that far from side to side (look closely you can see how the impeller has worn away to the contour of the inducer on the sides).

I'm curous - why did it take 60km's to stop driving? It must have been howling something feirce with the impeller touching the inducer - I know i've heard it before myself!

ALSO FYI to anyone - its very easy to put a chinese made turbine wheel, compressor wheel and bearing set into genuine KKK housings - there's no way to tell the difference, as Preeny has pointed out (apart from maybe "excessive" shaft play, but even genuine turbo's can have enough shaft play to allow one of the wheels to contact the housing if you push it to the side, depending on the turbo)

I'm not sure as I wasn't driving it. It was driven hard, then driven normal to where they work and back. Started smoking heavily, they asked me and I gave them the bad news.

Yes, the impeller was contacting with the housing. it made a mess. Worst bit is everything that is missing went through the engine.

Like I always tell people.. Cheaping out rarely costs you less in the end..

Originally Posted by vwthunder

Well I guess my Frankenturbo is junk then lol

Maybe! haha. No idea, can't comment personally on your situation.

**Volksie** · 30-07-2011, 12:31 AM

Those "things" are olso swamping south african markets.
A friend had the same battle. some parts of the prop went in the engine and some ended in the intercooler.
Saving bucks didn't help at all

**gldgti** · 03-08-2011, 04:30 PM

Should mention, that like anything, not all chinese turbo's are created equal. I've had personal experience with 2 chinese made turbo's that have not had problems like this... but it sure doesnt make it easy go buy something your 100% sure about when auto manufacturers everywhere are getting all their turbo's made in china, and Garrett and Borg-Warner are doing the same thing in some cases.

**Buller_Scott** · 07-08-2011, 03:22 AM

i should have seen this coming when all those pics of chinese-imitation-but-reasonably-replicated smart cars and bmw x5's started being displayed at the Geely / Chery / etc motor show stands....

my ultimate daily, yet not quite so.... anyone fancy a Land Rover Discovery 4 bi-turbo "dta dta"?