Turbo rebuild companies - any reccomendations

[hman]

Looking for a rebuild company ( or a new unit supplier if cheap enough) for the turbo in my 525d,I've been told its a variable vane unit and Garrett dont supply parts for re-manufufacturing the turbo unit.

However plenty of companies I spoke to think its possible to do, whats the deal?

Also if anyone has had a rebuild completed and are happy with it can you tell me who you went to please.

Many Thanks

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

how old is your 525? What's it worth?

I've just been through this process for 2002 530d. I spoke to loads of companies and having been quoted £1,600 for a Bmw supplied turbo (more than the car's worth!) I chose Essex Turbos for a recon unit for £345.

I then bought bmw service parts and lines and sundries from Cotswold.

I was quoted £800 from memory for a genuine bmw garrett turbo but i still felt that it was too much.

I've since done 2,000 miles with the new turbo and it has been brilliant (ie. it's worked!).

If it was a more expensive car I'd have gone new but not from bmw with bmw sundries and oil lines and votrex oil breather.

The whole turbo refit etc etc came to over £2,000 and that was on the cheap to be honest. Labour is the killer. If the intercooler needs cleaning out (of the oil etc) it's a front-bumper off job. It all just takes alot of time to do the job right.
My topic history might still have the 530d topic in it actually - all the costs etc are in there.

[cptsideways]

Give Grahame at Universal-Turbos a ring they can fix em & the if its got the electronic controller they can fix them too.

01425 656900 mention me, Declan & you might get a better deal

[Deano_BMW]

i also used Essex turbos when the unit went on my old 530d. Midland turbos are supposed to be good too

[Total loss]

I did the turbo on my dads '00 530d, he drove it for another 3 miles to get to his friends after it went (he said there was a lot of smoke from the exhaust ! ), local BMW indi wanted £3000 to do it, new intercooler etc.
I researched on the 'net, found Garret had probably improved the turbo over the OEM BMW one as IIRC BMW was xxxx-2 which you could still get, but Garret now made a xxxx-10, meaning 8 changes from the original which would normally be improvements.
Got mine from a turbo shop in Chiswick, West London, £325 with 2 year warranty.
Had to de-cat it as well as driving it had pushed most of the engine oil down the exhaust blocking the cats.
Whole job just over £400 (me free labor)
That was 7 years ago, probably 50k miles on it since and still running fine.

[roofer]

Another for Essex turbo, they did the small turbo on my 335d. Still ok 50k later.

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Total loss said:

I did the turbo on my dads '00 530d, he drove it for another 3 miles to get to his friends after it went (he said there was a lot of smoke from the exhaust ! ), local BMW indi wanted £3000 to do it, new intercooler etc.
I researched on the 'net, found Garret had probably improved the turbo over the OEM BMW one as IIRC BMW was xxxx-2 which you could still get, but Garret now made a xxxx-10, meaning 8 changes from the original which would normally be improvements.
Got mine from a turbo shop in Chiswick, West London, £325 with 2 year warranty.
Had to de-cat it as well as driving it had pushed most of the engine oil down the exhaust blocking the cats.
Whole job just over £400 (me free labor)
That was 7 years ago, probably 50k miles on it since and still running fine.

That's an awesome price for a garrett turbo!

[nrick]

I did one on an E39 530d and got it from TT (Turbo technics), worked fine and was less than £500 for a new unit, they didn't refurb either but wanted the old one back.

[hman]

The e39s might not be vnt or variable vane turbos, I'm being quoted 800 plus vat for new or 500inc vat for refurbed

[mrmr96]

hman said:

The e39s might not be vnt or variable vane turbos, I'm being quoted 800 plus vat for new or 500inc vat for refurbed

Similar prices to what I was quoted.