Turbocharger Warranty Guide: What Is Covered and What Voids Your Warranty

This Turbocharger Warranty Guide exists because too many diesel techs and owner-operators lose a legitimate claim over something small, an oil line they forgot to flush, a boost leak they never diagnosed, or an actuator they adjusted without documentation. A turbo warranty is not a magic shield. It covers manufacturing defects, not the conditions that killed the unit. Knowing the difference protects your money and your downtime.

At PT Turbo we have been rebuilding, testing, and warrantying turbochargers for more than 45 years. We stock both new and remanufactured units, and we process warranty claims every week. Here is exactly what a turbo warranty covers, what voids it, and how to keep yours valid.

What a Turbocharger Warranty Actually Covers

Every reputable turbo warranty, whether from Garrett, BorgWarner, or a professional rebuilder, covers defects in materials and workmanship. That means a bearing that fails from poor machining, a compressor wheel with a casting flaw, or a shaft that was out of balance from the factory.

What it does not cover is far longer. Warranties exclude damage caused by outside factors: contaminated oil, lack of lubrication, foreign object damage, overspeed, and overheating. These are installation and maintenance failures, not manufacturing failures.

When a turbo comes back to us, the first thing our techs do is tear it down and read the failure. The internal wear pattern tells the whole story. A defect looks nothing like an oil starvation event, and it looks nothing like a compressor wheel chewed up by debris pulled through the intake.

Typical Coverage Terms by Turbo Type

Turbo Type	Typical Warranty Length	What’s Covered	Common Exclusions
New OEM turbo	12 to 24 months	Materials, workmanship, balance	Oil contamination, FOD, overspeed
Remanufactured turbo	12 months typical	Reman defects, CHRA components	Lube failure, improper install
Rebuilt CHRA / cartridge	6 to 12 months	Bearings, seals, balance	Housing damage, heat cracking
Actuators & wear parts	12 months typical	Diaphragm, spring, calibration	Wiring faults, boost leaks

Our remanufactured turbochargers carry a full defect warranty because every unit is disassembled, cleaned, measured against factory spec, fitted with new bearings and seals, and balanced on a VSR machine before it ships. That process is what makes the warranty meaningful.

The Five Things That Void a Turbo Warranty Fastest

Most rejected claims fall into a handful of categories. If you understand these five, you will avoid nearly every denied warranty we see.

1. Oil Starvation

A turbo shaft spins at up to 150,000 to 240,000 RPM and relies entirely on a film of pressurized oil. Delay that oil by even a few seconds at startup and the bearings begin to wear. Bluish discoloration on the shaft and journal bearings is the fingerprint of lube starvation, and it is not a defect.

Always prime the oil system before first start. Crank with the fuel shut off until you see pressure, then fire it. This single step prevents the most common warranty-voiding failure.

2. Oil Contamination

Dirty oil, extended drain intervals, or debris left in the lines after a previous turbo failure will destroy new bearings. When a turbo fails, metal circulates through the system. If you do not flush the lines and cooler and change the oil and filter, the replacement turbo inherits that contamination.

Scored bearing surfaces and embedded particles show up clearly on teardown. That is a maintenance failure, and it voids coverage every time.

3. Foreign Object Damage (FOD)

A bolt, a piece of a shop rag, or a broken intake component pulled into the compressor wheel bends and shatters the blades. On the turbine side, a failed valve or piece of the previous turbo does the same. FOD is instantly recognizable and never covered.

Inspect the intake tract, intercooler, and exhaust manifold before installing any turbo. Debris left in the charge piping is one of the most preventable failures we see.

4. Overspeed and Over-boost

Aggressive tuning, a stuck wastegate, or a failed actuator pushes the turbo past its designed speed. Overspeed leaves a distinctive rippled or arced pattern on the back of the compressor wheel. Once the wheel bursts or the shaft fails from overspeed, no warranty applies.

This is why a healthy variable-geometry turbocharger control system and a properly calibrated actuator matter so much. A sticking vane mechanism or a lazy actuator can spike boost and destroy the unit.

5. Unauthorized Modification or Improper Install

Cracking open the center housing, swapping wheels, adjusting the actuator rod without documentation, or installing with the wrong gaskets and torque specs will all void a warranty. So will using the wrong oil feed restrictor or an incorrect drain angle that lets oil back up into the bearing housing.

Actuators, Calibration, and Warranty Details

Actuators cause more confusion on warranty claims than almost any other component. A pneumatic or electronic actuator controls wastegate or VGT vane position. If it is out of calibration, the turbo can over-boost or under-boost, and either condition damages the unit.

The key point: if you replace or adjust an actuator, document the calibration. An uncalibrated actuator that leads to over-boost is treated as a modification, not a defect. Buying a correct, pre-set replacement actuator removes that risk.

For Garrett applications, the Garrett Pneumatic Actuator 757979-5102 is available from PT Turbo for $240.94, and the larger Garrett Pneumatic Actuator 445963-0040 is available for $465.52. Both are correct replacements that maintain proper boost control on their matched turbo platforms.

On the Mitsubishi side, the Mitsubishi TD03 Pneumatic Actuator 49S3118761 is priced at $104.33, and the Mitsubishi Pneumatic Actuator 4918918935 is priced at $83.99. Installing a properly matched actuator protects both the turbo and its warranty by keeping boost within spec.

Manufacturers like Garrett Motion and BorgWarner publish calibration data for their VGT and wastegate actuators. If you deviate from those values without recording it, expect a claim to be questioned.

New vs Remanufactured: How Warranty Differs

Buyers often assume a new turbo automatically carries better protection than a reman. In practice, the warranty terms are similar, and the failure exclusions are identical. What differs is the price and the source of the defect coverage.

Factor	New Turbo	Remanufactured Turbo
Typical cost vs new	100%	40% to 70%
Defect warranty	Yes	Yes
Core charge	None	Usually required
Availability on older platforms	Often discontinued	Widely available
Balanced and tested	Yes	Yes, when done professionally

A quality reman from a shop that VSR balances and flow tests every unit gives you the same defect protection at a fraction of the price. That is why fleets running older engines lean on our turbocharger rebuild service and reman inventory. The warranty is only as good as the process behind it.

How to Keep Your Turbocharger Warranty Valid

Protecting your warranty comes down to documentation and clean installation. Follow these steps every time and a legitimate defect claim will go through without a fight.

• Change the oil and filter with the correct grade before starting the new turbo.
• Flush the oil feed line, drain line, and cooler after any prior turbo failure.
• Prime the oil system and pre-lube the turbo before first start.
• Inspect the intake, intercooler, and exhaust for debris and the fingerprints of a prior failure.
• Verify boost control: check the actuator, wastegate, and VGT vanes move freely.
• Torque all fittings to spec and use the correct gaskets and oil restrictor.
• Keep receipts, part numbers, and install date. Note the vehicle mileage and hours.
• Idle the engine for 3 to 5 minutes before shutdown after hard work to prevent coking.

Root cause matters.

When a turbo fails a second time, the replacement almost always died from the same thing that killed the first one. A defect claim gets approved on teardown evidence, but that evidence cuts both ways. If the bearings show the same oil starvation or contamination pattern as the original unit, the real problem was never the turbo.

Before you file a claim, ask what changed between the old turbo and the new one. If the answer is nothing, fix the lube supply, the air filtration, or the boost control first. A valid warranty protects you against a bad part, not against an unaddressed failure that keeps repeating.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a turbocharger warranty actually cover?

A turbo warranty covers manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship. It does not cover damage caused by contamination, oil starvation, or improper installation.

What common mistakes void a turbocharger warranty?

Failing to flush oil lines, ignoring boost leaks, and adjusting the actuator without documentation are common ways to void a claim. These are considered installation or maintenance errors, not defects.

How can I protect my turbocharger warranty claim?

Document every step of installation and maintenance, diagnose boost leaks before running the unit, and keep records of oil flushes and actuator settings. Proper documentation is often the difference between an approved and denied claim.

Cross-Reference & Superseded Part Numbers

The turbochargers covered in this article match or supersede the following OEM and manufacturer part numbers. If you are searching by part number, these are the units stocked by PT Turbo for this application:

166513  •  166680  •  168489  •  169337  •  170074  •  170116  •  170386  •  171100  •  171160  •  172215  •  173262  •  173417  •  173419  •  173558  •  178874  •  199750  •  2882109RX-RMN  •  318800  •  3591890  •  3592773  •  3598273  •  3598483  •  3771658-RMN  •  4030045  •  4030227H  •  4030269  •  4030273  •  4030720  •  4030831  •  4030835  •  4030847H  •  4030945  •  4032277  •  4034356H  •  4040391  •  4042573  •  4047231-RMN  •  4309076RX-RMN  •  445963-0040  •  446131-0011  •  446131-0023  •  446131-0046  •  451764-0015  •  451764-0025  •  451764-0039  •  451764-0045  •  451764-0050  •  452603-0001  •  452603-0002  •  452603-0010  •  452603-0022  •  452603-0031  •  452603-0045  •  452603-0048  •  452603-0049  •  452603-0051  •  452603-0052  •  452603-0058  •  452603-0062  •  452603-0066  •  452603-0069  •  452603-0070  •  479514-RMN  •  4913118224  •  4918918712  •  4918918935  •  4937717991  •  4937718732  •  4938918501  •  49477-04000  •  49477-04000-1  •  49S3118651  •  49S3118761  •  5326058-RMN  •  5326058-RMN-1  •  5327358HX-RMN  •  5503312H  •  5820-110-3708  •  5820-110-4323  •  5820-110-4354  •  5820-110-5136  •  5820-110-5221  •  5820-110-5222  •  5820-110-5223  •  5820-110-5228  •  5825-110-4036  •  5825-110-4169  •  5825-110-4280  •  5825-110-4397  •  5825-110-4403  •  5825-110-4437  •  5825-110-5099  •  5825-110-6001  •  58251105045  •  5880-110-5017  •  5900-310-7418  •  6454763H  •  712921-0070  •  712921-0089  •  716991-0001  •  729592-0005  •  729592-0006  •  729592-0008  •  750685-0017  •  750685-0019  •  750686-0019  •  750686-0020  •  757979-0002  •  757979-5102  •  8000-017-3829  •  NEW-FTR-TWN-TRB

Can’t find your number above? Contact PT Turbo — our team has been matching part numbers since 1978.