Dreaded 488 blown turbo…

Hello all,

I thought I would share so others could benefit from my recent misfortune of the dreaded Ferrari blown passenger turbo. After only putting 470 miles on my new car, it all of a sudden started losing boost. There were no check engine light or anything showing diminished Performance. At first, I didn’t think it was the Turbo, but then it developed a small rattling sound so I had it towed to the local dealer where they pulled codes and said left side turbo no boost. They took it apart and the impeller was just sitting in the housing. Being a naïve new Ferrari owner I thought that since my car had been certified preowned and a one owner car, I would be taken care of….. certainly not the case. Ferrari noticed that I had an x-pipe on my car and outright denied the warranty claim. I thought it was ludicrous, since the x-pipe is downstream from the turbo chargers, but I have heard other instances where people had bone stock cars and they still denied it. I can honestly say is a new owner it was incredibly disheartening this is how they take care of their customers.

The next obvious question was to ask them how much it would cost to get it repaired …… a cool, $24,000. The almost hilarious part about it was when I told them, I would pick the car up and would not be having them do the repair… they appeared surprised.

So began the quest of locating companies that could either rebuild the turbo, or possibly a full aftermarket replacement. I did a bunch of research on this forum, which was helpful, but lacked some key details. I thought it would be important for others and below are a few of the manufactures I spoke with recently. I find it surprising some folks have suggested this is not a problem, but yet there are a dozen companies rebuilding these turbos for Ferraris. Basic supply and demand….no?

Pretty much every company I spoke with uses the factory Ferrari cast housings, and the differences are on the internal components. (This helps to keep the cost down on the rebuild.)

Pure Turbos - Very helpful and said this is a common problem in 488 and F8s. According to the staff, they have seen cars with as few as 600 miles have the same issues.
Pure 800 - bore factory housing and replace the factory, turbine and compressor wheel size and use ceramic bearings $5000/pair
Pure 900 - Bore Factory housing and replace with larger turbine in compressor wheels, and use ceramic bearings $6500/pair
Pure 1000 - Bore Factory housing and replace to the next size, larger turbine, and compressor wheels, and use ceramic bearings. $8500/pair

Much Boost - in Europe/Poland and rebuilds these to factory specifications. $5300/pair

The turbo engineers - these guys are out of Germany and build some nice turbos. They are a larger company builds all the parts, including turbine and compressor wheels in house. TTE950. these are similar to the PURE 1000 turbos. $5400/pair

Pro systems Turbo - these guys rebuild your turbo to a factory spec, for the housing for ceramic bearings and add in Inconel shaft. $5300/per turbo

Turbo lab America - these guys rebuild Turbo to factory specs and also repair problems with the valves inside the turbo that the weld breaks. No pricing available as damages can vary.

I have attached a couple pictures so you can see the shaft in my passenger side turbo, likely work-hardened and broke. After 30 years of being a mechanical engineer, and building dozens of turbo cars, and bikes builds, I don’t believe this is a common issue. Typically the bearing goes out, but the bearing in this particular case was just fine the shaft snapped on the Exhaust side. There is been some speculation that coking on the turbo could prematurely, cause the bearings to fail, but I did not see any evidence of that on the bearing. It is possible but much more unlikely, considering it’s water and oil cooled. According to every one of these companies, the shafts are titanium and eventually break in this particular application. So why many of you have been fortunate up till now I do believe that, as mileage increases on these cars with heat cycling, we will see more and more failures. This is likely the reason that Ferrari has clamped down so hard on repairing these turbos for customers because they would have to admit there is an issue. There has even been questions that by changing the exhaust it reduces the back pressure. This is highly unlikely because reduced back-pressure typically reduces heat and load on the turbo charger. I asked everyone of the companies about reduced back pressure, causing the turbo to fail, to which every company simply laughed and said no. One manufacturer, even said, if this was the case, every race car turbo would never last. Good point.

Some other interesting information that I have learned along the way is that every manufacturer balances, their turbos at 1.5 to 3 times the maximum engine rpm so the folks saying it could happen by over revving the turbo is unlikely. Every company said that the IHI turbo is a good quality manufacture, but this one particular shaft is titanium, and while it is extremely light, tends to have issues with heat cycling.

In the end, maybe it’s a blessing that the dealer decided not to repair it so that I can have both repaired with the proper shaft that will lead to long-term reliability. I pulled both side turbos as I do not want to have the other side fail down the road.

The driver side was much easier than the passenger side and took about an hour and a half to get out. The passenger side was much more difficult, but took about 2 1/2 hours. I am anticipating that it will take quite a bit more time on the reinstall. In my mind, I’m thinking this job is about 12-15 hours of labor for which my dealer wanted $2200. All the parts in seals through the dealer were another $1800 which I bought them through Scuderia online for $900. The turbo cost nearly $20,000 for one side from the dealer and about $3000 cheaper through Scuderia. I am all for making money as a business owner but I think its seems insane both turbos would cost over $50,000. Considering if you bought the best billet turbos out there and had them installed it wouldn’t be $15,000 ….seems a bit over the top even for an exotic.‍♂️

This must be the Ferrari tax people are talking about.….

Well, I’m certainly not an expert but I would be happy to share any of the information that I have learned through the process with any of the other forum members. PM

Despite this speed bump I still like this car and hope I can enjoy it for many years to come.
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Nice write up. So in the end what exact solution did you go with on your Turbos? I don't believe you mentioned it unless I missed it.

 

Wow. Excellent write up and information. Thank you


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What year, and total mileage on the car? Assuming no warranty left/none post-purchase, and not bought from a Ferrari dealership?

After <500 miles on your new ride to have a blown turbo is crazy

 

That is the nicest, most well lit, organized work area for a car I've ever seen- WOW good for you!

It's disgusting that car companies don't step up to the plate when things like this happen. My 1996 Freightliner Truck has the original 266K mile turbo in it.
So what the turbo is in a Ferrari, the part FAILED! Well my hats off to you- you have a good attitude, and appreciate your sharing. GOOD reason to be happy with a 458!

 

Excellent write up and very thorough. I was curious what route you went with and what was the final price of your repair.(for both sides I’m assuming).

 

Thank you for the post

Delicious workshop

 

2018 with 7900 miles, 1 owner car. Bought from Ferrari dealer and Certified Pre-owned …. So much for that $5500.

 

Not done yet $ but will post up at the end

 

I didn’t but you can PM me on more details

 

Look forward to install pics and report on performance and driving. Beautiful work space - Kudos!

Seeing a four post lift, did that add to removal challenge? I too have a 4 post, but also adding a two post for easier access on certain projects.

Cheers!


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How did they certify a car with a x-pipe installed? If they’re denying your claim due to the x-pipe they should not have certified the car to begin with. I’d consult an attorney


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I installed it after so nothing can be done but let’s face it the x-pipe didn’t cause the turbo failure. However had I known that I never would have purchased the CPO or had that be a factor in finding a car. This is more just informative for other owners and future buyers.

On a positive note the car sounds great

 

Yeah 2 posts make some jobs easier for sure but mostly use my 4 post lifts for storage. If I was doing this for a living….2 post for sure.

 

I recently had my passenger side turbo go on my 2018 488 Spider around 14k miles. My car was CPO and the repair was covered. I have stock exhaust on my car though.

What dealer denied the claim?

My repair wasn't as much as they quoted you. It shouldn't have been that much.. I think upgrading the turbos is probably whats needed especially if you run the car as a Ferrari was intended to be run.

Great write up.


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Maybe this is a dumb question but the warranty doesn’t cover the turbo ??
And very sorry for the bad luck on this.
Best of luck on getting it taken care of.

 

If you alter the car with aftermarket parts they can deny the warranty claim. This is especially true for aftermarket exhaust or a-pipe. (There has to be some relation to the aftermarket part and the warranty claim.)

 

Really tough spot to be in. With upgraded turbos you shouldn't have to deal with it anymore which is a good thing. Good luck. I think they could have helped you out though.



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That is unfortunate Carbon. Thank you for the information it helps me in my decision to Pure turbo. I will wait fo failure and then do the swap.
Good luck in your future ownership, beautiful car , and I look forward to the outcome and hearing about what route you went.

 

If the X pipe reduced the back pressure on the turbo then you may of decreased the exhaust back pressure, if so then it might have gone into the overspeed range or it has accelerated the turbine shaft too quickly and snapped it

 

Hello Mike,

Back Pressure:
That unfortunately is a myth of back pressure being helpful. In naturally aspirated applications it's more true but not for forced induction. Less back pressure means reduced heat and pressure on the seals and oiling system. Seal leaks (also common on these turbochargers) can come from this force and also cause lack of oiling in the bearings. There is a muffler to reduce sound to meet noise standards. The reason it's smaller than 458 is because the turbos dampen the sound. Keep in mind when the exhaust flaps open ~2500 RPM your exhaust is nearly a straight shot with little to no back pressure.

Failure Mode:

These turbos are balanced at 1.5-3X the max engine speed so reducing back pressure from idle to 2500 RPMs would not cause the turbo to go uncontrolled. Also Ferrari turbos are torque driven where the system monitors torque and adjusts accordingly so yet another reason it's unlikely.

Failure Method:

If you look at the failure of the shaft a runaway turbo split from shear would have a symmetrical spiral facture but the shaft has a brittle fracture (see attached pictures)

Hope this was helpful
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Its certainly gone in style, the break is not even showing a different shade where it may of had a hairline crack. Looks like it has just sheared. What state were the bearings in ? I would expect them to have a good clearance from new.
With a blower the shaft makes its own oil wedge and lifts the shaft away from the bearing. A bit smaller than the ones i work on with 500 kg rotors.
Any carbon on the shaft where it goes into the bearing ? That will stop its axial movement

 

Carbon, you are way too smart to own one of these things!

 

After speaking to Carbon over the weekend, I’m convinced he knows more about vehicle mechanics than anyone I’ve ever met.

Great to have him on this thread to teach us a thing or two about clearly inferior design and products used on our dream cars.


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