My ZFR
 

As you guys know, I have the ZFR. I've had it in my car since August, about 7 full months. No issues at all, car ran great all the time. Yesterday on my way to the hotel I had a nice straight and gave it gas. Continued to pull and then a slight thud and the engine went into limp. Though oh damn, boost leak a charge pipe came out I'll fix it. Turned car off and on, still was shitty CEL came up P0101 lucky 1 mile from a chevy dealer, bought a new MAF. Car ran better but still no boost and in limp. I checked about 20 times all charge pipes everything intercooler connected. So I removed the intake to see how the turbo was and realized it's no good anymore. The compressor wheel gets stuck and is very hard to move, lots of shaft play now. Hopefully there is warranty on a turbo barely used for 7 months. We'll see though, just thought everyone should know as I try to share all my experience with you guys.

Holy balls..

Shit happens bro. Sorry.

I'm guessing ZZP might warranty it if they installed it. If they didn't, then you're probably on your own.

Im guessing so as well. Probably going to ask them to rebuild it for me. I dont have a choice.You gotta pay to play, right?

still dont see how something of that price could be sold without a warranty of any sort.

Wow man. That blows so bad. Hopefully something can be done.

That definitely sucks man. One positive spin on things is at least the turbo basically burned up a bearing (at least that what it sounds like) and just siezed instead of something breaking off and getting ingested into the engine. That my friend is a bad day.. lol

I'm with you. Could definitely be worse.

Can you get some vids or pictures? I'd like to see it. How's the oil feed line?

Damn, so sorry. Not good seeing the turbo last only a few months. Hopefully they will warranty it, or rebuild it.

Yea lets hope, I haven't brought mine and that. Would turn me off...good luck bro

Ill get pics as soon as the turbo is off. Im not blaming zsp at all. I had their prototype kit. Im not expecting them to wareanty it or rebuild it for free. I will pay for what has to be done correctly. I hope it can be fixed easily.

My thoughts too.^

As was asked earlier, I'd check out the oil feed line in case there was an oil starvation situation that led to that happening. Ball bearings don't require quite as much oil lubrication as journal bearings but they can go bad without enough oil just the same. Another thing I'd wonder is about the water lines for the turbo. They're not required for the EFR, but BW does recommend them. I'd imagine it could heat up quite a bit without it or without good coolant flow if you've got the boost cranked up and/or have a boost leak.

On another note, BW had problems with some of the early EFRs, causing them to re-source some of their parts from other suppliers. I wonder if yours was one of the early enough ones that may have been affected. BW should be completely aware of it and able to do a warranty repair/replacement if yours failed due to some manufacturing issue.

Sorry to hear about what happened. Hope you get back up and running soon.

That was my first thought about the early issues^^^

Got me nervous now!

Damn dude, I'm super sorry that happened. I always admired your car.

Hopefully a quick turnaround!

Bro, sorry to hear about this. Have you already called ZZP about it? What are they saying? If the waterlines are optional, what does ZZP recommend or do when installing these?

can you take the EFR apart and take pics of the compressor wheel with the compressor housing off? Wow, this is interesting and definitely a bummer since I was looking at an EFR.


Matt? Care to join the conversation?


Hope you get it fixed bud.

Thanks man, I doubt it has anything to do with oil starvation or anything. It has been running 7 months no problems I'm sure it would have blown a lot earlier if that was the case. Who knows though. I kinda have a feeling the exhaust turbine blew or a bearing blew.

Thanks guys, no need to worry. Just posting my experience up so others are cautious. I'm hoping I can get this fixed asap too. PS, I was on a DD 22 psi tune.

Thanks 40rty, I haven't called them or anything. They don't answer phones or anything like that. I just Pm'ed Matt if there is any warranty through them or BW and what I can do it my position right now. Earlier before I bought this turbo from them. He did state that it was at borg warner getting rebuilt before they sent it to me (reason why it took about 3 months). I'm guessing this turbo probably had something wrong it it before but it seemed fine. Even the people that installed it said everything looked good, no shaft play nothing. I will have to make an appointment with them to put my k04 back on as my EFR is going to be pulled out. Just really don't want to spend 2k on labor for installing the k04 and then the EFR when/if it gets fixed. I need to find someone savvy and that can do it cheaper. For now, I'm in a pretty shitty situation and all I can do is wait for ZZP's/BW response.

i highly doubt ZZP is going to warrenty a turbo. you got to remember the warrenty is through BW and its BW turbo. the only thing ZZP about it is the exhaust housing. now if your exhaust housing blew apart then im sure they would warrenty it. also with labor normally labor is never covered under anyones warrenty unless something went wrong witht he labor they actually did. which in this case to me it seems that all they did was install your turbo which i highly doubt was the cause to your failure. its not rocket science to put it on. also if its their prototype kit im sure that things had some abuse already put on it. seems like you understand how it works though so no bitch at you.

so i need to ask.... your running this without the water option? i ran through this thread breifly so correct me if im wrong and you are. if so thats a bad move imho. SURE YOU CAN RUN IT WITHOUT but its their and seeing that your diong the half mile stuff i would consider

as far as the efrs having issues. VERY VERY few had issues. i had one of the first ones on the market as i know zzp did as well. the thing is still going on the car i sold the kit of to . anyways.... ball bearings need oil and it could of had oil starvation HOWEVER it is possible to run a ball bearing turbo with too much oil as well and it will cause issues. look at any PTE turbo and you will see they come with a reducer usually.

what do you do after you run your car hard or even after your done driving it somewhere? whats your usual routine?

I would hope that, for anyone, running there car WOT either at a drag strip(pass after pass) or at a track(25min sessions spanning out to a day) they would let their car cool down by running it stationary for 5-7min to let oil circulate and cool the turbo(and/or water). Normal DDing you don't need to do this.

for daily driving you should do this. not for 5-7 minutes but for a minute. its an insurnace policy on the turbo and its good to do it regardless of driving conditions.

also op i think you should of kept this matter private until you talked to zzp about the issues.

Right, I doubt ZZP will warranty anything. I know that for a fact. Just want to see what their opinion is on what I should do. I don't understand what water feature you're talking about. I have an oil line and a coolant line going through the turbo, what else does it need? I'm sure if something was installed improperly or something it would have blown a long time ago. once I take out the turbo we will see what happened. I rarely drive my car hard. I live in LA there are no streets where I can do anything. I drive my car like a grandmother, the only time I get on it is when I'm racing (once a month at most) or logging my car. On a regular drive home, I let the car sit a minute. If I was beating the car, I actually drive the car for 5 minutes or more to let it cool down very gently that way. After that I let the car idle for about 2 minutes before I shut it off. I'm very consistent with what I do and in a way perfectionist.

Pretty much what I do. I always let it cool even after a regular drive. Something just doesn't make sense.

I know I should have kept this matter private, but I'm not doing anything. Not saying it was anybodies fault I just want some peoples opinions on what I should do, and probably if they know what could have happened. I'm honestly puzzled and don't understand how a turbo blows after 7 months. I wasn't expecting that to go.

Just cruising around at normal speeds is all you need. Don't gotta sit somewhere for no 7 mins. :lol:

Could tuning cause something like this? Not saying it is, just asking.