Broken Turbo - Warranty Question

Good evening,

Not sure if this is the correct forum, so apologies if not.

The turbo on my 08 LR RR went last month and it was towed to the garage. No dramas, thought I, I have a warranty which the garage assured me covered wear and tear when I took it out. (I know, a lesson in not being a trusting fool).

Cue 2 years later, still covered and I go to claim. Have kept up all services and maintenance and the warranty company, Auto Protect, are refusing to pay, claiming fair wear and tear.

Now, we drive around 2 miles per day as I work from home and my partner works round the corner.

The actual issue was that 'the spindle to which the compressor impellers are attached broke which allowed them to move outwards and jam the housing throat'.

My train of thought is, that if it was 'fair wear and tear' there would have been some indication that the turbo was going e.g. smoke, reduction in power etc. However, there wasn't, it simply stopped working whilst driving down the road one day hence a 'sudden mechanical failure'.

So that's how I intend to base my 'appeal'. No indication there was anything wrong and therefore classes as 'sudden mechanical failure'.

However, I thought I'd reach out and ask for the community' experience with failing turbos as to the sort of symptoms I could expect to see if it was going down hill.

Any advice gratefully received,

Many thanks,

V

First of all warranty’s are just a money making scam - there all the same. Next try littco turbos they recon turbos with upgraded internals etc

@Monoloco , the basis for fair wear and tear would be measured on hrs/mileage used combined with service history. Most component manufacturers know their MTBF figures. I don't know RR turbos but it would be worth contacting the RR specific forums and ask if this is a known component failure, possibly with a technical recall? If low mileage and looked after the turbo should not fail. It will wear before outright failure.

+ maybe worth talking with someone like Turbo Dynamics who should be able to confirm model type longevity/time frame before needing a rebuild.

v8250 said:

@Monoloco , the basis for fair wear and tear would be measured on hrs/mileage used combined with service history. Most component manufacturers know their MTBF figures. I don't know RR turbos but it would be worth contacting the RR specific forums and ask if this is a known component failure, possibly with a technical recall? If low mileage and looked after the turbo should not fail. It will wear before outright failure.

+ maybe worth talking with someone like Turbo Dynamics who should be able to confirm model type longevity/time frame before needing a rebuild.

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Many thanks for the steer, I will get onto them and see what they can advise.

Hopefully they can give me some symptoms I can put in the complaint/appeal as well as some facts/figures relating to longevity.

+1.
Common for turbos to go on TDv8 but fair wear and tear I don’t agree unless you have hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock.
It’s not fair if you’ve spent out on their expensive service schedules they should cover you for premature turbo death imo.

Yes, even though the tdv8 suffers with turbo failure, this is not fair wear and tear. Turbos would be expected to last the life of a modern vehicle with proper servicing i would say.

That is my opinion. Servicing and maintenance is current as per the warranty schedule and there was no indication or signs of it slowly breaking.

I'm thinking that getting some figures and stats together on the average life span etc would bolster the appeal/complaint.