Chewed through 3 Turbos in less than a month

[ServiceB4Self]

Okay. Long story here, but I hope at the end of the post my issue is clear enough that someone can help me at least figure out some diagnostic tactics to find out the cause.

2016 Expedition Limited with the 3.5l EcoBoost

December-ish I was driving home, normal highway speeds, no excessive acceleration to speak of. I come to my exit, stop the vehicle, go to drive again and she feels sluggish. Gave the gas pedal a goose to see if there were any strange noises under load, and I heard the turbo spool, rattle, and then a clunk/whistle.
Great. Dead spooly boi.

We take the truck to a shop my father in law trusts. Ready to replace both turbos. My logic being, both turbos have been on the vehicle the same amount of time, under the same stresses, if one went I can expect the second to go shortly thereafter.

Shop only replaces one. with either a reman or aftermarket. I could not get a straight answer since my father in law was the middle man, and he only kinda knows things about cars, let alone turbos. They claim the other is fine, they "took it apart and it looked fine so they put it back in". Gotcha.

Either way, we have it back less than a month, and same thing happens. This time my OBDII reader won't even read that there's a turbo on the vehicle, let alone show me boost.
Same Turbo. Covered under warranty. They replace it yet again.

Wife and Father in Law go to pick up the truck. Get less than 5 miles from the shop, whole dash lights up and the truck goes into limp mode.

Back to the shop it goes.

Shop claims it's the timing chain.

Father in law gives the go-ahead without my say-so. whatever.

Few weeks go by. No news. Earlier this week, get a call, Truck is ready, wasn't the timing chain, was the turbo again. Fixed, ready to roll.

I find out they took the turbo back to O'Reiley's, got the "next model up", put it in, blew that turbo within a 5 mile test drive. Took THAT one back for the "next model up". Another kaboom.
Went to Ford, got an OEM turbo. Put it in. No kaboom. (yet)

Also there was fiberglass trailing out of my exhaust, they tried to tell me that the previous turbos were made of fiberglass and that's what was coming out. (Bull... muffler packing, anyone????) So they cut off my back muffler and straight piped it. Whatever.

I pick the truck up. Get it home no issues. Having a happy day.

I go to drive 'er again, start noticing a scrape-click type sound when the turbo would engage. Also that distinct lack of oomph (my '07 edge would beat it in a drag race right now) that tells me, once again, there's an issue with the turbo. It's also making some fun whistling sounds, sometimes under load, sometimes when I'd expect to hear a BOV.

At this point SOMETHING in my engine is blowing these turbos. There's not a chance in hell I got this many bad turbos one right after the other.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this? bad manifold, maybe?

Any help diagnosing this would be amazing, I am personally overseeing all of this from here on out so there's no information getting mangled by people who don't really know vehicles very well.

I plan on getting under it in the next day or two and checking the wastegate and the BOV to make sure nothing is wrong. I'll be connecting my OBDII reader up to see if it'll even show that there's a turbo on the vehicle.

At this point I'm a little over 2.5 grand into this, still at square one, and ticked off.

Thanks in advance, y'all.

 

[JasonH]

If you're hearing whistling, it could be a turbo manifold leak. It's a known issue on this generation of Ecoboost and is very audible, especially immediately upon startup when the turbo manifold is cold. Also check the solenoid on the intercooler, they're known to blow gaskets and leak. There are videos and photographs of failed solenoids online.

A turbo is only going to fail from lack of coolant and oil, overspeed, or maybe severe compressor surge. It might be helpful to check the oil and coolant flow to the turbos. That's assuming the issue is actually the turbo and not one of the other items mentioned above.

 

[max78]

The fiberglass out of the tail pipe is a semi common issue, your resonator failed and is coming apart internally. You have a resonator as well as a muffler, your resonator has fiberglass packing, the muffler is hollow. Make sure the correct one is replaced. This can create massive backpressure and cause a lot of issues and excess heat in the turbos as well as well as super sluggish performance. It's basically like shoving a potato in your tailpipe, air can't get out so air can't get in.

Did the shop check the oil feed lines to the turbo after going through so many in such a short period ot time? At 5 miles it screams no oil to the turbo. It could be a pinched or failed oil feed or drain line causing low flow or pressure to that specific turbo.

 

[iowacarpenter]

Fordtechmakuloco mentioned some oil feed screens in this video, around the 3:40 mark:

This is Why You Never Run Extended Oil Change Intervals on The Ford Ecoboost Engines!

In this video we show a perfect example of why you should maintain your Ford Ecoboost Engine. If you do, they will reward you back with many years of service...

m.youtube.com

A lot of guys don’t know these are in the block and won’t change them.

 

[bobward757]

what Iowacarpenter says

 

[2WheelWillie]

i have a ‘17 XLT bought with 164K on the clock. Shortly after purchase I started to get a pitched screeching sound under heavy acceleration. It sounded like the passenger turbo was metal on metal. It was determined the passenger side exhaust manifold was leaking. Ford did not use all of the available manifold bolt holes on both sides creating an opportunity for exhaust manifolds to warp on the bolts on the rear ward end of the manifolds rust and break (know issue on the Ford 5.4).

I would have a look at the manifold bolts. I suspect some of the rear bolts have rusted and snapped. Local Ford Dealer confirmed this was a known symptom and issue.

I had mine replaced, not with OEM but with BD Deisel replacement manifolds. Their design uses all available bolt holes.

Obviously the Turbos should not be going “bad” that quickly and You might want to consider looking for another reputable shop with quality mechanics. As previously stated in replies above, if the turbos were failing that quickly, it would seem like an oil or coolant issue.

Also, ask the shops/mechanics if they are familiar with the 3.5 Ecoboost. I do t care how reputable a shop is, the 3.5 has been out for decade and that is ample time to get your hands on a few, learn the caveats associated with it.

Here is another thread discussion some of the known issues, along with my experience noted above.

Unwise to buy a 2017 Exp XLT with 140K?

I have an oppurtunity for a private sale 2017 XLT EL 4WD with HD tow with 140K mixed highway suburban miles with no towing. Has had all the correct maintnance done with religious 5K oil changes. I was psyched about it but now I am reading all these posts about the 3.5L and the Cam Phasers. On...

www.expeditionforum.com