Some bad news regarding Toyota's parts situation for MKIV TTs

[Chris Wilson]

Our forum foot in the door at Toyota rang me from Belgium today with the bad news that Toyota have withdrawn new turbochargers for the MKIV TTs from sale. He is hoping to sway them to re think this. Why is this such bad news? Well, we pooled turbo cores in order to find un-cracked cores to have rebuilt at Turbo Dynamics, who I am a dealer for. Out of something like 12 cores we found 2 un-cracked ones. This is aside from the fact that, in our opinion, a steel internals rebuilt unit is technically inferior to a new factory built ceramic cored unit.

 

I am wondering if the mods could find a way of letting people show their angst at this, in order to try and persuade Toyota to keep these as currently available spares, it seems odd to discontinue parts just when the cars are of an age to make demand for new units more likely than in the past?

 

It may also be a precursor to them removing other expensive parts from their inventory, diffs are already unavailable, for example. Nissan are shaming them in the ongoing supply of older Skyline bits.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Chris Wilson (see edit history)

[Pixelfill]

oh cock

[wile e coyote]

We need some kind of petition then mods

[Homer]

That's not good. I'll flag this up to discuss with the rest of the mods.

[RobD]

Its not good news at all! Could be seeing less and less TT's on the road and even more NA's! Most people dont have the money to go single

 

One way of killing what was a flagship car ( and to me still is) of the franchise!

[Chris Wilson]

Years ago, members of the Honda S800 Sports Car Club, of which I was a technical member, persuaded Honda to re manufacture parts for these cars, as we felt they would prove historically significant. I was dubious about them being interested, but overjoyed at their reaction, and the parts supply is still ongoing to this day. I am not saying the MKIV is historically significant, but it enjoys a global notoriety for performance per unit of currency, and must be one of their most enduringly modified cars ever. It also was still in production only 10 years ago, which makes their withdrawal of key components somewhat niggardly.

[Graham Read]

good oil and clean air keep a turbo: young

[nigelboyne]

prices will go through the roof if this happens

[Chris Wilson]

Prices of what, any new turbos around? Because the price of old "modern" cars with bad spares supply usually falls through the floor.

[pistonbroke]

Whilst I agree with you Chris on all your points stated, where you mention steel internals being technically inferior. You may have posted previously why they are inferior in the past, but can you elaborate quickly why you state they are inferior. Is it down to the lag I hear people talking about?. Having just had my turbos done with all new steel internals, I can't say I've noticed any difference lag wise. I thought the plus side of having steel internals was that they were stronger, with less chance of catastrophic failure at higher boost. The other reason reconditioning turbos was more appealing to me than buying new, was the price. New ceramics tubbies for Jspecs come in at around 2k for the pair, then you have fitting on top. Reconditioning with steel internals, seals etc etc costs half that. (obviously if your housings are cracked then recnditioning is out of the question).

 

As for Toyota being an arse and stopping parts supply, do you think an online petition will help.? I'm sure we could get a fair amount of signatures from the various clubs.

[Martin J]

Bummer

 

I wonder if their economic troubles are a reason for this, or it's "just time" in their opinion?

[BazzaAlpine]

Is this just (though prob bad enough) an issue for the Turbos or does it include other parts? Reason I'm asking is that I'm waiting on a new rear bumper and Gladwins are now saying that it should have arrived yesterday from Belgium but now has to come from Japan (and yes I was tempted to tell them to 'overnight' it ) and won't be available until the 27th O.O

[jimojameso]

O dear!! Can we get a petition going please mods??

[bigbloodyturbo]

Not so good, i was planning on sending my turbo's to F4S to get JDM gt28's and they say on their website that they will only refund core charges if the housings are re-useable and without cracks, if 80% of cores have cracks then its highly likely mine will be one of them:(

[Awisto]

O dear!! Can we get a petition going please mods??

 

And have it signed by people who would never consider buying new turbos from Toyota?

[pistonbroke]

And have it signed by people who would never consider buying new turbos from Toyota?

 

?

[Nodalmighty]

Mark Kitchen at Billet Turbos in Brisbane makes all his own turbo parts. Maybe he could make CT12's with his legendary bearing technology?

 

Lyndon.

[Chris Wilson]

I consider them inferior as they never seem to last as long as OE turbos, probably due to inferior balancing on re-used wheels. They are also more laggy, in my experience, and much more likely to become smoky before a new unit would. I back this up with the fact UK turbos don't last anything like as long as the import ceramic ones before becoming smoky or failing. BTW, the last list price for OE J-Spec turbos was 1800 Euros each. I know that's a lot of money per turbo compared with a rebuilt unit, but it's an option when you find your old cores are cracked. A welded core is much more likely to crack again than a virgin one.

[Chris Wilson]

Tial make some stainless turbine housings, but only for the most popular sizes of common race turbos, the cost of a bespoke turbine housing must be astronomic for the first pair, and if you go that far, you could have bigger housings made to enable a "proper" hybrid with balanced sizes to be built, compressor V turbine wise.

[bradleyh_15]

another sad day for the supra owner!

fingers crossed we can get our voices heard! maybe someone should post this on supra forums to?

[Chris Wilson]

Aren't the Yanks too busy suing Toyota over sticking throttle pedals and suspect ABS software settings to be *rse licking them?

[Dnk]

I consider them inferior as they never seem to last as long as OE turbos, probably due to inferior balancing on re-used wheels. They are also more laggy, in my experience, and much more likely to become smoky before a new unit would. I back this up with the fact UK turbos don't last anything like as long as the import ceramic ones before becoming smoky or failing. BTW, the last list price for OE J-Spec turbos was 1800 Euros each. I know that's a lot of money per turbo compared with a rebuilt unit, but it's an option when you find your old cores are cracked. A welded core is much more likely to crack again than a virgin one.

 

My UK turbo's are running fine with no smoke etc at 130,000 miles

[scotty71]

My UK turbo's are running fine with no smoke etc at 130,000 miles

 

You still on the same bearings on them 19's Dnk

[Attero]

I'm willing to sign a petition on this. This is bad news.

[Chris Wilson]

My UK turbo's are running fine with no smoke etc at 130,000 miles

 

I hope you typed that quietly I have a customer on 300,000 on stock and unfettled UK turbos. They smoke a bit, but still usable. Engine is unopened and stock, still runs and sounds great.