How common are 14th Gen turbo failures?

[Rambo Crane]

How common are turbo failures on 14th gen 3.5’s? Versus, say 12th and 13th generations?

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[12Lariat21]

14th gen is barley 3 years old....I can't imagine anyone has more than 60k miles on their trucks yet, so too early to tell. I have not heard of any issues. I'm currently at 27k miles and no issues to speak of.

 

[jetfixr1]

Turbos are like electronics. You can have infant mortality at the very beginning. If not, they usually last for very long. I havent heard of any cases of the 14th gen.

 

[Scotty_B]

I took my Tremor 3.5 EB into service for first break in oil change last week (3.2K miles - 1.3K towing). I use the truck for 50-60% total mileage towing a 7K lb trailer. I asked to the tech to be very honest with me about wear and tear issues.
#1. Service the tranny at 30K, as well as diffs and TC. The tranny is the weak link. At any hint of shifting issues bring it in.
#2. ALWAYS let the engine idle 5-10 minutes to let turbos cool after towing. They have seen warped manifolds and flanges from not letting them cool.

I never stress anything with pedal to the metal hard accelerations. On acceleration, I let the turbos spool and tranny shift accordingly.

After a lifetime of doing 95% of my own maintenance and repairs I have decided to let the dealer do everything on this truck in case there is a warranty issue. My other trucks were Dodge 12 valve Cummins diesels. I am driving the Tremor like I drove my diesels. Which includes managing acceleration for turbo spool and letting them cool down after towing.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gros Ventre]

A long standing procedure for turbo charged aircraft engines is to take a slow, at least 5 mintues, taxi into the ramp. This is to allow the turbos to spin down. Those things can hit 100,000 rpm at power and aircraft will operate on turbos full time in cruise. We should do the same here. Of more importance is when you have a long climb don't let the engine cycle off at the crest of the climb. Be much more gradual in coming off power. If that means don't climb at the speed limit so that you can be increasing speed after the crest (ie to keep power on the engine), do it.

 

[Calson]

Turbo failures have been from inadequate lubrication. Some of this is with too small a reservoir and some is when the motor shuts down and does not continue to provide lubrication for the bearings in the turbo which is still spinning.

Turbos have been around for 50 years in passenger vehicles so the bugs have been worked out. The 2.7L engine often shuts down suddenly when towing a trailer and I suspect that the temperature of the turbo has reached to high a temperature and so is shut down to protect the bearings.

Websites like carcomplaints.com provide reported problems by make and model and model year and so if there is a problem it is probably going to show up. The 2013 F-150 trucks had a lot of reported problems for the 2013 model year and only 2 of the trucks had a problem with the turbo. The 2018 5.0L engines had reported problems with the timing chain but no reports of problems with the turbo on any engine.

 

[Rambo Crane]

Thanks for your replies. I agree with all of the above and practice as you have said.

My previous experiences w/ F-250 and F-350 6.7 PSD’s and older 3.5 EB have been good.

However, my 2022 3.5EB has killed both turbo’s @ 15k. Now the concern for reliability and dependability is questioned.

Not sure why turbo’s failed. OCI were ~5k w/ Pennzoil Ultra Plat. 5w-30. Blackstone OA looked good after first OC @ 1,8k. Truck doesn’t tow and lives a good life.

Thanks for the updates.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Thanks for your replies. I agree with all of the above and practice as you have said.

My previous experiences w/ F-250 and F-350 6.7 PSD’s and older 3.5 EB have been good.

However, my 2022 3.5EB has killed both turbo’s @ 15k. Now the concern for reliability and dependability is questioned.

Not sure why turbo’s failed. OCI were ~5k w/ Pennzoil Ultra Plat. 5w-30. Blackstone OA looked good after first OC @ 1,8k. Truck doesn’t tow and lives a good life.

Thanks for the updates.

Be careful of that hill climbing scenario... Out my way we climb alot of hills. Not uncommon to have the turbo pressure to show 10 psi or so, even when unloaded and on speed control. I noticed early on that it was common to crest a hill and have the engine kick off... So I found a way to keep it going. Usually I don't climb on speed control and climb below speed limit so that at the crest I can start feeding in the throttle to get beck to the speed limit. This in turn keeps the engine going. I am contemplating installing an Accusump (Cantonracingproducts.com) to keep flow to the turbos.

 

[Babbage]

Turbos like good clean oil - I change my oil on a severe service schedule. Have changed it 6 times in 12K miles now, wanted to make sure with break in etc. I have replaced the gear oil in the in the front and rear diffs + new rear diff cover. Edit: I did the transmission too at ford dealer - all new ATF was $10+ a quart for the new stuff

 

[Gros Ventre]

Turbos like good clean oil - I change my oil on a severe service schedule. Have changed it 6 times in 12K miles now, wanted to make sure with break in etc. I have replaced the gear oil in the in the front and rear diffs + new rear diff cover. Edit: I did the transmission too at ford dealer - all new ATF was $10+ a quart for the new stuff

Agreed. Turbos can spin at 100,000 rpm if at sustained full power. There is other things you can do. For example put in a finer main filter, or a bypass filter. Also an auxiliary oil pump for engine off cycles or an Accusump unit (See Cantonracingproducts.com). I put in an 8µ main filter and later a 1µ bypass filter. So we'll see how it works.

 

[halbritt]

I drive mine like it's stolen, change the oil when the ECU tells me to, and don't bother with turbo cooldown. 21k so far with no issues and nothing onerous in the oil analysis.

Doesn't hurt to baby the things, but my speculation is that with good oil, any full synthetic GF-5, but I run Pennzoil Ultra Platinum, coking shouldn't be a problem. If it were, I'd think auto start/stop would precipitate more issues than cold shutdown.

As for other kind of failures, 14th gen is a couple years old at this point. We don't know much about longevity, but given the number of 3.5L trucks out there, we'd definitely be hearing about any infant mortality issues.

 

[Rambo Crane]

Further updates from Ford and local dealer;

Both turbo's failed. I asked why and received, "poor manufacturing" as an answer, funny enough. Dealership also stated they are backlogged 8-10 weeks w/ repairs on 21+ platforms.

Regardless, I'm going through the repair process and will update once truck has been returned.

 

[Je1279]

Further updates from Ford and local dealer;

Both turbo's failed. I asked why and received, "poor manufacturing" as an answer, funny enough. Dealership also stated they are backlogged 8-10 weeks w/ repairs on 21+ platforms.

Regardless, I'm going through the repair process and will update once truck has been returned.

Based on the mileage and the maintenance that you provided, it sounds like you were unlucky and received turbos from a bad batch. Hopefully, the replacements will last the life of the truck with 5k oil changes with fully synthetic motor oil (Pennzoil Ultra Platinum is my oil of choice also).

 

[diambo4life]

A long standing procedure for turbo charged aircraft engines is to take a slow, at least 5 mintues, taxi into the ramp. This is to allow the turbos to spin down. Those things can hit 100,000 rpm at power and aircraft will operate on turbos full time in cruise. We should do the same here. Of more importance is when you have a long climb don't let the engine cycle off at the crest of the climb. Be much more gradual in coming off power. If that means don't climb at the speed limit so that you can be increasing speed after the crest (ie to keep power on the engine), do it.

I think that's a little bit dramatic but it's still good advice. This is from a guy messing with turbo vehicles for close to 25 years now. The turbo's CHRA is fed by oil, and just like your engine, needs a good supply of clean oil. Yes, it's important not to shut down a vehicle that's been towing not because the turbos are spooling down but because of the heat that has been generated in the manifold during this time. Shutting the vehicle down immediately results in the turbo sitting in a hot sink. Oil within the system gets cooked and over time, gets coked in the CHRA from the heat. In the long term, this is not good for that turbo's thrust bearing. So....an idle, even for 5 minutes, gives the turbo(s)/manifold an opportunity to "cool down" from running the engine's oil and coolant through the turbos. The oil supply also acts to cool the turbos. Most vehicles thankfully have oil and water cooled turbos. The ones cooled by both coolant and oil would fair better long term than those that are only oil cooled. There are even some turbos out there that are oilless. There was a device that was sold awhile back called a turbo timer that allowed you to leave the vehicle idling for a set number of minutes after shutoff. It's a good device to get if you constantly tow.

 

[WhiteLightningnshitshadow]

Lol at the 5 minute idle recommendations flowing in. Completely kills the efficiency turbos are supposed to provide. I basically idle through my neighborhood as I'm sure most others do. That's probably a solid minute we'll below 2k rpm and no boost, which I feel like is probably fine. It's not like I hit boost all that often anyway. I feel like if you aren't ragging on it in the last 5-10 mins of a drive, things are probably going to be fine.

While carcomplaints seems to not have much on turbo failures, it seems like it's not exactly super rare, but rare enough. I've seen a few cases now where people have had catchcans on that boost case pressure which ultimately leads to turbo seal failure. I'd absolutely agree that changing oil between 3-5k is good for the chains, turbo, phasers, etc.

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