Turbochargers... durability, reliability ?
Some years ago, turbochargers seemed to be considered service items, that may or may not last the engine life of the vehicle. We're thinking of getting a new midsize SUV, that will be able to do light...
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Ha, on modern transit buses, their turbos usually last over 200k miles. That's the worst abuse you can put most components through, only worse duty cycle are refuse trucks.
I honestly don't worry so much about turbos. On most gas implementations, they don't have the complexity of variable geometry. Only a few high-end gas engines incorporate that tech. Usually the issue there is dependent on how they apply the variable geometry on the turbo's. You usually get some sort of buildup or corrosion on the mechanisms over time, but that just affects some performance. It wouldn't kill an engine entirely. And usually a good sanding or cleaning resolves the issues. One of the reasons why I went Cummins on diesels was because they use something like 3 moving parts they use to change turbo geometry (nozzle, motor, and gear linkage). The other diesels used multiple vanes and a synchronizing ring to alter geometry, along with actuators and linkages. But on gas engines, I can only recall Porsche's and maybe some Mercedes AMG's currently using that tech.
I honestly don't worry so much about turbos. On most gas implementations, they don't have the complexity of variable geometry. Only a few high-end gas engines incorporate that tech. Usually the issue there is dependent on how they apply the variable geometry on the turbo's. You usually get some sort of buildup or corrosion on the mechanisms over time, but that just affects some performance. It wouldn't kill an engine entirely. And usually a good sanding or cleaning resolves the issues. One of the reasons why I went Cummins on diesels was because they use something like 3 moving parts they use to change turbo geometry (nozzle, motor, and gear linkage). The other diesels used multiple vanes and a synchronizing ring to alter geometry, along with actuators and linkages. But on gas engines, I can only recall Porsche's and maybe some Mercedes AMG's currently using that tech.
