I sure that most car turbo failures are due to the modern trend for infrequent oil changes. I have had several diesel turbo's that have reached 300,000 miles without problem but I used to change my oil every 5000 miles but only used cheap oil. In fact in about 30 years of driving TDs I have never had one fail.

I'll second that.

I run a petrol turbo. My previous car was too, and that went to 167k without so much as a hiccup - also on 5k changes with fully synth oil and double flushing each change.

According to some on here I'm just a dinosaur stuck in '60s mineral oil thinking. But my cars last and last and last. And still perform to their best even with 150k+ on the clock. And this ex-rally driver has a lead right foot too!!

It seems the link doesn't work, this one should, I hope. tinyurl.com/ohzjpfm

The key point is that current swing vane variable geometry often causes problems; the vanes are in the stream of exhaust gases, are not lubricated at all. and subject to accumulation of carbon.

VG turbos as used on heavy trucks use a completely different means of controlling gas flow and have proved more reliable.

In the opinion of this Automotive R&D Engineer, these devices are a triumph of marketing over engineering. The above is simply stating the bl33ding obvious.