Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
Guess is depends on how far back. I took a 1995 Cummins N-14 with a Holset turbo (non water cooled) to 1.4 million miles and it was still doing fine. The Borg Warner 171702 turbo on my 2000 factory remanned Detroit 60 has 610,000 miles on it and doing great. Again, just oil, not water cooled. From the commercial diesel side of things, the newer turbos actually have higher failure rates than previous versions, mostly because they are more complicated now with variable geometry design and actuators that move that around in the turbo. Even more reason that many should use turbo blankets on the exhaust side to keep heat from destroying the external actuator modules. I use turbo blankets on all my turbos and I have not ever had a turbo failure on those that I have. One time I didn't use a turbo blanket, on a 2005 Cummins ISX with water cooled Holset VG turbo, and the actuator failed twice and the turbo died long before it should have. After starting to use turbo blanket on it, failures ceased.
There is another reason newer turbos aren't lasting as long as they used to. When a DPF engine goes into regen mode, it has to raise the exhaust temperature, and that can be harsh on the turbo.
One reason turbos lasted longer on diesels than on gasoline engines was because the exhaust temperature was lower.
Anyway, there was a discussion about cars that gave turbos a bad name. The first one I can think of is the Mazda RX-7. NA Mazda RX-7 models would last, but turbo models didn't last.