[f82_spooly]

Wondering if anybody ran these yet? They’ve been popping up all over the Facebook pages about people asking about them and apparently there’s 10 people running them in the UK and they’re running perfectly fine. People have said they’re pretty much VTT stage 2’ replicas. There are some people that also have been running them here in the US but not much input from them. There’s a big thread on spool street about them as well. They also have a 1 year warranty + paypal eBay protection. What do you guys think?

I’ve read that they should be sent to turbo shop to get balanced out since they aren’t balanced well from factory but that seems to be the only downside.

This might be the the best alternative to other turbo options as these are 1k and the rest are 2-4K.

https://bmw.***********.com/threads/...de.3282/page-3

[f82_spooly]

Looks like someone hasn’t been running them successfully actually and seem equal in design to VTT stage 2’s

[srey]

I've been following that thread. I'm interested, to say the least. I get really annoyed with how every time a thread gets posted about them on any of the three n54 forums i frequent, it gets hijacked by one of the aftermarket turbo vendors. I haven't heard too much about failures, but some people say it's because people with failures don't report them because they're embarrassed or whatever. Apparently there's a Facebook group with more info on the eBay turbos, but i haven't found it.

I agree with vegasboy in the screenshot that these might be a good option if you diy the install.

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Unless someone has 25,000 hard miles tested I'm sure any cut rate chinese ebay turbo kit will work for a little bit. Gotta pay to play. Use a trustworthy company that has a reliable reputation that actually honors their warranty if push comes to shove. I'm not trying to be a typical vendor here. I'm just saying we've been seeing turbo kits pop up for the last decade from off brand overseas companies and they all barely make it a year before going MIA. They have minimal real world testing, very little data and then these companies are so fly by night by the time anything pops up you have no recourse. If that's a risk you are willing to take they are willing to take your money I'm sure.

[LMB335IS]

Originally Posted by Jeff@TopGearSolutions

Unless someone has 25,000 hard miles tested I'm sure any cut rate chinese ebay turbo kit will work for a little bit. Gotta pay to play. Use a trustworthy company that has a reliable reputation that actually honors their warranty if push comes to shove. I'm not trying to be a typical vendor here. I'm just saying we've been seeing turbo kits pop up for the last decade from off brand overseas companies and they all barely make it a year before going MIA. They have minimal real world testing, very little data and then these companies are so fly by night by the time anything pops up you have no recourse. If that's a risk you are willing to take they are willing to take your money I'm sure.

Can you say 'Hexon"? Lol.

[vasillalov]

All you have to do is look at the Audi RS4 turbo kits from China to see how horrible things can get. The fact that these look very close to VTT is also not encouraging at all.

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

They are absolutely not VTT turbos. The manifold may be the same Chinese sourced manifold that we use on our budget friendly models, but the important internal parts are 100% absolutely not the same, and that includes the wheels.

[jzx_andy]

I'd love to see these stand the test of time and actually shake up the aftermarket n54 twin market (not just in price, more in terms of longetivity), but they sound too good to be true.

[MysticRob]

Why anyone would buy anything like this off an ebay vendor truly astounds me. They can dry up and blow away with ease.

Do customers somehow think the price and quality are inversely proportional like treasury bonds?
"As the price goes down, the performance and longevity go up!"

[srey]

Originally Posted by MysticRob

Why anyone would buy anything like this off an ebay vendor truly astounds me. They can dry up and blow away with ease.

Do customers somehow think the price and quality are inversely proportional like treasury bonds?
"As the price goes down, the performance and longevity go up!"

I don't think people think there's an inverse relationship between price and performance and longevity. I do think people suspect there are diminishing returns for higher priced components, to a degree. It drives me nuts how there is a BMW tax on many parts and services for this vehicle just because it says BMW on the hood. I'm not talking about components with moving parts, like turbos, but some other components like downpipes. Why are Wagner DPs $650 (I know they're bent, not welded), VRSF $350, and $200 for Chinese DPs? It's a steel tube. I get fitment is an issue, but it's a bit silly in the mind of the consumer. Some are likely thinking that if there is as much as a 200% markup over cost, even with R&D cost, then it's not so far-fetched that Chinese turbos for half the price of a name brand is a viable option for turbos. I'm not saying I think that way, but I do think it's understandable why some people do.

[Bimmer_Engineer]

Originally Posted by srey

I don't think people think there's an inverse relationship between price and performance and longevity. I do think people suspect there are diminishing returns for higher priced components, to a degree. It drives me nuts how there is a BMW tax on many parts and services for this vehicle just because it says BMW on the hood. I'm not talking about components with moving parts, like turbos, but some other components like downpipes. Why are Wagner DPs $650 (I know they're bent, not welded), VRSF $350, and $200 for Chinese DPs? It's a steel tube. I get fitment is an issue, but it's a bit silly in the mind of the consumer. Some are likely thinking that if there is as much as a 200% markup over cost, even with R&D cost, then it's not so far-fetched that Chinese turbos for half the price of a name brand is a viable option for turbos. I'm not saying I think that way, but I do think it's understandable why some people do.

Good point here...when I spend money I like to look at what my objectives and priorities are too. For instance when I bought an intercooler, I bought a 5" stepped off of ebay which had generally favorable reviews. The price difference vs. the cheapest name brand option was good enough that I decided it was worth the risk of poor fitment or build quality. If it hadn't worked I would have been out $225 and about 3 hours of my time to do 2 IC swaps. In this case it worked out really well for me and i'm very pleased with the ebay IC.

Turbos to me are a different story...too many moving parts and too much of an investment in labor / personal time to go with vendor that doesn't have a good rep and support...