Hell again guys,
I posted a thread earlier in the week about possibly my turbo going out. I called the local mazda garage and the guy said it would take between 14-16 hours to replace the turbo on my car. I am not taking it there due to the fact the service is $60 an hour...I was wonderin if the guy was feeding me a line of sh*t or if it actually takes that long. Also I was wondering how hard of a job it is because I have a basic know how of working on cars. Could I do this myself and if so is there any instruction on the net I could find to help? thanx again guys

 

Most likely you talked to a service manager. This person knows nothing about the cars in general they just look up the labor hours in a general repair book (I guess his book has the labor hours a little on the high end). For an experienced mechanic your generally looking at about a days labor (8hrs) to replace the turbo with another one that is prepared. If you’re thinking about doing this job you should buy the factory manual and read up on it. It’s not as hard as you think.

- Dana

 

they looked it up for an fd, fc is a bunch faster

 

I'm no professional mechanic but with the ACV etc removed I can swap a turbo in about 2 hours, if the ACV and other gear is still there it's more like 3.5 hours. Many of these mechanics work on flat rate so they will quote a certain timeframe and will finish much earlier and still charge for the initial quote. However if it ends up taking longer than expected they usually have to eat it.

-David Guy

 

For the love all things good and holy, do not take your car to a mazda dealer!!!

 

amen brotha. too many horor stories. do it yourself at all costs. itll will be cheaper for you to do it yourself twice after screwing it up once, than to let the mazda shop inevitably do the same thing and probobly break other stuff along the way. once youve done it, itll be that much cheaper, faster and easier the next time, instead of having to chance your car to the dealer again.......either way you come out ahead, as long as you like wrenching

 

FD turbos are usually spec'd at about 7.5 to 8 hours

Fc's should be a little less

Just because you can get it in and out in less time doesnt mean thats what you get charged. Mechanics work on flat rate which means they are paid by the job. If they get better and can do it faster than the spec, then its to their benefit. I would budget for 8 hours to be safe, but it should be less than that.

Good luck

Graham

 

If I were you I would do this myself, its not that hard of a job, and you should be able to do it alot faster than 8 hours, not more than 4 for your first time..

 

I removed my turbo in less than 2 hours on my first try. Could probably do it in half the time on the next.