It's like with any other aftermarket parts under the hood: you'd rather not get a fake. At MasterTurbo, we advise our customers to always choose a quality turbo from a reliable A-brand. After all, the makers of the better-known brands of turbochargers have years of experience. They know what works and why. The A-brand turbocharger ensures power delivery and reliability for your internal combustion engine. In this blog, here are a few tips from MasterTurbo: What to look out for if the choice must fall on a turbo from a recognized A-brand like BorgWarner, Holset, Garrett, IHI, or Mitsubishi. And then there's that affordable and smart option from our overhaul shop: an MT ReMan turbo. Indeed, as good, often a bit more economical and durable.

Tips: this is how to recognize a 'real' top-quality turbocharger

Within those major brands, there are little details in the technology and design that differ from other brands. It is also a matter of taste. What they all have in common: a good manufacturer of turbochargers ensures that the supplier and the end user can always easily recognize the origin of a turbo. Every A-brand turbo has at least a plate with a serial number that unmistakably identifies the turbo as "genuine," not counterfeit. Usually, it is in the form of a nameplate on the housing of the turbo with the OEM number of the vehicle's maker, the unique serial number with the date of production, and a proprietary production number of the manufacturer himself.

What are the differences between turbo brands?

That safe identification goes a little differently with every manufacturer of top-quality turbochargers. At BorgWarner, for example, this is the "BW number. The latter number is the most commonly used in case of questions or possible service on the turbo already delivered.

With A-brand Garrett - with the motto Advancing Motion - you can already see it in the recognizable, original Garrett packaging in red and black, always with the brand name Garrett at the top right in red letters. And beyond that, an indication of the turbocharger type: Original, Reman, Performance. Garrett's nameplate may vary slightly by geographic region. For three sales channels, Garrett uses nameplates on its turbochargers: OE Manufacturer, OE Spares, and Aftermarket. With the OE versions, you'll also see a logo of the vehicle's manufacturer, such as Mercedes or Volkswagen-Audi. It always mentions the turbocharger model, country of origin, unique serial number, and part number in IAM (aftermarket) format. Note that on older turbochargers from Garrett, you may also encounter names like Garrett AiResearch, AlliedSignal, Garrett Engine Boosting Systems, or Honeywell.

You can recognize a genuine Holset turbocharger this way: on the nameplate, next to Holset Turbochargers, there are four codes under each other. One, starting with the letter H and then a unique serial number, is Holset's production number. At the bottom is the turbocharger model, for example, HX55-1. In between is also a "Customer Part Number," assigned by the engine maker and the vehicle in which the turbocharger will serve.

An IHI turbo can be identified in much the same way as a Garrett turbo. Again, a nameplate with information, or the same information engraved on the round housing of the compressor. In any case, you will find an IHI identification consisting of 4 numbers/letters, for example, VF50. Where the second letter (in the example, the F) says something about the car manufacturer. In this case, the F stands for Subaru. All other information is also on the ID plate, such as the OEM number and the serial number with the date of manufacture. Number/letter combinations like RHF52 and RHV4 say something about the type of turbocharger.

Remarkable: the large corporate group Mitsubishi even warned about the increased risks of lower-quality counterfeiting. This is a growing problem since more and more products are ordered online. Moreover, these counterfeits often look strikingly similar to real-quality products. The automotive industry is no exception, according to Mitsubishi. Opting for counterfeiting seems promising but can become expensive (and annoying!) for customers. After all, without exception, the "real" top-quality Mitsubishi turbochargers are made by high-precision robots and then performance-tested under harsh conditions. With counterfeits, this is usually not the case.

One important example is the "Burst Containment Test" required in A-brands. This test ensures that all of a turbo's components remain safely in place within the casing if one of the turbine's blades breaks or is damaged. Whether it is an original Mitsubishi turbocharger can again be read on the compressor housing. With Mitsubishi, it is a fixed MHI part number, which always consists of a five-digit number followed by a hyphen and another five-digit number. The most common models of Mitsubishi Turbochargers all begin with the numbers 491 or 493. Note that the first five digits of (for example) type number 49173-06100 are also sometimes abbreviated to 73-16100.

With everything, the turbo specialists at MasterTurbo are, of course, happy to answer your question if you doubt authenticity. Even better: order directly from MasterTurbo! After all, thanks to this blog, you know how to find the correct serial number and designation for different turbocharger models yourself. To pass it on to our salesman.

The benefits of ordering such a good turbo at MasterTurbo

Choosing MasterTurbo as a supplier means choosing from all known and, therefore, trusted A-brands of turbochargers. With all these manufacturers, MasterTurbo has a long-term customer relationship of mutual satisfaction. The manufacturers of turbochargers are also interested in a good, professional distributor. Just this spring, A-brand Garrett deliberately chose MasterTurbo as the only authorized distributor of Garrett turbochargers in Europe.

Another clear advantage is that MasterTurbo is not only a distributor but also has a lot of specific in-house expertise. In our workshop, we carefully overhaul used turbos into ReMan turbos. An abbreviation of remanufactured. As far as we are concerned, it is as good as a brand-new one. So we guarantee our 'own' A-brand with all the qualities you count on: the MasterTurbo ReMan turbo.

Want to order a real-quality turbo? Email export@masterturbo.nl.