Turbo let go on my 2015 Duramax at 2am outside Barstow and I limped it 40 miles on a prayer

Mia Moore · 2026-10-03T01:05:04.796342+00:00

Was hauling a buddy's trailer back from Vegas two Fridays back and somewhere past Barstow I heard a pop that sounded like a balloon dying, then the boost gauge just quit. Pulled over at a rest stop and found oil pissing out of the compressor housing and about a half inch of shaft play on the intake wheel. Truck went into limp mode but stayed running, so I idled it 40 miles into town at 35 mph with my hazards on and every rig on the 15 giving me the stink eye. Waited 6 hours for the only shop open to get a diagnosis, and the kid behind the counter quoted me $3,200 for a reman turbo plus labor, which felt high but I was stuck without a place to do it myself. Ended up calling my old foreman in Riverside who said skip the reman, order the cartridge and do it in the parking lot. I did it with hand tools and a borrowed torque wrench for $680 in parts. Has anyone run a cartridge kit instead of a full unit on these LML trucks, and how many miles did you actually get out of it?

Librear

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Turbo let go on my 2015 Duramax at 2am outside Barstow and I limped it 40 miles on a prayer | Diesel Mechanics - Librear