The 13 PSI that I run is only for the first 1500 RPM or so (to get the torque up) - it drops back to 11PSI quite quickly. Sustained high boost + high RPM is what makes these things crap out (well, aside from the usual culprits like oil starvation, foreign body colision, age, etc).
It's because of the way the turbine shaft is friction-fused to the ceramic exhaust wheel when they are made in the factory. They spin the shaft at INSANE speeds, and then press it into the centre of the ceramic exhaust wheel. The material then superheats and fuses together. You can actually load them up to 16+ PSI, but if you hold it there that's when they start to heat up, the friction-welds melt, and the exhaust wheel takes off down your dump pipe. You can run quite high boost through them and not shorten their life at all if you're smart about how you do it. As soon as you start towing heavy loads uphill, running it at the track or doing back-to-back drags runs, you'll heat them up and it'll come apart. It's quite interesting when they detach actually, because at high RPM and heat-load the welds will liquify, but it will still keep spinning and running happily. It's when you back off the throttle, and then load it up again (like during a gear change) that they shear off - I think because of the change in momentum experienced by the exhaust wheel.