how much to remove and refit turbos?

[Richness]

Hi guys
I'm thinking of having my turbos reconditioned by turbo technics.
They want £200 per turbo which seems fine to me.
The problem is that Audi have quotes £1000 for labour to remove them and refit them. Seems a bit off to me....does anyone here have any ideas/experience as to how much i should budget for this work? I'd be most grateful for any thoughts. Cheers, Richard Utting
PS turbos are currently fine at 80k - i just want them good as new before i up boost next year.

[Golich]

£1000 labour is pretty cheap. thats £851 before VAT @ £60/hr = 14hrs work. Thats not a lot of time given the strip down. Some dealers will attemp to remove the turbos withou removing the engine while this possible its fraught with potential problems seized bolts etc. Ask how they plan to do this work.

I had my turbos replaced early this year. (look in my gallary for the work involved) the entire front of the car is removed along with the engine gearbox. The suspension is part removed etc etc its a serious amount of work and personnaly I wouldn'd recommend it unless absolutely nessasary.

Given the alleged poor reliability of the K03 I wouldn't bother reconditioning them I'd simply fit K04s/K16.

Another reason for not sticking with the K03 is that you are planning to up the boost. The K03's do not have the volumetric capacity to supply increased boost past 5000rpm. The chipped S4 becomes a short shift type car. I would imagine free flow CATs would help this a bit (I'm sure the lads will comment on this). Now the RS4 with K04s Revs all the way to the 7200rpm limiter with no let up. I still regularly hit the limiter in the as the engine doesn't stop accelerating at the higher rpm hinting to change gear. However, the different intake/heads etc will have some contribution to this.

Look at post about the K16s.

A pair of new k04's are £1500 from VAGPARTS

[DavidT]

I agree with Golich.

Audi want £ 1500 in labour for turbos (16.4 hours @ c£75/hour +VAT).

The K03 is borderline on a standard car and chipping = further reduction in life.

Turbo Technics are a top notch organisation and they will give you back A1 turbos and only charge for what they do, but why spend 70% of K04 upgrade money just to have unreliable K03's which will fail and need to be replaced at some point anyway ?

You can run K04's without re-mapping, then do it when you are ready next year. Other things to consider are a samco TBB and if you can afford it, a high flow exhaust system with cats.

[Richness]

That's really helpful, thanks Seems uneconomical to me. I think I'll put the exhaust on first, keep changing the oil every 3k miles and hope the turbos last. When they eventually fail, I'll obviously have no choice but to spend the money so i'll go for K04s at that time. In fact, I might go for the full exhaust including hi-flow CATs. Then I'll be more ready for K04 upgrade when the time comes. Many many thanks for info

[DavidT]

Hey. any time.

I plan on the full exhaust and remap, then K04 when the K03's fail as well.

[Olly_K]

Good post, plus good comments guys.
I'm really really thinking about doing K04 turbo upgrade on my car.
I've had my S4 chipped and while the difference is amazing i want to see the difference on K04's
Can we get the cheapest price for a pair of K04's and the cheapest labour price to fit them ?

[Dippy]

The chipped S4 becomes a short shift type car. I would imagine free flow CATs would help this a bit (I'm sure the lads will comment on this).

Actually a lot IMO. I noticed the difference that my Miltek cats made more than the original remap itself. As most people know, both the stock and simple remapped car tends to run out of puff over 5500 rpm. With free-flow cats the car has flatline acceleration up to the redline. It is a remarkable difference and well worth the money.

Regarding the turbos, don't forget that fitting K04s exposes other limitations in the fuel and air intake systems. So whilst I agree that refurbishing K03s seems a missed opportunity, fitting K04s opens up expensive temptation...

[Stevo]

Hey Dippy,

When you say that the car runs out of steam over 5500 rpm (as mine does APR remap) is this not a characterisitic of the remap?, if not and is common to all chipped S4's from different chip manufacturers then i wouldn't mind abit more free revs past 5500 rpm by simply fitting a full milltek.

Steve.

The chipped S4 becomes a short shift type car. I would imagine free flow CATs would help this a bit (I'm sure the lads will comment on this).

Actually a lot IMO. I noticed the difference that my Miltek cats made more than the original remap itself. As most people know, both the stock and simple remapped car tends to run out of puff over 5500 rpm. With free-flow cats the car has flatline acceleration up to the redline. It is a remarkable difference and well worth the money.

Regarding the turbos, don't forget that fitting K04s exposes other limitations in the fuel and air intake systems. So whilst I agree that refurbishing K03s seems a missed opportunity, fitting K04s opens up expensive temptation...

[Imolavirus]

Stevo-

The running out of steam over 5500rpm has part to do with the remap and part to do with the turbos....though it all can be traced back to the stock K03's. The tiny compressor wheel of the K03 just can't flow as much air as is needed by a chipped car to continue power all the way to redline. Because of this, the remaps taylor thier maps for the boost to taper going to redline. The full milltek is going to help this problem because you're going to be freeing some of the restriction of the exhaust, and allow the K03 to flow a bit more. Fitting larger turbochargers is the only real way to entirely fix the problem of the power tapering in the upper rpms.

[S4driver]

.....interesting.The next step for me is to fit the Milltek cats/downpipe.Would i then need a full remap to get the extra ooomph?

If this is the case i take it that it would be better to fit the Ko4's at the same time then.......

[Imolavirus]

depending on what software you have now, some companies offer a remap that is designed for an upgraded exhaust system. Doing the downpipes and exhaust doesn't mean you'd have to do turbos. It's a lot of work to pull the engine to replace the K03's with K04's. The dp's and catback can all be done pretty easily.

[Richness]

Well I'm certainly decided: Full exhaust from Milltek asap. 30horses more, a bag of extra torque, no increased reliability risk, minimal labour and almost best of all - the most orgasmic exhaust rumble/roar/howl ever

[S4driver]

depending on what software you have now, some companies offer a remap that is designed for an upgraded exhaust system. Doing the downpipes and exhaust doesn't mean you'd have to do turbos. It's a lot of work to pull the engine to replace the K03's with K04's. The dp's and catback can all be done pretty easily.

I am running MTM software. The car currently has a Milltek cat-back exhaust, therefore the next step is dp's & cats......

[grizz]

Hi, i've just replaced my turbo's with k04's , To remove the engine (not gear box) took 4hr's , @ this point i stipped the engine , fitted a new short motor , rebuilt the heads replaced , clutch , w pump , i/c's ( all rs4) forge dv's milltec down pipes , to refit it took 5hr's . this is not a bad job to do , Ithink that you could leave the engine in , drop the sub frame then lower the engine enough to remove the turbo's .
If you are going to get the job done do as i did , make a shopping list & get all the bit's over a few months. I shopped about & got every think for about £4780 , then sold all the old bit's on e-bay.
All i need to do is run it in a bit & get it chiped
grizz

[Dippy]

Grizz,
If only I had the time, workshop, tools, competence etc, etc!

Regarding free-flow cats: When mine were fitted AmD ran out of time to do a remap so I drove the car for a week on the standard mapping. IIRC I did feel more power at the top end but of course it's difficult to be sure.

However after I went back and had a remap (more fuelling at the top end), I very much did notice a difference.

So I conclude that to get the best out of the full Miltek system, you do need a remap.