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At Brands today.....losted boost on the track so I returned to the Pits to investigate assuming the TBB had split. As I was reving the car to check the TBB and DVs white smoke started appearing from the exhaust.

The car has been recovered to Tonbridge Audi....find out what's wrong tomorrow I guess.....AA man reckons its the waterjacket on one of the Turbos...


Gutted

Sorry to hear that Jeff. I hope it's not too serious and costly.

fingers crossed [img]images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

Bad news mate, sorry to hear it.

Do you have warranty?

Hi Jeff

Sorry to hear about your car [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Hope it's all sorted out quickly so that you're back on the road.

Looks like Turbos [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I have a 3rd Party Warrenty.....hopefully they will cover the cost .....Tonbridge Audi are so busy they are not sure they will be able to look at it this week.....!

I do think that the Turbos should last longer than 52K miles ........ [img]images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Jeff, time for K04's [img]images/graemlins/<beep>_you.gif[/img]

I am going to try the route of replacing the K03's under warranty with K04's, if it turns out that they are knackered today, not sure how I will get on but has got to be worth a try, I will let you know how it goes

With the greatest will in the world I fail to see why Audi have made a car which has a major mechanical failure within 55K miles......

Fittting K04s is going to cost 4250+VAT and the standard turbos are £1680 +VAT from Vag Parts.....If the 3rd Party Warrenty doesn't cover it then I'm in for at least £3000...and there is reason to believe that the 3rd Party Warrenty people may get a little anti once they discover that the Car has been chipped.....

Really not happy [img]images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

Not sure a dealer will buy that one, but it may be possible with a 3rd party warranty - get your friendly Audi specialist to invoice you for K03's "by accident".

I will give it a shot and play the reliability option with them, as there obviously seems to be issues with K03's. I might even offer to pay some money for the difference! but I believe that the cost of the K03's and the K04's is very similar

Jeff I think that if we play the reliability card and that the K03's have a shorter life than the K04's and will need replacing every xx miles, therefore costing the warranty co more in the long run!!!!! and as I have been told the K04's are a bolt on part there should not be an issue, IS it true that the K03's cost more than the K04's? if so makes it an even stronger case!

With the greatest will in the world I fail to see why Audi have made a car which has a major mechanical failure within 55K miles......

Jeff,
Turbo Dynamics estimate the "typical" life of a turbo to be around 80,000 miles. Clearly stressing the turbo more than average (chipping, and racing on a track are typical examples) is likely to reduce the expected life.

Yes Audi made the car, but then you had it modified...

Firstly I'm hoping to get the 3rd Party Warrenty people to shell out for a set of turbos (any turbos I'm not going to get pushy for KO4s) and not having to dig into my own pocket which are very 'shallow' at the moment. If it comes to having to pay for the work I may have to lay the car up until such times as I can justify/afford £3-£4K....

The car was modified less than 10K miles ago. If Scott (and this isn't a dig at AmD just an example) had said to me 'We can chip your car for £XXX but the turbos will only last 10K Miles and cost you £4000 to replace' I would not have done it.

This is my 3rd turbo car and I have never (up till now) had a turbo failure even from my 944 Turbo which was modified by AmD and had done 160K miles when I sold it.

I understand that Turbos fail but I just feel somehow cheated or betrayed ......it's an Audi....emotionally I don't expect it to break down....

Sorry to hear your woes Jeff - I know what it's like.

I understand your points about the remapping potentially reducing the life of the turbos but I would venture that the standard remap to 315 BHP is hardly stressing the living daylights of of the existing turbos and with the right amout of TLC (ask Dippy about turbo timers, correct oil and the like) turbos should last almost as long as those on an unmodified car. Having said that my KO3's started to whine after about 52K miles but I put their demise down to a long-time leaking TBB and hard driving over an extended period.

Of course all of this is academic now and hopefully you'll be able to find a low cost or no cost solution, if the warranty works out.

If you are paying for the repair yourself you may not need to get brand new KO3's - Turbo Technics may be able to refurbish the exisiting turbos which would save quite a bit money, it's about a grand to lift the engine out.

If you're considering K04's I'm sure you'll recognise that you'll need the Miltek DP's and a remap to set fueling/boost which will increase the cost over a simple replacement of the K03's.

Good luck mate.