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Hello to the forum

I have just bought myself a lovley 1998 S4 Avant with 104,000 miles and full Audi history.

A lot of questions

How do I know when its warm enough to start using the turbos?

If I have it remapped with this mileage am I inviting trouble or with a sensible remap will the turbos still last?

I want to put a set of RS4 alloys on it, does anyone know wether the replicas on Ebay are any good or will they start flaking after 12 months.

I plan on taking it to MRC for a health check but is there anything I need to do straight away.

Thanks for your advice!!!

Welcome Crusty,

I usually wait until my oil temp hit 80 deg before using the Turbos with any reasonable boost. I won't start maxing them out until temps hit 100.

It's very difficult to say how a remap will effect your turbos after 104K. Let's assume they are the original turbos. If the car has been treated well with regular oil changes and the correct oil, the car has been allowed to warm up properly and allowed to idle before shut down everytime the turbos have been used in anger then there is no reason why a remap should spell an immediate end to them. There is bound to have been some leaks over it's life so hopefully they will have been tended to quickly. If you have any impending failures with the turbos then you may hear the evidence when they spool up.

Get the car across to MRC as soon as possible for the check up and then you will have a base to start from - plus you will learn the important things from them guys.

If you are keeping the car for any length then VAG COM is a wise investment.

As for the wheel quality from ebay - difficult one. I have replicas on mine and have had no problems. They never came off ebay though.

Cheers
Dazzer

Get a boost gauge, at least that way you can keep an eye on your boost and spot boost leaks more quickly, boost leaks are very detrimental to turbo life.

I am in the same possition having just bought a 2000 S4 w/ 35k on the clock.

What boost gauges are recommended?

The AWE centre vent gauge seems to be getting popular. It performs well by all accounts and looks the closest thing to a stock look fit with the same colour light as the dash.

Booked in with MRC for late Monday!!!

where is MRC based at iam based up in newcastle

Banbury
http://www.mrctuning.com/contact.php

I am now very excited as picking the car up Monday Lunch time and driving directly to MRC for a health check and lots of questions about improving the car!

tan, regardless of where you live, you should get down to MRC... even if only for peace of mind.

As far as boost gauges go, here is a picture of my interior (which I haven't seen for nearly a month now). I have the AWE vent boost gauge.

cheers

Crusty,

I have had RS4 reps for over a year and no flaking whatsoever.

I'd agree that a boost guage is a must. That way you really know how hard your turbos are working. My warm-up regime is to use no boost or an occasionaly max of around 0.2 or 0.3 until the oil temp needle starts moving. Then I allow careful use of boost up to around 0.5 bar. The temp will quickly rise now to the operating temp of 90-100, at which point I let it go...

Regarding mods, remember that turbos do have a limited lifespan. With a used car you are never going to know how well they have been looked after, all you can do is get an opinion on their current health. However this is limited to inspecting for oil leaks and listening to them. Even if there are no oil leaks and they are quiet, you really don't know if maybe there is a bit of coking in the oil bearings or some slight extension of the turbine blades. So at the end of the day you need to take a gamble. The standard boost peaks at about 0.8 bar and a standard remap will take this to 1.1 to 1.3 bar depending on the tuner (MRC don't rely on high boost, more on tuning the advance). To get this increased pressure the turbines have to spin much faster and this causes more stress. More stress increases the risk of failure.

So as I say, you need to gamble, and the rule of gambling is to know what you can afford to lose. For this car it is at least 3 grand for new turbos. If you go down the mod route and then need new turbos, I doubt you will want new K03s because the temptation for K04s will becon. Then you are looking for 5 to 7 grand.

If you don't mod then your turbos can still fail, so have 3 grand in reserve. It comes with owning an S4.
If you do mod then keep a bit more in reserve...