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Im in bit of a dilemma. Im looking at all these S4's and some have high mileage. Should i be looking at an S4 thats had the turbos replaced, or are the k03 turbos ok if serviced properly? One im currently looking at is a 1999 so pre facelift (is that correct) has 94k miles on it serviced well by good sepcialist but the turbos have not been replaced in its life. What shall i do?

you can never tell when the Turbo fairy is going to pay you a visit. some cars on here have done very low mileages before going pop, others have done 130k miles and upwards without any issues. it really is pot luck whether they're going to go or not.

if i'd have done my homework properly i'd have gone for a KO4'd one but they're few and far between

Am i right in thinking the KO4 conversion is about 2k to do?

All depends on what you have done / how far you go. I would say in the region of £3,500 to start for a proper job although not had this done - still on KO3's.

K04 turbos on their own are £1.5K....Approx 15-20 Hrs labour. I would budget £3.5-4K

Mnes up too 125k miles on original turbos and running superbly. It has been remapped to the usual 320ish hp. If they ever do go pop I'm probably a bit unique but will be definetley putting K03's straight back in. I personally don't need any more power and the extra lag and cost would just be a down side for me. I think there was a thread a while back on the lifespan of the turbos with no real conclusion. Might be worth doing a search, see what you can find.

Not doubting, but I'm suprised the K04 conversion ends up costing so much......just need to pray my originls hold out!

1) I'd go for a car that had already been upgraded to K04s.
2) Early 99 cars are pre-facelift. There are some give-away features that were discussed on here a few days ago.
3) It seems to be pot luck when the turbos go but is probably dependent on whether the previous owner warmed up and cooled down the car sympathetically

stimp wrote:.... thread a while back on the lifespan of the turbos with no real conclusion. Might be worth doing a search, see what you can find.

Allright Mate, we heard you the first two times!

In all seriousness, you will never be able to predict the turbo life on a car
you haven't owned from day one. To be more helpful, the biggest
causes of turbo failure are oil starvation and FOD. If the car has a service
history which demonstrates regular oil changes with a good quality, synthetic
oil then that is about the best you can hope for. The only way you can check
for FOD (foreign object damage) is to strip the turbo which is not very
practical when viewing a car. If you can hear the turbos whining on full
boost then I would suggest walking away.

PPPPPPlease don't PPppick on me, for some reason the puter has got a Stttutttter. Now too late to delete one of them, strewth two of them. Count yourself lucky it doesn't have a lisp.
Not sure whats happened there. MOD please delete mutliple posts.

My car, 2000 facelift (So had some improvements) and was serviced every 5k from new and yet still the turbos went pop @ 40k. There is no rule on these unfortunately.

Just keep it off boost and the turbos will be fine

125K, remapped from day one, K03s running just fine

Prices all over the place there. I paid $1950 (£980) for 2x brand new RS4-K04s and Im paying EUR750 (under£500) for fitting of these as well as:

- Fitting 2x Manifolds (as part of the Turbo changeover)
- Fitting Milltek Exhaust
- Some other small parts: Fitting rear diff. seal, removing 1x PreCat on the downpipe

The work is being done by a former Cosworth engineer that worked on the B5 RS4, so he (and his garage) seem to know exactly what they are doing.
I got the Turbos from AudiWorld Classifieds, but they are new on eBay for the same price basically.

Before anyone points out that "you get what you pay for" (:P), 2 official Audi garages quoted EUR880-1000 for fitting the Turbos also, but made more sense to goto the independent given the other parts changes and his expertise. It would appear you guys pay a lot more for labour in the UK.

Your doing very well then....most people in the UK will quote £3.5 +++