Standard turbo replacement or upgrade?

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BAM_S3

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Hi all,

I'm a newbie so please go easy. I have a 2002 S3 225 which may need a new turbo - I have it booked in at the weekend for this to be confirmed. I was told a new replacement turbo would be £1400 fitted inc vat. I though this may be a good time to upgrade to a hybrid but I was told by this well known independent garage that it was not worth it as the power increase was minimal.

At present I have a stage 2 remap by vagcheck and I do not want to upgrade internals at this stage. The new turbo the garage quoted me for is £1000 alone - I wonder whether I can get a better alternative for this price ? It seems hybrids can be had for this sort of money but will I need to do other mods to run a hybrid?

In short I want the best turbo I can get for £1000 without having to do any other mods to run it, if possible.

Would really appreciate a steer in the right direction. Thanks in advance.
 
Dont quote me but I think you can recondition or hybrid your turbo + rods for £1000 ish minus labour costs.....
 
Thanks for the reply - I will enquire but is t just the rods I would need to do to run a hybrid? I am aware these are the weak spot on the 1.8 t.
 
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i swear to get the turbo you have hybridised is around 500, rods about 350. theres all sorts of other little bits of hardware though like bolts, bearings etc, then injectors, 3 in downpipe. if you havn't already got these its going to easily top 1000 quid.
im not sure if you can have the hybrid built and run it with your current setup and map and it be ok until you get round to do the rest, that would be ideal, if you wer able to bolt the hybrid turbo, and it run ok until funds allow for the other necessary items. a question i've been meaning to ask
 
i think paying £1000 for the k04 turbo alone is more than a little steep: in fact, i've got a reply from mark at crturbos who quoted £695 plus vat for a k03/04 hybrid: and that was the steepest quote i had. fitting is another strange one: £400 labour?? i had a new turbo fitted on my impreza a few years back and it was nowhere near that price.

also, judging by the info here: http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a3-s3-forum-8l-chassis/75685-lots-big-turbo-high-power-info.html the rods aren't weak for even a stage one/two remap.

good luck m8!
 
theres loads of good turbo shops out there to recon your turbo
price range for whats up with it
iv just had a new kkk k 04 core done for a mate at AET £520
then iv had recons from £195 / £400
i use turbo technics and AET
 
Thanks again for all the replies guys. I've got the car going in to be diagnosed this week and I think if the turbo does definitely need replacing I'll shop around as based on what everyone is saying I'd be mad to pay £1000 just for the turbo. It seems the labour charge is pretty steep too! I think I'll just pay to get it diagnosed as it's a well known garage so they should be able to tell me one way or the other.

So does anyone know whether you can run a hybrid without doing all the other bits?
 
BAM_S3 said:
Thanks again for all the replies guys. I've got the car going in to be diagnosed this week and I think if the turbo does definitely need replacing I'll shop around as based on what everyone is saying I'd be mad to pay £1000 just for the turbo. It seems the labour charge is pretty steep too! I think I'll just pay to get it diagnosed as it's a well known garage so they should be able to tell me one way or the other.

So does anyone know whether you can run a hybrid without doing all the other bits?
Click to expand...

yes you can dont expect much in the way of extra power tho
but its a good time to do it
then all you need is fueling and a new map
 
if i was you and funds were tight id get them to take your turbo out if it is shot and send it of to CRturbos to be reconditioned!
 
Speedy Steve said:
if i was you and funds were tight id get them to take your turbo out if it is shot and send it of to CRturbos to be reconditioned!
Click to expand...

I agree with Steve. A common misconception is that the hybrid K04 is a bolt on and go mod.

It isn't.

They don't work well with Stage 1 or 2 maps, as they produce a massive boost spike. It will need a custom map to get the best from it, it WILL need rods, especially if there is going to be big boost spikes, you WILL need to uprate the injectors.

The labour to fit rods alone isn't cheap as it's not a small job.

I would get the unit reconditioned, and go from there if it were me.
 
Looks like a recondition is the best option. The hybrid route seems expensive to me with no real short cuts. I will get in touch with cr turbos? I'm based in Essex - is there anyone around here that's recommended who could recondition and fit the turbo?
 
CR will arrange the pick up of your current turbo (if you have removed it) and delivery of the recon unit... you will still need to find someone to remove and refit though if you can't do it yourself...

Turnaround for CR is typically a week so whoever does it would need to be ok with that... pretty sure they would surcharge you for an exchange unit though which you can reclaim once you sent off the old unit... that way at least whoever you get to do the work wouldn't have to wait...

Welcome to CRTurbos

<tuffty/>
 
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BAM_S3 said:
Looks like a recondition is the best option. The hybrid route seems expensive to me with no real short cuts. I will get in touch with cr turbos? I'm based in Essex - is there anyone around here that's recommended who could recondition and fit the turbo?
Click to expand...

I'd stick with CR mate personally. They are a well known, liked and respected company.
 
Turbo is still on the car - I dont really fancy trying to get it off myself tbh. I'll see what the garage says and then I may get cr turbos to send me a turbo for somewhere like AMD in Essex to fit and ten send off the old unit.

Appreciate all the input. This S3 has cost me a small fortune!!!
 
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dany2k said:
i think paying £1000 for the k04 turbo alone is more than a little steep: in fact, i've got a reply from mark at crturbos who quoted £695 plus vat for a k03/04 hybrid: and that was the steepest quote i had. fitting is another strange one: £400 labour?? i had a new turbo fitted on my impreza a few years back and it was nowhere near that price.

also, judging by the info here: http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a3-s3-forum-8l-chassis/75685-lots-big-turbo-high-power-info.html the rods aren't weak for even a stage one/two remap.

good luck m8!
Click to expand...

rods are'nt weak eh?
how come I sell a lot of rods to S3 owners who have bent theirs?

beware... they do bend and break.. and more so now the cars have seen a few million combustion cycles with >normal boost

and... fitting a turbo on a s3 is not like a scooby.. can cannot access the fixings readily at all and its a long job.
 
badger5 said:
rods are'nt weak eh?
how come I sell a lot of rods to S3 owners who have bent theirs?

beware... they do bend and break.. and more so now the cars have seen a few million combustion cycles with >normal boost

and... fitting a turbo on a s3 is not like a scooby.. can cannot access the fixings readily at all and its a long job.
Click to expand...

dude, i can only go on what's on that linky. then again, if i were to believe everything on the internet, almost every vag car's timing belt has snapped at some point, and vxrs are the fastest cars in the universe ;-)
 
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dany2k said:
dude, i can only go on what's on that linky. then again, if i were to believe everything on the internet, almost every vag car's timing belt has snapped at some point, and vxrs are the fastest cars in the universe ;-)
Click to expand...

true true
vxr's rock.................... until they melt.... opps
 
Hey guys had the car in the garage today needs Baby u r exactly what I want a cute baby boo I van look after a new turbo. Standard replacement from cr turbos is £680 inc vat - not a hybrid though. Head gasket also needs doing and was told that these two bits Inc parts and labour is £2000 Inc vat which also included a haldex oil change I got done today and the diagnostic work they did.

PAS pump also leaking badly - £584 fitted - that's genuine audi pump - not sure how much of that is labour - is this a long job? Was told euro car parts is a bit cheaper but they have had a few probs with their pumps in past so should stick to main dealer part.

Basically looking at a £2500 bill - :(
 
Pas pump is 3 bolts securing the pump and 2 banjo bolts. I'm sure they know what they are doing but is it the pump that is leaking? as I have seen a few of these which the banjo washers ( One each side of the banjo bolt ) leak. These can be got from Audi direct for less than 50p and a 10 minute job to change.

Shouldn't take any longer than an 1hr to remove,drain,replace and top up the PAS pump. You only need to remove the Aux belt and access is from under the car.

Out of interest how many hours have they quoted to replace the turbo and HG? Once the heads off the turbos easy to replace.
 
I was wondering the same thing? lol
"Hey guys had the car in the garage today needs Baby u r exactly what I want a cute baby boo I van look after a new turbo"
 
The above baby post isn't mine - my first thread and it got hijacked - lol! Hg and turbo - 8 hours at £58 plus vat. Seems like there's a big cost in parts for Hg Cz turbo cost £680 plus labour is well short of £2000!

I mentioned banjo washers so thanks for that - they said it's def pump but were aware of this common fault.
 
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Any ideas how my post has managed to get hijacked? Is it something to do with the deleted post anyone?
 
Lol na mate. My screen did freeze on the i phone and I got loads of symbols instead of text but after it posted it looked totally fine until part of it was quoted.

It wouldnt surprise me if I was something to do with phone tbh I've had people calling me claiming ive called them minutes before and all I've been doing is reading about turbos! Lol.
 
i personally think £2000 for those 2 - head gasket and turbo is abit steep .. im getting my head done next week skimmed , pressure tested , and new gaskets £240 ( including the labour ) and i had my turbo sorted out about 3 months ago .. as mine the shaft had snapped but paid £220 for a new turbo (ebay ) £280 for rebuild and balanced and then £350 labour on the turbo getting swaped .. he had the turbo off and new 1 on in 6 hours and that was from the top without removing the head !!

so £1090 ish maybe a few more pennys as put new feeds in for turbo too ..

maybe just ask around ( recomendations )

also my friends got an s4 - his pas pumps just gone too and hes picked a pump up for £100 second hand and its getting fitted for £120 ..
 
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I can't really argue with the cost of turbo and it seems 8 hours for all the work is fair I'm jus struggling to see where the rest of the cost is taking it up to £2,000. I think ill just have to wait for the full breakdown now and the garage is very professional so I'm hoping the quote is fully justified.
 
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