refurb turbo time :( advice / help apprecaited on where to store car during refurb...

[Squirrelofdoom]

Hi guys,

So, looks like i'm getting a recon for my turbo as it's not well So, here's the problem. Reconditioning with all new internals for the turbo is around £350 including them picking it up and bringing it back; which i'm ok with. I'm not confident that I can refurb the turbo myself, so i'd rather send this off to the specialists. What i'm not ok with is paying a lot for a garage to take out the turbo, change oil, oil filter, reinstall turbo etc that goes along with me sending the turbo off - places seem to want to charge like £300 again for that alone!

I have heard that getting to the turbo on the S3 is properly a real pain in the ***, but I'd love to do it myself because I would learn so so much while doing it. Right now the car is at my workplace where I have tools, car ramp and friends to help out. So feasibly I can get the turbo off the car one night. Then i'm left with a car with a lot of stuff removed, parts lying around, various pipework exposed etc. Problem is, I can't leave it on the ramp for the 48 hours it takes to get the turbo refurbed, so it will have to come down. Then I can only leave it outside at work, exposed to the elements with all the stuff I've taken off it to get at the turbo. Is this a big problem? I keep envisaging getting the oil pipework etc corrupted by damp and moisture etc from being outside, which I really want to avoid - but is this not really an issue?

So at the moment i'm left with the problem of; I'm happy to take the turbo off and fit it again later myself....but where on earth do I leave the car while the turbo is off being refurbed?!

Any help, advice is really appreciated on this guys - the car is my daily drive so i'm bumming lifts off people at the moment and want to get this done as soon as I can really. I'm in the Surrey area, about 20 minutes from Woking, so if anyone in the area can lend a hand / give some advice with similar experiences then I would be really grateful!

Thanks a lot guys,
Aran

 

[domburg]

The turbo is a pain in the **** to get at, fortunatly i had to take the engine out of my s3 as i needed to replace the bottom end so it was a realtivly stress free job! I wouldnt like to attempt it with the engine in, however, on a ramp with the right tools and right mates you should be ok

to be honest if the turn around is as quick as you say, i wouldnt worry about leaving your car out side, if your worried about stuff getting into pipes just bung them with some rags or somthing, personally i dont think you will have a problem. with regards to damp and stuff it will be minimal and your changing the oil anyway. this is only my personal opinion of course! lol

good luck with it
dom

 

[s3dave]

As above you will be fine, wrap some freezer bags around the open pipes to keep them clean...

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the advice! Was thinking of going with TurboRebuild.co.uk...but then I saw this:

KKK K03 K04 Turbo repair rebuild kit, vw audi vauxhall | eBay

Seems to be a repair kit they offer for K03 / K04 turbos from turborebuild.co.uk themselves; so i guess this is the parts they would use at a fraction of the cost!

So, just a question to you guys. Any experience with these rebuild kits? We have a balancing machine here at work I can use if needs be, but if it's just seals and bearings etc I should be ok anyway. Any thoughts guys? I'm gonna get a garage to take the turbo out and refit it afterwards because I simply don't have space to do that, but i should be able to handle the turbo rebuild.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated guys!

_Aran