How easy to replace turbo??

[amoani]

My 2000 S3's turbo has started to make a whiny screeching sound recently and i know that the turbo is cattle trucked. I can get hold of one for a good price but the labour to fit is quite expensive and am looking or cheaper option as i was about to sell the car until this happened.
I am no stranger to working on my previous cars but have never really worked on this one and was wondering how easy it is to remove and replace the turbo DIY? Was thinking maybe using the haynes a3 book as a rough guide, what do you think? any feedback would be most useful, ie timescales, links to guides etc?
Thanks

Aaron

 

[danotto]

although i havent changed one myself,dave bayern did i think and he said it was i pig of a job to do.

 

[Jampublic]

I saw Dave B on that day, pig is one way of saying it! In the end he got a VW mechanic to finish it the job off! Its right behind the engine and not easy to get to, no space at all.

 

[amoani]

That doesnt sound too promising then. The garage want about £400 in labour and parts (ie, gaskets etc), does this sound right?

 

[S3 Dave]

Had mine changed at Stratford Audi sounds about right to me!

 

[LaSarthe&Back]

...In the end he got a VW mechanic to finish it the job off! ...

OI OI OI

That's cheating!!

[Serious]
What parts did you have to have finished off?
[/Serious]

Andy

 

[nickaudi41]

Do it yourself if you are worried about the cost,I helped Dave B when he did his. It is a pig of a job but it can be done, plus you will learn a huge amount, which in my opinion is what it's all about. Speak to Dave though he will tell you the what the score is.

 

[golf]

I completed my turbo replacement over the weekend on my A4 1.8T, and it was fairly easy but there are a lot of things need to be moved out of the way.

I can imagine it is even more of a **** to do in the A3 with its engine mounted differently.

 

[nickaudi41]

I completed my turbo replacement over the weekend on my A4 1.8T, and it was fairly easy but there are a lot of things need to be moved out of the way.

I can imagine it is even more of a **** to do in the A3 with its engine mounted differently.

Yeah it is a pig, I think it depends on if you need your car or can have it off the road for a while.

 

[HTC]

You do alot of the work from under the car. Easy on an A3, but the transfer box gets in the way on the S3.

Saying that, once the exhaust manifold is off, is quite straight forward. If you can do suspension, you'll be okay with a turbo swap.

 

[nickaudi41]

You do alot of the work from under the car. Easy on an A3, but the transfer box gets in the way on the S3.

Saying that, once the exhaust manifold is off, is quite straight forward. If you can do suspension, you'll be okay with a turbo swap.

That would require removing the drive shaft?

 

[abdus]

That would require removing the drive shaft?

I helped a friend change mine and it took 3h30min to get done and didn't remove the driveshaft. We even tried not to remove the exhaust manifold but definitely had to. That was a ko3 to ko3s turbo swap on an A3

pretty straight forward and yes you do learn a lot after

 

[dummi]

pretty straight forward and yes you do learn a lot after

like new names for tools that mess up a good job lol

 

[grathies]

Its not a massive mission, just need to make sure you have all the gaskets and bolts ready to do it. Do you have access to a ramp? obviously that makes things alot easier

Once you have the main components out of the way its a bit tight but Id rather not shell out to have it done for me if I was selling the car

 

[Backdraft Motorsport]

The 1st thing is to make sure you fix whatever made the turbo go in the first place. Turbos can go from wear and tear, lack of oil, blocked oil drain, over speeding (Boost), physical damage etc etc. Sometimes syptoms like smooking etc are due to other things like compression leak.
Even if it is just wear and tear we always recomend flushing the oil drain line and replacing the oil feed.
The job itself is time consuming and fiddly, but satisfying to get it done yourself. Helps if you can get use of a 2 post ramp.
We can supply a genuine brand new turbo cheaper than anywhere in the UK. Shameless plug i know but will save you some pounds and advice is free.
Regards,
Mark. Backdraft Motorsport
Approved distributors for KKK , Garrett, Mitsubishi, Holset.

 

[18TS]

Hi guys... sorry i know this is a bit off the track, but you guys seem to know a bit about turbo's and was wondering if anybody had come across any of this or had any ideas?

The other day i started my car up and could hear kinda like a squeaking belt from the engine, so opened the bonnet to hear nothing. Then to check i just revved the engine a bit from the engine bay, but when i let off the throttle i could hear a kind of vibrating/knocking this was in time with the engine (sounded a bit like if you have a sander turned on and touch it gently on a solid piece of wood) then when the revs dropped a bit it stopped but did it again and again each time i revved it... after it had warmed up after a short drive to the mechanic - there was no sound at all but later when it had cooled i started it up and checked... and sure enough... there it is again.

I'm not sure if it's the turbo ******** or something far worse! It's difficult to figure out where the noise is coming from. It kinda sounds like it's to the right of the engine but also sounds like it's down the back of it...

Cheers!