guys,
I've just been to AMD to have a re-map done, it all went excellently. 176bhp stock to 217bhp and 169lb-ft stock to 230lb-ft IIRC.
Whilst doing it though, they noticed a ticking sound under heavy acceleration coming from the front of the car. I know the general concencus on these is that the noise is the charcoal filter (as Audi told me) BUT IT IS NOT!!
The noise is coming from the coupling between the exhaust manifold and turbo at the back of the engine. The bolts that hold the turbo to the manifold are prone to stretching, and hence making a crappy seal. The noise is the exhaust fumes escaping under the bonnet and hence you are LOSING BOOST!!! NOOOOOOOOO! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Anyways, i just did my gasket - new gasket and bolts, Noise is TOTALLY gone. No ticking under acceleration at all, so this charcoal filter theory is /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/swear.gif.
Not sure if you could just get away with tightening the bolts (all 3 of mine had stretched 2mm!!) but it may be possible... I however replaced all 3 bolts and washers with the gasket for a grand total of £14 to get the parts from AMD and i fitted them myself.
Its pretty easy to do...let car cool down, take off plastic cover, undo retaining straps for the boost pipe on the top of the engine (there is one you can see and another you will see if you follow the metal part of it to the left)
after that, reach around and under the boost pipe and back towards the engine - around the area the visible mounting bracket is....there is a heatshield there. There is one allen key bolt you need to undo there, and then you can remove the heatshield, retaining bracket and push the boost pipe back.
Then, directly underneath you will see the exhaust manifold...you will see 3 17mm bolts. Take them all out and the turbo will drop slightly (but not too much, i did not need to prop mine)
I then found it easier to put the top right bolt in semi tight with no gasket on to get the holes lined up. You then need to slacken it off a bit to allow you to slide the gasket in for the top left hole (make sure you orientate it correctly so when you rotate it into place its in the right way!)
So you now have the manifold bolted to the turbo by two bolts, top right that is not going through the gasket (but bolted into turbo), and another that is going through the gasket (the top left bolt) and you should have the gasket sticking out the the o/s of the car. Now tighten the top left bolt fairly tight and remove the top right bolt completely.
Now you can rotate the gasket into place and look down the hole for the top right bolt to see if the gasket lines up. if it does not (i.e 50% of hole visible) then stick a screwdriver down and push the gasket into place.
Now fit the remaining two bolts!
i wrote the guide above because i found it a pain in the **** to get the gasket lined up, thats the easiest way i found to do it.
THANKS AMD FOR POINTING THAT OUT!!!!
I've just been to AMD to have a re-map done, it all went excellently. 176bhp stock to 217bhp and 169lb-ft stock to 230lb-ft IIRC.
Whilst doing it though, they noticed a ticking sound under heavy acceleration coming from the front of the car. I know the general concencus on these is that the noise is the charcoal filter (as Audi told me) BUT IT IS NOT!!
The noise is coming from the coupling between the exhaust manifold and turbo at the back of the engine. The bolts that hold the turbo to the manifold are prone to stretching, and hence making a crappy seal. The noise is the exhaust fumes escaping under the bonnet and hence you are LOSING BOOST!!! NOOOOOOOOO! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Anyways, i just did my gasket - new gasket and bolts, Noise is TOTALLY gone. No ticking under acceleration at all, so this charcoal filter theory is /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/swear.gif.
Not sure if you could just get away with tightening the bolts (all 3 of mine had stretched 2mm!!) but it may be possible... I however replaced all 3 bolts and washers with the gasket for a grand total of £14 to get the parts from AMD and i fitted them myself.
Its pretty easy to do...let car cool down, take off plastic cover, undo retaining straps for the boost pipe on the top of the engine (there is one you can see and another you will see if you follow the metal part of it to the left)
after that, reach around and under the boost pipe and back towards the engine - around the area the visible mounting bracket is....there is a heatshield there. There is one allen key bolt you need to undo there, and then you can remove the heatshield, retaining bracket and push the boost pipe back.
Then, directly underneath you will see the exhaust manifold...you will see 3 17mm bolts. Take them all out and the turbo will drop slightly (but not too much, i did not need to prop mine)
I then found it easier to put the top right bolt in semi tight with no gasket on to get the holes lined up. You then need to slacken it off a bit to allow you to slide the gasket in for the top left hole (make sure you orientate it correctly so when you rotate it into place its in the right way!)
So you now have the manifold bolted to the turbo by two bolts, top right that is not going through the gasket (but bolted into turbo), and another that is going through the gasket (the top left bolt) and you should have the gasket sticking out the the o/s of the car. Now tighten the top left bolt fairly tight and remove the top right bolt completely.
Now you can rotate the gasket into place and look down the hole for the top right bolt to see if the gasket lines up. if it does not (i.e 50% of hole visible) then stick a screwdriver down and push the gasket into place.
Now fit the remaining two bolts!
i wrote the guide above because i found it a pain in the **** to get the gasket lined up, thats the easiest way i found to do it.
THANKS AMD FOR POINTING THAT OUT!!!!
