I have just purchased my S4 with 55k miles, some nice upgrades, was perfect when picked her up. 3k miles later I lost my boost, I thought I had a broken vacuum line or turbo intake Y inlet crack. I kept driving, about 15 miles later a muffled bang came from motor and car started smoking like a bad ford pinto. Pretty embarrassing. I towed car to shop and they said my left side turbo is done. I bought a used to turbo to replace it, seller said turbo had 26k miles on it. My question is: usually when would a turbo fail, now that one of my turbos is still original with 58k miles on it, could it give up on me at any time? Also, what would shorten the life of the turbo dramatically? I dont know how I could tell whether car was chipped or not, but my mechanic said he measured 22 pounds of boost, and I pretty much enjoyed it all the time when road was open. Is high pressure that stressful for the turbo? Any comments I would appreciate, thanks guys.

 

Mate the "How long will me K03's last?" has beem covered that many times [:@]

Yes its chipped, stock is 8psi and u are supposed to replace both K03's together

 

Have you replaced the turbo yet? Because you will want to do both turbos at same time. Plus, I'd recommend getting a no interest credit card and installing the upgraded turbos, K04's. Even if you just install the K04's, they are much more reliable. You could have a K03 go again next time you run the car.

If you don't know much about these cars yet, tell us where you are in the country and hopefully someone can recommend a helpful shop that won't rape you.

 

damn 22lbs on the ko3's! lol thats a whole lot of boost to be running those things must be dying man haha.....my turbos blew at 51k just to let you know.

 

22psi is a lot for stock K03s. I agree with the others as does AOA....turbos should be replaced only in pairs. With that being said I personally would replace the K03s with K04 if you are going to go through all the effort and expense to pull the engine for turbo replacement anyway.

To answer your question: I have heard stories of K03s lasting less than 10k miles and other times more than 100k miles.

If you plan on keeping the car for a long period of time K04's are the right move. Especially if you plan to starting modding. I personally would never trust a used K03 either....

 

Guys there is are fair bit more to just 'whacking' on a set of K04's?

U need the reprogram ECU, injector, fuel pressure reg, fuel pump(s), RS4 clutch, RS4 IC, oil pump+coiler (mite aswell use the RS4 front bar), exhaust manifolds- not to mention the DVs and TBB if not done?[sm=headbang.gif]

If u going that far mite aswell use the RS4 IM and RS4 pipes to throttle body - there is prob something else i left out?

 

Yea, so now I get my KO3 replaced, and I thought I would have a little more time to save up for the KO4s, thats eventually gonna happen. Now that the motor is pulled out I am getting timing belt done, water pump, tranny and motor mounts and other stuff that is required. A friend of mine is a tech whos working on the car every day after work.
So once time will come for redoing all this again and replacing turbos with KO4, what I understand is that I'll have to do ECU setting for upgraded turbos, and also I need at least a catback, upgraded diverter valve, and with these how many horses at the crank would I be running? I'm in San Diego where highest octane pump gas is 91.
Also, what do you guys think about Borla exhaust for S4? I believe its an american product, would that be a good choice, or maybe should I go for a Milltek or Remus catback? I dont want the car to be too loud, but some exhausts, such as SuperSprint, are not really satisfying soundwise. I had one on my VR6, was nice but with windows rolled up I barely could hear anything.

 

Hey guys i have seen some where that the K03's have to be replaced in pairs - refresh me memory[sm=icon_beat.gif]: Why?

 

Here u go fellas, found it in the S4 Bi-Turbo self study

"The turbochargers must be replacedin pairs
To maintain a synchronous air-flow
through the two chargers, it is
important to observe this instruction
to account for manufacturing
tolerances."

 

Nah man....you can go Stage 3- and just run K04's and inlet pipes....you don't need to change fueling, IC'ers, exhaust manifolds, oil pumps or oiler and etc.

There are plenty of people out there running k04's with chip, exhaust and downpipes. It sounds like this guy already has some mods...so he may not need that much more to make it work.