Turbo gone on Audi A4 1.8T

eggerb

Mechanic has told me that my turbo is gone and unserviceable. Haven't had a chance to drop back to him to discuss but what cost am I looking at to have it replaced? Apart from the loss of turbo, am I running the risk of damaging the car by not having it replaced? I'm not exactly sure when I noticed it gone and hence wondering should I bother getting it fixed? There's 98k kms on the clock and it's 6 years old.

MetzgerMeister

Did he say if it could be reconditioned/rebuilt? There's a company in I think, Cork who do this.

The 1.8T is prone to engine sludge issues if not having very regualar oil changes with very good oil. If your turbo is needing replacement you might well be consuming oil at a fast ish rate, the turbo could quite possibly still be functioning properly ie providing boost.

It needs doing soon really.

Nissan doctor

You can't drive a car with the turbo 'gone'

If the seals are gone then you'll be burning oil and blowing smoke out the back, if its the bearings that are gone then it'll be noisy and you run the risk of the impellers/shaft coming apart and possibly being injested into the engine.

Make sure to ask him exactly what has failed in the turbo as there are several things that can effect the operation of the turbo without the turbo itself being the problem.

darragh o meara

there are compnaies on donedeal advertising turbo repairs. I got one for my passat last year and its been going great ever since. It might be worth replacing the oil feed and return pipes if oil sludge is suspected as the sludge will still be in the oil feed and return systems and if its there and you use the same pipes your new turbo wont last too long..

eggerb

Nissan doctor wrote: »

You can't drive a car with the turbo 'gone'

If the seals are gone then you'll be burning oil and blowing smoke out the back, if its the bearings that are gone then it'll be noisy and you run the risk of the impellers/shaft coming apart and possibly being injested into the engine.

Make sure to ask him exactly what has failed in the turbo as there are several things that can effect the operation of the turbo without the turbo itself being the problem.

Thanks everybody. I need to ask him exactly what the problem is. The word he used on the report was 'unserviceable'. I have been using Castrol Edge 5W-30 with changes about every 17k km. I keep an eye on oil and I don't seem to be burning any.

Thanks again all. I'll have a chat with him and come back with an update. Cheers again.

Nissan doctor

As above, if the turbo has failed, the the vast majority of cases something will have caused it to fail, usually poor quality oil, or blocked feeds/returns.

George Dalton

If it is any help to you I have a recon turbo here for an A4 1.8T that was bought and never fitted. It was rebuilt with a new core assembly by Tom Cooney in Portlaoise who is a proper turbo specialist and not one of the chancers advertising on donedeal. The recon cost me €550 inc VAT but I will accept any decent offer for it.

eggerb

One further update before I speak to him. I ran a diagnostics with a cheap code reader I bought and there was one code: 17956: Boost Pressure Control Valve (N75): Open Circuit
This may be related?

Nissan doctor

eggerb wrote: »

One further update before I speak to him. I ran a diagnostics with a cheap code reader I bought and there was one code: 17956: Boost Pressure Control Valve (N75): Open Circuit
This may be related?

A common problem and much more likely to be the cause of any boost issue, especially if you've had no turbo noise or oil consumption/burning..

George Dalton

What are your symptoms? That code will cause a loss of power. Are you just experiencing power loss or is there noise and/or smoke from the turbo?

eggerb

Nissan doctor wrote: »

A common problem and much more likely to be the cause of any boost issue, especially if you've had no turbo noise or oil consumption/burning..

Yep; no noise, no oil burn.

George Dalton wrote: »

What are your symptoms? That code will cause a loss of power. Are you just experiencing power loss or is there noise and/or smoke from the turbo?

Haven't really noticed anything tbh (I'm a bit embarrassed to admit). At the most, a bit of loss of power. Acceleration etc is fine. I'm not really sure what I'm missing.

I'm a bit encouraged then. It might be just this Boost Pressure Control Valve?

George Dalton

It sounds like you need to get a second opinion. Where are you located?

Nissan doctor

George Dalton wrote: »

It sounds like you need to get a second opinion. Where are you located?

^^this, for sure I think.

Plug

Auto data says your code is open circuit. It could be in the wiring or in the valve itself. Saw that on the web.
To test the wires you can pull the N75 connector and ECU connector and test the wires continuity using an ohm meter.

Green/brown N75 wire > ECU pin 104 (direct)

Yellow/black N75 wire is shared and connects to the fuel pump relay (terminal 87F inside the car), if this wire had an issue a couple of valves in your car would have issues including N249, N205. So since you don't have codes for those you can skip it I bet. If you do want to test it a source is pin 6 on the 14 pin connector behind the battery box.

eggerb

OK - back from the mechanic. Somebody else picked up the car for me so I just got the "your turbo is gone" story. That wasn't said!

The boost pressure is down about 20% apparently. He cleared code 17956 and it appeared again after a short spin. It seems to be intermittent. There was no pressure to have it looked at. That's a lot better news than needing to look at an expensive part. Phew ... for the moment.

eggerb

Just checked some notes ... I first seen that error last March. I cleared it at the time and it just came back after a few days. Don't know when it had been there from but it could have been months...