OK, My car is running like crap. I suspect that the turbo is out. It accelerates from 0-60 in about 1/2 hour. I hooked up an makeshift boost gauge and it confirms no boost. I can't feel any play in the wastegate rod. How do I know if the turbo is shot or if something else is prententing the turbo from working? Could it be the N75? Anything else? BTW, no CEL.

 

If your turbo is shot there is usually a bluish smoke comming from your exhaust. Check your turbo inlet pipe. When you hooked up the boost gauge what vaccum where you reading? When you say no boost would it go from 20 vaccum to 0 or what.

 

Yes, the gauge reads somehwere around 20 vacuum to zero.

What do I check in the inlet pipe?

 

after driving my audi for like 20 minutes at night while it wasn't boosting(diverter valve had no noise either obv.) i popped the hood and looked at my housing, glowing like a fire poker straight from the fire, i mean orange and glowing. now this was also while driving with a blown cat, so the heat could have been backing up from the cat, and the turbo probably blew because of the cat being blown and not fixing it or vise versa, either way the car made no boost when any of this was going on.

 

sorry im new, but is it normal when its glowing orange?

 

yes its normal for it to glow esp if your gettin on it, i came home the other day just from around town and i only got on it a little and the turbo was pretty red and at night its really red

 

If it's not boosting, it wouldn't be getting as hot would it? Will it be glowing if it's not boosting?

But, the original question... How do I know if the turbo is bad, or something else like the N75 or wastegate?

 

I would check for a boost leak first its cheap and its pretty simple also with you cat being plugged this will also cause a loose of power so get that fixed first

 

Well, my gauge seems to read vacuum fine. It is very reactive when revving the engine in neutral and when "accelerating" in gear. It won't indicate even a little bit of boost. It seems to me that if there were a boost leak, I would see a little bit of boost and the vacuum would not be very reactive. BTW, it ldles fine.

Where are possible boost leaks? Could the N75 be malfunctioning?

 

OK, This is weird. I disconnected the battery last night as well as the connector on the throttle body. Then this monring, I reconnected it all and the car is running fine, turbo included. What is up with this car?