haha you're screwed(sarcasm)

i feel you...BUT:

i highly doubt that you can fix it without taking the turbo off. You better do the right thing the first time. Unless you have a lot of time to lose.

 

I should be able to figure it out pretty quickly. I won't know until I get in there though.

 

Labree is located in CA. Their HFC are definitely an awesome value, considering an OEM replacement from Audi is almost $900 and is more restrictive than most of us originally thought (and heavy!). The Labree HFC is very high-quality and A HFC will eliminate the need for messing around with a non-fouler (prevents the MIL from coming on due to a missing cat/poor cat efficiency), plus you'll pass emissions, visual, OBDII plug-in, and sniffer. Being in CA, that might be a better choice for you. CT emissions are pretty strict and a car can fail visually if the emissions tech notices a missing cat.

I was very surprised at the sound of my car after I installed the Labree HFC. Even though I have a Borla, it is significantly louder, but still not raspy or annoying. I know it's only by butt-dyno, but I was also very surprised that the car felt stronger. Seeing the stock unit versus the very small, light monolith and the 2.5" out of the Labree next to the OEM cat, it's not really a mystery. Perhaps it's not as free-flowing as a test-pipe, but I can't imagine that a K03 or K04 could see any more reasonable gain from a test pipe versus the Labree HFC.

http://www.labreemotorsports.com/products_vw.html

 

CA emissions are the whole reason I was thinking of going hfc instead of test pipe, but I was planning on just greasing some palms when I went to get my car smogged.

I can't imagine there's a huge difference between an hfc and a test pipe either, aside from cost, but that's only about $100. Not bad for retaining legit emissions and not having to screw around with the check engine light.

I'm going to give this some more thought...

 

updates:

went the labree route and I'm very satisfied with the quality and the gains. Well worth the money.

On another note, remove that stud wasn't had at all. I didn't have to remove my turbo. There was about .25" of unthreaded stud sticking out of the turbine and I was able to get it out with one of these handy little guys that I borrow from a neighbor of mine:

http://www.tool-up.co.uk/img/fs/24522.jpg

They're basically just female easy-outs. Very handy.

I shelled out the 200 bucks for bosch O2 sensors too and got those damn error codes cleared finally.

Conclusion: don't buy cheap chinese crap, don't buy cheap O2 sensors, labree is legit, and I need to buy a set of female easy-outs.

 

good... that TP probably would have broken before too long anyway. And its nice to hear that you didnt have to remove the turbo, as the manifold bolts LOVE to snap off in there too... What cell cat did you go with? If its 250 or less, you wouldnt notice the difference between that and a test pipe anyway.

 

These things are awesome.

I told you you'd like the Labree! Glad to see you've got it back on the road.

 

I don't know what the cell is, but's it's really pretty small. Labree says it's supposed to flow just as well as a test pipe, minus maybe 2 hp but it adds back that low end tq so I'm ok with it.

Oh it was never taken off of the road. I just drove it with that massive exhaust leak annoying the **** out of me and my passengers for a couple of weeks. It's all back together now though.