Good morning, people.

First of all, please let me appologize in advance for bringing this topic back again. I know it's been addressed many times, but I'm still unclear, even after reading all the threads I could find on this topic. I have a 981.8T A4 (stock) with 180,000. I've owned the car for 5 years and soon after I bought it, I rebuilt the engine (I know, I should've replaced it for half the price), due to oil sludge and a frozen oil pump. The engine has worked perfectly ever since, but now the turbo went out.

I always thought when the turbo went out, I'd replace it with a K04, but when I talk to a friend who's been an Audi enthusiast for a long time, he mentioned I should probably chip it and replace the injectors if I was going to do that. My budget doesn't allow for everything and I need to make a decision about what turbo to replace it with. If I put a K03 and chip it, I should get about close to 200hp. What would be the advantage of installing a K04 if I'm not going to chip it and change the injectors right away? Is it really worth it? Should I rebuild my K03? Should I rebuild it and add the performance of the K04?

Again, thank you for any tips you can give me and thank you for helping me with a topic that I'm sure it's getting old for the ones that have joined the forum a long time ago.

 

I really appreciate any help I could get about this, since I'm without a car for now...thanks again.

Fabian.

 

Ok... what are your goals for the car? Do you want a lot more power (a lot I mean maybe 80-90HP)? Or just a decent amount? Also how much money do you have to spend???

Josh

 

thank you for the response

 

I want some performance on the car, but I don't necessarily want to tune the whole car and I don't want to go half way and then have to replace more parts for being cheap or stupid.

My dilemma is, since I have to replace the turbo, should I get a K03 and put a chip on the ECU or should I get the K04 (even without replacing injectors). Would I get any gain by just installing a K04? Would it hurt the engine if I don't chip the ECU for the K04 or I just won't get the full benefit? I don't want to spend more than $1,000 right now and I definitely don't want to spend a lot in tunning either down the road...even though the car has a rebuilt engine on it, it still has 180,000 miles.

Thanks again, I appreciate all the help, tips and pointers.

Fabian.

 

Fabian,

Have you read the beginner's guide? https://www.audiforums.com/m_700266/tm.htm

If not, check it out. It says -
K04- easiest and most reliable replacement turbo. It is a direct bolt on replacement. You don't need to replace anything but it is strongly recommended that you get new programming.

I can't say whether you'd get more power than a K03, but there's the answer of whether you can or not. Then later if you decide you want more power, get the chip for a few hundred.. I'd say plan on 500 at least for the chip.

 

if you chipped your ko3, got some bigger injectors and the agressive software for it, you would be making almost as much power as you would if you upgraded to a ko4+software.

"What would be the advantage of installing a K04 if I'm not going to chip it and change the injectors right away?"
if you buy a ko4 alone without software/tuning your not going to get ANY increase in power.

i would either find a used ko3 and buy some software or get a turbo rebuild kit depending on what "went out" in it

 

Thank you ghost6303...that's exactly what I'll do...I'll forget about the K04...in my case it won't be worth it...especially when my engine (and B5) has 180k on it.

Thanks again, everybody, I really appreciate it. If you know of anybody that knows about a K03, used in good condition, rebuilt or new at a good price, would you send them my way. I need to solve this situation ASAP, since the car is at the shop.

Thank you all,

Fabian.
801-668-9175

 

why are you so worried about the 180k miles?

my a4 1.8 hass 175k on it and im putting on a kinetic hi flow manifold, testpipe, and K04 this week, as well as chipping it in a month or so.
i currently have all those parts on my 98 passat 1.8, i drive the car everyday, get over 30mpg and can keep up with mustang gt's (even though it "only" a tip) and that car has 260k on it and it runs and looks great!
dont be so worried about a few miles on your car, these are german engineered afterall, not american beef that lasts 150k then you pray it stays together(believe me, ive never had an american car last more than 150k both my jap cars ran past 180k like new, and my german cars are in even better shape at that mileage!)......id say k04+chip, go to kinetic motorsports, they can get you a k04 for about 100$ more than a k03.
i did the hi flow manifold and new k04 for 1100$.........

 

I would go for the K04 and chip.

You need a new turbo anyway. The K04 isn't much more than a K03 and the K04 chip is about the same cost as a K03 chip. You do not need to get an aggressive file which require injectors.