I was reading in the forums that a sign of the turbos going is a siren like noise which I heard while I was driving,when you take off 1st and 2nd gear you hear like a faint siren noise, my question, is this definately a sign of turbos going and when you guys upgrade to ko4's do you just replace the turbos or do you go with a complete kit.

 

the k03's (stock turbos) will get louder and louder untill they die. Your supposto hear your turbos spooling especially if you have a chip, Its when it sounds like babys crying that youre in trouble.

When you go K04's you can get just the turbos hardware piping and gaskets with a new tune and new fuel pressure regulator for prolly $3500 but you wont have full stage 3 power. Its best to upgrade your clutch, intercoolers, exhaust, downpipes, and get full fueling kit at the very least. People also work on stregnthing the transmission and drive train, replace DV's, replace TBB, Brakes are a good thing to upgrade expecially if your running 400+ HP. Suspension if you havent allready, then theres countless little things youll want to buy like a turbo timer, boost guage, shifter, etc etc etc. It can go on forever haha. Pretty much you get out what you put in.

 

I haven't bought a chip yet, but plan on doing so I was thinking the giac x which seems to be the one with the most gains even though you guys say it's a little rough compared to the mtm, I figured thats what you want to feel froma turbo car (head pinning power).Now if I later decide to get the ko4s do I have to change the chip and is apr the only chip you can use the signal stalk to activate.

 

APR is the only one I've found that lets you use the Cruise Control buttons to change tunes. For a while that bothered me but I had my Ford Ranger flashed and I only reflashed four times in two years. It's a cool feature but, personally, I doubt I'd use it that much.

 

MTM, GIAC, and APR are the first companys id look at for chips. Keep in mind if you get plain jane K04's you will need new software for it (if you buy a stage 1 chip that wont cut it) and you wont get the full k04 power. I personally wouldnt do K04's untill you have a solid stage 2+ car, Or plan on buying everything all at once

As for the mode change via cruise controll, I love it. Stock mode has less power for around town, better gas milage, a little smoother, and less wear on the turbos. But when that STI pulls up at the stop light you can swap it into tuned mode pretty quick. I just figure i dont need to be in tuned mode 100% of the time, in fact i try to stay out of it haha it tends to get me into trouble.