[:@]

 

Any unmolested vehicle is going to be more reliable, these cars are tuned from the factory to hold back a bit to increase their lifespan and reliability. The only argument one might be able to make is that the K04s are more reliable than the K03s, so stage 3 might be a contender. However, this also puts more strain on things like tranny, differential, engine, etc...

 

i wouldn't stage 3 without a tranny rebuild, and i would hope that anyone who does a stage 3 does it the proper way and doesnt cut edges or mistreats the car, other than that it would be bomb proof

 

The best thing you could do is to replace the weak points of the B5s, that being turbos, TBB, etc. If you buy a bi pipe and k04s that will solve some of the maintenance issues. As soon as you put a tune on it it immediately starts to stress the motor and components. If you upgrade without tuning you should be able to greatly increase the reliability.

 

yeah, before I went stage 3 had the normal problems of any s4, but after I went stage 3 *knock on wood* nothing. Of course that might also have to do with the fact I have replaced everything on my car, haha.

 

if you're doing something as drastic as replacing the turbos you will need to retune it even without a fuelling kit

 

Ok. I searched and found a few different people saying Stage2 would make the car more reliable because it would allow the turbo's to "breathe" more freely. Is there any validity to this or would you say stock is the more reliable route?

 

err, what are they on? the turbos are the major weakpoint, you are making them work harder to gain higher boost in stage 2 (chip and exhaust upgrade usually). and a turbo doesn't need to breathe besides from the wastegate, it compresses the air, stock is more reliable than s2 imo, but it still depends on how you treat the car and how well the turbos are, but still you will need to upgrade the dv and tbb and might get boost leaks considering the increase in boost

 

The car I am buying has a 38k engine and turbos on it. Do you think if I go stage2 it will still be reliable since it has very low miles?

 

The engine and tranny are built well enough that the increase in power at stage 2 prolly isn't going to cause any premature failure of the engine/tranny/diffs, etc...

Chipping, IMO, will decrease the reliability of the turbos. However, your driving habits are what will affect the turbos the most. For example:

Person A is stock and wraps the engine to redline before shifting through every gear.

Person B is stage 2 and shifts at a comfortable 3k rpm or lower, and occasionally steps on it to show that lazy mustang driver whose boss.

Person A is prolly a way more likely to be running into turbo issues than person B, even though they're still stock. The moral of all this is, if you want to go stage 2, don't drive like a dick and you probably won't have any issues.