a) check for oil leaks on the exhaust side, no oil is good
b) check for shaft play, i.e. wiggle the compressor shaft...if it wiggles enough for the blades to touch the housing...thats bad
c) check for FOD, foriegn object damage on the blades
a good k03 with 70k chipped miles on it looks like this:
http://www.modifieda4.com/gallery/k03-turbo

 

Do I have to replace any gaskets before putting her back in?

 

I will add that I have every indication that my turbo is not bad from viewing the intake side, (including minimal shaft play), but my car has recently become a smoker, and the cause is (most likely) failed turbo seals leaking oil on the exhaust side.

 

Yup, turbos generally go bad via coked or starved bearings on the exhaust side. Ususally, oil starts to drip into the exhaust downpipe, giving the evident oil smoke. They can also let go altogether, causing the full Naval wartime smokescreen behind your car. Watching following cars punch holes in the white clouds is kind of entertaing for a few seconds...

The turbine should spin easily, no binding, no scraping. If you can actually feel sideways movement, it exceeds .020" and will fail. A slight amount of lateral movement (in line with the shaft) is not fatal.

 

My 99' 1.8t Passat. Is also blowing smoke. Mostly when i use the tiptronic at high RPM's. Only reason i know is because a friend behind me told me. The previous owner said they had to replace the turbo because oil was dripping into the exhaust pipe. Is it possible that they didnt change the gaskets? Or is it something more. One more thing too, it was orignially running on normal oil. When they sold me the car they sold it with a bunch of Mobil 1 synthetic so i could do the change. Is it possible the change from regular oil to synthetic could do this?

 

So do I or do I not have to replace gaskets if im putting same turbo back in?
In addition, please dont be a thread stealer, no one likes that

 

Sorry about that... well just pretend that never happened....

 

Sorry, your original thread mentioned comments about checking to see if the Turbo itself is shot. I've done a bit of reading about the turbo removal procedure and it seems gasket replacement is always recommended. I don't think it would be worth doing all the work only to have to start over due to a leaking gasket.

I know it's not definitive, but based on my investigations - I'll be replacing gaskets.

 

Well, I took a look at the wastegate from this view below and the plug that closes the wastegate seems to be missing. There is absolutely nothing there that would keep the wastegate closed. I will post a pic later when I can barrow a camera. Does this mean a new turbo is needed? I dont think this is one of the things you can fix.

This pic is not mine

The squiggly lines indicat the plug that is missing in mine
Once again, Ill post a pic when I get a camera

 

Does it matter what K03 I buy, can I use the plug in the other turbo to put in mine?

Heres the link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/VW-K...toyota_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33742QQitemZ7996554171QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

tell me if I can use these

 

Here is a picture of my wastegate

and here is a normal one

Can this door/flap be replaced?

 

Anyone have any knowledge of this? Also, can anyone point me in the direction of a k03 diagram; Im thinkin this might have a part number. Otherwise I'll be looking for a used/burned turbo to snag.

 

Anyone???

Sorry, this is just very hectic for me because I want my car to be operational very soon.

 

Those K03's will probably work.
You will need to buy new gasket between exhaust manifold and turbo case, as well as the gasket between the cat and turbo. You will need a small paper gasket for the oil return underneath, and 2 copper o-ring crush washers for the oil and coolant lines.

Good luck.

 

If the parts for your waste gate were in the turbo and now are missing, you need to start looking for them in your exhaust system. I would think that such parts could destroy the catalytic converter, for instance. Also, something probably caused this failure; possibly extream heat in the exhaust manifold from excess fuel? Maybe the turbo was just put together incorrectly. Seems like a very strange failure. Good luck on rebuilding the waste gate.

 

If the parts for your waste gate were in the turbo ....

They're not inside the turbo, the part that fails is the control unit on the outside.