Was driving on the highway yesterday when I went to pass someone and noticed that I had no power. Killed the radio and floored it, no whoosh
Kept trying and looked at my boost gauge, a whopping 0psi
So now I have a slow 4cyl car until I can get the dealer to replace it.
I knew it would eventually go, seeing as its a 98, but I just didnt think it would go this fast. Anyone else have it go early?

I think there has been a # of 1998 Turbo failures.....but I think thats the only year.

I had 85k on my 99 when I changed to K04. And the K03 is still good....no wheel play or nothing.

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Do you know why it failed?

I am wondering if it had an oil starvation issue that finally manifested.

As passaturbonium said, turbo failure was a common issue on MY98 cars. The newer cars had a foil insulator installed over the oil supply lines to deal with the heat and coking.

Even on a chipped car driven hard, 58k seems a little soon for a failure.

 

Strange....I've heard of other '98's having problems, but none that early. I'm now in the mid 80k range on my '98 and my turbo has lost a few psi, but still running strong.

and my 2 cents tells you not to replace but to upgrade.....grab a K04 or better, once you get to the turbo that's half the battle, might as well upgrade.

Good Luck!

 

Yea 98's do have a lot of probs. I have an 01 so i'm hoping mine won't go that early. The guy that is the service manager of the VW dealer i go to has a 98.5 Audi A4 1.8T and he's had his turbo replaced twice but still loves his car

 

thats because turbos are :thumbup:

 

Not when they are just flapping in the breeze!

 

my turbo went at 65k followed by my motor at 68k noe everything is fresh again at 72k

 

mine went at 83k or so- replaced under warranty. your right though, driving with zero boost really sucks with such a small motor and heavy car :sad: mine is a 98 as well but i still love it

 

I have a 99 and at 34k the k03 said peace out. But i came to find out the owner leased the car and never changed the oil in 28k. Waht a dumb anus!

 

Yeah, I have a 98 and I remember a lot of people saying "Buy part so-and-so and install it on the oil line to the turbo, so the exhaust manifold doesnt fry the oil on its way there"

At least I think that's what happens if you don't insulate it...correct me if I'm wrong

 

So you guys are saying if the turbo craps out, you won't be stranded. You'll just have to deal with a loss of power until you get it replaced/upgraded?

 

So you guys are saying if the turbo craps out, you won't be stranded. You'll just have to deal with a loss of power until you get it replaced/upgraded?

Well, the car will drive without boost, but it is designed to have it. As such, without a turbo, it just has no oomph at all.

It will feel worse than a 2.slow engine. A 3200 pound car with a 1.8L engine and no boost is miserable. That engine only puts out about 95 HP w/o boost. Do the math, it isn't pretty!

 

Was driving on the highway yesterday when I went to pass someone and noticed that I had no power. Killed the radio and floored it, no whoosh

Maybe it's not a turbo failure, maybe one of the hoses blew off the intercooler piping..maybe you just have a boost leak. ?

 

It will feel worse than a 2.slow engine. A 3200 pound car with a 1.8L engine and no boost is miserable. That engine only puts out about 95 HP w/o boost. Do the math, it isn't pretty!

Wow that's all it puts out before the boost? :thumbdow:

 

Was driving on the highway yesterday when I went to pass someone and noticed that I had no power. Killed the radio and floored it, no whoosh
Kept trying and looked at my boost gauge, a whopping 0psi
So now I have a slow 4cyl car until I can get the dealer to replace it.
I knew it would eventually go, seeing as its a 98, but I just didnt think it would go this fast. Anyone else have it go early?

This might be a perfect time to do a K04 and chip mod...

 

I say if the dealer doesnt cover it under warranty, pay a little more and upgrade it to a K04

Kevin

 

K04...K04...K04.

Especially, if the dealer is going to cover the labor. Just hand them the K04.

 

Just in case you're wondering, the K04 is an upgrade to the K03 that comes stock. With a K04 kit you probably get about 230hp and 260ft/lbs.

Here is AWE's K04 kit with everything you need. However, you could just buy the K04 without the extras for a lot less, not sure how much though.

 

Wow that's all it puts out before the boost? :thumbdow:

Well, that's not so bad, actually. You have to consider that the engine has a little lower compression ratio, etc. and is designed to run on boost. Granted, there are other engines in that size range (non-turbo) that make a tad more power, but they have to do so w/o any sort of forced induction. And, as we all know, this engine will make a ton of HP with fairly minor tweeking.

Maybe it's not a turbo failure, maybe one of the hoses blew off the intercooler piping..maybe you just have a boost leak. ?

If he lost a large hose like that, I think he'd be dead in the water, as the ECU would be totally lost without the MAF's readings being any where near accurate. If it were still running, the MIL would be blinking like crazy, the car would run really rough, etc.

Low boost would not affect the ECU that way, the car would still run, just no power. Similar to a smaller hose being broken, still runs, but you can tell something's not quite right.

 

checked all hoses, everthing is fine, just no power
I'm gonna take it to the dealer this week, i have a warranty which covers
the turbo, so uprgrading to a k04 wouldn't really work for me unless someone knows where i can pick one up real cheap.
ill let you know what happens

 

check diverter valve first.
8)

 

The most common loss of a 98's turbo, isn't actually the turbo, but the shaft that controls the wastegate. Problem is, it's integrated, so the whole torbo get's replaced.

Lost the one on my old 98 at like 26k.

Once your engine bay is cool, reach down there (if you can reach it), and see of you can move the rod by hand... if you can, that's the problem. With the wastegate open, you will get exactly zero boost.

 

Sould be covered under warranty, if your the original owner.