k04's under warranty?

[veggiemonster]

okay so i have a 2002 s4 6 spd.
ive been running on a giac 93 chip for over 10k miles and i am pretty sure i just spun the bearing on my pass. side turbo . i have a GE warranty that covers just about anything (covered cv boots a month ago and a cam seal)
my questions are:
1.)has anyone who has/had a 3rd party warranty ever gotten k04's through the warranty?
2.) If i manage to find a shop willing to do this what are the bare essentials i need to run k04's?
my friends sti is sponsored for the most part by AMS (the real one in chicago) as a prototype/production car and he can get my a tune session for about 250 dollars.

i already have a jhm stg1 clutch and LW flywheel and new mounts (motor, trans, snub) ready to go in, i also have a saamco tbb

i know i will need new DV's and the inlet hoses but what is an absolute must?

thanks guys,
Sean

[joules]

My aftermarket warranty company agreed to pay for factory replacement turbos (K03), so I just paid the difference to get K04's. You need the inlets, but different DV's are not a requirement. The car will run on your current fueling, but you won't get the full benefit of the the larger turbos. So, to answer your question, the only absolutely, necessary additional thing you need for K04's is the turbos themselves and the inlet pipe kit. If you do this and want a deal on an AWE Stage 3 fueling kit, I am thinking of selling mine...

[dak360rt]

my shop told me the same thing, that they have gotten warranty companies to pay for K03s and then you can pay the difference for K04s

Im just curious what is the difference that you would pay between the K03 and K04???

[AudiA4_20T]

they wont know how to tune your car at said "tune session"

[laxman851]

my friends sti is sponsored for the most part by AMS (the real one in chicago)

Whats up with the AMS comment? Did you have a bad experience with AMS tuning?

[AddICTioN]

Curious what the price diff is as well...

[wdbdy2000s4]

get a quote from the dealership on k03 replacements...I bet it is around 4000-5000 due to the 30+ hours of labor. Now go to an independent audi shop and get a quote on k04s and inlets. I bet the k04 will be cheaper, if not the same. obviously this doesn't include fueling or a tune but you can add that later.

[dak360rt]

i hope the parts price wont be that different

OEM K03s from dealership (rape and pillage pricing)

vs

K04s from a tuner (competitive pricing)

Or do warranty companies require dealership sourced parts?

[TheDarkness]

I'm planning on doing this too if/when my k03s blow, wondering how much the difference would be too

[joules]

My dealer quoted $3800 approx. for K03 replacement. K04's cost has gone up recently, but I think that K03's are somewhere around $1700 for a new set, and the K04's $2200-$2300, so $500-600 more for the turbos, and $350-$600 for the inlet pipe set, depending on what kind you get, so maybe $850-$1,200 would be a ballpark estimate. It is well worth it, once you get fueling, exhaust, etc....

[mholme]

but I think that K03's are somewhere around $1700 for a new set, and the K04's $2200-$2300, so $500-600 more for the turbos

A pair of new K03's is gonna set you back about 2600 dollars. 1300 and change for each one. K04's are currently at what, 2500 a set? You still need inlets, but I think the choice is obvious.

[joules]

Or do warranty companies require dealership sourced parts?

Warranty companies don't require dealership sourced parts--the cheaper the better, as far as they are concerned, but they may require the shop to guarantee the repairs, so that the warranty company doesn't have to pay to fix the same thing at a later date.

[veggiemonster]

Whats up with the AMS comment? Did you have a bad experience with AMS tuning?

no the main reason i made that comment is because i will most likely get a tune for half price essentially.

and i am confident in the capacity of chris the tuner there to tune it. chris is the one that tunes the shop evo and every single customer car. he's tuned their diesel van, ls1 corvettes, and of course the cars they advertise specialties in.

there are a few people there that have worked at i think rennart? i know its start with an R. but they know s4's pretty well, and i really do not want to drive my car, in vacuum, the at least 3 hours to vast when i can drive 10 miles instead.

one more question though,
what type of boost levels are safe on stock fueling, and depending on price of this endeavor, keeping stock downpipes?

thanks a lot for the help guys!
--Sean

[SonicS4]

Big turbo 4-banger = totally different ballpark than a biturbo v6. Can he tune it? Probably. Get it running at max capacity? Most likely not. Why not just search around and find someone selling a Stage 3- tune.

Stock downpipes can be kept, but gonan be a huge performance downer. Gut the pre-cats. Vast can do it, another reason you should just go there :P

[veggiemonster]

yes because i need my stock fueling downpipe intercooler s4 maxed out with k04's on it only. that sounds smart.and if the can make 500 whp per litre i think they can tune fine

[laxman851]

no the main reason i made that comment is because i will most likely get a tune for half price essentially.

That would be AMS performance that you would be getting the discount from... not AMS tuning.

Good luck with the swap, the discount will come in handy... let us know what fuel kit you go with.

[Shomegrown]

yes because i need my stock fueling downpipe intercooler s4 maxed out with k04's on it only. that sounds smart.and if the can make 500 whp per litre i think they can tune fine

"Tuning" the car is the easy part. Understanding the ECU and getting definitions for the hundreds of maps within ME7 is the hard part.

If he hasn't tuned multiple ME7 cars before, I wouldn't expect good results. I doubt he even has the tools to do it.

FYI, you can slap K04's on your car and it will run perfectly safe at WOT, you don't need to drive it in vacuum. You just won't be making more power than K03's until you upgrade the fueling and software.

I'd go to VAST, but good luck with whatever you decide. You don't need to drive to Michigan to get it, he uses UPS.

Don't put stock DP's back on either, at least piggyfy them.

[veggiemonster]

"Tuning" the car is the easy part. Understanding the ECU and getting definitions for the hundreds of maps within ME7 is the hard part.

If he hasn't tuned multiple ME7 cars before, I wouldn't expect good results. I doubt he even has the tools to do it.

FYI, you can slap K04's on your car and it will run perfectly safe at WOT, you don't need to drive it in vacuum. You just won't be making more power than K03's until you upgrade the fueling and software.

I'd go to VAST, but good luck with whatever you decide. You don't need to drive to Michigan to get it, he uses UPS.

Don't put stock DP's back on either, at least piggyfy them.

so you're saying that a k03 giac 93 will use the same wastegate duty cycle? i find that hard to believe.

when i talked to them there they said if they dont have the program just make sure you have it yourself and thats pretty much all they need.

im not looking for the most performance just something that runs safely for cheap. if vast can do it for less then i'll just talk to them.

right now i have 2200$ to use and thats if i spend literally zero dollars through this month which wont happen lol

[Scotty@Advanced]

Make sure your warranty co will replace both turbos not just the defective one. BTDT

[veggiemonster]

i had my car in for an oil pan, cv boots, and rear cam seal at laurel audi and an adjuster came out and he said they will not replace the turbos till they blow, they were only making a "little" noise, but that once they do they will cover it.
I'm sure they dont want to fork out a motor pull twice thats $$$$$$$$$

[kodycobra]

sdoherty tjm Where can one find out about the warranty service company you have?? Thank you!!

[veggiemonster]

sdoherty tjm Where can one find out about the warranty service company you have?? Thank you!!

uh i can tell you that its is a GE (general electric) third party warranty. i will try and find out some more stuff about it and post back here

[kodycobra]

uh i can tell you that its is a GE (general electric) third party warranty. i will try and find out some more stuff about it and post back here

I found it, thank you. That's all I needed to know.

[veggiemonster]

okay here is the brochure for what i have. i have the 4 star program i know for sure and if i remember i do not think i could get te 4 star plus program because the car was used.
when i bought my car with exactly 60k miles, it cost 2800 dollars. i have already saved 1900 on repairs and have yet to do the turbos.

http://www.geaws.com/autowarranty/b2...amBrochure.pdf

and this is the main site. it is pretty barren though:

http://www.geaws.com/b2b/publicjsp/our_products.jsp

[kodycobra]

okay here is the brochure for what i have. i have the 4 star program i know for sure and if i remember i do not think i could get te 4 star plus program because the car was used.
when i bought my car with exactly 60k miles, it cost 2800 dollars. i have already saved 1900 on repairs and have yet to do the turbos.

http://www.geaws.com/autowarranty/b2...amBrochure.pdf

and this is the main site. it is pretty barren though:

http://www.geaws.com/b2b/publicjsp/our_products.jsp

Thanks again man! Be sure to keep us updated on how the turbo replacement goes

[veggiemonster]

yep will do. next week im gonna live on my phone calling different shops and getting quotes and such. it gonna suck

[Shomegrown]

so you're saying that a k03 giac 93 will use the same wastegate duty cycle? i find that hard to believe.

That's the whole point, the software won't run the same wastegate duty cycle. It will run less with K04's.

That's why you have a MAP sensor. If you install K04's and do nothing else, the car will run less wastegate duty cycle to try to follow the same boost curve as you had with K03's.

when i talked to them there they said if they dont have the program just make sure you have it yourself and thats pretty much all they need.

Oh, that makes it easy then.

The program you need to tune ME7 costs a couple thousand dollars.

You can buy it here, but only if you have your own tuning company.

Then you need the DAMOS files, because otherwise you'll have no idea what the maps are doing. You can't buy that.

Then you need the flashing equipment or chipwriter. Count on a few thousand more.

If they haven't done an ME7 car before, you're not going to get a tune from them. End of story.

[veggiemonster]

well what about lemmiwinks or whatever that is?

[Shomegrown]

well what about lemmiwinks or whatever that is?

That's like trying to service the space shuttle with vice grip pliers.

Lemmiwinks will tweak a tune. It's not tuning a car, and it's usefulness is very limited.

It's not capable of doing anything useful to a stock tune or a K03 GIAC tune that will help you with your setup.

[veggiemonster]

okay thanks. so maybe ill just talk to vast. the only thing is i cant fork out 500+ for something ill change as soon as i can with fueling and such. but if i can use the giac 93 i'll hold off i guess

[djillusion]

where do you live in st. charles, il? my parents live there and i live in north aurora.

i would recommend taking the car to Chicago Performance and Tuning (www.gocpt.com). they will do a much better job on anything that needs to be done on the car including any type of LEGIT/PROPER tuning.

they also deal with aftermarket warranties quite well.

[Shomegrown]

okay thanks. so maybe ill just talk to vast. the only thing is i cant fork out 500+ for something ill change as soon as i can with fueling and such. but if i can use the giac 93 i'll hold off i guess

If you feel confident enough to play with the setup yourself, do some searchs (you'll need to go to AudiWorld, this place is usless for anything technical) on "homebrew" or "Stage 3-" setups. There are things you can do yourself to get the most out of your setup. In the old days, we used to put a Zener diode (aka TCD) on the MAP sensor and run a manual boost controller in parallel. Then you can run slightly more boost than a K03 setup on the K03 software. You'll need some sort of logging software (minimum VAG-com, ideally ECUx) to get the most out of that configuration.

Talk to VAST and tell them you can't afford to shell out much, and see what they'll do.

[veggiemonster]

i live around the wasco area. its campton hills or some shit now. like rt. 64-47 --ish.

do you know alex? yellrs4 on here? he has a yellow s4 lives right off randall/indian trail.

wait is this jim or steve?

[veggiemonster]

If you feel confident enough to play with the setup yourself, do some searchs (you'll need to go to AudiWorld, this place is usless for anything technical) on "homebrew" or "Stage 3-" setups. There are things you can do yourself to get the most out of your setup. In the old days, we used to put a Zener diode (aka TCD) on the MAP sensor and run a manual boost controller in parallel. Then you can run slightly more boost than a K03 setup on the K03 software. You'll need some sort of logging software (minimum VAG-com, ideally ECUx) to get the most out of that configuration.

Talk to VAST and tell them you can't afford to shell out much, and see what they'll do.

okay thank you very much. i've so far gotten a lot more info out of this than i originally thought i would

[djillusion]

Shomegrown is giving you some good advice too. again, i would seek some assistant at shops that do lots of work on B5 S4s.

CPT and VAST are definitely 2 of them. no idea what you are going to get out the AMS route.

if you need anything locally, let me know. good luck! btw - i know steve who has the imola.

[wdbdy2000s4]

okay thanks. so maybe ill just talk to vast. the only thing is i cant fork out 500+ for something ill change as soon as i can with fueling and such. but if i can use the giac 93 i'll hold off i guess

Talk to VAST. I know they update tunes for free so maybe you can work something out with them if you buy a stage 3- file right now.

[veggiemonster]

Shomegrown is giving you some good advice too. again, i would seek some assistant at shops that do lots of work on B5 S4s.

CPT and VAST are definitely 2 of them. no idea what you are going to get out the AMS route.

if you need anything locally, let me know. good luck! btw - i know steve who has the imola.

yeah i met him hes nice. has the wide body a4, well has a stg 3 s4 engine now.
he sold a trans to my good friend alex. and jim has a noggy stg 3 hes probably a mile or so away from where steve lives.
we should get a small meet going when it gets nice out

[veggiemonster]

where do you live in st. charles, il? my parents live there and i live in north aurora.

i would recommend taking the car to Chicago Performance and Tuning (www.gocpt.com). they will do a much better job on anything that needs to be done on the car including any type of LEGIT/PROPER tuning.

they also deal with aftermarket warranties quite well.

having looking at their website im def. going to call them. their tune prices are ridiculously cheap.

have you personally dealt with them?

[djillusion]

yes. many of us S4 chicago-land owners get work done at CPT. since they are local to many of us, they provide awesome service and work. al is the owner. so when you call speak to him or his brother paul. im very confident you will be happy with their work.

they did lots of work on my stage 3. from suspension, fueling, custom ASP tuning, alignments, etc. they do it all...top notch.

[veggiemonster]

and they have had no problem being a performance shop and doing 3rd party warranty work? thats great.
thank you very much i had never even heard of them before

edit: what is their labor rate? do yo know off hand?