RP Turbo K04 Car Consolidation Thread

[S4Drifting]

last thing i need to hear as these turbos are being put on today!

[spokismB5S4]

last thing i need to hear as these turbos are being put on today!

I say call the shop thell them to stop the install and pick up some bw's

[SSA]

Just bought a 2002 stage ll+ k04 allroad . IPT auto trans and torque converter with 2.5 exhaust turbos back .. I have had the car about 2 weeks and while it runs good on the highway I feel it should have more power... granted I have never driven a car that runs like this one and plan to have it put on the dyno soon..i guess what I'm asking is are thiese cars supposed to have pin you to the seat power or is it allways so linear? thanx

[GramCracker]

Same thing happened to mine after being installed by a reputable shop. Both turbos were leaking coolant cause of the washers. Washers were replaced and first test drive the driverside turbo blew. Needless to say I'm pissed. Definitely go with Borg Warner, it's worth the extra cash for quality and piece of mind.

How long did it take until they were leaking? As soon as the motor was put in the car or after driving it for a while?

[Teamnct4]

The car was turned on and on a lift when they saw it leaking.

[S4Drifting]

The car was turned on and on a lift when they saw it leaking.

Are these the new batch from RP? Cant believe they let the turbos leave the factory like this!

[Teamnct4]

Are these the new batch from RP? Cant believe they let the turbos leave the factory like this!

Yes these came from the new batch. I'm really unhappy with this whole situation.

[GramCracker]

Yes these came from the new batch. I'm really unhappy with this whole situation.

Which batch is that? What month?

For the record mine were from the May batch.

[Teamnct4]

They were ordered in early June and arrived the first week in July.

[S4Drifting]

They were ordered in early June and arrived the first week in July.

lol same as me! i told my buddy the problem with the coolant plug and he checked it out, he also said the fitment on these are shitty.

[salvaged]

FYI - you don't have to grind the housing on the driver's side. I had my wife come out and help me get that bolt lined up. It was frustrating and took forever, but I think that's better than grinding.

had 2 on mine man.. there was no way around it

[97B518TQM]

I did NOT grind anything at all to install mine. I was waiting for getting stuck on something and finally seeing what everyone was talking about, grinding stuff and all, but I managed to install them just fine and everything came together nicely. Where exactly do you people grind?

[Jtime]

danm im sorry to hear this guys. i was going to order some in the next week but obviusly im going to have to hold off and get BW. if these things are really having this many problems then they honestly are no better at all than ebay china ko4s. dont mean to offend anyone, just saying that from my hours of research on rp's and the chinas, they seem to have the same reliability rate, meaning, sometimes they work great, and sometimes the suck great. and of course borgs have there problems too, but thats about 1 out of every 10, or less. goodluck and i hope youguys get this figured out....

[AWM tuning]

cheap turbos :(

[VR6Bomber]

Is it possible that lack of coolant caused excessive heat that melted the seals in any case?
That would be a shame if the failure was all due to a ill-fitting washer.

[julex]

Is it possible that lack of coolant caused excessive heat that melted the seals in any case?
That would be a shame if the failure was all due to a ill-fitting washer.

Well, a minor leak would still supply enough coolant to turbo. Medium/large leak would ensure you'd lose all your coolant almost immediately and you would have no chance to run the turbos at full boost unless you ignored coolant level warning...

[VR6Bomber]

Well, a minor leak would still supply enough coolant to turbo. Medium/large leak would ensure you'd lose all your coolant almost immediately and you would have no chance to run the turbos at full boost unless you ignored coolant level warning...

Well,,If the leak is on the supply side of the turbo that most likely means the turbo isn't getting the proper coolant. That is regardless if the low coolant sensor is or isn't activated correct? The system may be filled 'tip top', if it isn't getting to the turbo, that turbo is going to get hot. That is of course; IF the leak is on the 'supply side' and not just dumping out the 'exit'.

[jaimeson]

Now I as well as many others that have seen/heard about em can continue to believe the old saying "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR" ! No one can be mad at themselves for trying to save some money; it's a gamble just like with anything else. These cars and the labor (for those who prefer and can afford) is jsut too damn much to be buyin cheap shit. Good luck to all that had theirs' the bed on them.

EDIT: Did anyone that was still within warranty have anything positive to report about the companies warranty procedure?

[Adam_S4]

Has anyone spoke to RP or CTS about these issues ?

[drkenan]

What washers are you guys talking about exactly? I've had a minor coolant leak on my drivers side turbo since installation but haven't figured it out yet. It's so minor I haven't lost any sleep over it.

[97B518TQM]

The washer on the plug on the side of the turbo. It's a plug you need an allen socket or wrench to remove. It has a copper washer on there. Be careful when you take the plug off, you will have quite a bit of coolant pouring out of there. It's not hard to reach from under the car, I replaced mine in ten minutes, I just had to figure out a way to drain that coolant without spilling it all over. Once I replaced the crush washer I haven't seen a drop of coolant from there or anywhere else for that matter. I just hope I don't have some of the problems others have experienced. There are people who have these turbos and have ran them with absolutely no problems. Seems like only the problematic experiences are being shared here. I don't believe they are like the Chinese crap K04s and JHM already has proved that. This batch does have a bad washer on the turbos but that's an easy fix. Some of the other issues are issues that happen on other turbos as well. I guess more time will tell for sure. At this point I am just praying I don't have any problems with mine. My car should be on the road by the end of the weekend since my new fuel rail arrived today and I can pop in my new injectors with the Vast stage 3 tune. We'll see what's going to happen.

[Adam_S4]

How can you tell if your actuators are fudged ?

[drkenan]

The washer on the plug on the side of the turbo. It's a plug you need an allen socket or wrench to remove. It has a copper washer on there. Be careful when you take the plug off, you will have quite a bit of coolant pouring out of there. It's not hard to reach from under the car, I replaced mine in ten minutes, I just had to figure out a way to drain that coolant without spilling it all over. Once I replaced the crush washer I haven't seen a drop of coolant from there or anywhere else for that matter. I just hope I don't have some of the problems others have experienced. There are people who have these turbos and have ran them with absolutely no problems. Seems like only the problematic experiences are being shared here. I don't believe they are like the Chinese crap K04s and JHM already has proved that. This batch does have a bad washer on the turbos but that's an easy fix. Some of the other issues are issues that happen on other turbos as well. I guess more time will tell for sure. At this point I am just praying I don't have any problems with mine. My car should be on the road by the end of the weekend since my new fuel rail arrived today and I can pop in my new injectors with the Vast stage 3 tune. We'll see what's going to happen.

Cool...thanks man. I'm gonna go have a look at mine to see if that's where it's coming from. I thought maybe it was coming from that coolant line that everyone was grinding but I chose not to. Hopefully I can fix it in 10 minutes - but the problem is that I think it leaks sometimes when the car isn't even running. We'll see. I don't seem to be having the WG issues that others have had. Hopefully that won't creep up in the future.

I wonder what ever happened to AudiGeorge?

How can you tell if your actuators are fudged ?

Pretty sure your boost would be jumping all over the place. Read that long thread started by AudiGeorge awhile back. He was the first one I heard of who had those problems.

[97B518TQM]

My plug was leaking without even starting the car. I filled the engine with coolant and before I even started it for the first time after the install I was able to see drops of coolant from that plug.


And if you flapper gets stuck you will not be able to build full boost. If the actuators are messed up then ya, boost won't be consistent.

[dla79]

Seriously reading through this makes me wonder what you guys were thinking because you really do get what you pay for..... I know that JHM and CTS backed these up but the thing you have to remember is that you don't know what the quality control is going batch to batch. In a manufacturing setting it takes A LONG TIME and LOTS of testing on multiple batches before you can establish the QQ that is acceptable. I can tell you stories about other turbo producers having these issues too.....

[jaimeson]

2nd ^^^

[Militant-Grunt]

I say call the shop thell them to stop the install and pick up some bw's

Can't wait to see yours when I pull them out on Monday. The chimney smoke following your car gets old lol =P.

[dla79]

Can't wait to see yours when I pull them out on Monday. The chimney smoke following your car gets old lol =P.

LOL.... why did you let these poor nieve souls go through this and install those things. You should have talked them into the real deal K04s.....

[spokismB5S4]

Can't wait to see yours when I pull them out on Monday. The chimney smoke following your car gets old lol =P.

pretty nuts eh? btw did messing w/ the mbc fix the boost issues?

[chebert69]

I'm 8000Km's on them now, no leaks, pull strong and i'm pleased with them so far. I have the AWE stage 3 set up installed since day 1. So far, i had to fix numerous
boost leaks, had to change primary O2's (misfires + limp mod) but know it goes like it should. About that grinding thing, i just cant figure out how people would be able to fit that bolt in w\o doing it, let just see the pic and judge for yourselves...

[Don Supreme]

I think its fucked up that they are replica and you have to modify them to fit........... And the fact that some people have installed with or without modification makes me wonder if the casting is inconsistent.

[dla79]

I think its fucked up that they are replica and you have to modify them to fit........... And the fact that some people have installed with or without modification makes me wonder if the casting is inconsistent.

Dude if you don't speak Chinese and make sure the jokers are sending you stuff out of the same casting you seriously will get major differences. This is why I was saying the quality control is out of hand and I would not trust these.

[drkenan]

Maybe I'm just saying this because I have RP's but...

They've constantly sold out of the turbos since releasing them and we've only heard a few bad reports here and there. Mine pull really hard and have been fine (I think) aside from the tiny coolant leak I have. Also, let's not forget that installation error could be playing a huge role in some of the problems - like my coolant leak since I haven't fully checked it out yet.

Anyway, maybe just wishful thinking but I don't think the situation is as dire as it sounds on the internet.

[AudiSportB5S4]

My buddy who just installed these is running them on VAST's Stage3- software currently and without issue so far... His plans are to save in the background for BWs in case of anything..

I'll post up some logs of how they pull, and lay it over his previous Stage 2+ (also VAST tuning) on K03s. You'll be able to see the difference in a Stage 3- setup versus a Stage 2+.

[Militant-Grunt]

pretty nuts eh? btw did messing w/ the mbc fix the boost issues?

Yep, brought it up to 22psi. Had the car up on the lift as well, the bottom part of the drivers side turbo is covered in syrupy dried up coolant. I'll take some pictures for the thread compilation if you don't mind Max.

[zx6r1033]

Considering they are selling out of these all the time, I can't help but think there are a ton of people out there that just don't bother posting on forums. Yes, the concerns are valid... there are definitely a lot of issues with these things. Mostly quality control, from what I have seen. But I don't think we are even close to having the full picture on what the actual failure rate is.

[kylel2838]

Considering they are selling out of these all the time, I can't help but think there are a ton of people out there that just don't bother posting on forums. Yes, the concerns are valid... there are definitely a lot of issues with these things. Mostly quality control, from what I have seen. But I don't think we are even close to having the full picture on what the actual failure rate is.

Yeah, as I've said before there are most likely a ton of people who wouldn't waste their breath telling anyone anything on tis forum for fear of being flamed like most of you do to people.

[luvgroovesalad]

My RP's are from the first batch that JHM had, so far I only have 700 miles on them and have not seen any leaks. I will update as soon as I get the 800 miles on the Vast Stage 3 clutch so I can floor it... I did have to grind the one side to fit the banjo bolt, I also used lock tight on the waste gate bolts after I made sure they did not hang up... All of the work was done by myself and my friend who is an AWESOME Audi tech!!

[Adam_S4]

I found this when installing mine, i just rotated the CHAR ;-)

[Trigger Happy]

Cool...thanks man. I'm gonna go have a look at mine to see if that's where it's coming from. I thought maybe it was coming from that coolant line that everyone was grinding but I chose not to. Hopefully I can fix it in 10 minutes - but the problem is that I think it leaks sometimes when the car isn't even running. We'll see. I don't seem to be having the WG issues that others have had. Hopefully that won't creep up in the future.

I wonder what ever happened to AudiGeorge?



Pretty sure your boost would be jumping all over the place. Read that long thread started by AudiGeorge awhile back. He was the first one I heard of who had those problems.

For the coolant leak also check your aux water pump. If it seems like its draining randomly and sometimes after the car is off I will bet money its the aux water pump.