Bad Turbo or Bad Mechanic?

[cnseekatz]

2008 Audi A3 2.0T Automatic w/ about 90k miles.

I took my A3 in because of some performance issues and a check engine light. Guy told me that my turbo is shot and needs to be replaced, to the tune of $2,200. I'm just hoping to get some feedback, because I'm skeptical, but not knowledgeable enough to make the call.

Symptoms: Very poor acceleration, check engine light, very very faint whistling/hissing noise during acceleration. It's always eaten a lot of oil (no leaks or smoke), but now I'm leaking a little oil.

Non-Symptoms: No smoke whatsoever, no rattle/scraping/grinding noise, Drives fine once it reaches full speed.

I will obviously have a second opinion, but everything I've read says that a bad turbo is pretty easily diagnosed by sound and smoke. Any thoughts?

[Tiluleshpingen]

whistling , hissing noise sounds like a blown turbo. But 2200 bucks??

[Audibot]

Almost sounds like you blew your diverter valve. I recall blowing mine (07 A4) and got a check engine light for boosting almost immediately. Take the car to Advance Auto or Autozone or one of those places--they can read the codes for you for free. Then look it up.

If it is the DV, it definitely won't cost you $2200. ECS has a kit of sale for <$50. Find an indy shop in your area too (search the Regional Forum).

[Audibot]

whistling , hissing noise sounds like a blown turbo. But 2200 bucks??

I get a "faint" whistling/wizzing noise on my A4 while it spools with no issues. OP needs to get his codes read out first, preferably with someone with VCDS.

OP, you can also check around the Regionals for someone with VCDS (or vagcom as it's known)

[cnseekatz]

I took the car in for a second opinion, and I'm glad I did. They were much more communicative, gave me a thorough inspection report (with photos) and went through everything line by line. They tell me that the proplem is the turbo cut-off valve, a $130 part. Otherwise the turbo looks fine. They found a few other things that need to be fixed, like the crankcase vent valve, and the brake vacuum pump. All in, they quoted me just over $1000. Sure beats replacing the turbo!

[Audibot]

I took the car in for a second opinion, and I'm glad I did. They were much more communicative, gave me a thorough inspection report (with photos) and went through everything line by line. They tell me that the proplem is the turbo cut-off valve, a $130 part. Otherwise the turbo looks fine. They found a few other things that need to be fixed, like the crankcase vent valve, and the brake vacuum pump. All in, they quoted me just over $1000. Sure beats replacing the turbo!

Nice. The "cut-off valve", which is what Audi refers to it as, is what I mentioned as the Diverter Valve and linked you to. So you can grab it for a savings of $80. The pump can be had by Europa Parts for $208. The crankcase vent valve sounds like the PCV to me, which can be had for $114 or so from either ECS or Europa Parts.

None of these are especially difficult, but I still think you can save yourself money by grabbing the parts yourself. I would think the vacuum pump would be the hardest to do labor-wise and it's booked an hour for it.