latest boost saga with the 200

[robert weinberg]

man, if i knew this thing would be this big a money pit, i would have held out for a cleaner example.

oh well, she's still only got 115,000 miles. lots of life left. at least that's what i thought.

took the car to 034 motorsport last week. the car has never had a solid once over, so now is  as good a time as any.

the main reason for taking it there was to figure out why the car isn't pulling past 1.4 bar even with an IA3+ chip. used to haul ass. now it's not. still faster than stock, but no more "kick in the pants". resetting the computer used to help. now, no difference. ian said he was having the same problems as well - BUT was told by mike brasil  that his turbo was on it's way out.

they have two solid days into the car so far (charged me for 6 hours)

- replaced the pump to rack PS hose ($80 - so i assume they put a new hose with existing hardware)
- installed 034 tranny mounts
- replaced the multifunction sensor - $39
- replaced the coolant temp sensor
- replaced leaky boost and vacuum lines after pressure testing the intake.
- rebuilt the crankcase breather system (all hoses were rotted)
- examined the turbo - felt fine and in spec
ran the codes, only found coolant temp sensure issue (replaced the multifunction anyway)
- tried a different bypass valve.
- took apart waste gate
- verified correct signal to all sensors that might affect boost. all good
- ripped off the cat converter all the way back - drove it. said it sounded cool, but didn't help boost much.
- installed an 034 2.5 bar chip in place of the IA3 in ian's motronic ecu. not much difference

so....they want to try my ecu and their chip, if not, then they will remove the turbo and take it apart.

Dan said to have ian fedex my original ecu to their shop for early next week (he has it so he can still start his car - despite the accident). he thinks ian's ecu might be suspect. he tried to borrow one, but the one guy he knows who has 3 was unreachable.

i said well, i can't keep throwing money at it. Dan said they've kept that in mind but they refuse to be punked by an Audi ;-)

any other ideas?

Robby