[Biturbos4] Unholy smoke

[Chris Newbold]

On Thu, August 4, 2005 6:32 pm, Keman said:

> I'd love to know what technique they used to figure out that it was the
> turbos tho. :P

I went down there today to talk face-to-face with the tech and see exactly
what he found and did to reach this conclusion. Seemed like a nice guy and
willing to chat.

The bottom line, though, is that this is a seat-of-the-pants diagnosis. He
took apart the lower intake system-- from the turbos to the intercoolers--
but didn't find much oil. Other than that, he said that the smoking at
startup is, in their experience, the very first sign of turbos in decline.

I've run Amsoil in the motor since the 1000-mile mark, and have always
waited until it was warmed up before getting on the boost and have cooled
it down so that the oil temp was under 225 before shut-down. That said, I
have driven the car very hard, but not abusively so. I explained this to
the tech, and his comment was that Amsoil was very good, but the 0W-30
weight might be a bit too thin. I didn't bother arguing that is the
recommended weight according to the owner's manual...

On the one hand, this didn't really satisfy me. On the other, they must
have to justify this to Audi with enough evidence of failure to get paid.
So, I held my togue and resisted calling "bullsh*t!" on them.

I suppose new turbos at 55k for free is worth something, even if there was
still life in the original ones...

-Chris
2001.5 S4 Avant 6spd