[s-cars] NurSC - What's loud at dawn then silent until twilight...

[Vincent Frégeac]

... 100Kmiles K03.

 

I’ve been urSless for a while now, but when Audi Gods and Turbo Gods start a
fight, my first move is still to duck under the cover of this list’s wisdom
rather than an allroad forum.

 

I bought the allroad last July with perfectly silent turbos. When the
temperature cooled down, I started to hear the soft whine of turbos in the
light of dawn. But only for the first 5 minutes or so of driving: an aging
turbo sound I was used to with the S-Bitch and I didn’t worried much since
the S-Bitch has been whining softly when cold for over 100Kmiles until it
died of unrelated sickness. Then, in the past few days, the cold whining
turbo went quickly from soft to quite louder but still becoming silent as
soon as the water temperature approach 60C/140F (water gauge has barely
moved). This afternoon, after being parked inside for the day (about 60F),
the turbo went fairly mad the first time I hit 2000rpm, barely on boost,
almost covering all noises (traffic, engine, me), so I went limp mode until
the water gage started to move and, sure enough, silent turbo. I even
hammered it from 2Krpm to 4Krpm when the engine was properly warmed up, not
a sound from the turbo.

 

Now, from all my readings, it seems that a failing turbo goes from soft
whine when cold to soft whine all the time, _then_ to louder and louder, but
I have no BTDT. Besides, the K03 are still teens, at 100Kmiles, too young to
die. So I’m wondering if it’s really that I should plan on going RS4 sooner
than expected or could it be some oil/oil feed problem that _will_ force me
to go RS4 sooner than expected if not fixed ASAP, something I would rather
avoid since the RS4 budget is not yet completely, properly, barely, funded
(read: a dime or two so far but I think I may add a quarter this month).

 

For information, the patient is 8 years old, just passed 100Kmiles. It has
been dealer maintained (including oil changes... and wipers!)  until I put
my pawns on it so I expect, hope (should I, really, knowing dealers?) that
the K03s have only seen Audi-approved synthetic oil of the recommended
weight while in PO’s hands. Inspection on purchase revealed only very small
traces of oil at the bottom of intake hoses and ICs. Oil has been changed to
Mobil1 0W30 in the first weeks of ownership then, since early December, K03
are seeing Mobil 1 5W30 (plain old Wal-Mart Mobil 1, no synth, no European
formula, no snake oil), one step up the 0W30 ideal weight but still in the
recommended weight range (0W30, 5W30 or 5W40), trying to tame down a small
valve cover leak until the weather warms up and I can fix it. Since the
temperature has rarely dropped below 15F in the morning this winter, I don’t
think the switch 5W30 would cause that noise.

 

So, what kind of offering do you, priests of the Turbo Gods and Audi Gods,
think could put the Gods at peace?

 

Thanks for reading that far.

 

 

Vincent.