Id honestly go to R Tech.

Id honestly go to R Tech.

I'm hoping to I rang and left a message. Do they fit hardware?

They will do anything.  They usually keep a spares selection too so if your car gets there and they find it needs a pipe or whatever they can fit it there and then.

 

Very good ratings from these guys

 

I would speak to them and let can guide you from there

Edited 11 April, 201511 yr by Liverpool-Lad

Badger5 at Stonehouse, near Gloucester bit nearer if you don't fancy the trip to R-Tech.

Badger5 at Stonehouse, near Gloucester bit nearer if you don't fancy the trip to R-Tech.

Ah yeah heard good things about Badger Bill, cheers for that.

R-tech don't do fitting, only smoke-testing and very minor bits to health-check the car for mapping. An actuator swap is a bit fiddly, but the turbo doesn't have to come off. The manifold does have to come off and you have to remove an oil feed (replace the washers, I've got a few kicking around if you need them) to get to one of the three bolts holding the actuator bracket to the turbo. I dropped the turbo a little as well, but I can't remember if this is a necessity; I had the downpipe off at the time and was fitting a fat old intake pipe too.

R-tech don't do fitting, only smoke-testing and very minor bits to health-check the car for mapping. An actuator swap is a bit fiddly, but the turbo doesn't have to come off. The manifold does have to come off and you have to remove an oil feed (replace the washers, I've got a few kicking around if you need them) to get to one of the three bolts holding the actuator bracket to the turbo. I dropped the turbo a little as well, but I can't remember if this is a necessity; I had the downpipe off at the time and was fitting a fat old intake pipe too.

Think I read on another forum that the turbo does need to be dropped a little but doesnt have to come off. Means I'm even more wary of paying my local 4 hours labour! I'll give badger a ring and see what he's saying, I'll attempt to tackle most things myself with what little skills I have but I'm a bit wary about doing this. I may have a closer exam and give it some thought...

I say do lots of preparation and get stuck in. No idea how long it took me to do the actuator swap as I did so many other things at the same time, but I guess 4 hours isn't that far off. Here's some useful links saved in my bookmarks:

 

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=210760.0

 

http://uk-mkivs.net/topic/26561-agu-18t-125000miles-actuator-snuffed-new-turbo-or-just-replace-actuator/

 

It's not a particularly difficult job, just nuts and bolts at the end of the day.

Sit rep: Following fitting my catch can and ripping out those breather pipes and finding the mother of all splits in the lower breather where it met the Y pipe. Thought I'd log yesterday to see if it made a difference. I didn't expect it to help the boost issue but thought it may reduce the intake temps which could help. Temps on steady state part throttle were reduced, but peeked around the same. I have an uprated smic (can't afford fmic atm so going to try this, am only stage 1 anyway) coming this week. Whether I need to fit my new actuator or not I need to do something about the intake temps (see previous page). Anyway, logged boost, still the same pattern but a very slight drop in psi, only just made specified. There was a weird kick of boost (18psi) very briefly just at the redline, not too concerned about that right now, could be a bit of duty cycle weirdness as boost was tailing off below specified. I was just reading on an Audi forum that if turbo is slow to spool and car doesn't hold boost at high revs, which is exactly what's happening it could be a matter of spring preload on the actuator. Would it be worth trying 2 or 3 turns of the bolt before I attempt to fit my new one? I forgot to log n75 with boost so will do that this morning.