Has anyone got a clear guide or any tips to changing the actuator on a vrs mk1? Preferably want to do it from the top. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Good luck. Apparently it can be done from the top, I believe you need the manifold out of the way because one of the bolts would be impossible to reach otherwise. However I managed to get my manifold off without lifting out the turbo, admittedly I didn't care much about bending hard lines as I was breaking the car, but just undo the turbo from manifold and will move out the way just enough.

I dropped the turbo a little to get access to some of the awkward manifold nuts at the bottom. You will have to remove one of the coolant or oil line banjo bolts to be able to completely remove one of the actuator bolts.

I changed an actuator once on a 225 1.8T and it was a royal pain, took me ages but managed to do it in the end without taking the oil feed line off . I also needed to grind spanners down and do the entire job by looking in a mirror to see what I was doing.

 

If I did it again I would take the turbo off the car no doubt about it.

Be prepared with a few beers and to much patience... Except those 2 essential things you will need a good set of hand gloves so you will not scrape you hands back there.And don't run the engine before you start working, so everything back there will be cold!

Edited 17 May, 201610 yr by ThomasItis

Cheers for the feeback, what sort of time frame will I need for the job? Also are any of you running the forge actuator? If so would it be possible to change the spring without having to take the actuator bracket off again? As mine has arrived with a green spring and I might change it after a stage 2 remap for a different spring