Good turbo gone bad (tried to keep it short)
 

Does anyone have any experience with a turbo going bad? I was told today that we need to replace the turbo on our stock(wife's) '00 1.8t QMS w/ 41k miles. We have this ongoing(2 years now), intermitent(months inbetween) problem where we have serious hesitation when accelerating. Mostly on the highway in 5th gear pulling through the 3k rpm range but a couple of times at lower speeds, still usually around the same rpm. Feels like there's no gas getting to the engine for a second or two. The dealer has replaced the Mass Airflow Sensor twice under warranty but now it's the out of warranty "turbo"?

I've been a reader here since pre-ownership, know how turbos work, did the search thing but haven't seen anything really related to the "symptoms" of a bad turbo. We've never experienced low power, no boost, whining, etc.. just the problems mentioned above. Yes, I idle after driving hard. I plan on seeing the turbo to look for the obvious faults but would appreciate any questions to ask the dealer, problems to look for in addition to this, ways to not pay the 500 bucks!!
joe

Could be a bad diverter valve that only sticks infrequently.
 

It's a cheap part and if that doesn't fix it you'll only be out about $30.

Doesn't sound like a bad turbo.
 

When it's dead, it's DEAD. Find another dealer, gather all your receipts showing evidence of past work to fix THIS problem, call AoA and explain the situation, and tell them you want this fixed under warranty, and you want it FIXED. See what they can do for you.

Why have you been living with this problem for 2 years without a resolution? (don't answer that)

Doubt its your turbo - My turbo went with about 1 month of loud whistling.. then boost totally died.
 

New turbo will cost you more than $500 bucks! More like $1500 by the time its installed.

could be a faulty bpv or o2 sensor...
 

you could also try and find someone local to you who has a vag-com, put it on there and see if any DTC's come up. CEL ever pop up?