What do you guys think of these used ko3s? Pics&VIDEO
 

I bought a used set of turbos from a pretty cool person that is on the forums and distributes for a large performance company I shouldn't say who for their privacy. Anyway We met up i looked at them and decided to buy them cause they seemed fine, 50k miles only chipped for about 5-7k so they should be ok. right?... I mean my passenger side just blew and my car made it to 159942 miles on stockers driven kinda hard here and there. but oil was always changed before 5k and warm up and cool down was always done properly. did have chip for the last 2k which sped the process of it blowing. So i bought these cause im a little tight on cash at the moment considering i dropped 2600 in the last 2 months on major maintenance like water pump, mounts, all oil seals, flushes in all fluid areas, tune, and much more basically a ton of stuff. Love my car but it loves money. So let me know if i should go fourth with having these installed i am looking to see what you guys think of them. I was told that a little shaft play is normal even in new k03s due to the floating bearing so when video was shot there obviously is no oil in there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v70-M1NnGSo

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...7/photo5-4.jpg
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...7/photo4-4.jpg
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...7/photo3-4.jpg
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...7/photo2-5.jpg
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...7/photo1-2.jpg

And this photo show a little bit of oil sweat on the driver side, I was iffy about this before i bought them but I did notice oil sweat in my car before my passenger side blew and a friend of mines car has the same thing. The guy that sold them to me said its from the y pipe and the breather system (spider hoses letting their exhaust out. I took them because it made sense cause i have noticed tiny bits of sweating oil and exhaust smell in that side intercooler and dv.
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n.../photo-2-1.jpg

It all depends on what you are paying for labor, if its from free to $500, go for it. You could get lucky, or you could end up doing this again real soon. Or if you are getting ready to dump the car, why not.

Im planning on keeping for at least another year. Labor 800.

Yeah, if its for just another year, not too bad of a bet I guess.

Hello:
I would seriously advise against putting these turbos in.
A very good friend of mine who owns a reputable Audi tuning shop gave me a set of used K03's and a killer deal on the installation. However, he cautioned against doing it and to try to purchase K04s. Well, I didn't have the money for K04's but had him put the used ones in. 2000 miles later, they were blown again.

I ended up with K04s and I am extremely sorry I didn't just park the car and take the train to work till I saved up for these.

They make a huge difference. BTW, my buddy replaced the failed turbos for free, installed the new K04s and gave me the downpipes from an RS4 for free. Please don't make the same mistake I did.
Good Luck

dang that sucks, well i havent done it yet. I took the turbos you saw above to the shop to get the work done and they told me not to put those in because he said they wouldn't last long cause there is a crack on both of them. So i returned them to the guy that sold them to me and went to vast and personally picked a really good pair from the 50 sitting there lol. They look and feel good. I wish i could go k04 but they are retardely expensive and with my car having almost 160k on it ifeel bad spending 3500ish to have them put in. I figure id sell this car in a year or 2. Im gonna run the car on stock mode from now on. I have to get some of the moneys worth out of my car, i dumped tooooo much into it in the past few months getting it perfect. Thanks for looking out though i really appreciate it.

I advise against used K03s, too.
 

You personally picked a good pair from vast, but then also say you had a cracked pair from another well regarded vendor. Did you not notice the crack? What is your expertise in inspecting turbo chargers? Not trying to be a dick, but these are highly technical products that spin at like 100k rpms. The smallest problem means you'll be pulling your engine again. And just visually inspecting one isn't going to tell you much of anything.

You're rolling the dice with used.

It seems like when folks try and cut too many corners with these cars, we end up paying more, way more, in the end.

Dude, you aren't being a dick. I should of clarified a little better. Me and Prince (Worker at vast) picked the best pair we could find. Today i took the turbos to the guys doing the work, the inspected them (people that actually rebuild turbos) and they said they feel solid and are way better than what i had before. So i hope all goes well. If not then car will be sold as is and it will be time for a B6 s4 or a B7 A4 2.0t. Much more reliable.

what did vast charge you for the turbos if you dont mind?

pm sent