Ebay Turbo

[Etches]

What do people think to this? Could it be a chinese copy?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-PASSAT-1-8T-20V-TURBO-K03-TURBO-CHARGER-AEB-ANB-APU-/400194161753?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5d2d6e4c59

[hayesey]

It'll be a Chinese copy for that price yeah

[sinister polo]

definatley a copy at that price and its appearance!

[dub-disaster]

definantly hasnt even got the writing on the compressor housing.

[breadman]

It'll definately be a copy for that money. I've got a Chinese copy and upon inspection it seems absolutely fine.
I know there are many who scoff at Chinese copies but I reckon they're worth a punt. Like any turbo they can fail and I'm sure there'll be someone who will tell you a story of how crap they all are cause they've had one fail. Any part can fail regardless of make, just look at Bosch blue temp senders and Lambda's, both notoriously unreliable.
Good luck.

[Andy]

Yoof's second Chinese turbo seemed to hold together fine, and is still going strong on Robin's car, but the first one didn't last long at all. Materials and quality control aren't going to match Borg Warner, but then neither does the price!

I took the other budget option, and bought a secondhand genuine item - first one I bought was shagged, but the second's been fine and I bought a third as a spare - all for the same price as a Chinese one.

[breadman]

Like you say Andy, materials and quality control ain't gonna match BW.
However Pete's second one has been fine, if anyone was gonna seriously test one it'dl be Pete! Pot luck really.
A secondhand genuine one is probably the best bet, but I'd want a close inspection before parting with any money. Ebayer sellers have a habit of being rather generous in their descriptions!

[cheys03]

The only thing I've found when looking for 2nd hand genuine units is the cast appears prone to cracking near the wastegate. The current one I'm using has a crack that leaks water until hot (30secs) when the gap is closes as the metal expands. For me anyway, it's been difficult to source a very good condition 2nd hand genuine. Quite interesting to read the copies might be a viable alternative.

[dub-disaster]

i got mine from passat froums from people who have upgraded to k04 try there for secondhand units

[cheys03]

Good tip, cheers

[hayesey]

I got my spare one off a guy breaking a passat near me, cost £50.

Yoof's second Chinese turbo seemed to hold together fine

I thought the second turbo was a frankenstien made from bits of his original k03 and the housings from the chinese one?  Or did he have another chinese one as well as that?

I think it's debatable what caused his failure really, he was running the car with no dump valve which we know isn't good for them.  So it's hard to say that his failure was completely the fault of poor quality manufacturing but then I did half a track day with no dump valve when I blew my plastic VAG dump valve up (using a screwdriver handle to block the dump valve hole ).  It didnt do any damage to my scrapyard original k03 at 21psi boost, the boost spikes caused with no dump valve kept blowing boost pipes off though.

[Yoof]

Hayesey- It's the worst kind of hybrid, made from half genuine half copy bits 

The core is genuine which is the important bit. For sure running with no dumpvalve was the cause, just I think the copy gave way long before a genuine one would. The casings on the compressor side are made of some cheap cast ally too, when I was fitting my aquamist the swarf came off in chunks!

Little tip too-I bought a 'K04-15' from e-Bay, just a K03 with a stronger actuator (a proper K04-15 is a machined K03 housing with K04 internals) the giveaway was obvious, and I got a large amount of money back after a few e-mails to the company regarding the VW stamp on the turbo.

Chirs- you should be able to swap the exhaust housings, bit of a pain to do but most turbos will have cracks between the wastegate and turbine.

[Andy]

Yoofy, your second turbo was made up of the core of that Chinese "K04-015" and the housings from your original Chinese one that came on Ben's car - unless you ended up using bits of housing from my original turbo too? The original shat itself at Oulton, and the replacement's compressor housing fell apart when you were trying to tap it for Aquamist.

My current turbo's got a cracked exhaust housing too, it'd been used on a Mk2 Golf 20v conversion running 20psi - so will've taken a beating. Still works okay though - and I've got parts to swap over if needs be.

[hayesey]

hmm I'll have to check my k03s to see if they have cracks.  The one on the car doesnt leak to my knowledge.

[Raw]

This is for Holset (diesel) turbos, but I imagine the same goes for any genuine V's copy comparison.

http://www.holset.co.uk/chargingahead/?p=184

I know what I'll be doing when I go turbo.