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DIY Change Turbo to Manifold Gasket with Pictures

66K views 102 replies 39 participants last post by  silkman  
#1 ·
Hi everyone, just changed the failed turbo gasket in my TT and thought I'd show you guys how if you have the same problem.

Symptoms:
- Early symptoms include turbo whistling or screeching for me (just days before gasket failed)
- Loud tractor/noise like this
- Possible smoke /smell of exhaust fumes coming from back of engine

Diagnosis:
- Ask a garage to find out what the noise is
- Or get a bottle of soapy water and spray the area on the exhaust where there could be an exhaust leak, you will see bubbling if air is escaping.

If you find out its coming from between the turbo and the exhaust manifold, it could be that the gasket has failed.

So here is how to change the gasket, it's not a difficult job but you need the basic tools and some knowledge around the engine.

Tools required:
- Basic socket and rachet set with extensions (can't remember which size but 10mm to 18mm should be more than enough).
- E16 Inverse Torx socket
- Torque wrench (recommended)
- Copper grease

You should be good to go :mrgreen:

Parts required:
Either 06A253039E - the turbo to manifold gasket for engines AJQ,APP,ARY AUM,AUQ (around ÂŁ7 from Audi)
Or 06A253039H - for engines APX,BAM

Anything else you break on the way :cry: , you can look here for the part numbers http://www.vagcat.com/epc/cat/au/ATT/2000/229/49/2879213/

Steps:

1. Park the car somewhere safe, in case you come across a problem and have to leave it overnight. Luckily we don't need to get under the car.

2. Open bonnet, remove plastic engine and expansion tank covers.

3. First thing to do is remove the strut brace, 3 nuts on each side and 2 in the middle.

4. Unclamp and disconnect the 2 hoses connected to the charge pipe (photo).

5. Now remove the charge pipe, this is held on with two clamps (each with a nut). Unclamp the large jubilee clips on both end to fully remove the pipe.

Image


6. Unclamp and remove the pink 90 degree hose from the turbocharger as well as the fabric heat shield which is buttoned in place.

7. Place a rubber glove or plastic bag over the open end of the turbocharger, we do not want things falling in there as it could damage the turbine.

8. NOW with more space, look round at the back of the engine. You can climb onto the engine bay but careful to not scratch the paint work. Find the exhaust manifold, the brown iron thing coming out the back of the engine (photo).

9. Undo the 3 E16 Inverse Torx bolts And retreive the washers **BE CAREFUL**, they can be very stiff, I ended up shearing one of them so now half of it is stuck inside the turbocharger :O

NOTE: Should be E16, the picture shows E14 which is wrong. :!:

Image


10. The turbo should now drop slightly, just reach between the manifold and turbocharger and you will be able to slide out the old gasket.

Image


11. Slot the new gasket in place, REMEMBERING which way it went round.

Image


12. Carefully align the holes up and replace the 3 bolts (and washers) with high temperature copper grease so it doesn't seize inside and cause a problem for the next guy who comes round there. Tighten these to 30Nm.

12. Replace the pink hose and clamp onto turbo with the heatshield in place.

13. Replace the charge pipe, make sure to line it up so that the 2 clamps fit back into place. Reattach the two black hoses and both ends of the charge pipe.

13. Replace strut brace (tighten each nut to 22Nm).

14. Replace plastic covers.

15. Done! Easy.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
I think it was starting to fail when I bought it 6 months ago, the turbo whistling and a slight rumbling sound occurred when I put my foot down. I thought this was the turbo spooling because it sounded so good :mrgreen: Now its nice and quiet.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
I did suspect the flex pipe, which would have been an a**hole to change because the entire downpipe has to come off. The engine bay is so tightly packed that its difficult to even reach behind the back of the engine.

I guessed they packaged it like this to transfer as much of the weight as rearward as possible.
 
Discussion starter · #18 ·
brooksesi said:
06A145540G I think, it's under engine/turbocharger, not in exhaust manifold section.

jonnyl888, did you find it was noisy when cold, then quieten down when the system got hot? Did it make a kind of farty noise when you blip the throttle?
There used to be a loud tractory noise when it was cold which went away after it warmed up. I think this has something to do with the secondary air intake. If I blipped the throttle I would get a rumbling noise on the inside of the car, and if I put my foot down it would whistle/screech. But after the gasket gave up one day, it was permanent tractor noise like the video.
 
Discussion starter · #21 ·
I took it down to a local indy garage which my friend knows quite well. Inspection was free and they confirmed it was the gasket. It's quite hard to see so what he did was lift the vehicle, turn the wheel to the left to get more space, and from the right side of the car just stuck his head in and started spraying soapy water everywhere. Nice guy from Poland, doesn't mind getting stuck in and dirty. He quoted around ÂŁ50-60 (2 hour job) to fix it because he thought the manifold had to come out first, but luckily the job wasn't too hard a job so I did it myself. Will be going down there again if I get a problem.
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
tangapants said:
Im going to give this a go as mine sounds a bit tractory, can i ask what does 22Nm mean? how do you measure that?

also youve written E16 torque required but the diagram has E14 screws?

Thanks
Yea sorry it's E16, I edited the text but not the picture.

You need a torque wrench to tighten it to 22Nm (which is the torque required to turn something). I.e. the higher the torque the tighter you screw it in. If you don't have one, you can kinda estimate. Imagine 2.2kg balancing off the end of a 1m long stick. How much turning force (torque) will this produce.
 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
You could probably run your finger round and not feel anything because the gasket is tucked neatly between the turbo and manifold. Those bolts shouldn't be too hard to undo, if proper bolts were used and tightened to the correct torque setting. Problem with mine was the last guy who was in there used normal steel bolts which have a much lower operating temperature as opposed to the stainless steel Audi ones (probably why they are like ÂŁ7 each :eek: ).

Make sure you get a tonne of WD40 in there.
 
Discussion starter · #32 ·
Were they the OEM E16 external torx bolts? How did you manage to round it off? Did you go at it with an impact wrench :eek: ?

I always use a breaker bar as it allows a lot more control, whereas an impact wrench will try to force it off.

DO NOT drill down too far as the bolt is only a few CM long and the bottom is actually the turbocharger itself. Maybe you have hit the turbo which you cant drill through.

Did you get a good set of bolt extractors? Theres a good set at Screwfix. You can just use a rachet wrench with these.

The last option which I hope you don't have to do is remove the turbo itself unfortunately. Then weld a new bolt to the rounded off bolt, then unscrew this new one.

Have you got a picture?