Blog Car Parts

Someone showed me a pair of Volkswagen Passat Turbocharger. One of them was purchased on ebay cheap, but with no warranty. It failed within a month. The other one was purchased from TurbochargerPros.com for a little more, but has worked perfectly for 3 months so far. This is the joy of aftermarket parts.

You can see by looking at the pictures that they look very similar, but are not made in the same place. The castings on each are different. Both of these turbochargers are made in China. This is why China has a bad reputation because some factories will produce total junk. The other one is a very nice VW turbo, probably the same people that make them for VW originally. It just goes to show, that you can get anything out of China, you have to trust who you are getting them from.

My advice is buy from a reputable company like Turbocharger Pros, they seem to have a very good source on VW and Audi Turbocharger and they back them up. That is key, if they will send you a replacement part right away, without making you send yours back first, then that is a good company to buy from.

So with the price of gas these days, everyone is looking for better mileage. I had a friend who was looking at buying a late model off lease Audi A4. He was looking at both the Audi Turbo model and the non turbocharger model. The question is, which way to go?

Audi offers both the Audi A4 Turbo model and the naturally aspirated version. Both are fun cars to drive, but the extra kick of the turbo and the better MPG usually wins it for me.

The turbo version will typically get much better MPG too. I say typically because if the turbo is not working correctly or has been over juiced, then maybe not. The problem with the turbocharged vehicles is that they don’t have the boost until about 2-3 thousand RPM. Some drivers just don’t like that. They feel like they need that extra power at take-off. I personally can live without it. Especially at $4 gas.

Have an audi or vw turbocharger and want to upgrade?
Many options like this 98 Volkswagen Beetle Turbo charger allow you to drop in a bigger k04 turbocharger without modification. Many turbo upgrades require you to change air pipes, mounts, intercoolers, etc, etc, but many of the audi and VW turbos have factory upgrades that can drop in . This can give you an up to 50% boost in horsepower. Visit some message boards or check some catalogs, might be a cheap way to increase horsepower and probably be more gas efficient.