danderson

Hi all,

For the past few weeks, I've noticed the turbo whine in my wife's bone-stock '02 A4 Avant 1.8T getting louder. It has become quite noticeable, to the point that even my wife mentioned it (and she doesn't typically pay attention to that sort of thing).

Was wondering if anybody else has experienced this, and if it turned out to be a sign of impending failure (bearings going, etc.). This car has 65k miles on it and has had regular oil changes (every 5k miles, typically with Mobil1 0W40), and still performs flawlessly. In fact, recently it has seemed to have a little more punch that usual, though it may be due to the cooler weather...

I searched the archives, but didn't see anything about stock turbo whine.

Thanks,
Dave

Bob@Stratmosphere

Does it sound like a dentist drill?

Tgr_Clw

At what rpm ranges?

danderson

It occurs at all RPM ranges where we have always heard the turbo -- as soon as it spools up until a shift near redline. (Can't recall the exact range.) We've owned the car since new. We could always faintly hear the turbo, but typically the radio had to be off. Now, we can even hear it over the radio if the radio isn't too loud.

I supposed one could compare the sound to a dentist drill. It basically sounds like the stock turbo, only significantly louder.

Thanks,
Dave

Tgr_Clw

The turbo might be on its way out. Was the turbo taken care of (as in cooled down properly)?

a4tisâ„¢[Bye Turbo]

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/96166/turbolady.jpg">

Sounds like the turbo lady made a visit (

MB The Body

lol

danderson

It's my wife's kid-hauler, so she doesn't really drive it that hard. We also live in a neighborhood where we have to drive slowly for a minute or two before reaching our house, so the car has never really been driven hard and hung up wet (so to speak....). So I think the turbo has typically been able to cool off before getting parked.

My thinking was that the turbo may be nearing the end, but I wanted to see if anybody else had a similar noise before it gave up the ghost. (It's been doing this for a couple of months now, and like I said, it certainly isn't down on power.)

Thanks,
Dave