Avantgarde

2001.5 Avant Giac-X, Neuspeed G2, 710n.

My turobs have been dentist drilling for the last two months, to the point that I made the decision to replace ASAP and am collecting Stage III parts (K04s in the mail...)

Although you can hear the turbos grinding under full boost, boost has been fine, although I have not been getting on it too much. Generally I peak at 16ish and hold steady at 15psi (give or take).

Today I am noticing the following:

Hitting it WOT at lower rpms (say under or at 3k rpms) boost is hitting 10 or 11 and holding until the rpms climb until around 4,500 and then it will spike to 18 and settle back in at normal levels to redline.

Hitting it with the revs up (say at 4k+ rpms) will boost fine (although it seems a little more spikey then usual) and will hold.

Is this a boost leak or is it possibly just a turbo really starting to get all f'ed up? It seems like if it were a leak I wouldn't be able to generate and hold boost no matter where in the rev band the engine was.

Unfortunately My VAG computer broke so I am running with a mechanical boost gauge, but I will have some logs from a different computer on Monday.

Since I have written off these K03s (and overpaid for K04s) i almost hope it is not a leak.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Tim