Are Stigan Turbos worth it?

[sixty220]

I’ve been riding on a bad wastegate for a year now. I’ve been tirelessly learning the proper ways to replace the turbo myself. Now that I am pretty confident that I can do it myself, picking the turbo, not so much. Not really trying to spend that much money..

Should I :
1.) Buy a Stigan Turbo from Amazon ($750)
Stigan offers a two-year unlimited milage warranty.

Or

2.) Buy a preowned low mileage OEM turbocharger from ebay ($250)

Ps. Not interested on upgrading to K04 since its a daily driver + I drive for work racking up about 3k-4k miles per month, so K04 is really unnecessary and fuel economy is worsening.


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[captain_video]

I installed a Stigan turbo in my '99 Passat 1.8T and it performed quite well for the year or so before I got rid of the car and upgraded to an A4. The Passat had about 205k miles on it and things just started going up on it one after another so I had to decide of I wanted to keep pouring money into repairs or bite the bullet and get a new ride. I had owned the car for about 15 years or so and bought it used around 2002 and I figured I got my money's worth out of it so it was time for another car. I'm not sure I'd want to install a used turbocharger in any car since you don't really know what kind of condition it's in or how the car was driven that it came from. I would also go with a new turbo since the amount of labor involved makes it worthwhile to spend the extra for a new unit. It's not something you would enjoy replacing more than once. The A4 B8 turbo seems to be less of a problem to replace than the one on my 1.8T based on several of the videos I've seen, but it's still a bit involved. I always get a chuckle out of guys that do the replacement videos with the engine out of the car. It does provide for a clear view of all of the connections and hardware that need to be removed, but it doesn't reflect the level of difficulty trying to access them when installed in the car.

[sixty220]

I installed a Stigan turbo in my '99 Passat 1.8T and it performed quite well for the year or so before I got rid of the car and upgraded to an A4. The Passat had about 205k miles on it and things just started going up on it one after another so I had to decide of I wanted to keep pouring money into repairs or bite the bullet and get a new ride. I had owned the car for about 15 years or so and bought it used around 2002 and I figured I got my money's worth out of it so it was time for another car. I'm not sure I'd want to install a used turbocharger in any car since you don't really know what kind of condition it's in or how the car was driven that it came from. I would also go with a new turbo since the amount of labor involved makes it worthwhile to spend the extra for a new unit. It's not something you would enjoy replacing more than once. The A4 B8 turbo seems to be less of a problem to replace than the one on my 1.8T based on several of the videos I've seen, but it's still a bit involved. I always get a chuckle out of guys that do the replacement videos with the engine out of the car. It does provide for a clear view of all of the connections and hardware that need to be removed, but it doesn't reflect the level of difficulty trying to access them when installed in the car.

Thank you for the input! I really haven’t seen any clear reviews on them and how reliable they are. I’m in love with the fact that it has a 2-year warranty on it.


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[RPMtech147]

Thank you for the input! I really haven’t seen any clear reviews on them and how reliable they are. I’m in love with the fact that it has a 2-year warranty on it.


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Mine lasted maybe two weeks. Wasn't worth the hassle. Should have just installed an IHI the first time and been done with it. Wasted 1/2 a Saturday doing it again. Buy once, cry once.

Here's the two week old Stigan wastegate.


I fought with an intermittent loss of all boost pressure for 2 months because I was sure there was no way a brand new turbo could fail that quickly, even if it was chicom garbage.

Don't do it.

[sixty220]

So do you suggest me using a preowned ihi oem turbo instead?


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[Jayz691]

If your willing to spend $700+ on a Stigan, spend a little more and buy a new oem turbo.

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[Jayz691]

https://www.europaparts.com/turbocha...6h145702s.html

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[sixty220]

https://www.europaparts.com/turbocha...6h145702s.html

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Thank you!!!!!!


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[captain_video]

I bought the Stigan because I got the best deal that I could find on it at the time. I think I bought it through Amazon. Buying any aftermarket parts can be a crapshoot so Caveat Emptor. My son bought a 2002 A4 at an auction and one of the first things I did to it was install a new timing belt kit. The brand new timing belt tensioner failed after only a couple of months and resulted in a repair that cost over $2k. I bought the kit from ECSTuning so I would like to assume they use quality parts in their kits. I didn't know anything about Stigan turbos either when I bought it, but mine worked fine for the remaining time that I had the car. The irony is that I thought the OEM turbo in my '99 Passat had failed. The wastegate was definitely stuck open and the turbo had virtually no boost whatsoever. The car went from zero to sixty in about five minutes. The 1.8T is an absolute dog without the turbo boost. Shortly after I received the new turbo the one in my car suddenly started working again and everything was back to normal. I didn't want to risk it going bad again so I went ahead and replaced it anyway. It was definitely an all day job and some of the hardware was a royal pain to access, but I stumbled through it and it all worked fine afterwards.

I recently got a P0299 00 code on my 2014 A4 2.0T and it turns out the turbo is starting to fail. Fortunately, the after coolant pump recall that they had a while back resulted in Audi of America extending the warranty on the turbo for another ten years. Failure of the coolant pump could result in premature failure of the turbo so they extended the warranty and will replace it if it fails. As luck would have it, I had scheduled an appointment with my local Audi dealer to get it checked out but there was a scheduling conflict at my end so I had to reschedule the appointment. Of course, the fault light on the dash went out right afterwards and never came back before the new appointment date so I had to cancel it a 2nd time. What's silly is that the light had remained on for the entire time prior to the first appointment that I had scheduled. The fault indicator just came back on last night so I'm hoping it stays on long enough for the dealer to run their diagnostic and see the low boost fault and replace it under warranty. Gotta run VCDS sometime today to confirm it's the same fault before I call the dealership, but I'm pretty sure it is.

[Jayz691]

The codes should still be stored, even if mil is off. Didn't you scan it before cancelling your appt?

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[captain_video]

The codes should still be stored, even if mil is off. Didn't you scan it before cancelling your appt?

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No, I didn't. I assumed that once the fault indicator went off the fault would have been cleared and not show up in a new scan. The indicator is back on again so I plan on running a new scan sometime today and then make a new appointment with the dealership, assuming it's the same fault. Hopefully the code will still be there even if the MIL goes off again before the appointment. I just don't want to have to pay $150 for a diagnostic scan at the dealership and not have them fix it under warranty. They told me I'd be responsible for paying for the diagnostic if they can't find anything wrong with the car.

How do I locate the code using VCDS if the fault has cleared on its own?

[Jayz691]

No, I didn't. I assumed that once the fault indicator went off the fault would have been cleared and not show up in a new scan. The indicator is back on again so I plan on running a new scan sometime today and then make a new appointment with the dealership, assuming it's the same fault. Hopefully the code will still be there even if the MIL goes off again before the appointment. I just don't want to have to pay $150 for a diagnostic scan at the dealership and not have them fix it under warranty. They told me I'd be responsible for paying for the diagnostic if they can't find anything wrong with the car.

How do I locate the code using VCDS if the fault has cleared on its own?

Just check codes, they are stored. Run a scan.

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[adamazing]

https://www.europaparts.com/turbocha...6h145702s.html

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Damn, that's a good deal. If I hadn't recently bought a used IHI for a few bucks, this would have been the next best option.