actuator wrongly fitted, do i pay?

[vwfiend]

Hi all, today I had a Forge actuator fitted to my car as the standard one was 'weak' according to Rtec when they mapped it. They advised me to get a Forge one with a red spring inside so thats what I did. I couldnt be assed to drive all the way to Hinkley to get it fitted so I went to a local performance garage. They said it would be about 2 hours labour when quoting on the phone. I went to pick it up this evening and they said they had trouble as the bracket had a hole in the wrong place and was also much thinner than standard. They also said they had to remove the turbo to fit it so it was 4 hours labour. I was happy to pay it. I took it up the road and there was NO boost at all. I took it back and he said that as the bracket was weak, maybe it wasnt allowing the arm to close properly. Tomorrow he is going to remove the bracket from the original and fit it to the Forge instead. The question is......... Firstly, could this be the problem and secondly, should I have to pay for it a second time as they didnt fix it the first time or is it my fault as I supplied the part? He also mentioned before I took it for a spin that he thought the Forge bracket was flimsy. Cheers for any views   

[RTechUK]

He is right the turbo need to come to get to the front bolt on the bracket, Sound like you guy at the garage has never fitted on to a k03 turbo before, he would have known it was a turbo off job.


But as for a flimsy bracket??  IMO they have not done summat right when fitting it.  And as for trying to fit the oem bracket to the Forge unit there is no point at all.

First make sure they have fitted the spring right.

To set the actuator up you need to make sure the polar axis of the rod is 90 degrees all around from the base of the actuator, then set the waste gate adjustment in the normal manner by undoing both nuts and pusing the waste gate runner up the road until the waste gate fully shuts, then adjust the pre load on the end nut by turning it  2.5 times, then use the rear nut to tighten it all up.  Then check the actuator has got enought pre load on by pulling the rod towards you.
 

[vwfiend]

Cheers for the reply, how can the spring be fitted wrong? The actuator was tested before and was opening at 18 psi. He also said that the nut on the actuator was as far down the thread as it would go to hold the wastegate shut??? I would have thought that it wouldnt open full stop and would overboost instead? 

[ggggolfgti]

i would be getting my money back straigh away, or at very least fixing for free, he should have tried it before giving it you back, (he probably did and thought f**k it)
i dont know where you strand legally butbut illeagally he wouldnt be standing!! 

[Hulmie]

the standard oem bracket wont work with the forge one as it is welded to the oem actuator.

The only way the bolt holes could be out if its the wrong actuator for the turbo as there is a difference between the brackets on a ko3 and ko3s.

Im running a AGU with k03s and R-Tech stage2 map with a forge actuator. there should be a finger tips length of rod stick out before you get to the first nut. that is how mine was set up by R-Tech and then mapped accordingly

[Wazzzer]

the bracket on the Forge actuator is far from flimsy, it's about 4mm thick!! The whole reason mine is crap at the mo is down to the OEM bracket being too flimsy... and as Humie says you can't use the OEM actuator with the Forge actuator

As Nick has said yes the turbo needs to be dropped off to fit it, it also sounds like he's reused all the same gaskets too which is nice

[topher]

no boost at all? have you checked it's not in limp/safe mode?

[vwfiend]

With a temporary boost guage tee'd off the top of the diverter valve it went from -0.5 to just over 0 bar when it started spooling. I didn't know the AGU had a safe mode..... I too have an AGU with ko3s and a rtec stage 2. It could be that I was sent a ko3 not a ko3s actuator but surely they are the same actuator only a slightly different bracket and the oem bracket could easily be drilled to suit and bolt on to the forge one. I bought the actuator from eBay not Forge otherwise I'd be onto Forge already!

[Hulmie]

the bolt holes on a oem k03 actuator are positioned differently to the oem ko3s actuator. Sounds like the wrong actuator for you turbo,

Boost wise its sounds like it hasnt been set up properly, can you get a picture of the actuator fitted to the car? from above

[Wazzzer]

that's a point, did you tell the seller it was for an AGU? As he would have sent you the right actuator for the original turbo, not the retrofitted K03s...