Has anyone purchased a Borg Warner K04 rather than Genuine VW K04?

[ROH ECHT]

I have an original S3 K04 from back in 2010. It has 96k miles on it and someone recently told me they were seeing some smoke when I took off from stops when they were following me. I rebuilt the engine and head near 35k miles ago and I suspect this new sign of smoke may be the worn K04.

ECS has one 06F-145-702-C branded by the Maker, Borg Warner, for $1.3k and the other is $1.8k that is tagged with a VW/Audi plate. And yes, I've been told they are the same and the only difference is the VW/Audi ID plate. Then they have a rebuilt K04 for $1.9k...and that makes no sense.

I could rebuild the current K04 with full balancing etc. for $425 at Comp Turbo Tech in Pomona CA...but this only addresses the turbo while neglecting the waste-gate's condition because I asked and they would only service the turbo. So a rebuild is out.

So of course, I am leaning toward the BW K04 rather than $500 more for genuine VW...because they must be the same, yes?

 

[GIACUser]

I bought the BW 0064 K04 when I ran it on my car.
I bought is off a member who had purchased remaining stock from closing business.
I looked up a pic I took of the badge on the turbo, looks like it was actually OEM, but you can see the main number 00064 that you will be looking for.

 

[ROH ECHT]

Yeah, thanks. That appears to be for VW/Audi, if what ECS told me about the BW for VW are simply tagged with the VW/Audi logos on the ID plates being the only difference. I will likely go for the one from BW and hope it is built to the same quality as those sent to VW. It should be. I also wondered about the WGA spring rate, but it should be the same as well. Just going to get one and see, but I might wait one more year.

 

[BurgerGuy]

I got the Borg Warner variant from ECS. No problems with the turbo itself. It's a better setup because you can pick whatever TOP you want since it retains the factory muffler. Other kits you're at the mercy of how their kit connects to the charge piping which may or may not be compatible with aftermarket TOPs.

 

[ROH ECHT]

Right, I noticed that oem outlet as well. I have the AWE Tuning "outlet/muffler delete" and my own modified outlet pipe. So I can remove the BW/OEM outlet and swap over to mine when I install the new turbo.