Loren to the rescue

[Chuck Jones]

Although I only have 23K miles on the car, on a recent trip I noticed a very fine grade light oil on the pavement. Racked up the car and saw the driver's rear strut was leaking. I called Loren and he offered to help me put it in....but told me that if you change out one strut, you should change the other so that they're both equal.

Last weekend, I drove over to Loren's and we..(actually he did most of the work; so I'm using the term "we" rather loosely) replaced both rear struts. Once we got thru the first one the second was a lot easier...and I'm happy to report that the new struts added close to another 45 HP .... :)

A Big thanx to Loren....the local dealership gave me a quote of $1500 to do it, and by buying the struts from Sunset @ $237 each, I saved a bunch.

[Loren]

No problem Chuck - I did enjoy seeing 1.2 on the boost gauge during our test drive. Who says that a stock TT will only go to 1.0 ;)

[Chuck Jones]

Loren: First of all, thank you for sending me the How-To on replacing the Diverter Valves. I went to a set of EVO DV's and replaced the stock ones. You mentioned how we saw 1.1 and 1.2 during the test drive after putting in the struts....Well since I've replaced the DV's with the EVOs, I have yet to hit 1.1 again. I can consistently hit .9 and 1.0, but not 1.1. I find that curious because DV's really have nothing to do with the turbos ability to produce the boost. The EVO DVs came with the screw type hose clamps, and I replaced all the factory spring clamps with screw types...so I know I dont' have any vacuum leaks.

Like I said....I find it curious.

chuck

[skandalis447]

Hello there...2 questions....How can a strut determine horsepower?i am a little lost here...also how a stock 996TT could reach boost levels up to 1.1bar?Even if it is X50?Is it normal?Wish a happy new year to everyone....and lets hope that 2008 give us more power...

[Chuck Jones]

skandalis: I was just kidding about the horsepower....it's a common thing for folks to claim that doing some mod to their car resulted in increased horsepower....so it's just a tongue in cheek thing being fascetious.

With regard to the boost....both Loren and I saw a 1.1bar readout in boost when we took the car for a drive. How that happened I dont' know. It could be a boost sensor that's reporting erroneous information. I do know that since I've switched to the EVO Diverter Valves, I havne't seen the 1.1bar any more, but am seeing the .9 and periodic 1.0 that other folks with the X50 have reported , and that seems to be the stock readout.

[Loren]

Chuck,

We actually saw 1.2 bar on the boost gauge but that is somewhat arbitrary based on how the boost is DME controlled.

See my comments on max boost here.

[skandalis447]

Thanks for clarifing horsepower gains Vs struts...I was about to ask you where you bought them so to get a pair :lol:

[wross996TT]

A general comment...seeing a readout on the boost gage for a split second means nothing IMO. The way to tell what you are boosting is to go WOT in 3rd (or if you are lucky enough to have a spot to speed...4th). Look for max SUSTAINED boost. the other spikes are just that...spikes. Oh I'll take those struts also....

[Chuck Jones]

I found out today thru a CEL code that I was "exceeding boost threshold" that turned out to be a leaking spring-clamp on the lower hose that the Diverter Valve goes into....I would imagine that I was sucking air and that was the reason I saw a drop off in boost after I installed the DV's. That event taught me to get rid of those dogone stock spring hose clamps and replace them with the stainles steel screw type.