Viton O-rings for Boost Leak?

MagnumVW

Active member
Joined
Jun 4, 2013
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
TDI
2001 Golf TDI 200k
Mods completed on the car: manual swap, BSM delete, stage 2 from tdtuning.

I had what I thought was a boost leak sound coming from my BHW when I first added the stage 2 tune, but my father thought otherwise. Well, my turbo failed (most likely from being overworked due to boost leak), so I replaced it. I also replaced all of the O-rings on the charge piping with the idparts OEM O-ring kit found at https://www.idparts.com/intercooler-seal-kit-bhw-p-5448.html. I also cleaned out each of the connections for the pipes very well, as they had a lot of gunk in them from leaking charged air.

I also checked all of the intake piping for holes after cleaning them off really well but noticed no cracking or holes whatsoever. When I first fired the car up after doing all of the above, I noticed better throttle response and higher MPG (high 30s) than I had before, but after about 3 drives around town the same boost leak noise is back and my throttle response is back to being less than ideal, and I'm back to the lower MPG (low 30s).

IDparts told me over the phone that they've never had complaints with their o-ring kits, but I'm suspecting that the O-rings still aren't adequate for my stage 2 tune after I completed a manual swap. Kerma sells viton O-rings that they claim seal better than the OEM ones. Has anyone had any experience with the Kerma viton o rings sealing better? Should I maybe get some custom O rings that are slightly oversized instead? For example, the stock o rings are 4mm x 48mm for the larger ones and 4mm x 42mm for the smaller one coming out of the turbo. I could maybe try to get 5mm x 48mm and 5mm x 42mm O rings. What do you all think?
 
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stevekris

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Location
Indianapolis IN
TDI
beetle 99 silver
do not use o rings, use the correct seals, they have a square cross section.
sorry, saw you are using the correct seals.
check the 90 degree hose at the rear of the engine carefully for splits.
Hope this helps. Thank you
Steve
 
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MagnumVW

Active member
Joined
Jun 4, 2013
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
TDI
2001 Golf TDI 200k
do not use o rings, use the correct seals, they have a square cross section.
sorry, saw you are using the correct seals.
check the 90 degree hose at the rear of the engine carefully for splits.
Hope this helps. Thank you
Steve
Thanks Steve, I will for sure look at the 90 degree hose today and make 100% certain that it is not split in any way. I keep reading that that seems to be a common happening with these engines, so I hope that is the issue at hand since it's easily fixed by replacing it.
 

Scubanero

Veteran Member
Joined
May 30, 2007
Location
Calgary AB
TDI
2005 Passat Wagon
do not use o rings, use the correct seals, they have a square cross section.
sorry, saw you are using the correct seals.
check the 90 degree hose at the rear of the engine carefully for splits.
Hope this helps. Thank you
Steve
What is the issue with standard O-rings? I found air leaking at the turbo outlet. Square ring looked OK but leaked so I replaced it with a 2” x 1/8”.
 
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