2017 Leon Cupra - Turbo actuator sticking, needs entire new turbo?

[QTom]

Had the EPC light coming on randomly over the past few months on cold starts, always fine after warming up and restarting but now the check engine light also came on so I took it to get diagnosed at a local place. They have told me the turbo actuator is sticking and they need to replace the entire turbo. £2500 for an official SEAT one or £1900 for an aftermarket one.

I called a SEAT dealer near me to see if they could do just the actuator but they said it has to be the whole unit too, £2600 with them.

The car drives completely fine most of the time, and when it does get the EPC light and loses power (seemingly like the turbo is disabled) it works fine after restarting it after like 5 minutes of driving. So I'm hesitant to spend this much money but obviously I want it all working properly.

Any advice? Can anyone replace just the actuator? Official vs aftermarket? Any advice appreciated.

 

[QTom]

Another independent place near me will do an aftermarket replacement for £1600 which is a bit less painful.

 

[Butty]

The turbo is an IS38. Assuming the fault is the actuator and not a worn/sticking actuator arm & flap in the turbo body then this can be replaced without needing a full turbo swap.
However, it may also be worthwhile putting your existing wastegate through a test to see if it is out of adjustment. You'll need VCDS or possibly OBD Eleven if it does the test.
Did the garage who did the diagnosis do this test or have simply reported the OBD code fault and bigged up the job as a turbo swap?

IS38 Wastegate Settings

When installing a new IS38 turbocharger, it's possible the ECU will throw a fault code stating there's an issue with the wastegate. This is normal since the turbo uses an electronic wastegate, which must have known ranges of motion by the ECU. If the wastegate setting is too tight or too loose...

www.goapr.com

 

[SuperV8]

Had the EPC light coming on randomly over the past few months on cold starts, always fine after warming up and restarting but now the check engine light also came on so I took it to get diagnosed at a local place. They have told me the turbo actuator is sticking and they need to replace the entire turbo. £2500 for an official SEAT one or £1900 for an aftermarket one.

I called a SEAT dealer near me to see if they could do just the actuator but they said it has to be the whole unit too, £2600 with them.

The car drives completely fine most of the time, and when it does get the EPC light and loses power (seemingly like the turbo is disabled) it works fine after restarting it after like 5 minutes of driving. So I'm hesitant to spend this much money but obviously I want it all working properly.

Any advice? Can anyone replace just the actuator? Official vs aftermarket? Any advice appreciated.

06k145725T is the actuator (servo motor) OEM part number.
Make sure your pivot and flap are free and not seized/stiff. If they are use some high temp grease.

Seat and Audi don't list it separately - but VW do - strange!

Mahle make the OEM part Mahle number - 72427347 - you may find that 50 quid cheaper for the same part.

 

[QTom]

The turbo is an IS38. Assuming the fault is the actuator and not a worn/sticking actuator arm & flap in the turbo body then this can be replaced without needing a full turbo swap.
However, it may also be worthwhile putting your existing wastegate through a test to see if it is out of adjustment. You'll need VCDS or possibly OBD Eleven if it does the test.
Did the garage who did the diagnosis do this test or have simply reported the OBD code fault and bigged up the job as a turbo swap?

IS38 Wastegate Settings

When installing a new IS38 turbocharger, it's possible the ECU will throw a fault code stating there's an issue with the wastegate. This is normal since the turbo uses an electronic wastegate, which must have known ranges of motion by the ECU. If the wastegate setting is too tight or too loose...

www.goapr.com

I think they literally just read the code and turned around and said I need it replaced. They didn't really give me any more info or offer any other options.

I have since taken it to another garage who cleared the codes and took it for a test drive and said all is functioning normally for now. They suggested that it will probably come back but for now it's OK to see how it goes. The car only has just under 30k miles on it, I use it fairly little nowadays and it is functioning normally most of the time so for now I will see how it goes.

06k145725T is the actuator (servo motor) OEM part number.
Make sure your pivot and flap are free and not seized/stiff. If they are use some high temp grease.

Seat and Audi don't list it separately - but VW do - strange!

Mahle make the OEM part Mahle number - 72427347 - you may find that 50 quid cheaper for the same part.

Interesting. It did just seem ridiculous to me to replace the whole thing for one part that is occasionally sticking. I'm sure there are other things that can be done if you know what you're doing so it's good to know there might be more options than a full replacement. But yeah as above for now I will see if it comes back any time soon.

 

[adam davies]

Had the EPC light coming on randomly over the past few months on cold starts, always fine after warming up and restarting but now the check engine light also came on so I took it to get diagnosed at a local place. They have told me the turbo actuator is sticking and they need to replace the entire turbo. £2500 for an official SEAT one or £1900 for an aftermarket one.

I called a SEAT dealer near me to see if they could do just the actuator but they said it has to be the whole unit too, £2600 with them.

The car drives completely fine most of the time, and when it does get the EPC light and loses power (seemingly like the turbo is disabled) it works fine after restarting it after like 5 minutes of driving. So I'm hesitant to spend this much money but obviously I want it all working properly.

Any advice? Can anyone replace just the actuator? Official vs aftermarket? Any advice appreciated.

Had the same in a bmw 120d. You need to establish if the actuator is faulty or just the turbo vanes sticking. I managed to disconnect the actuator arm gave the turbo vanes a good cycle over by hand and it ran like a champ for two years and then I sold it, was still working perfectly.
Ps you could hear wh3n starting the car the actuator does a full cycle of the acctuator /vanes to check it works correctly. I could hear the actuator binding and that's what lead me to the sticky vanes.

 

[adam davies]

Could also be out of adjustment this can be checked via vcds it should be around 3.5-3.7v when static I believe.

 

[TheSwede]

06k145725T is the actuator (servo motor) OEM part number.
Make sure your pivot and flap are free and not seized/stiff. If they are use some high temp grease.

Seat and Audi don't list it separately - but VW do - strange!

Mahle make the OEM part Mahle number - 72427347 - you may find that 50 quid cheaper for the same part.

Our former Golf 7 TSI, engine EA211 (not IS38), which I sold to a close friend 5 years ago, started to act the same way a couple of months ago.

First EPC light on, then going into limp mode. After restart it worked as usal.... He works at a garage. After some investigation they replaced the actuator servo motor. Rather cheap operation, say about 180-250 EUR for the spare part.
This solved the problem.

 

[rdraheim]

Hi!

I would have a read here: https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/inde...wastegate-actuator-seizing-servo-motor.362065

as it will be very useful.

 

[kgp280]

Hi QTom

I had a problem around 4 months ago with a fault code 15202 turbo actuator sticking and a EPC light on the dash. This would only come up when the car was cold and when the turbo was coming on boost for the first time. If the code was reset it wouldn’t appear again until car was stopped and cold again. No lost of power etc when the fault was up.

Took car to my local independent who did a re adaption on the actuator. This didnt work as fault code came back Pretty much straight away after the re adaptation.
He suggested spraying WD40 around the rod of the actuator and the pin thats attached to the waste gate flap. I also changed the air filter as found it pretty dirty when inspected.

After doing both of the above the fault never came back.

Whether it was the WD40 on the actuator rod or the changing of the air filter I can’t be certain but it worked for me.

I was careful with spraying WD40 around the actuator, as when the turbo starts to get hot it smokes like a steam train.
So I would say just don’t go mad with the can of WD40.

The reason for the air filter change was I wondered if the turbo was being starved of air, which the ecu thought was an actuator fault and flashing up a fault but it was actually a choked air filter.

You can PM me if you like and can run you through in more detail what I did.

 

[QTom]

Hi QTom

I had a problem around 4 months ago with a fault code 15202 turbo actuator sticking and a EPC light on the dash. This would only come up when the car was cold and when the turbo was coming on boost for the first time. If the code was reset it wouldn’t appear again until car was stopped and cold again. No lost of power etc when the fault was up.

Took car to my local independent who did a re adaption on the actuator. This didnt work as fault code came back Pretty much straight away after the re adaptation.
He suggested spraying WD40 around the rod of the actuator and the pin thats attached to the waste gate flap. I also changed the air filter as found it pretty dirty when inspected.

After doing both of the above the fault never came back.

Whether it was the WD40 on the actuator rod or the changing of the air filter I can’t be certain but it worked for me.

I was careful with spraying WD40 around the actuator, as when the turbo starts to get hot it smokes like a steam train.
So I would say just don’t go mad with the can of WD40.

The reason for the air filter change was I wondered if the turbo was being starved of air, which the ecu thought was an actuator fault and flashing up a fault but it was actually a choked air filter.

You can PM me if you like and can run you through in more detail what I did.

Thanks for the info. Funny you should say that becuase literally the first thing that came to mind when they told me the turbo actuator is sticking is "well put some WD40 on it then" half joking but it's interesting to know it might actually help.

So far I haven't had the issue again but if you're willing to explain in more detail what you did then it might come in handy in the future. I'm not even sure where the turbo is or how to access the actuator. Thanks.