Well, after searching through the archives, it looks like I may have a broken turbo wastegate rod...<p>I've been running a Wett 1.0 bar chip in my '97 1.8Tqms for about 5,000 miles now and loving every minute of it until this morning. Nothing catastrophic happened-- no smoke, no strange noises, just a 1.8T that feels like stock again. Where I used to have a nice rush of boost at 3,000-4,000 RPM, the car feels very flat. It still gains speed, but much slower than before. And there is barely any turbo whistle anymore. I took a look under the hood and the hoses that I could see (hose connecting to the intake manifold and the one connected to the top of the intercooler) are secure and appear to be intact.<p>Should I worry about driving the car? I'm going to swap the chip back to stock tonight and make an appointment with my dealer ASAP but I don't want to harm the engine or turbo in the meantime. Any and all thoughts are appreciated.<p>Andy Hedin<br>Limping '97 A4 1.8Tqms

Andy,<p>Shoot. That makes about 6 broken rods in the org. The symptoms are right. The turbo design is passively safe, breaking the rod keeps the boost from coming up. Safe and boring.<p>Good luck.

Again I say, buy a Turbo Gauge. It may help some people to know you do not have to buy a type of gauge to install, you can buy the type mechanics use to check boost, they just T into the line by the intake manifold and run the line into the drivers door or window.

VDO, Turbo psi only # 150103<br>VDO, Turbo/vacume # 150061<br>As far as mounting your on you own. As far as a mechanics Turbo gauge Snap-on, Sear?, or any good parts store.