u/Affectionate-Put6048

Brought my 3.0 TDI A5 B8 to my tuner so I could finally do a downpipe/EGR delete and cat-back delete, after 1 year of hesitating and 2 weeks of unbearable waiting.

I dropped the car off at his garage so he could work on it the next day, and I was so excited to finally hear that beautiful R35 GT-R-like sound irl that I thought I'd have on my car by the end of the next day.

But unexpectedly, I got a call from him the next day in the morning telling me there's a problem: when trying to get the DPF off the turbo, he explained that the screws connecting the turbo to the DPF were seized, and that if he forced them too much, the bolt head would just snap off, leaving the thread stuck inside the screw housing, making it practically impossible to take the DPF off the turbo. He explained that my turbo screws where never taken off, and that after all of these years of hot/cold cycles, that basically "welded" themselves inside their housing.

So, incredibly let down, I asked him if this had already happened to him before, and what he could do about it. He told me he'd already tried everything he could without risking snapping the screws, and that the only thing he could still do was the cat-back delete. I told him not to bother, since I was mostly looking forward to the downpipe.

So, i guess the only thing i can do now is wait until my current turbo needs replacing (or i guess i can do this now but my current turbo has no signs of wear so i feel like i'd just waste money), buy a new one, take out the old one with the DPF still on it, and install the new turbo (with new screws) + downpipe. Then try whatever i can to get the old turbo out the DPF while it's out of the car for then, since i assume that off the car, on a bench, with heat, penetrating oil, and plenty of time, seized bolts are a completely different problem than seized bolts on a car up on a lift with my tuner's clock running

And even then, i'm in France where if they catch you with no DPF/no cats, they can fuck you up pretty good if they want to, add what happened, i decided to take this as a sign of god and i basically just decided to abandon this little project of mine.

Has anyone had a similar experience ?