A4 1.8T Petrol nightmare

[tholor1968]

Hey all,
Thought I would join the site and share my horror story!

Bought my first Audi A4 with great anticipation and excitement, was looking for an A6 but got seduced by its beautiful lines and superb conditon..or so I thought.....;) even though this car had done 130,000 you would never have thought and it had a full service history...

I travelled 200 miles to collect the car from a private owner and listened intently to his story as to why he was selling....:D

I agreed a price after driving this lovely car for about 20mins....
After a couple of hours driving cruising at speeds 'not' exceeding the national speed limit, the oil light pinged on....:(

I stopped at a garage and bought some oil and promptly put it in.....the oil light went off.... then after a week or so came on again....:zx11:

I was then driving it and heard a knocking noise that got louder and louder...I called the RAC and sadly put the car on the back of the truck and took it to my normal garage, after a £200 service the noise had gone :D

I then felt there was not enough umpf in the car and it seemed a bit sluggish, again I took it to my local garage and he told me it would cost £165 and a new MAF, I paid and it felt ok but still not 100%:(

After a few more weeks the knocking noise was back....:zx11:

This is my first Audi and although I love the car, tis looks and its feel I cant help thinking I should have gone for a Skoda!!

After having a friend look at it he told me it was the turbo, so I bought one and he fitted it for me...the noise was still there and he then told me it may be the oil pump....I bought one and after 2 days labour he could not fit it but did find that the cambelt was about to snap!!! I changed this too!!

I then took it to a different garage and they told me the egine was completely knackered....I needed a new one!!!!!

The car is now on it's way to essex were it will be fitted with a fully reconditioned engine for £1200, luckily my brand new turbo will still be used and the engine will have 'no' miles on it!

I will have spent £2,500 on the car and may be looking to sell it, but my thought is that as I have spent that money I should keep it.....

What are peoples thoughts with resale values? It is in mint condition and has been lowered and has front and rear skirts, its in silver.

Is this a usual Audi experience?

Should I stick with it and enjoy the car?

Thanks for listening...

[darkhorse1001]

thats really harsh.

goes to show a full service history is over-rated IMHO.

having a brand new turbo and overhauled engine may work in your favour at re-sale. i'd wait till you get it back and drive it for a couple of weeks, see how you feel about it after that....

[rhencullen1989]

Hi, i must say i feel sorry for you, it seems you may have bought someone elses problems, my 1.8 T has done 168K, i bought it on 118K and no probs engine wise whatsoever. Audis are usually very reliable mechanically (apart from front suspension) but they do seem to suffer some electrically related gremlins. I am soon looking for a 1.8T avant and will probably buy private but i may pay for an RAC inspection, problem is unless you know the previous owner they may have red lined it in every gear from stone cold, not done regular oil changes and stopped engine straight after motorway run (you should let it idle for a couple of mins to let turbo cool a bit) I hope a new engine gives you a perfectly good car with years of motoring, good luck.

[TheWills]

Thats really bad luck. Had a couple of cars which seem to have just sucked money from my wallet, got one thing sorted and something else seems to go. With both cars I've sold them on after getting fed up with working on them, anly to be told by the new owners that they have been great, no problems at all. In some repects I wish that I'd kept them on and reeped the benefits of my cash and labours.

[docurley]

Re-con on not you will only get what the market is selling them for. I would say keep it as you now have engine with warrantee which you did not have with the old engine and I would have to say next time take it to a specialist Audi garage rather than Joe Blog's as they would have a better knowledge of our cars.


Your old engine problem had a blocked oil line which starved the engine of oil and caused the problem.

[farrerj]

Hi guys, I've got an A6 avant 1.8T 2001 102,000 miles, just come back from manchester UK with my car on the back of an AA van. First trip on the motorway. I think I might have experienced the same problem, and I would really appreciate your thoughts before I part with any cash.

I've had the car a couple of months and it's been good. I was travelling to the manchester UK, around 70 when the oil light came on. I stopped at the nearest garage and stuck additional oil in, to no avail. The oil light came on again, followed by a loud tappit noise. I'm thinking the oil light might have been oil pressure.

I managed to get the car home, but I'm wondering what I should do? and I'd like to get a handle on what the problem might be. I heard of the oil jets getting blocked, and starving the engine of oil or something.
Is this going to be an engine replacement, how do I know the engine is knackered?:aargh4:

[Frazzly]

sounds like two pumped engines??

[audimad]

Lack of correct servicing and incorrect oil types sludge up and block the sump pick up strainer and other oil ways causing the engine to starve of oil.

The largest problem is the oil pump is located inside the sump and isnt easy to get to. Once in there you just as well change the pump anyway as the cost is small compared to the labour involved.

There are cases of people that have managed to free the sludge up with chemicals like diesel and flushing oil. The engine is drained of oil and litterally filled with diesel overnight to dissolve the deposits.I was lucky enough to have read the horror stories before fitting my engine, so i whipped the sump off and cleaned my pick up before i fitted the engine, and yes mine was half clogged at that point.

I now change the oil every 6 k or so, and fitted an oil pressure guage too, can't put a price on peace of mind

[farrerj]

Garage has just come back to me regarding the car. Fortunately, I might have been lucky. The mechanics has given the car a good engine flush, done an oil change, new semi-syn oil and oil filter and it seems to have fixed it at present.

It must have been the sludge issue blocking up the flow to the top of the engine that I've been reading about. While the cars in there I’m getting the gear box oil changed as well, second gears sticky so an gearbox oil change might resolve it (here hoping)(£200 garage fees a reckon + chip reset)

The garage reckons that it’s possible that the wrong engine oil has been put in, perhaps by the previous owner topping up the oil with the wrong type. This car has a full service history so I can’t imagine the Audi dealers putting in the wrong engine oil, so it must have been the previous owner.
But I’m a little suspicious, until I give the car a good drive down the motorway, at least no serious damage to the engine, don’t know how I got away with it, or have I???

I’ve got a whining alternator as well, it there a way of fixing this or do I just change it?

[rhencullen1989]

What oil would you recommend in a 1.8T with 160K, full audi history (100K in first 3 years so serviced every 3 months!) I have owned for 5 years and bought on 117K, i change oil every 5K, twice a year, one i do and one a good independent does. I use the vw silver synta oil which is semi synthetic, i don't want to change to synthetic because of the mileage. I am also not liking the idea of an engine flush incase it creates a problem, i.e disturbing a corner of the sump where some sludge has been nestling nicely for several years!!

[bmh121]

I am still going through this nightmare. I only found out about this problem by looking a forums. Does anyone else out there think Audi should have warned me about this problem when I bought the car two years ago? They maintain it is not a design problem!

I bought it approved and had it serviced regularly by by them. If someone had said change the oil every 5k I would have.

I have decided that my best option is to take Audi to court. I simply cannot find the 5.5k plus labour they quoted for the new engine. I would be grateful if anyone would be willing to come froward and act as a witness i guess. Just to say it happened to you to. It will at least prove that Audi UK do know it is a problem and should have warned me at the last service.

Lastly does anyone know where I could a reconditioned engine or get my engine reconditioned? I desparately need to get mobile. :1zhelp:

Thank you

[bmh121]

I am still going through this nightmare. I only found out about this problem by looking a forums. Does anyone else out there think Audi should have warned me about this problem when I bought the car two years ago? They maintain it is not a design problem!

I bought it approved and had it serviced regularly by by them. If someone had said change the oil every 5k I would have.

I have decided that my best option is to take Audi to court. I simply cannot find the 5.5k plus labour they quoted for the new engine. I would be grateful if anyone would be willing to come froward and act as a witness i guess. Just to say it happened to you to. It will at least prove that Audi UK do know it is a problem and should have warned me at the last service.

Lastly does anyone know where I could a reconditioned engine or get my engine reconditioned? I desparately need to get mobile. :1zhelp:

Thank you

[RobAtk]

Yeah, what can I say, luv the A4 1.8T CVT, smooth as silk and drives like a dream. Likewise, just had the sump removed and cleaned out. Sump cover had to be scraped clean, enamelled oil caked on it.. gauze cleaned out was full of gunk. Oil pressure light gone. Next up is the camshaft follower, the hydraulic unit sat at the back of the engine that drives the right cam from the left cam. This unit is showing a timing fault due to lag, due to the hydraulic pick up not getting enough oil it would seem. having read several threads across the site, I can conclude it is not due to different oil or poor service, it is more likely due to the hot turbo and variable quality fuels being used. Basically an Audi design fault. Apart from that the A4 1.8T (mines a 190PS) is a smashing car and probably good for 200k+, because if that engine can put up with low pressure for a month (intermittent) then it shows how strong it is overall. If you're buying one with a turbo, suggest to get the owner to boot it and see if the oil pressure warning comes up, because that's how you find out. The extra demand on the engine, reveals whether you have a problem. Also most third party warranty, like Motorcare, don't support "maintenance" tasks, though clearly this is a design failure. I note from other threads they now fit a much larger oil filter, but that still doesn't sort the problem out and as one person said in another thread, it's good to check the sump out once a year! I also had an idle problem, which turned out to be a jammed breather valve sat just above the oil filter, tapped off the engine casing just above the oil filter (tiny critter). This leads to the engine unable to idle as due to too much air at idle. Originally I closed off the second pipe linking into the throttle body on the left side of the body. Eventually I found a good mechanic who debugged it

I think I might shift mine and get a new Seat Exeo ST Sport 170PS derv bird, as this is effectively the same car as my 04 Avant with a new donkey, all for 18k! Audi should be worried.. Seat are on their case. Lux cars are falling like trees in terms of price..

[qa15ar]

Garage has just come back to me regarding the car. Fortunately, I might have been lucky. The mechanics has given the car a good engine flush, done an oil change, new semi-syn oil and oil filter and it seems to have fixed it at present.

It must have been the sludge issue blocking up the flow to the top of the engine that I've been reading about. While the cars in there I’m getting the gear box oil changed as well, second gears sticky so an gearbox oil change might resolve it (here hoping)(£200 garage fees a reckon + chip reset)

The garage reckons that it’s possible that the wrong engine oil has been put in, perhaps by the previous owner topping up the oil with the wrong type. This car has a full service history so I can’t imagine the Audi dealers putting in the wrong engine oil, so it must have been the previous owner.
But I’m a little suspicious, until I give the car a good drive down the motorway, at least no serious damage to the engine, don’t know how I got away with it, or have I???

I’ve got a whining alternator as well, it there a way of fixing this or do I just change it?

i would not use semi syn, go for fully synthetic.

[johnwintle]

Probably a Mobil 15W40 as that is what my local specialist uses in a lot of the servicing. Much, much better than the Synta Silver as that oil can come from a number of sources and is just repackaged for VAG.

[qa15ar]

Probably a Mobil 15W40 as that is what my local specialist uses in a lot of the servicing. Much, much better than the Synta Silver as that oil can come from a number of sources and is just repackaged for VAG.

i hope thats a typo and you mean 5W40

[djmx5]

[Likewise, just had the sump removed and cleaned out. Sump cover had to be scraped clean, enamelled oil caked on it.. gauze cleaned out was full of gunk. Oil pressure light gone. Next up is the camshaft follower, the hydraulic unit sat at the back of the engine that drives the right cam from the left cam. This unit is showing a timing fault due to lag, due to the hydraulic pick up not getting enough oil it would seem. having read several threads across the site

Does this problem regarding poor oil flow apply only to the Turbo 1.8 engines?

I have the 1.8 non-turbo unit in a '98 A3 and so far at 108k miles no probs.

Thanks
D

[qa15ar]

I have only expereinced with turbo engines, could be wrong though

[johnwintle]

i hope thats a typo and you mean 5W40

No, not a typo. A 15W40 or a 15W50 Mobil oil could well be used in this engine due to the mileage.

[qa15ar]

fair do's