[A4] Sludge Update ( bad PCV and all coverage denied )

[Arthur Marks]

So the latest is that Audi (AoA?) tells the dealer that they won't cover 
ANYTHING under warranty because they are calling it a neglected car. 
Admittedly the previous owner went 12471 miles (471 miles over the max that 
they allow) at the second oil change when the problem apparently arose. That 
means they are not covering the 40K service or any other problem that might 
arise whether it's as unrelated to sludge as the radio going bad.

One of the executives of this group of dealerships is currently offering a 
couple of options on either disposal of the car at auction (a big loss, but 
perhaps not so bad if coupled with the right deal on another car) or 
possible repairs at cost (which is still expensive).

You'll be glad to know that some people at Audi, or at least at my 
dealership (from mechanic to executive), listen to our problems in this 
forum. I took the car in for the 40K service work, an oil leak, and badly 
fluctuating idle. When coverage was declined I went to pick it up and was 
allowed to speak to the mechanic. He made a sarcastic remark about how well 
I was treating them in here. I don't think I have ever named the dealership 
or my location when I've written about this. I was so surprised that I had 
to ask him if it was sarcasm even though I knew it was, and he confirmed.

He was in a hurry to get to lunch, but he spent some decent time with me 
under the hood and gave me good repair advice. He showed me the bad bleeder 
valve (or PCV) 035103245G that was causing the idle problem and said it was 
essentially causing an internal vacuum leak (crankcase gas to intake 
manifold, I think). That's a very easy fix for the idle problem. According 
to the paperwork, THE PCV VALVE HAD BACK UP OF SLUDGE CAUSING IT TO KNOCK 
OUT THE BEARING AND SPRING INSIDE THE PCV VALVE", now where in the infernal 
hell of my 1.8T engine did that go? I didn't read that until I got home. 
Hopefully the innards were still in the vicinity of the PCV and discarded.

I still have to check on the oil leak, but now that it's running nicely I 
may need some flaky hypnotist to get me off this Audi. What the hell's wrong 
with me.

--Art

(this is long so please snip some if you reply to the group)


________________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in the specs...

Here are the error codes I was getting with the broken bleeder valve:

These would show up in seconds after clearing codes:
   16684 16685 16686 16687 16688 - all 4 cylinders misfiring
   17544 - Bank1, mixture adaptation (add.) system too lean
   17705 -  Connection charger-throttle valve Pressure drop
   16395 - "A" Camshaft Position - Timing Over-Advanced or System 
Performance Bank 1
Far less common:
   17834 - Evaporative Emission System Pure Control Valve Circuit Open
   17887 - Activation of brake vacuum pump Open circuit
   16839 -  Evaporative Emission System Incorrect Purge Flow

Here are group 2 and 3 engine metrics.
With no extra load (radio and a/c off),
Injector on time should be between 1 and 4 ms
Mass Flow should be between 2 and 4.5 g/s

I was getting about 7 g/s so I thought the MAF was bad -- I still can't 
figure out why the computer would let the metered flow be too high when it 
knows the engine is running too lean. Also I'd be curious to know if anyone 
knows why there are two different air flow values. I assume one (the one in 
Group 2 since that's what Bentley says to check) is the value from the MAF.

Broken Bleeder Valve (or PCV):

Group B:    '002         Group C:   '003
    RPM   Load         Inj.     Mass         RPM    Mass    Load    Ign. 
Timing
                        On Time   Flow                   Flow
TIME                                       TIME
STAMP   /min   %   ms     g/s     STAMP  /min   g/s    %   °ATDC
0.13   840    26.3    4.68    10.22    0.29    720    6.53    1.2    19.5
0.62   800    27.8    4.68    10.89    0.79    720    6.42    1.2    12
1.12   800    26.3    4.16    9.14    1.29    760    7.58    3.1    6
1.62   760    21.8    3.64    7.64    1.79    800    8.14    4.3    6
2.12   720    24.8    3.64    6.97    2.29    800    10.47    0.8    8.3
2.62   720    24.1    3.64    6.83    2.79    800    7.08    0.8    4.5
3.12   680    21.8    3.64    7.17    3.29    800    6.78    0.4    7.5
3.62   720    23.3    3.64    6.83    3.79    800    6.53    0.4    6.8
4.12   840    22.6    3.64    7.42    4.29    720    7.5    1.6    20.3
4.62   800    24.1    4.16    8.06    4.79    720    6.67    0.8    21
5.12   800    24.8    3.64    7.64    5.29    760    7.39    1.2    2.3
5.62   760    23.3    3.64    7.47    5.79    720    7.19    1.2    7.5
6.12   800    24.1    4.16    7.75    6.29    720    7.39    1.2    20.3


Intake manifold hose removed from valve and plugged:

(Very nice and steady; no error codes)

Group B:    '002         Group C:   '003
    RPM   Load         Inj.     Mass         RPM    Mass    Load    Ign. 
Timing
                        On Time   Flow                   Flow
TIME                                       TIME
STAMP  /min     %   ms   g/s      STAMP    /min   g/s     %     °BTDC
0.13   760    19.5    2.6    2.67    0.3    760    2.67    1.6    8.3
0.63   760    19.5    2.6    2.67    0.8    760    2.67    1.6    8.3
1.13   760    19.5    2.6    2.64    1.3    760    2.67    1.6    8.3
1.63   760    19.5    2.6    2.67    1.8    760    2.64    1.6    7.5
2.13   760    19.5    2.6    2.64    2.3    760    2.64    1.6    7.5
2.63   760    19.5    2.6    2.69    2.8    760    2.72    1.6    6
3.13   760    19.5    2.6    2.72    3.28    760    2.69    1.6    6
3.6     760    19.5    2.6    2.69    3.77    760    2.69    1.6    6.8
4.1     760    19.5    2.6    2.64    4.27    760    2.67    1.6    8.3
4.6     760    19.5    2.6    2.67    4.77    760    2.67    1.6    6.8
5.1     760    19.5    2.6    2.67    5.27    760    2.67    1.6    7.5
5.6     760    19.5    2.6    2.64    5.77    760    2.67    1.6    8.3
6.1     760    19.5    2.6    2.67    6.27    760    2.64    1.6    9

readings from VAG-COM rel. 409.1 (http://www.ross-tech.com/vca/)