Oil in coolant/dealer would replace turbo heater core etc. or trade for new car

[James N. Friedman]

Thanks.  That would hold out some hope for somebody who does their own work (and
in this case that would be a monetary consideration for me, but more than that
for whoever ends up with the car, if the dealer and Audi come up with a
reasonable deal that lets me trade the car as is toward a new one) .  I don't do
any work on cars (never have) and I do all service (so far) at dealers.

My car is less than 4 years old, (45 months) it sounds like yours was 12 or 13
when this happened to you.
Remember, while the '97 A4 had a 3 year warranty, the new ones are now
warranteed for 4 years..


The A4 (in the US) has a climate control system not a simple heater.  Maybe that
complicates the heater core replace vs. flush decision.    The only item the
service writer told me a breakdown of parts and labor was the heater core,  he
said 1400 of which only about 250 is the part, the rest is labor.

Other items, Turbo 2300, oil cooler 650,   Radiator "about 550". Plus all the
hoses. Total, not a firm estimate, was "5600 TO START". With some emphasis that
is a figure , TO START.  That, I was told, doesn't include any damage the
antifreeze might have done inside the crank case (bearings ?). They tell me that
if oil got into the coolant then coolant got into the crank case, but they
haven't even looked in the crank case yet.


I'm hoping that Audi Client Relations, (Audi Factory Service Rep) will help me
on this.  My guess is that Audi's help will be necessary to produce a reasonable
deal.  If they do help , and the offer is reasonable, I'll trade it, as is, on a
2001 A4.

Does anyone have a comparable experience with an Audi that was less than 4 years
old at the time such an expensive  failure happened?  What did Audi Client
Relations do in that case?


"Perry, Chris (EDS)" wrote:

> This happened to me on my 85 4k.  I replaced the oil cooler, drained as much
> of the chocolate pudding (that is what it looked like) out as I could,
> filled with  warm water, let it run, drained, repeat, drained, repeat....
> Did that 4 or five times, drove it for a week, did it another 5 times, drove
> for a week, did it again, filled with Antifreeze and it has been running
> fine ever since (3 years).  The car is now owned by a neighbor of my
> father-in-law and she says the heater works awesome (previously drove an
> early 60's beetle).
>
> It will take some time and many flushings but it will come out.  HOWEVER, I
> don't know what affect it will have on your Turbo, the rest I wouldn't be
> concerned about.
>
> HTH,
> Chris Perry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: James N. Friedman [mailto:friedman at georgetown.edu]
>
> 97 A4 Quattro manual 1.8T 83k miles USA (Maryland)
>
>  Oil got into the coolant. Apparently a lot of it.
>  The dealer is saying what's in the coolant system is so thick it won't
> drain,
> and flushing it won't fix it.
>
>  They say that what's required is to replace the oil cooler (they think that
> is
> where the leak was) the turbo, the heater core, the
>  radiator, coolant bottle and all the hoses.
>
>  I don't have a precise estimate yet, but it sounds like I'm looking at a
> decision to spend something around 5 - 6
> thousand dollars on a not-quite 4 year old car with 83K miles vs. whatever I
> can
> work out with the dealership to trade it on a 2001  A4 Quattro 1.8T.
>
>  Anybody have experience with this sort of problem?
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Jim Friedman

--
----------------------------------------
Jim Friedman
Georgetown University Washington, D.C.
FRIEDMAN at Georgetown.EDU