Are 1.8T's junk?

[Victor Norman]

Yes.
Being a sucker for distressed Audi's I bought a 1998 A4 1.8T with NO oil
pressure last year..dealer wanted to charge the owner a vast amount to
install a new engine, so he just wanted to unload it.
The 1.8T has a pair of camshafts, connected via a short chain. The
(plastic) chain tensioner is tensioned via oil pressure. What had
happened was the tensioner had completely worn out, creating a large
internal oil leak, hence poor oil pressure. It then appeared that the
leak allowed the oil pump to drain (while the car was not running) and
the pump could not create enough vacuum to re-establish any oil pressure
at all. Anyway, a new chain tensioner fixed things, surprisingly
cylinder bore and crankshaft wear were negligible. The car had 75000
miles on it and I was assured that the oil was changed by the dealer
according to schedule. Talking to other owners while I was fixing the
car, it became obvious that worn tensioners were not uncommon. 
The real disappointment for me was that the car was a real slug -
miserable acceleration compared to my 1996 A4 2.8 with 170,000 miles on
it. Admittedly, it was an automatic and the 2.8 is a 5-speed, but the
difference is enormous.I even took a trip to the local dealer and
test-drove another 1.8T just to make sure I hadn't screwed up the
rebuild - it was just as bad.