Farewell (was sludge poll)

[Russ Maki]

Subject: Re: 1.8T sludge poll

>To: "JordanVw at aol.com" <JordanVw at aol.com>
>Cc: quattro at audifans.com
>Message-ID: <79698a9104122909084cda79ae at mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
>
>When I used synthetic first in my 200, I got really black oil for the
>first few changes, then the oil came out much cleaner as long as I
>kept the intervals around 4k. I think you'll remove a lot of crud
>simply by using a better quality oil- maybe they have a better
>additive mix?
>  
>
Just a lurker jumping in here --
Synthetic oil (particularly Mobil) does have outstanding cleansing 
properties -- I drive 90 miles round trip to work, and kinda got hooked 
on Mercedes diesels from the early '80s to get me there and back 
(because that's what they do). Most of these cars are real grannies, 
underdriven and crying out for the whip. Coking is a serious issue but a 
regimen of Mobil 1 combined  with a heavy left foot has saved a lot of 
them from the junkyard (I feel good about that).

Yeh, the MB OM617 is a whole different engine, but the parallel is that 
Mobil 1 clears out a lot of gunk if you give it a chance.

Mandatory Audi content: my '87 4000q with a bunch of mods is dead again 
-- fuel pump isn't kicking in. I've got a spare pump (not sure what the 
real problem is), but it's kinda cold to be resurrecting a car that's 
designed to be at its best in foul weather. My one local dealer is a 
basket case (not that I'd take a 4K there). I'm lucky to have a couple 
decent indys nearby, including the almighty Blaufergnugen, but I'm 
afraid I have to conclude that  the Audi marque doesn't measure up to my 
standards. I don't want to troll the group but I do want to offer some 
notice that I'm about to unsubscribe after 5 years of Audi adventure.

I was a dedicated Ford driver from 1971 until my wife and I bought a 
Mazda with a blue oval (a Ford Probe-- sweet 5-speed)  in 1989. I remain 
a Mazda fan and would buy another Mazda before I bought another Audi. 
Each marque has endured its own series of  catastrophes,  but  Mazda at 
least expresses an interest in their failures. Audi would prefer that 
their shortcomings didn't exist. That's not good enough.

Audifans has kept my 4000 alive as much as I have. This is a magical 
group. Every time I've approached it with a crisis, one of the stalwarts 
(Jan P  in particular) has saved my arse. You may not realize how 
valuable your postings are. I've contributed money repeatedly to the 
list because you offered to help, and never felt shortchanged.

Good fortune to all.

Russ Maki
Ixonia, Wis.