oil sludge recall for 1.8t's

[Dan DiBiase]

Brett, the 2004 A4 Owner's Manual says -
 
"The engine oil must be changed according to the intervals specified in your Maintenance booklet"
 
The Maintenance booklet says -
 
5,000 miles - Oil Change and Maintenance Service
10,000 miles - Oil Change and Maintenance Service
25,000 miles - Oil Change and Maintenance Service
(and so on, every 10,000 miles thru 85,000 miles....)
 
No indication of interim oil/filter changes..... So it does appear that the recommendation has changed, hence my wondering about whether or not these additional changes would be covered by the free scheduled maintenance program.
 
No idea on the filter size vis a vis the I-5, I have no experience with that engine. I don't have the box, either, but I beieve it only referenced the '83 diesel engine.....
 
Dan D
'04 A4 1.8T q MT-6
Central NJ USA

Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net> wrote:
At 6:02 AM -0700 9/2/04, Dan DiBiase wrote:

> Perfect example is the 10k oil change intervals in Audi's, as 
>indicated by the free scheduled maintenance schedule.

What does -the manual- say? When they pay for it is another matter 
entirely; plenty of auto manufacturers are pulling every trick in the 
book to worm their way out of warranty maintenance. My 13 year old 
manual says "every 5k", and the article says "VW recommends that oil 
be changed at 5,000 miles or six months", but in the paragraph 
talking about the letter mailed to owners, implying the 
recommendation is new and in the letter, not the previous policy.

>I'll be interested to see whether buyers of '05 models still get 40k 
>of free scheduled maintenance if VAG has to double the amount of oil 
>changes included, now using more expensive synthetic oil.

The article seemed to indicate customers would have to cover the 
additional expense. The assertion, however, that an oil change would 
be more than twice as expensive with synthetic was absurd; $60 for an 
oil change?! Who are they getting their Mobil 1 from, Shady Al's Oil 
Emporium?

> I purchased an OEM filter earlier this week, for my 10k change, and 
>was given the larger (by about .5 quart) filter that came out with 
>the '04.5 cars. I was told this is all they sell for the 1.8T motors 
>now (it is actually the same one used on the old Rabbit diesel).

Hmm, that the same size as the I-5 filter, or bigger?