[A4] Repair or walk away - advice for an Oil Sludge victim?

[Geraint Lloyd]

In my opinion you should repair, although doing this
with audi may prove 
expensive.
it depends how much you value their service and
warranty. the car is 
8yrs old.
maybe it's time to start finding someone else to
service it?
at least get the big end journals measured before
walking away.

In the uk we used to call sludge 'black death'
brits tend to be pretty slack about servicing beaters.
on the golf 2 4-pot it used to appear quite regularly,
save for GTIs 
who's owners tended to be a bit more careful.
before blocking the pick up, the sludge used to make
the relief plunger 
in the oil pump stick. generally open
then you get red lights and buzzers going off, tappets
collapsing 
etc........

as for the A4. I don't know what the crank is made of,
but on the golf 2 
they were rock hard.
the 20vT is just a serious evolution right?

the cure for black death would be to remove the sump
and rocker cover.
replace the tappets, fit a new rocker cover/breather
filter mesh or just 
set fire to the old one to burn the sludge out.
clean the sump.
fit a new set of big end shells and a new oil pump.
replace oil   filter etc.
none of the parts were expensive, especially if you
went after-market
i have no problem fitting after-market KS shells in a
KS box as opposed 
to genuine KS shells in a VAG box at 5 times the
price!
who knows, you may even end up with Cofap shells in a
VAG box, which i 
would avoid personally.

I saw a 1.8 golf 2 Driver (uk-carb model) that had
hammered the shells 
so badly that, on one of the journals, one shell had
flicked inside the 
other half.
we miked up the journal and it was still in spec!
the owner was broke-ish and couldn't afford a new
bottom end, so we 
fitted new shells and a pump etc and off it went with
good as new oil 
pressure.
even having the head off to swap the con rod was
deemed over budget.

my buddy who ran the garage that serviced the car kept
an eye on the oil 
pressure every time the car came in for something and
reported that it 
was still fine 3 years later when he left town (for
other reasons). the 
owner did 15k miles a year or so

just my $0.02 (canadian)
hope that helps

Geraint







Arthur Marks wrote:
> Here's a write-up in progress:
> http://members.cox.net/ambox/audi_sludge/
>
> Includes autopsies of a Mahle and a Bosch oil
filter. Soon I'll hack up the 
> dealer filter.
>
> Let me know if I have forgotten to include relevant
information.
>
> --Art
>
> ps -- Since it sounds like you didn't drive the
vehicle with the pressure 
> severely low the bearings may be ok.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: CoasterJames at aol.com
> To: a4 at audifans.com
> Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 10:46 PM
> Subject: [A4] Repair or walk away - advice for an
Oil Sludge victim?
>
> Hello Fans,
>
> I have a dilemma and I am seeking advice.
>
> I have a '97 A4 1.8T (Not Quattro) needing repairs
and I need to decide if 
> I
> should fix it or walk away.
>
> The car's oil light started to come on
intermittently.  We minimized  use of
> the car and on our last drive the Check Engine light
came on.
>
> ...[snip]... 
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> quattro mailing list
> quattro at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
> ---
> Watch this space for ads :)
>
>
>   

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