98-01 4cyl turbo engines

[Taka Mizutani]

Incompetent dealership tech didn't torque the plugs to the correct value at
the last
dealer service, plugs backed out of the head, had catastrophic electrode
failure of a
plug while running at 15psi and that required pulling the head to assess the
damage.

Fortunately, there was very little damage- a valve seat had to be repaired
and the threads
for the head where the failed plug resided needed to be time-cert'ed, IIRC.

That's not the fault of the engine design or the engine management- purely
the fault of
incompetent techs. Another reason why I won't buy a new Audi- bad dealer
service from
the service writer to the tech to the company itself.

I'd get a used S8 or A6 2.7T but it would never see the dealership service
department unless
it was an emergency and there was no other alternative.

Taka


On 1/8/07, Alex Cagann <alex at symbolicautosales.com> wrote:
>
>  Understood. Taka, just curious…why did you pull the head at 55k?
>
>
>
> Alex
>
>
>   ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Taka Mizutani [mailto:t44tqtro at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Monday, January 08, 2007 11:48 AM
> *To:* Alex Cagann
> *Cc:* Q-list
> *Subject:* Re: 98-01 4cyl turbo engines
>
>
>
> What do you mean by "going?"
>
> The real story is that there is nothing inherently wrong with the engine
> if it
> is properly maintained- a lot of people who bought these cars were not
> familiar with turbocharged engines and proper warmup/cooldown procedures
> as well as the use of proper synthetic oil at regular intervals. Due to
> this
> lack of maintenance and an insufficient manufacturer's guideline (original
> 7.5k mile interval on dino oil is ridiculous), there are problems with
> sludging
> and resultant engine and turbo problems.
>
> In our old A4, I used M1 0W40 exclusively once the car was out of the
> break-in
> period. When the head was pulled at about 55k, it was _clean_. No sludge,
> no
> carbon, a very light yellow varnish, that's it. That's with 5k intervals
> with M1
> and proper warmup/cooldown procedure, running a chipped ECU pretty much
> the
> whole time.
>
> Taka
>
>
>