[s-cars] WAS gas prices, now racist subaru's

[R. Mair]

Now we are getting things out in the open! ;-) Actually, i'm growing tired of this conversation, and it's safe to say I'll let you have the last word... I think. 1.8t failures are numerous. 2.7's aren't much better. Same turbos essentially, but with different housings to facilitate plumbing variances between the two motors. I don't think these turbos are designed anything like the kkk's of old, say the one on my old jetta turbo diesel. That thing is still original with 240k miles and I can still hear it whistle. No synth oil in it either!  K04's use the same housings as K03s, no difference there. The impellers are the same diameter as well, they just have a more aggressive blade pattern. I didn't take note on the last K04 upgrade as to the difference in shaft diameter, which I would assume uses different seals, I'll take your word for it. The lack of oil to the turbo, in my experience, has been a result of coked/clogged inlet lines that feed the turbo from the drivers side of the block. Some versions of the early A4's did not have adequate heat shielding, therefore was subject to high engine temps from the cat converter. They have made improvements there. When oil fails to flow well to the turbo, the turbo runs hotter and oil will begin to coke inside the turbo passages as well. The fact the K04 has larger oil passages really doesn't fix very much if oil is not getting to it in the first place. This I will admit was certainly an Audi problem.

Now, as far as trivializing your comments in particular, I wasn't trying to outwardly do that. I trying to impress where I am coming from, in the fact that I have a somewhat expanded knowledge of these cars, above and beyond what a typical enthusiast will have. Perhaps I should feel slighted by you instead?? From my point of view as both an enthusiast and audi tech, I tend to look a little deeper into the causes and effects of failures. Where the typical consumer will blame the car as a whole, I find that it can be much more complex. Perhaps it was the parts suppliers fault, perhaps it was the actual consumer himself. Just today a guy was upset that his tire blew out after hitting the same pothole he always hits on his way to work. "Why today did it blow and not the first time I hit the pothole?" How do you answer that? I've learned so much from this list over the years. I've posed questions here myself (usually for info that I don't have ie:more horsepower) and have gotten allot of good answers. But the internet and its enthus. car forums can be a wealth of disinformation. Forgive me for being skeptical, esp. when coming from someone not directly involved in the practice.

I'll finish this thread as such... I agree Audi has a multitude of issues it still needs to deal with. I'll also agree that the dealership network and it's less than admirable service crew (some places) do not make for happy clientele. But not being close enough to the root causes of SOME of the audi-irks, you don't know exactly what relationships a manufacturer and parts supplier have. Still, it's a car I trust my wife and kids to be in, over any other car in it's class. I've seen enough of these cars, from 5000's up to the late A6's in horrible wrecks. I never lost a customer from crashing and dying in an Audi. OTOH, there are some on this list that have allot more personal knowledge of subarus that I do. From my limited experience of working on them, I'm not all that thrilled. But then again I don't care to work on or own MB's, fords and kia's either. If you are a die hard scoobie fan, then you must have good reason. I am a die hard chevy muscle car fan, a hydrostream speed boat fan and to a lesser extent a VW and Audi fan, for my own reasons. To each his own. But let's not mince words over what I know to be facts.

Rolf

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Taka Mizutani 
  To: R. Mair 
  Cc: calvinlc at earthlink.net ; S-CAR-List at audifans.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 3:31 PM
  Subject: Re: [s-cars] WAS gas prices, now racist subaru's


  Rolf-
  the RS4 turbo'ed 2.7Ts don't seem to fail as often. No, I'm not a professional, but I've not heard of or seen 1.8Ts have turbo failures as often when they're properly maintained- I still believe that the 2.7Ts seem to munch turbos, even when they are immaculately maintained (oil and filter changes with M1 0W40 every 3k, proper cooldown, etc.). 

  You should know that K04s are a very different turbo from the K03 in terms of construction- the impeller shaft diameter is much larger, oil passages larger, etc.

  I think your trivialization of my comments is just being insulting- why is it that some of the Japanese companies have no issues with their engines, but you're basically affirming that there are issues with Audi engines? Just because Audi has used Bosch for so long doesn't excuse the fact that other cars don't have MAF issues like the VW and Audi engines of recent years. 

  I didn't purchase a B5 S4tt for the very problems that the cars have- I don't relish the thought of dropping $5k+ on turbo replacement to a guy like you just so I can drive an Audi. Until those issues are resolved, I'm not buying anything Audi that's new or nearly-new. I still maintain that Audi hasn't done much for its product line since the C4 S6. 

  Taka