RE: hOW TO CHECK DAMAGE ON 1.8T MOTOR

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

Hello Peter,

I guess it is difficult to tell whether I should congratulate you or offer
my condolences on the return of your car ... 

I don't claim to be an expert on this sort of thing, but I'm imagining that
you are reposting because you didn't get a lot of responses to the first
attempt.  I'd say that it is going to be very difficult to try to determine
what damage was done to the internals of the engine/tranny without actually
tearing it down.  I'd say that your best reasonable alternative would be to
have the engine's characteristics checked.  Perhaps one of the best things
to do would be to have the oil drained and chemically analyzed to see how
the engine is worn.  I seriously doubt that the thieves changed the oil
while they had it.  It might be good to have the tranny oil replaced to see
if there are any metal filings (manual tranny) or burned ATF.  Have a
compression check done and a boost level check ... and cross your fingers!
My parents had their pickup stolen a few years back albeit for a quick joy
ride, but in their case the damages appeared to be mostly cosmetic ... I
hope that this is all that is wrong with your car as well.

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> My stolen A4 1.8T has been recovered by the police . The 
> thieves have driven
> 9000 km and I would like comments as to what to look for / 
> determine damage
> to car /engine which the insurance company will have compensate me for