How long should a 1.8 motor last until it kicks the bucket? It runs great now -almost like it's chipped :-) however, I'm worried it might be near the end of it's life (it has 178k miles) it had the timing belt changed 20k miles ago. anyone know if I'm just being paranoid or is this a valid concern?

your being paranoid, I am in auto tech school and there is no reason, under regularly shceduled maintenace that shouldn't last another 100k

There are issues particular to the 1.8T that have to be tended to - they're known for oil sludge, for one. Take a look at the Newbie guide (it's a sticky post up above) and I believe it covers that. Give the engine a seafoam treatment every 15k miles or so (maybe every 20k) to minimize the buildup of sludge.

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there's another guy on the forum who was chipped at 190k last i heard, he's probly over 200 by now and he's been chipped since around 100k. you can do a compression check to be sure.

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