So, I just picked up my new 2001 1.8t quattro. Love it! My previous car was a 1992 eagle talon tsi awd. I knew a decent amount of stuff concerning the dsm's, but I know very little in the Audi department. I will be debadging the car this weekend (hopefully) and I found the thread on that. I have a few questions, however, that I couldn't seem to find specific answers to.

1. How hard can the stock clutch and tranny be ridden in these quattro systems? I know the case for the dsm's was that the tranny and clutches were the weakest link. I want to make sure I don't start launching and running the car too hard too often (I'm not a racer type, either, so launching and hard shifting don't occur regularly), just to need to get something replaced after a few thousand miles. I'd just like to get a general idea of what the overall consensus is in this area.

2. I've always been under the impression that vehicles with turbos should always run full synthetic oil. I ran mobil 1 in my talon and nearly every dsm owner did the same or ran something comparable. However, I talked with an acquaintance who owns a '99 Audi S4 and he said you should run regular oil, but you have to change it much more often. He explained that the synthetic will never "stick" to the parts and insulate like it should (to plug small leaks and things) and that if you're not going to use the car for full-on racing, synthetic oil is a waste. Is this true? I was thinking if he was correct, why don't more people run a regular/synthetic blend? I know I read most people here are running the mobil 1, castrol syntec, royal purple, etc... and it's always 100% synthetic. Please, help me shed some light on this situation for my new car.

3. For washing/waxing, what products are recommended (if there is a section or thread on this specifically, I apologize in advance for asking. I saw the thread on HOW to wash, but not on actual products)? Also, for waxing, how often should that be done?

I think those are the main things I had on my mind at the moment. I absolutely love this car and have already had to spank a few honda ricers in the area giving me grief. Love that! And it's not even modded! Thank you in advance to everyone who replies and contributes.

 

Welcome to the club and the forum.

You will really enjoy your new car.

The 1.8T should only run synthetic oil. The 1.8T has run into problems with engine sludging and loss of oil pressure due to poor oil change habits and not using synthetic oil and the small size of the oil sump.

In response to this Audi has sent out a list of approved oils, and has extended a warranty for engine sludging problems. You have tohave scrupulous records of oil changes, so if you are planning to do your oil changes keep receipts ,dates and mileage.

The recommended oil is Mobil 1 0W-40, Castrol Synthetic 5W-40, and several other 5W-40 oils. You should also use the new larger size OEM filter from MANN (you can purchase these and other parts over the net from ecs tuning. Make sure you change the oil every 5K miles.

You don't state how many miles you have, but if you are approaching 80K you are likely running on borrowed time as far as the timing belt is concerned.

If the car is high mileage, I'd swap out all the fluids PS, brake, gear and differential oils. Make sure you use the appropriate PS fluid fromPentosin. Audis and all german cars do not use "off the shelf" fluids for steering or antifreeze.

 

I use Mobil 1 0W-40 which meets the ACEA A3 standard.

 

do you think renn art has these??? im headed over there today to get some quotes on this kind of work done

 

The car has 60k miles on it. The timing belt, at least visually, looks like it is in really good shape. I also noticed a slight squeek in the front driver's side wheel (that, of course, wasn't there during the test drive or first day of owning the car). I'm thinking it's probably a wheel bearing (based on some other posts I've read). How expensive is that to get fixed if that's what it turns out to be? All of that aside, I'm really enjoying the car. Thanks again for the replies and assistance.

 

it's more likely a control arm if it's a squeaking sound. you can get control arms from ecstuning for a good price, and they're better than the stock CAs...you're probably good on the timing belt for another 10k miles or so, but don't let it get too high above 70k, even if it still looks good.

 

Are you sure you looked at the timing belt? You can't even see the timing belt without removing the damper pulley and, basically, you can't remove the damper pulley without taking off the front of the car.

 

Anyway, it isn't the timing belt that fails on these cars prematurely. It was the timing belt tensioner that failed letting the belt slacken and slip.

 

Thanks for the posts so far. The left front wheel squeeking noise resembles that of a wagon wheel (you know, the red rider kind you had as a kid?) and isn't constant, but it's there everytime going in and out when I drive and get close enough to a median wall to hear the sound bouncing off. I checked ecstuning for control arms and they had a lot of different kinds. Which ones (I'll just get left fronts and right fronts) would be ideal for daily driving conditions with future mods being pretty subtle other than suspension and body work? As for the timing belt, I indeed have not checked it. I checked the belt at the very front of the engine bay behind the radiator. At least that one looked good! I definitely need to snag a manual to start poking around the engine bay with some confidence. Thanks again to all who are replying.