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Bill,
I don't recommend an engine flush unless you plan on removing the oil pan to clean the bottom of the oil pan and the pickup screen for the oil pump. We use a BG flush machine at [dealership]. We have been doing a number of Passat 1.8t engines recently with sludge problems. The 1st one we did the flush on came back a few days later with an oil light on. The oil pan was removed and the pickup screen for the oil pump was clogged with debris. The engine flush breaks up a lot of crap in the engine that just doesn't seem to makes it's way out of the oil drain hole in the oil pan even though part of the flush procedure pushes air through the oil supply system. Now if a customer wants an engine flush, we will only do it if they are willing to pay the labor to remove the oil pan and clean the oil pump pickup screen and the bottom of the oil pan. The power flush doesn't do a good job at cleaning heavy sludge. To remove the oil pan and pickup screen is 7 hours labor. You drop the subframe and engine mounts in order to drop the oil pan (poor Audi design). If I had it done on a Passat I owned I would request a front end alignment after dropping the subframe beacause in doing so you have physically altered the geometry of the suspension. The way I clean my engines is to drain 1 quart of oil out of the engine, add 1 quart of ATF and run the engine for an hour, then do an oil change. The ATF has excellent detergent properties and does a good job of cleaning varnish and slight sludge out of an engine. By the way the "special " chemical BG supplies with the flush kit smells just like Pinesol! I don't know about Audi, but VW issued a Tech Bulletin stating when performing an oil change on Passat 1.8ts to use a larger oil filter which increasines oil capacity to 4.6 quarts and use synthetic oil only. We try to convey to customer's the benefits of using synthetic oil in turbo motors but some people are too cheap to do this. (pretty disgusting considering most of their addresses are Bethesda/Chevy Chase/NW DC). Best way to see if you have a sludge build up problem and too see if an engine flush is really necessary is to remove the valve cover and inspect the valve train. You'll know right away whether a serious flush is needed. One good product by BG I use on every oil change on my vehicles is their product called "MOA". It is an oil additive that protects the bearings and cleans varnish extremely well. I have been using that product for 20 years.

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