Ok. I have a 2001.5 (bigger oil inlet lines to turbo?) A6 2.7t. 79k miles.
I cant sleep at night because im having sludge nightmares.I have NO warranty right now.. im going to buy an extended warranty in a week or so. but in the meantimeI'dliketo drop the oil pan and pull the valve cover gasket to check for sludge. Was this as big a problem on my motor as the A4's? All day searching reveals alot of problems on the A4. no mention of my motor. Are the oil pan and valve cover gaskets re-usable if i dont rip them etc?
And sometimes when I brake at slow speeds on dry ground it feels like the abs kicks in or something. like it will pump the pedal and then stop.. only after cars already significantly slowed down. Doesnt happen under hard braking.. any clue guys? thanks. Ive had the car 3 days and this is all I've worried about so far : )

 

What's your date of manufacture? (Driver's side b-pillar)

 

sludge: one way to quickly determine sludge is just look under the oil cap, if you see a thin film of resdue, youre fine, if its thick (i.e. 1/8" or more ) you may have some problems. gaskets: i dont think they are reusable, i know the pan gasket is not, because it will more than likely be adhered to the metal due to heat, when i changed my oil pan we had to scrape off the old gasket. i imagine the same thing occurs with valve covers, youll have to replace them.
brakes: i think i know what you might be talking about, try and pay more close attention to it to see if its simply the engine downshifting(if you have tiptronic aka auto).

 

This forums so solid. thanks..
I have a manual transmission
The build date is 07/01.. pretty damn late in the year no?

 

TTT and would like Southboro guy back in this one : ) i was told to look in oil filler cap.. eh.. still Id liek a better look. And any input on the brake thing? I feel a pumping though the pedal on VERY light braking. Like in traffic.
Also sometimes i get 88mpg as it says ont he dash. Last nightit went from 13. 5 : ) to like 18 thne 22 then 36 then 88mpg.. all in like 2 seconds. It kept jumpin around so I just changed it to average speed.

 

MPG's: on the windshiled wiper handle, look at the end of it, theres a button that has you can hit to point up, or point down, hit one side of this button while driving and look at your computer screen, now it might tell you how many miles till the tank is empty, now it might tell you the time, then itll tell you the average of mpg's, and what youre seeing is current (not average) mpg's, so if youre rolling with no gas on the pedal, youll get some ridiculous high number, i.e. if rolling down a hill with no push on the pedal, youll be getting liek 120mpg lol, but if you floor it up hill you (at that current point) will be getting something liek eight, see?
As for oil, if you cant se sludge under the cap, id say there is a 99% chance you dont have any, UNLESS it had so much sludge previously that the previous owner removed the valve cover and cleaned everything out. which is unlikely. in fact when i dropped my oil pan to put in a new one (because mine cracked) it was cleaner in there then in the valve covers, (which only has a thin film which is great for 135k miles).

the brakes, maybe check youre brake fluid level, if youve ever had the brake lines changed maybe the person who did it didnt completely drain any residual air bubbles out of the line (assuming they did chaneg the lines and didnt know 100% what they were doing), brake fluid cannot be compressed like air can, so if you have air in the lines, itll cause a squishy pedal andsloppy braking. even a really small air bubble can cause this. thats the only thing i can think of . hope that helps you

 

Thanks man. Ive bled enough cars incorrectly to know the squishy pedal feel. LOL.. It does seem a little soft for such a strong car but high speed brakings been ok so far. Gonna bleed em soon anyway. Isnt it REALLY easy on these cars? Like abs does it for you or somethin? Dont need an answer for that.I can search for it.. thanks again. Feelin better. Also remembered a good friend of mine is a serious BMW tech.. with tons of modding experience, wholesale accountswith german parts suppliers, great helpful attitudeand the shop to himself on the weekend : ) F**K the dealership : )

 

no problem at all, the abs doesnt do it, its still the traditional 2 man job with the "OK push the pedal!" lol and cracking the bleeder. etc.etc. its real easy as you said. hope everything works out, good luck

 

thanks man.. I had a hose with a one way valve on it that used to work good. Maybe i can grab one of those again. thanks again. start from the right reart no? furthest from the master cylinder?

 

Why are you so worried about sludge?

Normally the 2.7t doesn't have a problem. But it really depends on what the PO did.

The only real way to know if you have a problem is to remove the valve covers & look at the corners of the heads.
If you can see sludge when you remove the oil fill cap, then you have BIG problems.

Change the oil regularly, use a high quality synthetic, use a oil flush 2x a year.

On the brakes, maybe there are some deposits on the rotor & it's more grabby there.
You might want to get the car up to a good speed, & do a couple of hard stops to rebed the pads, & clean any crap off them.