Well, hello fellow Audi heads new to the forum and since my car is 13 years old i decided I will have to do most work on this car myself to keep it going from here on in, too expensive otherwise therefore I will need some knowledgeable friends here seemed like the spot.

So for my first ever post on the forum I want to talk about the 1.8T and why it's worth throwing time and money at one that has problems. Specifically oil pickup related breakdowns.

Here's my story:

I owned an A4 2.8 quattro (no ESP full 200bhp) - loved it, absolutely best car I ever drove. Bulletproof. Eventually I had to go the economy route so I reluctantly sold it and bought a 1.9TDi.
By the time things looked up I decided I was more than ready to go back to 30 something mpg and petrol power.

The wife wouldn't let me buy the 3.0 A6 so I figured the best way to go to please everyone was to grab a 52 1.8TQ A6 and eventually stick some extra go up it's bum on the cheap to keep my inner animal happy.

Once I learnt the ESP isn't a fan of sideways action and invariably tries to kill you if you disagree with where we are collectively looking to go, I decided not to bother adding any extra horses LOL a simple family car it is.....

So I loved it, cared for it, occasionally drove it quickly in a straight line, that's about it.

Then one day I chucked it round a corner up in the hills and the pickup clogged.
I said f*** it and limped it around 7 miles home with the engine clattering and kicking and screaming. Not long after that I had an argument with my significant other and left, bags packed, grabbed the car from the garage and hauled rs out of town in it, still kicking and screaming.

After sleeping rough in it for a couple of days I saw sense and returned home and worked things out, after thrashing the car beyond what I could believe it would be able to withstand ( I didn't care at this point). The turbo blew on the way home and left a smoke cloud behind me the air force would struggle to beat.

After previously being quoted £600 to clear the pickup pipe and flush the engine I got home and left it parked.....the MOT ran out, the Tax ran out so I SORN'd it.

A year later and after plenty investigation and thinking about what had happened I decided to throw maybe £300 at it and see if i could save it from the scrapyard.

I tried clearing the pickup, changing oil, filter etc(took ages) didn't fix it. Bummed out. No free fix for me. Of course I was aware the turbo was shot but hoped I could at least get it running quietly again for free. Ha. I was told "Noooooo a blowing turbo won't affect oil pressure"....I said bs I reckon it can.

So, with that done and no improvement I gave it some more thought and got stuck in, new turbo £160, new oil pump £40, new pickup pipe £15 plus spark plugs £15 oil £33 filter £can't remember plus lots of little bits and bobs, then got set about it.

I fitted a new turbo, a new oil pump and pickup pipe, new exhaust downpipe, new spark plugs, plus all the labour that goes with it....ooft

putting the car in service position VASTLY reduces the swearing involved LOL
Especially for raising the engine off it's mounts.

So this car had been driven for maybe 15 miles gently while it was screaming at me to stop both on the dash and by the howling racket the engine was making, then it was driven hard until the turbo failed and beyond (total of maybe 25+ miles). By all means this engine should have been scrap but to the credit of the Engineers at Audi this wee thing has just passed an MOT, it only failed on emissions....I nearly let a small poo out but when I looked at it only lambda readings were out: 1.048 (or 15.4:1) so given the still blowing exhaust I just sorted that and it went through at 1.018, STILL blowing a little. Once I sort it the lambda would be bang on by my guess-timations.

The moral of the story is, even if there's massive white smoke pouring out of your 1.8T exhaust and the engine sounds like an early 20th century tractor, don't give up on it if fixing it yourself is the cheapest/only option.

You could just be pleasantly surprised at the amount of abuse these powerplants can actually take.

I'm guessing dropping the sump twice, changing out the oil pump, oil filter plugs, turbo, downpipe, flushing the engine etc etc would run into maybe £2k or more at a garage supplying parts and labour

Instead, I reckon that was about £600 with MOT and tax. Just a shed load of effort but I'm so glad to be driving around in my A6 1.8T again; and glad to have an interesting first post on this forum

 

Ohhh jeez! Kudos to you! Welcome to Audiforums by the way!

 

Thanks

I'm having some issues with the car (I have another thread about that) but overall the engine is fine I'm sure.

Hello to you in Canada, my old man is there just now visiting family in Toronto.
One of the best places in the world IMHO (Canada in general)

Went to Wasaga beach when I was there on my honeymoon, didn't want to come home to Scotland LOL.

As far as kudos goes, not sure I would have bothered if I realised how much work it was going to be - despite knowing what I was up against it turned out to be maybe three times as much work

If anyone has questions about anything related to the work I did I'm happy to answer but write-ups aren't my bag, baby.