me and my wife are buying two audis (98 a4 1.8t quatro 5speed and 99 a4 1.8t quatro auto) i am into tuning cars. she wants hers left as stock as possible. first i would like to know the huge problems in these engines. i am used to working on turbo motors and know most of the precautions of keeping them healthy. is there anything audi specific i should worry about? Also may i upgrade the DV to a BOV or do i have to keep the DV? also the 5speed has 197k on it. is this car about to give out? paying 2500 for it.

 

Check out the newbie guide if you haven't.

Timing belt needs to be done so make sure of that. It isn't a cheap job if you plan on taking it to a shop. Labor is what you'll be paying for the most.

I can't say for sure. You gotta check out the car to know. If the previous owner(s) took care of the car, I'm certain th car will last for a decent amount of time.

And technically you can run a BOV but the car was made to run DV as it needs the air back. Some people run splitters if you desire the BOV sound.

Best of luck! Keep us updated.

PS: I moved the thread to B5 sub section for better traffic/response.

 

thank you.
the timing belt and water pump have been changed on both cars less than 20k ago. im hearing alot about this sludge problem. is there something i can do to clean this out (seafoam, lucas?) also is there alot of aftermarket support for internals? like forged pistons and rods? if so what brands? what about cam upgrades? sorry for all the questions im really excited to get this car and learn about the audi world

 

Hopefully this will help you a bit
https://www.audiforums.com/forum/aud...ion-2-a-80968/

 

have read that multiple times. doesnt answer any of those questions:/

 

id get your wife a v6 if she just wants it stock, its faster than the 1.8t is stock.
Sludge is a huge problem on the 1.8t. I would get your new cars and make sure all the maintenance is done before you start building it up. Every part for the 1.8 is there for a build, including oem stroker, rod, pistons, act.
check out 034 and ECS
don't run a BOV

 

FTW. but really, stock for stock a 2.8 will beat the pants off of a 1.8. plus your wife will love the driveability of the 2.8 as it has much more useable torque on the low end. but there is virtually no aftermarket support for it unless you have really deep pockets. But on the whole the 2.8 is going to be overall less problematic and more worry-free, (especially once you start modifying the 1.8).

 

2000 1.8 manual (185,000 miles) and 2004 1.8 auto (116,000) in the driveway. It never ends.......