Hello all. I'm new to these forums and have been lurking around for the past few days learning what I can about the A4. This is my first German made car, and I have a challenge ahead of me that I'm looking for advice on.

Last week, oil sludge caused my car to stop sucking up oil into the pickup, and subsequently the car died while driving, refusing to start. I had no clue what was causing it at the time, which is what drove me to these forums (thanks Google). Having towed it to a reputable Audi shop and after several days of leak-down tests and tearing into the engine, a $9k estimate for a new engine and turbo was quoted. I'm not too concerned with the accuracy of the price, I know the engine needs to be rebuilt...and I'm the dumba$$ that caused it. I definately have learned from my mistake of thinking the oil light was an instrumentation problem.

I do not have $9K to sink into the car right now all at once, so I'm going to be doing some or much of the rebuild myself over time. I have rebuilt a few honda/acura engines and done motor swaps and generally can do basic things with a vehicle, but am by no means a mechanic--I just tinker and try to learn what I can.

I guess I just need some guidance here, such as resources, links and recommendations. My goal for this project is to get the car returned to running condition, with a few mods here and there to increase HP and strengthen the bottom end/top end. Ideally I'll be adding a turbo timer, ecu chip/upgrade, larger turbo (or better performing turbo), intercooler, and of course some strong internals like rods and pistons.

So, any advice where to start looking for parts?
Anyone done a similar build that may know some pitfalls to look out for?
How large, if at all, can I bore the cylinders to repair the scratches that are inevitably going to be there?

Those are all the questions I can think of right now, but Ill post more when I get the car back and start working on it. Thanks for your input.

 

Shokan.com is an Audi salvage yard in nj/ny. I don't know the answers to your other questions!

 

what type of oil were you using?

 

Well if you did your research you would know that audi would cover the cost of the entire engine repair or NEW ENGINE if it was sludge related. As long as you can show proof of your oil change receipts (at least every 10k) then per the audi oil sludge TSB it would be covered by audi free of charge regardless of current mileage on your motor. What audi shop did you bring it to, sounds like they either don't know their ****, or he is bending you over.

 

I was using synthetic oil (Mobile1 I think), but I bought the car used about a year ago, and so I don't have the proof that the oil was changed regularly

 

You only need proof from when you bought it. Previous owners don't matter according to the TSB.

 

just another reason why i never buy used cars. some people are ignorant when it comes to proper (preventative) maintenance. sorry about your misfortunes man. if you do get a salvage engine i'd get the oil system flushed and keep using the mobil 1 afterwards. i change it every 5000 miles.

 

I had to do this same thing. My local Audi dealership had my car for a month trying to fix the problem and ended up just replacing the entire engine with a new one. I only had my 2005 1.8T for a year and luckily it was still under warranty.

From searching around I have heard a few instances of people needing to rebuild the B6 1.8T engine due to sludge. Doesn't really inspire confidence in my purchase.

 

Do any of you people ever search on this damn forum? The 1.8T is completely covered by audi if it gets sludge, even if you have 200,000 miles on it. Secondly if you have searched you would know that the problem with the A4 1.8T is the oil pick up tube design, people that have run sythetic oil the whole life of the engine have still gotten oil pressure problems from a clogged pick up tube, even at 60k!!! It isn't even sludge 90% of the time, but audi will fix it anyways because they don't want to own up to thier design mistake, buying a used 1.8T probably has nothing to do with it. Damn i have a headache...

 

A buddy of mine is having this issue, and they won't honor the warranty because he cannot produce receipts for service from before he had the car. It's an 02 A4 that he bought with less than 30k miles. It's at about 80k now and he has all of those receipts from 30k-80k. They're giving him a hard time. Any suggestions?