Hi members, i am new to this board, although i have been reading and searching for a few weeks now, i haven't posted until now.

The reason for my post as you can tell is that i am having trouble with my 2000 A4 1.8T. the engine turns but will not start. The symptoms were, that the red oil light came on (onboard display), it beeped out loud, i drove it home about 4 miles and planned on taking it to the mechanic the next morning. Next morning comes, i try to start the car and it would not start, it kept turning, but would not start.

So.. i towed it to the mechanic (non dealer), the one who's been working on the car since i bought it used at 33K miles (maintenance, servicing etc) and according to him the problem was, lack of Oil pressure, the Camshaft tensioner did not get lubricated along with the chain belt, and led to frictional burning of the tensionerand over time the tensioner wore off enough to cause the belt to become loose and resulting in the timing getting messed up and eventually caused the Camshafts to get misaligned, this led to the piston hitting the valve and the valves getting bent.

The mechanicattributed this to the filter getting clogged due to sludge and hence not letting the oil through, between the tensioner and the chain.

The total damage to fix this would be 6K(dealer) or 4K(non dealer).

So my question to you guys is,

1) whether this makes sense and can the above described events be attributed to what the mechanic claims.

2) Another question is that i have heard of Audi extending the warranty on the 4 cylinder engines upto 150K miles due to known sludging problems, so would this case qualify under the warranty.

3) Should i get it checked by the dealership and can i trust them to give me the correct diagnosis?

4) i live in Boston and i know of Autobahneast, the name of the mechanic is Chip and he's known to be very ethical, should i get it checked by him as well to get a second opinion before i take the car to the dealership (for a third opinion)?

I would really appreciate your replies and any advice, help that you might be able to give on this, since i am relatively new to this.

Thanks for your time.

BK