BITOG PRON - Valve Photo of 2004 Audi A4

Winston · Oct 27, 2009

I had the change the valve cover Gasket on this car last weekend. It has been getting 10k oil changes at the dealer, except for the last oil change. Dealer oil is Unknown. It has 65,000 miles on it. It looks pretty good to me. No sludge and just a bit of varnish. Not bad for a small turbo engine.

Its last UOA is here:
BITOG UOA

saberz · Oct 27, 2009

Nice and clean, turns me on lol. This all on Mobil 1 0w40?

hpichris · Oct 27, 2009

Title is no lie

d00df00d · Oct 27, 2009

Originally Posted By: Winston
It has been getting 10k oil changes at the dealer, except for the last oil change.

Quoted for emphasis. Guess dealer maintenance isn't always a one-way-ticket to a grenaded engine, eh?

Trajan · Oct 27, 2009

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: Winston
It has been getting 10k oil changes at the dealer, except for the last oil change.

Quoted for emphasis. Guess dealer maintenance isn't always a one-way-ticket to a grenaded engine, eh?

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, they're watching.

Nayov · Oct 27, 2009

Thanks for sharing. I can't get enough of these engine pics. Makes me want to crack open my valve cover just to look inside!

LoneRanger · Oct 27, 2009

Chains are sexah. No timing belt changes

Rand · Oct 27, 2009

what was wrong with the gaskets already?? Is it common with that engine?

rcy · Oct 27, 2009

MMM...PRON...I like it..

IntegraVT · Oct 27, 2009

Nice looking engine! Hard to believe that year 1.8T is considered sludger when plain old regular maintenance is enough to keep it that clean.

hpichris · Oct 27, 2009

You can eat of it. Well, almost

Quattro Pete · Oct 27, 2009

Originally Posted By: Rand
what was wrong with the gaskets already??

It was probably leaking. Mine developed a leak by 50k miles. Not uncommon on these cars, sadly.

Audi Junkie · Oct 27, 2009

Here are other 1.8ts for comparison...

JustinC25 · Oct 27, 2009

Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Chains are sexah. No timing belt changes

Timing belt is on the other side of the head. The chain is just to drive the other cam.

My local Audi dealer uses Syntec 5w40 For these cars.
I only know cause I asked, when I was working on my friends A4.

DieselTech · Oct 28, 2009

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
Here are other 1.8ts for comparison...

So what did you use from when it was arished and sludged to the pics where it's very clean?

Winston · Oct 28, 2009

Yes, the gasket was leaking. When I changed the spark plugs, two of them had a bit of oil around them. It is very common for the valve gasket to start leaking on these cars at around 50-60k miles.

Also, as noted the chain turns the cams, you can see the timing belt at the bottom of the engine pics. It is time to change mine, but it is not a fun job. You need to take off the front bumper, as well as the radiator. Bleh. maybe in a couple months.

I am getting ready to change the "Lifetime" fluids in the A/T and the rear differential. Ill do UOA's of them.

I wish you posted some history with those other pics Audi Junkie. Some look good, but that last one looks kind of ugly.

wgtoys · Oct 28, 2009

Looks great, though I would be [censored] about needing to replace the valve cover gasket at such a young age. The original valve cover gaskets on our '03 V-6 Honda are still in place at 96k miles and don't leak a drop.

BTW, using a belt to drive one cam and then another chain and sprocket arrangement to drive the second cam is a very strange engineering choice. Extra parts, extra cost, extra weight. All of the DOHC engines I've worked on which use a timing belt use the belt to drive both cams. VW/Audi does some weird things.

d00df00d · Oct 28, 2009

The Veyron is the same way AFAIK.

Audi Junkie · Oct 28, 2009

Those are all different engines.

Winston · Oct 28, 2009

Originally Posted By: wgtoys
Looks great, though I would be [censored] about needing to replace the valve cover gasket at such a young age. The original valve cover gaskets on our '03 V-6 Honda are still in place at 96k miles and don't leak a drop.

BTW, using a belt to drive one cam and then another chain and sprocket arrangement to drive the second cam is a very strange engineering choice. Extra parts, extra cost, extra weight. All of the DOHC engines I've worked on which use a timing belt use the belt to drive both cams. VW/Audi does some weird things.

Every car has its drawbacks. The Audi is a littel more fun to drive than a Honda. While that gasket failing is a bummer, the PCV system is a complete nightmare. It has 5 check valves and little hoses running everywhere. ONe of the hoses disentegrated. The replacement was hard plastic and required heating the end with a heat gun then quickly pushing it on. Plus the connection was under the intake manifold so I had to get the heat gun down there too.

However, the car handles great on dry land, plus I have taken it to Tahoe frequently and the quatro system is amazing.

BITOG PRON - Valve Photo of 2004 Audi A4

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