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If you have ever owned a VW group car with a 1.8t engine, whether it be a Jetta, Passat, A4, Octiva, or SEAT’s version which name I can’t remember, then you have likely encountered the miserable issue of engine sludge buildup. If you do own a car with one of these engines, and you’re never checked, then congratulations! You’ve got sludge!
Here is a rough breakdown on checking if your 1.8t has sludge-
Is it a 1.8t?
No- you may want to check, just to be sure
Yes- Yes. You have sludge.It really is that common. And it is no joke, either. This can be a real drag, because these engines are actually some of the more impressive I’ve ever driven, and certainly my favorite ever owned. At first, I was heavily disappointed and it seemed to be a very daunting task to rid the engine of this mess. Not only does the sludge gum up every single inlet and outlet where oil is/should be, it also has a very bad habit of getting lodged in the screen of the oil pickup tube. While it is bad for the rest of the engine to be covered in curdled oil, the dreaded low oil pressure warning light can sometimes be the kiss of death. Other times, it can kick your car into limp mode- and that is fortunate. What happens is that the conically shaped oil pickup tube with a meshed screen in the center gets small particles of the heavy deposits of sludge- along with whatever else may be now floating around inside the oil pan now as a result of damage by sludge- finds its way into the small passages of the screen and, over time, chokes off oil to the rest of the engine, as well as the turbo. In some cases, it just clogs suddenly and you then get no oil at all. At best, your oil pressure drops to a dangerous level and your car will knock itself into limp mode so as to avoid damage.
The longitudinally mounted engines seem to have a far greater risk of this as opposed to the transversely mounted, but sludge is still an issue in this engine, no matter the positioning.
There are a number of fixes, remedies, solutions, and everything else out there to try and tackle this problem. They range everywhere from a hand cleaning (which takes a long time, isn’t always successful, and can lead to other issues) to an oil additive (which is what I did and, much to my surprise, seems to have worked. Operative word here being seems)… other people take their cars to a shop to have it professionally cleaned. Whatever you choose to do, just make sure the job is done correctly the first time. I can not express the importance of this enough. Too many people have thought that they were in the clear, only to find out later that there was still sludge in their engine that got knocked loose or looked over and they have to start over from scratch. A lot of people also completely ignore the oil pan. Don’t do this. The oil pan is going to be where the worst sludge lives. This is what will find its way into your pickup tube. And when you ignore your oil pan, you’re also ignoring your pickup tube. And, if you do service the oil pan, DO NOT put on too much RTV for the gasket. If you do, it will squish off into the oil pan and then you’ll eventually find yourself low on oil pressure again because there is RTV stuck in your pickup tube.
These engines are great. The really are. And they are such a joy to drive. Engine sludge is the biggest problem with this engine, and it can certainly give the sensation that the engine is of poor quality. But more often than not, it’s just caused by even the tiniest lapse in maintenance. Make sure you use the oil specified/recommended by VW, use a good filter, and change your oil a little more often than recommended. If you do these things, you can minimize the possibility of adding more sludge.
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When I worked for Audi in the early 2000’s, it was explained to me like this:
The engines run hot and the Turbo is small and runs hot even when you’re not driving it hard, which causes oil ‘coking’, or being cooked into sludge. At that time, synthetic oil had just started to be spec’d by VW/Audi for these engines. The engine came out for the 1998 MY, and by 2002 they were piling in with sludge/lack of lubrication problems just like ArtyS is describing. They spec’d conventional oil with a 5k interval, which is very bad for a turbo engine. I wouldn’t leave any oil in any engine of mine under any ciicumstances, let alone a turbo sports car. It was in 2003 that I was told the combination of conventional oil with too long of a change interval was the cause of chronic sludge, but word is the synthetic started being spec’d shortly after that and has been ever since but the sludge never stopped. Don’t know what to make of that other than the synthetic oil is not being changed enough at a 5k..
This engine is a big pile of turd,headgasket issues also.There are 5 different 1.8T VW/Audi engines going by the three letter code and the computer systems are different for each one.Go price these engines used,expensive over a grand since they are junk and most yards get calls for these engines.My Matco tool dealer had VW and it ran like crap because the wrong oil was used.Found out it specified Castrol only and voided the warranty if this oil was not used
Ah, yes. Great question. Sorry… I sort of managed to explain why it even occurs, which is very important.
Fopeano is correct on this, and then there is a little more to add on to what he already said.
It is kind of a perfect storm situation with these engines, and for all the reasons described. But the main one is heat. Heat in these engines is absurd. Like he said, it is a small turbo, so it tends to be a little more active and that generates a ton of heat. This cokes up the lines. And I would love to let the world know just how awful cleaning each and every tiny pipe and tube is to get rid of this nonsense. If you look at something like my car, you’ll see some major efforts to keep the heat away from the block, but nothing really works. In my car, the turbo is almost directly next to the block. All the shielding in the world isn’t enough to keep the heat from radiating its way around. Because that’s what heat does. Radiates. Because heat is radiation. At least in this case.
So tip number 1- just a little bit of warm up and cool down can save you a lot of headaches. When that little K03 turbo has been going nonstop for however long and then it’s just suddenly turned off, all oil flow stops and that oil just bakes. It almost causes me physical pain thinking about how severe a change it is to go from spinning at hundreds of thousands of RPMs to a dead stop in less than a second. That heat… all that heat.
Tip #2- Fopeano got on this one. Synthetic oil ONLY. And VW/Audi have their approved oil specs. 501.00 and 502.00, etc. This information will be in the owner’s manual. If it isn’t, CALL and find out what is recommended by the dealer. Synthetic or die. I haven’t done enough research into why exactly this is, but a lot of people swear by Mobile 1 for this particular engine. Not that I have anything at all against Mobile 1, but the way it’s recommended by owners, it seems like it is a great go-to if all else fails. I use Liqui Moly and Motul. Both have been great for me.
Tip #3- The last point Fopeano brought up- common sense. Please, never let the oil in these engines sit for 7,500 miles or more like some people say is possible. I can not figure out what compels people to disregard something so basic, but it seems like some people don’t get the full grasp of what changing engine oil is all about. But it is widely ignored and everything mentioned above is allowed to create this nasty stuff from pure neglect.
I am going to have to disagree with you. As will the many millions of other people who took care of their 1.8t and can still count on it so many years later to be reliable and fun. Common sense goes a long way. As for the oil… someone got something wrong in that mix. I really can’t say I believe anyone would come out and say that VW says Castrol or nothing, because personally, I have never had one person talk about using Castrol in their car. I can ask, but I think I know the response I’ll get.
There are also more than 5 iterations of the 1.8t. The computer systems are widely the same, and all can be parsed by the exact same VAGCOM computer. The used prices I’ve seen are average. And people want to get these from junk yards because people don’t take care of them. As for the head gasket… again, that’s new to me. I’ve seen and heard of blown head gaskets because of people letting their car overheat, but again… not really the engine’s fault. I have yet to hear someone say “My head gasket is bad”
It’s kind of hard to place blame entirely on an object when it’s the user that ultimately causes the problem.
Have hooked the Snap On Modis scan tool to a few of there,shown 5 of them which the computer systems were different too.My dad bought 3 VWs with the 1.8T once,once had a seized up cam in the head and could not get it out.Another one had the turbo out including the engine taking a dump.Sold them to the junkyard finally.
AMU, BEA, AMB, AUM, AEB, AWM, AGU, AWD, AWW, etc… there are a lot. They span four different car brands over the course of 20 years, all with different revisions and placement. My cousin has a Passat that one would think would be a clone to my A4, but it has a totally different engine design, but it’s still a 1.8t. She’s had hers for over a decade now and she said no one ever told her Castrol. Mobile 1 is what is more often recommended.
I think with your scan tool, it’s picking up the revisions of the overall design. For example, if you put my AMB on there and then go to, say, AWU, it will read as being a different engine because one is transversely mounted and the other is longitudinally mounted. AWU is transversely mounted in the Beetle and Golf while the AMB is longitudinally mounted in an A4.
They ARE very good engines. They really are. But they do require the owner to just take care of them. I somehow lucked out with mine in that I was able to clean the sludge out pretty well and there was minimal damage as a result of it. The cooling system is another story, but we’ll save that fiasco for another day. My friend has had his Jetta for I can’t remember how long now and he has never had an issue outside of his timing belt snapping on him. But that has happened to him on literally every single car he has ever owner, no matter how meticulous he is with them and he follows the service intervals perfectly, also a fan of preventative maintenance. He doesn’t pulverize his cars and he is responsible in every way. And every engine he’s ever had has snapped its timing belt. He just popped a new head on, his pistons were very lightly damaged (no one believes the story, but I promise you that it is the truth. I saw the pictures. He did all the work himself. Head- he didn’t bother with it. Pistons- light damage)………………… but aside from his curse, his 1.8t has taken him across the country many times and I know a lot of other people that can say the same about theirs.
It’s kind of like the infamous Subaru EJ25. Head gasket monster. I’ve seen a TON of those things go over 300,000 miles because the owners took preventative steps and it ran well. People are quick to blame the engine… and while the engine design is a big part of this issue, owners just doing the right thing when the time comes will keep that thing chugging along until the body rusts out.
And, in closing, I am posting this pic because I have absolutely no idea what in the heck to make of it. I was looking for a part number on Google Images and this came up. Remember that my engine is the AMB. And it’s an A4. Not the car in this picture. But oh man, this cracked me up. Possibly a bit more than it should have.
makes sense, a turbocharger gets screaming hot, some require running coolant as well as oil through them.
I know mine has a coolant system for the turbo. One of these days I’ll finally buy a thermometer and see how hot it really gets in there. All I know for sure is that it is somewhat concerning. If I go out and have a really hardcore drive, that little turbo is constantly going. As a result, I let it cool down for some time and then open the hood for a few hours. When you open the hood, it’s like a punch in the face from a volcano. As soon as I get lucky enough to find a K04 turbo for a fair price, (used on the higher HP Audi TT), I’ll throw it on and hope the car doesn’t burn to the ground. It’s still a very small turbo, but it, just like its smaller A4 brother, the K03, is surprisingly powerful. I remember reading the stats on this car before I took it for a drive and thinking how small the numbers were and how boring it was going to be.
Nope. Those numbers mean nothing at all. The 1.8t can provide endless fun. But a much larger front mount intercooler would be a wise investment. The intercooler that comes stock is very small and lodged behind the foglights, behind the bumper. Heatsoak is common.
Lots of good info and viewpoints in this conversation.
The real elephant in the room is that turbos, unless everything is ultra-meticulously engineered, are not a great application of technology. Bolt a turbo to a reciprocating engine and what you’ve done is create a weird Frankensteinian hybrid of gas turbine and reciprocating engine technology. Of course there are going to be shortcomings, and neither the gas turbine nor the reciprocating technology is going to be optimized.
One related technology I’m surprised that manufacturers haven’t explored is Power Recovery Turbines (PRT). With a PRT, you simply recover some of the otherwise lost heat energy in the exhaust stream and feed it directly back into the crankshaft through a mechanical coupling. It does what a turbo does, (extract more power and torque from a given engine), without the complication of forced induction.
I think that’s the reason behind the tiny, tiny size of the turbos used in these engines. I’ve never experienced turbo lag and the car, despite being incredibly heavy, does not feel like it is being powered by a 4 cylinder. That tiny little turbo does stay busy, and it is great, but you are correct. I’m a fan of older Volvos, mainly the 740 and 240. I’ve heard of people taking the turbo off of the 740 Turbo and driving it like that because the turbo just turns the car into another bill. So I guess that’s the same as what you’re saying. Is it?
And the PRT… sounds like the exact opposite of the Miller Cycle engine I had in my Mazda.
There are turbos that are electronic and some diesels use these.Any of the Ram trucks with the 6.7 Cummins use them.Ford is the worst using turbochargers.The ecoboost V6 has two of them and having problems with them.Includes the 6.0 and newer diesels with Ford dumping in way too much boost putting stress on the rods and pistons.
It’s interesting that you bring that up, because I was going to mention EcoBoost because of the smaller turbo size and all, but I think the two are inherently different in the long run. The 1.8t was designed to be a smoother engine than efficient and I would like to say that it does this very well. But I have no idea how the new Fords drive. I am also horrified by Mercedes’ internal turbo design. The turbos are actually sealed inside the engine.
The Chrysler 2.2s had the turbo too,never held up blowing up with the turbo.It had a lot power if it never blown up.
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