Oil recommendation for a sludge monster

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DireStraits

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Just purchased a 2001 Audi A4, 1.8L turbo; 111,000 miles currently on the car.

The car will be used as a daily driver. 75% of all trips will be on secondary roads, speeds of 55MPH or less for approximately 16 mile round trips. The remaining 25% of all trips will be interstate driving, sustained speeds of 70MPH, trip distances will be 100 mile round trips.

The owners manual suggests a dino or synthetic oil. 0W-40 or 5w30 to be changed every 5000 miles.

The 1.8L turbo engine has known sludging issues. My question here is: Is the sludging issue an engineering flaw, excessive heat from the turbo or lax maintenance schedules on the owner's part?

I normally run AMSOIL in my other vehicles. I have just upgraded from a preferred customer account to dealer status. I can purchase the AMSOIL XL or OE sythetic oil for what a quart of PYB will cost at Wal-Mart.

My plan was to run the 5w30 OE oil (with a Wix filter) and drain it every 3000 miles in hopes of preventing any new sludge build-up and cleaning out the old sludge.

I did consider running PU or PP on a 3000mi. OCI to clean the engine up and then switch back to the AMSOIL OE.

Does this sound like a feasible plan for cleaning-up the engine and preventing future sludge?

What is your opinion of the Wix filter? I hate to spend the money on an AMSOIL filter every 3000mi. Is there another top tier filter out there that won't break the bank every 3000 miles? I've read some good things about a new Purolator synthetic filter......

What's your thoughts?
 
so you can get amsoil at 3$/qt thats pretty good.

I'd use 5w40 syn. change at 3k miles the first time.
 
Definitely stick with the WIX filters for now, they are good quality filters but the cost is low enough to make your plan cost effective. I think you plan to run the OE is great. Cut your first filter open and see what it looks like inside. No oil additives. Your driving style is going to be getting the oil nice and hot and should clean it out some. After you do at least 4 3k OCI's I would switch to Amsoil SSO (or whatever it is now) or M1 0w40. M1 0w40 would be my choice, it meets more euro specs and has a stouter add pack over the Amsoil Euro formula's.
 
Use a VW502 oil in that car, or AMSOIL's version of a 'meets or exceeds' VW502. Barring that, an oil meeting A3 specs. The reason for all the sludge was people using 5w30 dino, IIRC.

M1 0w40 is another good choice.
 
If you're doing cleaning runs I think XL has more detergents than OE, might as well make the most of it.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
so you can get amsoil at 3$/qt thats pretty good.

I'd use 5w40 syn. change at 3k miles the first time.


No it's $4 and some change, same price Wal-Mart sells a single quart of PYB.
 
A [censored] pcv system is most of the problem. My buddies dad has one he got with 200k miles on it and soon after the oil pressure light started coming on. He said there was sludge built up around the oil pick up screen. He cleaned the engine top and bottom, put a new pump and pick up in and new bearings even though they looked like new yet. I told him, check the pcv tubing and sure enough, one was broke and the rest were plugged up solid. He put new pcv plumbing on and is running m1 0w40 in it now and all is well. I suggest making sure the pcv plumbing is in good condition and free of blockages.
 
Originally Posted By: DireStraits
The owners manual suggests a dino or synthetic oil. 0W-40 or 5w30 to be changed every 5000 miles.

The 1.8L turbo engine has known sludging issues. My question here is: Is the sludging issue an engineering flaw, excessive heat from the turbo or lax maintenance schedules on the owner's part?

My plan was to run the 5w30 OE oil (with a Wix filter) and drain it every 3000 miles in hopes of preventing any new sludge build-up and cleaning out the old sludge.


Sounds like you are missing some of the owner's manual updates. The only oil's you should be considering are synthetic.

Audi A4 and VW Passat have the 1.8T's that are most prone to sludging. The oil capacity in these vehicles is slightly less than in other 1.8T applications.

Not all 1.8T's get sludge, but sludge isn't the only problem you could run into. Small bit's of coked oil, generated by the turbo, can clog the oil pump pick-up screen. When this happens the only sure remedy is to drop the pan and replace the pick-up screen, usually along with the oil pump. It is a very labor intensive process.

The PCV systems on these engines are complicated but should be serviced on a regular basis. If you find any cloth covered vacuum lines that are original equipment replace them.

To increase your oil capacity to over 5 quarts consider using the Wix 51333. An alternative in this Big Kahuna size is the Purolator L40316.
 
Originally Posted By: afoulk
A [censored] pcv system is most of the problem. My buddies dad has one he got with 200k miles on it and soon after the oil pressure light started coming on. He said there was sludge built up around the oil pick up screen. He cleaned the engine top and bottom, put a new pump and pick up in and new bearings even though they looked like new yet. I told him, check the pcv tubing and sure enough, one was broke and the rest were plugged up solid. He put new pcv plumbing on and is running m1 0w40 in it now and all is well. I suggest making sure the pcv plumbing is in good condition and free of blockages.


Best post on the thread and 100% right. I know many people, myself with "sludge prone" cars and I think it is over blown. If you change PCV every other other oil change. No issues at all.
 
Originally Posted By: snowmaker
Originally Posted By: afoulk
A [censored] pcv system is most of the problem. My buddies dad has one he got with 200k miles on it and soon after the oil pressure light started coming on. He said there was sludge built up around the oil pick up screen. He cleaned the engine top and bottom, put a new pump and pick up in and new bearings even though they looked like new yet. I told him, check the pcv tubing and sure enough, one was broke and the rest were plugged up solid. He put new pcv plumbing on and is running m1 0w40 in it now and all is well. I suggest making sure the pcv plumbing is in good condition and free of blockages.


Best post on the thread and 100% right. I know many people, myself with "sludge prone" cars and I think it is over blown. If you change PCV every other other oil change. No issues at all.


This was exactly the same situation the SAAB b205 and b235 engines were famous for. SAAB put out several updates for the PCV system before settling on one that "got it right." If you were lucky, you got a blown turbo first as a warning sign that your engine was next if you didn't drop the pan and clean the screen. I bought mine used w/ 50 k miles and it was already pretty coated. I manually cleaned it, did the PCV updates, did a couple of arx cycles then kept adding the stuff as a maintenance dose for 5,000 mile synth OCIs. It ran great for 4 years.
 
Originally Posted By: DireStraits
My plan was to run the 5w30 OE oil (with a Wix filter) and drain it every 3000 miles in hopes of preventing any new sludge build-up and cleaning out the old sludge.


From a cost perspective, can you get the Mann filter at a reasonable price through Amsoil? The reason I ask is that, at least up here for my Audi, I could get the German Mann through Worldpac at about half the price of the Wix, even after my corporate discount on Wix.
 
Your owner's manual might suggest a 5w30, but It also says to adhere to VW 502 or use an oil meeting ACEA A3, which means that typical 5w30's are out... You need an oil with an HT/HS of 3.5cp minimum.

Also, like another poster said, the newer 1.8T manuals specifically require the use of synthetic oil.

Being an Amsoil dealer, their Euro stuff should do okay for you.
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Your owner's manual might suggest a 5w30, but It also says to adhere to VW 502 or use an oil meeting ACEA A3, which means that typical 5w30's are out... You need an oil with an HT/HS of 3.5cp minimum.

Also, like another poster said, the newer 1.8T manuals specifically require the use of synthetic oil.

Being an Amsoil dealer, their Euro stuff should do okay for you.


The owners manual does not mention VW 502. I clearly stated what my owners manual said.

When did the VW 502 spec come into play? Remember, we're talking about a 2001 model car.
 
Originally Posted By: TurboJim
Originally Posted By: DireStraits
The owners manual suggests a dino or synthetic oil. 0W-40 or 5w30 to be changed every 5000 miles.

The 1.8L turbo engine has known sludging issues. My question here is: Is the sludging issue an engineering flaw, excessive heat from the turbo or lax maintenance schedules on the owner's part?

My plan was to run the 5w30 OE oil (with a Wix filter) and drain it every 3000 miles in hopes of preventing any new sludge build-up and cleaning out the old sludge.


Sounds like you are missing some of the owner's manual updates. The only oil's you should be considering are synthetic.

Audi A4 and VW Passat have the 1.8T's that are most prone to sludging. The oil capacity in these vehicles is slightly less than in other 1.8T applications.

Not all 1.8T's get sludge, but sludge isn't the only problem you could run into. Small bit's of coked oil, generated by the turbo, can clog the oil pump pick-up screen. When this happens the only sure remedy is to drop the pan and replace the pick-up screen, usually along with the oil pump. It is a very labor intensive process.

The PCV systems on these engines are complicated but should be serviced on a regular basis. If you find any cloth covered vacuum lines that are original equipment replace them.

To increase your oil capacity to over 5 quarts consider using the Wix 51333. An alternative in this Big Kahuna size is the Purolator L40316.


I concur with almost everything that TurboJim is saying. I believe that the 1.8t that had the potential for sludging was the transverse mounted one in the FWD cars. I'm not 100% sure, but all of the 1.8ts in the A4 were longitudinally mounted because of the AWD, so they were less likely to sludge if good synthetic oil was used at 5k mile intervals.

My opinion, if you use Amsoil OE 5w30 at 5k mile changes and don't have sustained high speed driving habits you'll be fine.
 
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