28th Dec 2011, 13:02

Yes, the Audi 1.8t is prone to sludge buildup, or "scum" as you called it. BUT, lots of cars out there are more prone to sludge buildup than Audi's are.

Why was your dipstick broken and not fixed. Oil is the most important component to a car's engine, and to neglect it will certainly eventually kill your engine. When you didn't check your oil level and just added oil blindly, you run the risk of overfilling, which will blow seals, screw up your valves and exhaust system, etc...

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with the brand, but it sounds like you may possibly experience this again in the future with any car, especially if you don't brush up on basic car maintenance and care.

I have a 2002 A4 1.8t with 224,000 miles on the clock, and it's still my daily driver. The same thing that happened to you happened to me too, and at only 81,000 miles! I was not keeping up on my oil changes and I was using crappy oil. Luckily it was only the top end of my engine that was toast. I ended up fixing it myself in my garage over a period of 6 months. I learned a lot. I learned my lesson the hard way, and since then I change my oil every 3000 miles with synthetic, and I use Seafoam (from any auto part store) every 3rd oil change. Seafoam cleans out any sludge that may begin to build up.

I drive a lot, and the only problem I've had since then is I had to replace a turbo, and two timing belts. That's another good point to mention, they recommend changing the timing belt every 60,000-100,000 miles. This is totally false! Do it at 60,000 miles.. period! It gets expensive really fast if the timing belt snaps, and they've been known to snap at 65,000 miles. So, when owning an A4 1.8t, follow these few rules and it will stay on the road for a long time.

1. Change oil every 3000 miles (with quality oil).

2. Seafoam every 10,000-15,000 miles

3. Timing belt service every 60,000 miles

4. If the oil light EVER comes on, even if car runs fine, STOP - TURN THE CAR OFF! You have sludge built up somewhere. 9 times out of 10 it will build up on the oil pump pickup tube, and just needs to be cleaned off.

The 1.8t really is a pretty good engine, VW/Audi just failed at informing customers of proper required maintenance. Go to the forums at VWvortex.com and look at the "Technical Forum", then click on 1.8t, and you will learn everything you need to know about the 1.8t. I recommend VWvortex forums to ANYONE who wants to own an Audi or VW.