delpreston

Hello,

I got to thinking today when I was driving home from the mall. My 99 A4 1.8T has 30k miles on it, I have had it for 18months. A little on the high side, but it is a great trip car, and ever since I got my audi roof bike rack the miles have been addding up even more. My car is on a lease, and I am totally prepared to purchase it at lease end, but I was thinking about how long this car can last.. I have 30k, and it still seems new. About the only thing beat up on it are the floor mats (damn cleveland winters). I am religious about service (mobil 1 synthetic always) and good high octane gas. I just wonder if buying this thing when I have 55 or 60k miles on it is worth it. How much good driving will be left? Does anyone out there have over 100k miles on a 1.8T engine?

thanks
-chris

larryV

Of course the answer can be found entirely on its owner - how well he or she can take care of it. My feeling is that as long as you don't have a lemon, these cars are engineered very well despite the "squeaks and rattles" and other little gripes that current owner including myself have. Actually, they're over-engineered with components desgined to endure more than they are expected of. I take good care of my baby, I'm certainly banking on running it to the ground at say 200K+. I think that's pretty realistic especially since I log about 80% of mt mileage highway cruisin'. I'm quite confident that the 1.8T motor can take a beating... looking at the 1.8T in the new 225 TT reassures me even more.

Larry
99.5 1.8Tqts APR K&N

IronMike

German engines are generally built to last. It's other things that don't hold up as well.

Mister X

I plan on getting rid of my 98 1.8T as soon as the lease is up, holding my breath all the way. The turbo-- just the part-- was over $1,000. It was fine one day, then the next, catastrophic failure. Completely blew. Bled 3.5 quarts of oil. Luckily, I was very near my dealer. Imagine if I had been on the road somewhere, hundreds of miles from an Audi dealer?

I love a lot of things about my A4, but I no longer trust it or the Audi brand (this is one in a long long line of problems I've had with this car). I'm looking at the new Mercedes C-Class next. May not be as sporty, but at least the damn thing will run.

Rodney

in the VW cars (Passat, New Beetle, Jetta, and Golf) I would say that 200,000-250,000 is pretty realistic. VW would not risk having to replace tons of these engines if their testing indicated that the engine life would be anywhere near the warranty coverage period. For example if their testing showed that the average 1.8T engine was good for 110,000 miles, that would mean that many would last less than that and VW would be replacing a lot of them under warranty (not good business). Add to that the fact that the engine is based on the venerable 1.8 which has proven itself over time in the VW stable. Finally, traditionally Audis have been pretty reliable on the engine side, it's the electronics side where they have usually had their problems (check out Quattrolist for lots of folks with high mileage Audis). However, only time will tell. I for one am planning on keeping mine 6-8 years which will probably work out to between 100k miles and 125k miles, but if I start encountering major problems earlier I'll get out.<p>Regards,
Rodney

'99 A4 1.8tqms

shaggymatt

Turbo is covered under the 10yr/100k warranty, at least on the Vdubs it is, considered part of the powertrain. There has been some questioning as to this, and people called VWoA and yes it is covered. I've heard of very few turbo failures. I know that the 98 B5's had a recall for that problem. I don't follow the A4's as closely since I have a B5.