My experience with a 1.8 T as installed in my wife's 2004 Passat is that there was an oil sludge problem which caused a restriction of oil flow to the crank bearings and other critical places. ?The engine was replaced under warranty by VW with less than 50k miles on it. ?I always changed the oil regularly and used the recommended viscosity, so it wasn't the lack of maintenance that caused the problem. ?I recently ordered some new oil filters for the Passat. ?They are now larger, like a Vanagon diesel filter. ?I am assuming that this redesign was done, in part, to attempt to address the sludge problem. ?If you google "1.8T" and "sludge", you will find that I was not alone with my problem and that many of the engines in the junkyard referred to earlier most likely died of sludge-related issues rather than excessive chipping or timing belt failure.

Tom

Ohio

-----Original Message-----
From: Allan Streib <streib@CS.INDIANA.EDU>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Fri, Aug 28, 2009 9:36 pm
Subject: Re: [VANAGON] Was: Go Westie engine....Then !.8 turbo swap

Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM> writes:

> I asked my junkyard guy, German Auto Salvage in Boring, Oregon (yes, that IS
> the name of the town) if he had any 1.8 turbo motors last time I was there.
> He said he had plenty..all blown up.  No good ones.  He was quite critical
> of that motor..said he gets em in by the dozens..all with catastrophic
> failure.  I am not saying I know for sure that  these are undependable
> motors, but when someone is in the salvage business and he tells me to
> 'forget it'...I'll listen.

I wonder how many of them had a "chipped" ECU or other mods.

Allan
--
1991 Vanagon GL