Hi fellas, just wanting some opinions on what to do with my car/problem. I have an A4 B5 1.8t quattro. About 2 years ago I (idiotically) overfilled it with oil - and it died. Engine was wrecked. I tried to source a new unit for it over the next couple of months, but my money situation defeated me. For about 2 years it has been sitting outside my house gathering dust/snow. I live near Glasgow, Scotland, so the winters have been fairly biting.

When I had it fully looked over after the engine died, every other area was in A+ condition (gearbox, clutch, interior etc). The reason for this was I purchased it off of my friends aging mother, who bought the quattro model without realising, so I couldn't believe my luck!

Can anyone give any estimations to how much they think it might be worth? Or whether I should scrap it, sell it or trade it into a business like copart - for example.

Thanks in advance, hope I was not too vague.

 

Explain how the engine is wrecked please. Overfilling an engine with oil will not necessarily render it "wrecked".

 

Well, I guess you could damage the cat, foul the plugs, and maybe blow some seals, but none of those are a reason to scrap an otherwise good car. When you say "wrecked" what do you mean? Did it just die?

 

Yeah, sorry about that. I'm not the most technically minded person in regards to cars but I gather that the oil got sucked throughout the engine bay. Turbo was full of it and, engine block/cylinders flooded etc. I've actually lost the break downs of damage that 2 garages gave me, suffice to say, it was screwed. Sorry I can't be much more accurate.

 

I should have probably also have mentioned that I ran the car after I added the extra oil into it for a good bit of time, until it literally ground to a halt. And I put a fair bit in as well. Christ, what an idiot I am.

 

It would take a lot of extra oil to hydrolock and actually break the engine, not sure you could get that much in and not just have it pushed out the dipstick tube. I would start by getting the oil to the right level, then turning over by hand with a wrench on the crank, pull the plugs when you do this, they are fouled out anyway, and it will make it much easier. If it goes over smoothly then you have something you can work with. You have probably fouled out the cat (the box on the outlet of the turbo) and will need another one, as well as the oxygen sensors (either side of the cat). Your PVC system is likely plugged up, but at your car's age it was probably rotted anyway. You may have lost some engine oil seals, the oil has no where to go but out when it is overfilled, the worst to get to being the rear main, you would need to pull the engine for that. You might also have lost the turbo when all the gunk hit it. After that it is just a lot of labor to clean everything else up. If you want to keep the car it would be best to do the work yourself, it will be much cheaper that way. I would get a manual for the car and just read up on the tasks, that way you could figure out if it is something you would want to do. The best manual is the Bentley, but that is for the experienced person, it assumes you already know a lot about cars. For the beginner I like the Haynes, it is also much cheaper. Once you have sized the tasks you can make an informed decision about if you want to do that work, or sell the car to someone who does.

 

Two years sitting? Parts car.