A4mostcar

Wife was driving her 01 A4 1.8t to work this morning when it started billowing blue smoke out the pipe. She pulled over, inspected the back of the car and it was covered in oil blow back, the pipe was literally leaking oil as she stood there. I drove out to get her, checked the oil, gone...yellow sludge residue to be exact. We had it towed to Audi (Mark Motors Ottawa), they examined it, claimed it was a stuck PCV valve. They are replacing the turbo, as they said seals were damaged etc. I don't know enough about cars to be sure what all should be inspected replaced in this case. I suspect new plugs, but what about the engine itself? The exhaust system (cat., muffler etc.)?
I'm under warrantee so I want to be sure everything that should be replaced/repaired is now before it gets me post warrantee. Any technical advice would be much appreciated.
BTW, the car could have driven up to(unlikely)60 kilometers while leaking, but no warning lights came on, or any noticeable performance change.
Thanks so much for the help folks, it's REALLY appreciated,
Glen
2001 A4 1.8T QSX

Yippers®

dripping from the tailpipe.
From your description of the 'yellow' sludge' in the crankcase, I'd be suspicious that some coolant made it into the crankcase. Whether from a blown head gasket or from the turbo and whether enough or long enough to cause bearing issues is open to question. Running an engine sans oil is pretty hard on the bearings. A blown head gasket will be apparent when the car is restarted but maybe they'd be kind enough to pull the pan and inspect the crank and bearings?

2000a4audi

my best friend is a mechanic and i asked him so i will again leave same answer. 1 replace cat. 2 replace exhaust. 3 replace plugs or clean them. 4 flush with fuel injector cleaner. 5 run compression test. 6 replace pcv valve that is about the best you are going to do i would try for whole engine but they wont replace it unless it blows up and 60 km makes no difference 1 km could kill your engine with no oil as when your oil is gone you are rubbing metal on metal. so piston rings could damage cylinders, crank/ connecting rods could get damaged, valvetrain(cam/lifters/valves) could get damaged and there really is no way of really knowing for sure without opening engine up. when you get it back run it and listen for and weird noises ( rattles/scraping/ticking ect) also i would run oil for maybe like a couple hundred mile then change oil and filter and maybe get a magnetic drain plug in case there are any metal flakes in your engine then go drive it hard and if it blows up take back to audi and ask for new engine

A4mostcar

They...
1. Replaced the PCV pump (PN 058133735-B)
2. Replaced Turbo Charger (PN 058145703-J)
3. Replaced Catalytic Converter (PN 8E0131089-DX)
But...
No compression test
No oil change -(did re-fill)
No coolant flush/fill -(topped up)
No cleaning plugs or sensors
No crank and bearing inspection.

Because I picked it up on a Saturday, the Mech. was not around, so I was left speaking with Service Rep., who either claimed or actually knew nothing about the car. He was, however, able to tell me Audi would not pay for the above list of did not do's, as it was un-neccessary (amazing considering he didn't know why it wasn't needed). To me the above mentioned not done list is reasonable considering the dip stick showed only a yellow sludge on the very tip when I checked it, and all the missing oil went out the tailpipe! My question is, if they replaced the turbo, does this mean the oil did not go through the engine itself (i.e. fouling plugs, sensors etc.)and apart from running on a potentially dry crank, cause no damage or impact on the engine...just the turbo? Any insight would be appreciated as I will be speaking to the mechanic on Monday, and will have to take him at his word as I wouln't know any different. Thanks so much everybody, your help has been great.
Glen
2001 A4 1.8T QMSX (with warantee, thank God)

2000a4audi

hey at least they replaced something for you

2000a4audi

not exactly sure but i would think if pcv (crankcase ventilation) stuck pressure must of built up inside engine forcing your oil to either blow by your piston rings and burn in combustion chamber which then gets passed through exhaust valves through the back of turbo(exhaust side) and out your exhaust. I am very glad to see that they replaced the turbo and cat for you. Yellow sludge? not sure about that could be coolant as i have never mixed g12 with oil i know normal coolant (the green stuff) will make a whitish milky sludge if it mixes with oil if g12 and oil makes yellow sludge and it very well could, you may have blown head gasket. at the very least i would pull your plugs and inspect them if them are all black and oil covered replace they should be nice and clean looking but are probably shot. then i would run a couple of tanks of gas mixed with a good quality fuel injector cleaner through your car to clean up the valvetrain

A4mostcar

Thanks for all the advice, it's been very helpful. So I guess I'll just keep pushing them, see where it goes. Have been driving the car all day, good gas mileage, no burning oil, certainly no engine noise of any sort so...seems as per normal, maybe I dodged a bullit. It seems odd to me that they woul'nt do all they could to keep any further or new damage from occuring tho. I've got @70k left on warranty, if anything goes wrong, they're on the hook, why not do some PM now and avoid later problems? Numbers game I guess.
Thanks again everyone,
Glen
2001 A4 1.8T QMSX

201-A4

do 1.8T have a PCV?

Vic995

Yes, but not EGR for the 1.8T

2000a4audi

its a business and good businesses dont spend money unless they absolutely have to