New (to me) 2005 A4 2.0TFSI 86k Preventative Maintenance

[robert30]

Hello everyone,

I've recently purchased the above car and I'm looking at work that it would be advisable to do to avoid some of the common issues these cars seem to have.

I've got a full service record from Audi up until 2018 (73k) and then a specialist for 19 and 20. I've got an invoice for the camshaft belt and tensioners and water pump from 2019.

I'm going to check the cam shaft follower as seems to be advisable. From what I've read, it sounds like it might be worth replacing the oil pickup with the revised part to avoid problems there.

Has anyone got any thoughts on what I should be looking to check/replace at this point?

Thanks for any help

 

[Charlie Farley]

What engine code ?

 

[robert30]

What engine code ?

BWE

Thanks for your help

 

[robert30]

It also seems fairly noisy to me, although I understand they are quite noisy engines. Does this seem relatively normal?

 

[Dan_Avant]

I’ve got a 2.0 TFSI BUL engine code and mine sounds exactly the same

 

[robert30]

I’ve got a 2.0 TFSI BUL engine code and mine sounds exactly the same

Thanks Dan, that's reassuring to hear

 

[Mothy69]

My bul engine doesn't sound dissimilar to that - maybe mine is more clanky. It has just blown up on me though

 

[robert30]

Did it sound like that before or after the light came on?!

 

[Dan_Avant]

Mine is on 141k miles and I’ve just had it tuned to 340hp.

I’m not expecting it to last that long but when it goes it will give me an excuse to build a forged engine and go for even more power

 

[robert30]

Oh right, so maybe I should be more concerned about the noise then? Is there anything like the timing chain which might be advisable to get done on account of the noise?

 

[Dan_Avant]

I don’t think it’s anything to worry about mate.

I’ve got plenty of friends who have the 2.0 TFSI engine across a range of Audi’s and they all sound similar.

Reason I don’t think mine will last is that it’s high mileage, highly tuned and I drive it hard.

If you hear a rattle on start up that only lasts a second or 2 you should get your cam chain and tensioner replaced.

 

[robert30]

Great that's good to hear. I'll listen out for the chain.

Thanks for the reassurance. Now all I need to do is see whether I'm going to change the oil pickup pipe myself or get a garage to take a look.

 

[Mothy69]

Did it sound like that before or after the light came on?!

It has sounded like that for 2 years +. I don't think it's an issue. My local garage had audi technicians listen to it & they (audi) said it's a little more noisy than normal but they do sound like that

 

[Charlie Farley]

They rattle from several places, Brake vacuum pump, cam chain, injectors, solenoid valves to mention some of the sources of normal rattles.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Great that's good to hear. I'll listen out for the chain.

Thanks for the reassurance. Now all I need to do is see whether I'm going to change the oil pickup pipe myself or get a garage to take a look.

2wd is an easy job, Quattro slightly more involved.
Just beware that changing the suction pipe does not make your engine any less likely to fail due to oil starvation, its helps as there is a bypass on the alternative part to allow oil to be drawn up but don't assume because you have changed that part your all good, there are other factors at work.

 

[robert30]

It has sounded like that for 2 years +. I don't think it's an issue. My local garage had audi technicians listen to it & they (audi) said it's a little more noisy than normal but they do sound like that

That's good to hear, thank you.

 

[robert30]

2wd is an easy job, Quattro slightly more involved.
Just beware that changing the suction pipe does not make your engine any less likely to fail due to oil starvation, its helps as there is a bypass on the alternative part to allow oil to be drawn up but don't assume because you have changed that part your all good, there are other factors at work.

I didn't realise that, that's interesting to know. Does that mean that it's maybe not worth doing unless I'm going to go and chase down every possible other part that could go wrong? Are there any other things I can do in conjunction with changing the pickup pipe to mitigate this risk?

 

[Charlie Farley]

The issue with the original suction pipe is purely down to the clogging of the gauze which leads to reduced oil flow to the rest of the engine and the problem which can result from that.
The revised part has a bypass port which will continue to draw oil even if the mesh port is clogged.
But this problem can be reduced by shorter oil changes and more engine operating time at the correct operating temp.
Low usage cars that stand for ages and only do short trips suffer from contaminated oil more than a car thats used on a regular basis and gets hot.
Long life service schedule is not the tfsi's friend.
The problem is made worse in that once the mesh is clogged , no amount of oil changes will really help as it will need a really good clean manually out of the engine, but then if you are doing that you may aswell swap for the newer version.
I still have the original suction pipe in my BUL at 88k , and don't really have any plans to change it to be honest, but its personal choice really as i know all the history of the engine and oil changes etc.

If you don't then assume the worse and maybe look at changing it.

The question you have to ask yourself is, how far do i go with the car and is it really worth doing it just on a maybe.
There are a few areas that have issues but where does one stop, if it's not broken why fix it comes to mind.

 

[robert30]

The issue with the original suction pipe is purely down to the clogging of the gauze which leads to reduced oil flow to the rest of the engine and the problem which can result from that.
The revised part has a bypass port which will continue to draw oil even if the mesh port is clogged.
But this problem can be reduced by shorter oil changes and more engine operating time at the correct operating temp.
Low usage cars that stand for ages and only do short trips suffer from contaminated oil more than a car thats used on a regular basis and gets hot.
Long life service schedule is not the tfsi's friend.
The problem is made worse in that once the mesh is clogged , no amount of oil changes will really help as it will need a really good clean manually out of the engine, but then if you are doing that you may aswell swap for the newer version.
I still have the original suction pipe in my BUL at 88k , and don't really have any plans to change it to be honest, but its personal choice really as i know all the history of the engine and oil changes etc.

If you don't then assume the worse and maybe look at changing it.

The question you have to ask yourself is, how far do i go with the car and is it really worth doing it just on a maybe.
There are a few areas that have issues but where does one stop, if it's not broken why fix it comes to mind.

Thank you for that comprehensive reply.

The car was been regularly serviced but the first two services were longlife services almost 20k apart. It has also been kept in London for its whole life so short trips sounds like a real possibility. Furthermore, whilst it's only done 1.5k since the last service the oil seems quite black.

So I think I'm going to do the oil pickup and cam follower and leave it be.

Thank you all for all of your help.