finally trying a different brand. I have bought nothing but Audi's for the past 5 years but I'm serious that the oil filter will be my deciding factor for the B8.

I'm very stubborn in this aspect.

The less my car is in the hands of the mediocre Audi techs the long it seems to go without any problems. Once it's in things start to go and your in over and over.

Get a coffee, smell some flowers. It can't be worth the energy. It may be a pita, but like maalish said in the B7 forum, the number of people doing their own oil changes on cars in this particular market is too low to be worth considering from an engineering standpoint. It ain't a Mustang.

If one dealer has bad techs or one bad tech, acquaint yourself with the dealer's service manager or shop foreman -- if that doesn't work, there are other dealers.

I am blessed with great techs at both my Audi dealership and at my wife's BMW dealership.

I could only be happier if service was free -- oh wait a minute, it IS free.

<center><img src="http://images.motortrend.com/photo_gallery/112_0801_21z+2009_audi_a4+tfsi_engine.jpg"></center><p>in the front of the engine bay. Of course if you could find something wrong with the current location - i'm sure this will pose other problems.

At least this orientation eliminates oil pouring out of the engine when you remove the filter a'la the arrangement on the B5 1.8T engine. Just have to be sure and release the seal on the filter slowly and let it drain back into the engine for a while before removing it completely.

And that affects the ability of the technicians to service the cars effectively even if shade-tree mechanic owners are rare. Though for the oil filter this arrangement is tons better than the one on my B5. My comment is related to the more general arrangement of serviceable items in the car overall. They're not as easy to work on as they should/could be, or at least they haven't been in the past. The new 2.0 TFSI includes improvements in that area. The use of a timing chain is a massive improvement for instance.

so I would have to disagree and say that Audi has done quite a bit of engineering to make them easy to work on. In less than 30 min you can have the front bumper, radiator and light support off the car and total access to the front of the motor.

The air filter is the size of a phone book you're afforded a mail slot to slip it through in the air box. The vacuum lines route to buried connections that are on the underside of the manifold, the oil filter has a convenient reservoir atop it for pooling and distributing oil onto everything below it when the filter is removed. Simple things that weren't done simply. The engine compartment looks great, but it's a bitch to get to things.

So I wouldn't pick on Audi for it. Hell, even our F250 is a PITA to get to certain things. Gone are the days where you could actually sit inside the engine bay while you work on it.

or the smaller USA 18"s ?

has just gotten more difficult as far as time wise of just turning a canister filter or twisting the cap off the top of a BMW oil filter housing and replacing the media.

There's just more steps to the process that's all and what you heard from me what just my initial thoughts about the design. You'll probably hear from me again when it comes time to actually do it.

FWIW timing chains have their problems too