200,000 (bww)

[Mike O.]

200,000 miles.

It only took 69 months to get there. That's 2070 days or 96 miles per day. That's also 8.031483 times around the world! I have driven virtually every mile of it.



So what? Lots of cars make it to 200,000 miles. What's different about this car is the amount of abuse it has taken...almost since day one. For one, the car has seen 43 track days. That's about 4800 miles at wide-open throttle, maximum cornering and threshold braking.



What follows is a summary of the life of this car:

I bought this 1998.5 Audi A4 1.8TQMS from Valenti Audi in Watertown, CT on April 19, 1998. I needed a car for a new job that was 54 miles from my house. Audis had a great reputation for durability. I also knew I would see my fair share of snow on my commute so the Quattro was the deciding factor in my purchase. The fact that Audi had won the BTCC (something I was following) with the A4 played into my decision also since I knew the car would be seeing double duty as a track car.

The first oil change was performed at 3,000 miles at which point I began using Mobil 1. I changed the oil again at 5,000 miles just to make sure no remnants of the original fill oil was in there. The oil has been changed every 5,000 miles since and before every track event. The only engine oil I have ever used is Mobil 1. In the spring, summer and fall I use 15/50 and in the winter I use 10/30. A leakdown test was performed at 175,000 miles and all cylinders came within 3% of each other and of spec.

I chipped the car at 10,000 miles. I chose Wetterauer. There weren't many choices out there back then. I don't know if GIAC was around then but I don't recall them in my search. APR didn't exist. It was pretty much Wetterauer, MTM and TAP. I started with a chip and filter.



At 15,000 miles I wanted an exhaust. The ONLY choice for the A4 at that point was Stebro. Installation was pretty seamless. The sound was pretty decent initially. Within 10,000 miles, I had burned out the packing in the resonator and muffler. The Stebro came with a lifetime warranty. Their only stipulation was that I remove the exhaust and send it back to them before they shipped the replacement. That means downtime and labor costs. I did that three times before I threw the towel in and went with a custom setup. For whatever reason, the Stebro just didn't hold up.



At about 20,000 miles I had my first warranty issue. The right rear wheel bearing went for no apparent reason. Easy fix. I was in and out in one day.

The next 30,000 miles were truly trouble free. I had a number of track days with no incidents and no service issues. At just before 50,000 miles I ran into the infamous suspension bushing squeaking...so back to the dealer. The day after the car gets to the dealer I get a call from the Service Manager. Apparently, the catering truck was driving into the garage while the tech was driving out and they had a head on collision. They committed to fix everything. The work was performed to my satisfaction and their shop even installed my lower lip for free.



There were more track events and oil changes until I got to about 80,000 miles. At that point, I knew I wanted more power but didn't have many options. Lucas from Australia had been running K04s and blowing them up. I didn't want to go that route so I chose to go it alone and try forging a new path. Lucas sold me two blown K04s, a K03 and a TAP stock mount high flow intercooler along with some Sampco hoses. I contacted Wett about the project and they offered their help. After a lengthy search, I found Turbo Specialties in Alabama. This is the shop that was APR's original turbo supplier before they went direct. I sent them both broken K04s and the K03. Lots of time and money later and they created a one off turbo that was pretty damn good for its time. It had the 16G cold side, the K04 housing and a larger turbine from a KKK diesel turbo. Wett provided the software but it was way too lean. Clark from the now-defunct Turbo5 worked with me on creating a custom program for 270cc injectors on a 4 bar FPR. The program numbers are 45a for 93 octane and 16b for the 100 octane. Both were a dramatic improvement over Wett. This is the same setup I use today. I also bought a TAP high flow intercooler to round out the project. That ended up being anything but a direct bolt in and thanks to some expensive custom work, it ended up fitting. Aside from the O2 sensors, nothing else matched up...enough said. I also replaced the timing belt, installed H&R Sport springs, Bilstein Sports dampers and a 22mm Neuspeed rear bar. I also installed a BIRA Stage 1 front brake setup.



More track events.



At 110,000 miles I had a Signal Amplifier go on me. This is that MOSFET heat sink thing that sits on top of the airbox. It killed the #2 coil. $338 later and I left Hoffman Audi with the parts. No wonder they call them Stealerships.

At 125,000 miles I had all four wheel bearings replaced as preventive maintenance.

Snow fun.




At 153,000 miles I had the timing belt tensioner break on me. Apparently, the tensioner I received at 80K wasn't the updated model. It broke at idle so there was no harm done. I had that replaced.



At 160,000 miles my custom turbo was the victim of Bosch. That missing electrode found it's way to the turbine and that was that. I am now running a K04.

At 177,000 miles I had the oil cooler go bad. The result was several quarts of oil in my cooling system. I replaced the oil cooler in about 15 minutes but it took another month to get the oil out of the rest of the system.



Apparently the oil gummed up the thermostat too. I just replaced that at 199,000 miles along with the exhaust. I was running a custom setup and it had gotten simply too loud. My son was sitting in my back seat covering his ears saying "too loud" so I decided to spring for a Milltek. Very nice exhaust....but we'll see how it holds up after another 100,000 miles.

That's all for now. Just happy to have made it to 200,000.

Mike O.

PS...yes it still has the original clutch too!!!!

[[ej257]]

[4Rings::G2 boosted::]

[Gldnrkt(GT3076R)]

[Raullopy]

hope mine has the same good luck

[2tu®bos1mission]

[Rack 'em Willie]

[s4master1]

you still can get another 150k easily

[AaronBryan]

[TRed 2.7T]