Shortly after replacing a couple of collapsed PCV hoses from the oil filter adapter to the cam area, I began getting intermittent chimes with the oil can icon in the center of the instrument display. It would come on with acceleration and, oddly, go off with braking; so I thought it maybe a vacuum problem. Wrongo!

I finally went to a good, local VW dealer for diagnosis: partial, ongoing disintegration of the cam adjuster (p/n 058 109 088 K, $725!), causing bits of plastic to clog the oil pickup tube in the pan and thus starvation. Apparently this is a congenital problem with this engine. Think: congestive heart failure. The estimate for repair included 8 hours labor (mine's a Quattro), 4 hours to pull the pan, 4 on the top end replacing the cam tensioner; $1888, which goes about 1/2 way to totalling my car.

I went to an independant shop and had the bottom end portion done for a bit over $400 (again, it's a Quattro and pulling the pan is not something I'd undertake in my condo parking lot). Now the light is out and oil temperature now reads something in normal driving, so apparently this 'congestion' issue had been accumulating for some time. I still need to address the top end slow destruction of the $725 plastic cam tensioner ($169 at ECS Tuning) at some point, but at least (hopefully) I'm not going to grenade the engine because of this cheap POS internal part.