Hey guys,

I have a 1993 Audi 90 Quattro. Its a 2.8L v6.

First off, what kind of oil should I be putting in it? I just got the car and it has regular oil in it so I am going to stick with regular oil (no synthetic or blends), with a Canadian Tire oil filter (ofcourse I am going to go with Original Audi oil Filter. The car also doesnt leak a drop of oil. So any suggestions? 10w40 should be fine? Unfortunately there no manual to guide me

Second, what kind of spark plugs are reccomended, as I am planning on doing a tune-up this week. What gap is needed on these spark plugs? The wires look to be in excellent condition so I am going to leave them.

Third, I have one problem that I press the DIFF button and the light lights up for Rear Wheel Drive (I am assuming that it switches to RWD mode, the light is never on when I first start the car, so always in AWD mode). And I will drive for about metres and the light will switch off by itself?

I guess thats it for now, Thanks for the help in advance!
George

 

okey, get syntetic oil, my self I use 0w-40 by Mobil1 and use Mobil1 filter as well, check one of my pics on my web.
spark plugs, no idae what the gap should be, I use Bosch Platinum 4+, no need to gap. Platinum2+ and 3+ do not need gaping.
third, the light, the button. its a read def lock. you have AWD Always, but when needed you can lock the dif in the rear, insuring at least 2 wheels to have contact. Dont use it too much only when needed.

mine also does not consume oil, but becouse it leaky, some oil goes out at the carter.

any way, oils any oil that ends up with 40 will insure that you have 2 bars of oil presure when hot, 90C oil. 30 would provide 1.7bars, and 50 would even have more presure.

PS also read on about oils in my web page. click on first ling be pics, click on last be about oil.

 

regular oil?? forget it maximum is 20W/40 semi synthetic hot climate but 0W/40 is the best but full synthetic with this, plug gap is 1.0mm

 

Thanks for the input!

This car seems to have been serviced with regular motor oil its whole life. If i put synthetic in now, I am scared that the seals will start to leak... It has been parked on my driveway for a while now, and the is not one drop of oil on the floor and I would like to keep it that way. Any suggestions for regular motor oil, or is it best hat I switch to synthetic?

I guess I will go for the Bosch Platinum 4+ also.

Thanks for the info on the Diff lock, I did a little searching and now know what is going on! I am just wondering how they will emission test this car. If the put the fronts on the dyno, will the rears not move (or vice versa)?

 

kakarot:

I noticed that in your write-up of oils, you say its better to use thicker oil on older, tired engines, for several reasons.
The car has 170,000 KM on it. I already went and got an oil filter from AUDI.

So shouldnt 10w40 be ok?
Maybe you can reccomend a synthetic blend?

Great write-up by the way!

George

 

oh thnx, well
it dependes, my dad used 15w-50 in Israel in his VW. most cars there use that, and Audies suffer also VW, well becouse the oil is thick and the hydralick lifters, or compinsators,cannot fill up in the morning. So almost evry german car needs to change them like evry 100,000 KM. why I say that becouse if you go with a thick oil higher that 10W-40 there might be some problems. But after some heating up, the lifters stop anoying the crap out of you.

in short, YES 10W-40 is okey for all season, its multi purpose.

I my self use 0W-40 which has better cold flow and same flow as 10W-40.

lets use the MOBIL data sheet. the cSt is the flow @ a specific temp writen there
_________10w-40 vs 0W-40 vs 15w-50
cst@ 40C || 91 || 80 || 133
cst@ 100C|| 14.2 || 14.3 || 18.2

as you can see, the 0w-40 is good too. but flows much easier at the cold that 10w-40

now you need to chose:::::
I help as I can. 170K KM is not that much for old german engine, the highest posebility is that oil rings are down (#3 ring) and other coming with them. a simple overhaul of the rings will bring back the life of the engine (not to be done by an amature, some basic mech skils needed as well as space and time can be as long as a week to do). I haev 189K miles that over 300K KM and engine still goes hard.
back to the oils.
right now, on the hot engine (oil at 85-90C) what is the presure. If below 2 bars and more that 1.8 bar then you can use the same viscocity oil, considering that you have 10W-40 right now inside. but if lower then you need 10W-50 if posible to find (it does exist) or 15W-50 or 20W-50.
PS I think you have a V6, but corect me if I'm wrong, but any ways 10W-40 is an "universal" oil, cant go wrong with it. 0w-40 will silence the lifters if you have them ticking in the morning.

PSS, my self I use only MOBIL 1, Castrol syntec is not syntetic, its very good, high quality refined conventional oil.

more help???

 

oh sytetic blend, you can ether use any Mobil 7500 or Castrol Synteck blend (green bottle I think), its a good way to change from conventional to syntetic.
personally I wont jump streight away, but some people say its fine. well I converted my fathers ride by using castrol syntetic blend for 3000 miles, then changed to Mobil1 extended performence, and as wierd as it sounds he already made like 7000 miles on it and oil is darkish but not black [&:]
PS my dad drives Mazda 626 2000 I4 Auto and wants to take my car, well he ampled, but I said lets sell and buy a new one for him.

 

kakarot, thanks for all the replies!

I havent been near the computer lately so i just read everything at once. and yes i do have the 2.8L v6 AWD.

i ended up using 10w30 oil and a original audi oil filter. the valves do not tick AT ALL (even before the oil change) and i have started the car from 5 degrees celcius to 26 degrees celcius. so i cannot see any problems with valvetrain.

when i start the car and it is cold, oil press is at 5bar and when the car is at normal temp its at 2bar (both at idle). is this good?

also, what VOLTS should i be running at?
when i bought the car the gauge cluster lights were not working. i opened up the cluster and one of the lines on the board was blown, so i repaired it, blew again. then i bought a new cluster (100 CAD) and it worked for an hour then blew again. i am thinking its wiring, if it was overcharging then there would be other problems also, but this is the only problem.

thanks! george.

 

Awsome, well now I know what I should do, a full bearing job, and ring swap. I think I will have to pull the engine out, crap.
or maybe there is another way.
I just might do the rings and its bearings, but not the main bearings. I will do a compresion test, probably soon.
5w-30 gives me 1.5 bars at idle full temp. in morning It makes 3 bars, not even 5. all year around.
see a cold start video.

Now I have to find space. [:@]

actually my engine does not burn oil, well not too hard, but mostly leaks out.

the charge is should be 14.5V when battery is partially drained. and it goes down to 13.5V when it is charged
you need to check the Voltage regulator, there is one that creates 10V

 

hahaha, i know the feeling, i also have a 88 supra which needs a complete overhaul on the engine!!! no space

where would i find the voltage regulator on this car?

the problem i am describing with the power line for a the bulbs in the cluster, is only that one line that is the problem, nothing else is shorting out,, may be a problem in the fuse box i will have to check it out. i am going to check the voltage of that one line as soon as i get a chance to pull the cluster out again.

i also need to install a new hood release cable, myne snapped yesterday