On 1/6/2012 8:19 AM, Mark Dearing wrote:
> that motor has a lot of issues, google the sludge problems and the lawsuits
>   against vw for this motor

That's not true. The sludge issues affected the _longitudinal_ version
of the 1.8t, which had a different oil system. It's unlikely that engine
would be used in an application which replaces a _transverse_ engine.

There are lots of high mileage 1.8T engines out there, which got there
with no/minimal issues. I've got 204K miles on one with nothing but
scheduled maintenance, and the only problem is it weeps a bit of oil.
When I had the oil pan off (to reseal it, during a clutch job) at ~160k,
not a bit of sludge anywhere. I do 10K oil changes with Shell Rotella T
5W-40.