The Inside Of Your Engine Probably Shouldn’t Look Like Your Breakfast: COTD

Over the weekend, David Tracy wrote a steaming take that cars with timing belts aren’t as reliable as people say they are. Since then, readers have been pointing out perhaps countless German cars where a timing chain is somehow worse than having a timing belt. Today, Lewin published a story about what sounds like the worst possible way a timing chain engine could fall on its face. A reader’s Audi R8 V8’s engine decided to get all touchy feely with itself, generating a $50,000 repair quote in the process.

That story in itself was a wild ride. Prior to the engine blowing up, the car ate up about $100,000 in repair work after two seemingly minor incidents that looked like they shouldn’t have been that expensive to repair. Had the engine been repaired, that would have been $150,000 of work in less than 10 years on a car that stickered for $129,400 when new. Granted, two of those repairs weren’t the car’s fault, but still!

In the epilogue, we got to see the innards of the engine, and IRegertNothing, Esq. points out something:

I’m not an Audi tech, but I don’t think the top of the piston is supposed to look like some kind of metal oatmeal.

Then AlterId made a small, but funny edit:

Oatmetal

And V10omous drove it home:

Steel-cut.

This morning, Jason gave us a Cold Start where he showed off a VW-based kit car. But here’s the kicker: There’s a fake door decal on this thing! Sid Bridge knows who it’s for:

That door worked perfectly fine when the Road Runner got into the car. I don’t know what everybody else’s problem is.

Finally, let’s take a look at Thomas’ Morning Dump, which talked about car sales and interest rates. Despite the rough roads in recent times with high rates, there were still positive stories. From Pupmeow:

In late 2023 I bought a manual transmission GTI that I didn’t need at an interest rate higher than I would like to pay. Cue the scolds. It’s well within my means and I am having an absolute fucking blast driving it. NO REGERTS.

Love to hear it! Have a great evening, everyone.