Audi Repair: 2002 Audi A4 1.8 turbo quattro AMB, ribbon cables, oil leaks

Question
Sorry about how long this is, it is my first contact on this site!   I too am noticing something weird in shifting between 1st & 2nd, but it is more a hesitation or feels almost like it is shifting into another gear. It only happens when I am being easy on the throttle and the revs are below 2500 going into 2nd.  It seems to hesitate or "shift" at about 2800 rpm consistently.   I bought the car used with 82,000km and this has been apparent since getting it. On another matter I already went throught being told that the 1.8 has oil "sludging" problems that would eventually starve the cam and turbo as I had some noticeable collant and oil leaks at head. Mechanics at dealership indicated that Audi doesn't let them take the bottome ends apart to fix this problem but instead if under warranty replaces the whole motor and turbo with a 2.0 litre model. I had the head replaced new for $1200 as the mechanics suggested which seems to be going very good but am wondering if you have any insights into this???   Thanks again, and for what it's worth from what I've read on the site you are giving sound advise.  If I can help in any way, (although I am in Ontario Canada) I do have an OBD reader, the factory DVD interactive repair disc, and was a race car mechanic for over 10 years.  just email me at the site above and I will respond. Thanks Sean

Answer
Hi Sean,
The switch points are driven by solenoids in the trans, and there have been some issues with ribbon cables which start going bad within the transmission units.  But while it works; don't fix it!  Regarding oil sludging, I would use good quality oils, avoid short journeys where the engine doesn't warm up properly, usual common sense stuff.  Any dealer that does not like doing preventative work but would rather wait for a catastrophic failure I would avoid...

Let me know,  Jan