Oil leak question

[jbourne]

Well ... that didn’t last long. Heh. Found oil on the under tray and took the under tray off. Seeing this (see pics). Any advice? Is it the engine seal or is there something that can potentially be saved?

[jbourne]

Basically if standing underneath facing the front of the car, the leak seems to be around the left side slightly. where the two black hoses are.

it concerns me that the aluminium block has some yellow colouring ... (last pic)

[Jim Haseltine]

Yep, that's 'the' oil seal which is leaking - although judging from the pictures either it's not leaking a lot or somebody has done an excellent job of cleaning most of the evidence. You're looking from the rear, it's visible (just) from the front by looking up and back between the rollbar support and the subframe. It's not easy to see because of the metal pipes that the two pictured black hoses fit to (with the hose clips conveniently located directly above the subframe - thanks for that Audi).
It won't get better so at some point it'll have to be sorted. When that point is depends on things like how much the leak annoys your OCD, how long you can live with the drips on the ground and whether there are any other jobs you want doing. I lived with mine for 3 years but it had got to a point where even if I hadn't had to pull the engine for other things I'd have sorted it this summer.
See all the oily grit and sh*te on the top surface of the under tray? Don't clean it off. Wipe off the rest of the oil but leave that stuff - it does a pretty good job of soaking up the oil, if you clean it off the oil runs straight off the tray and onto whatever the car is parked on. I've got a drive and a load of concrete slabs that will need a serious degreasing and jet washing once I can move the car.

The yellow colour is nothing to worry about - it's the effect of heat on a slightly oily surface.

Have you taken a look at the coolant pipes in the RH wheel arch?

[jbourne]

Thanks for the reply. I suppose it makes me feel slightly better as I literally just got the car, and I’m going to go with “someone hid the evidence”. It’s a complicated story as to why something so obvious was missed on delivery, but I’m afraid I have a limited amount of recourse, so I’ll have to most likely eat at least part of this.

I haven’t looked at the coolant hoses. What should I look for? I’m having one of the headlight bulbs replaced that went out the same day I got the car (and my selling dealer flippantly said how he’ll have the car back for me in a couple of hours ... until I printed him the procedure for replacement, and I think he had a brief heart attack, lol), but with the bumper off it’ll probably be a good time to check those.

[Jim Haseltine]

Don't feel bad about it. I went over my car thoroughly with a very jaundiced eye before I bought it but still missed a couple of things - like a broken rear spring. It was while doing that job that an Audi tech pointed there was a 'slight' oil leak which needed 'investigation' suggesting that it was the cam covers. I doubt yours is leaking much, it would have needed a steam clean to get the underneath of the engine as clean as it appears to be in your pics - when the seal goes beyond a slight 'weep' the oil goes everywhere, those hoses and the thin metal pipe in your pics get coated with the stuff.
The under arch coolant pipes are at the top of the rear of the RH arch. Although the Audi procedure for removing the bumper talks about bending back the arch covers I find it easier to remove the covers completely - with the RH cover off the coolant pipes and the expansion tank are obvious. There are many threads here about the pipes along with loads of pics which might worry you. There are two pipes, a long one and a short one - the short one is easy to replace (for a given value of 'easy'), the long one isn't but as it only corrodes at the arch end cutting out the bad part and replacing it with hose is a route a number of people have taken.

[jbourne]

Noted. Thanks. I'm having the selling dealer replace a headlight bulb (it died hours after picking up the car), and it was funny - he said to me, sure, no problem, we'll get it sorted for you! - but I knew he didn't know what he was committing to, so I made sure I bought my own bulbs (Philips XV2s...) and printed the procedure for replacing them. He almost had a heart attack when he realised that no one's hand is going to reach behind the headlight to replace those... bumper off it is, and none of his guys know how to do it, so it's going to some other Audi Shop nearby. Heh. I asked him to take pictures of the coolant pipes while he's at it. We'll see about the oil leak... I feel like he's going to try to get me to pay for it, but if he won't pick up any part of it, then I might just leave it be for the time being. I realise I won't be able to clean it up and sell it (if only for the bad karma...), so I might just redo the whole thing in a year or so, and then hopefully be more or less trouble-free for a few years. Though I do admit that this is a bit of a shocker - my 911 didn't cost me nearly as much in maintenance over the years I had it, and it wasn't exactly a mint condition item either. But you know, gotta pay to play, I guess.

[don0301]

Research Forte Seal Conditioner, I've been using it for 5 years now, really great stuff.

Search on here too, I've posted about it several times.

[jbourne]

Ok, so a month later, and $3K of work in, the oil leak has been fixed. It looks like the Shop was able to do it without dropping the engine, which was a relief. Put in 8L of Motul X-Clean 5W40 after everything, which was literally the ONLY 505.01 oil I was able to find on the local market here.

In the meantime, I looked at the coolant pipes, and this is what I found ... so at least I shouldn't have to drop the engine in the near (or far) future for _this_ reason

[Toady1]

You obviously live somewhere nice warm n dry! Not like the majority of British cars on here!

[c3nturi0n]

You obviously live somewhere nice warm n dry! Not like the majority of British cars on here!

ditto .

[jbourne]

Lol yep ... Far East so a little bit lucky with the weather

[jbourne]

Right. Reviving the thread. So I had the gaskets replaced, without dropping the engine, so it "only" took a month (though the price wasn't (comparatively) too terrible). I was just doing a sanity check on the engine after about 2 months of driving the car (took off the undertray) and was looking for oil leaking.

On the upside, I am happy to note that there are no more drops on the undertray, so there's no "immediate" leakage.

On the downside, I still see a little bit of oil in a few places - but I'm not sure if this is old oil camping there, or if there's a REALLY slow leak that I basically should just forget and not worry about. Would appreciate some opinions, though.

The oil spots I was able to find after spending about 30 mins with a light underneath the car were:

- The pipe in the centre of the picture: the oil felt fresh'ish, though it could've been from the previous leak.

- The mounting point at the centre of the picture...

..... this one here - had a drop of oil in it.

- This socket had about two drops of oil in it that looked somewhat fresh.

- Finally, this hose here had a fresh drop:

I'm perplexed at these because none have leaked onto the plastic undertray, so I want to hope these aren't actually real leaks (maybe a bad job filling oil or power steering fluid, which I most certainly dropped when I topped it up?)

Any thoughts on these?

[Jim Haseltine]

The first pic and the last are the turbo oil return lines to the pump, they can weep slightly.
The RH return and THE oil seal both end up with oil getting into the subframe (either from on top or wicking in from the undertray via the mounting screws - it takes a long, long time to drain, even after degreasing and jet washing my subframe twice it was still draining.
The socket is one of the oil drain points.

[Per_S]

In the meantime, I looked at the coolant pipes, and this is what I found ... so at least I shouldn't have to drop the engine in the near (or far) future for _this_ reason

In case it would be necessary in the future - there is no reason to drop the engine to replace the pipes. The intake manifold needs to be removed, then you'll have access.

Edit: This is valid for LHD cars. I don't know if there's something on RHD cars that would make it more difficult. The long metal pipe needs to be split from a rubber hose right behind the oil filter housing.

[jbourne]

The first pic and the last are the turbo oil return lines to the pump, they can weep slightly.
The RH return and THE oil seal both end up with oil getting into the subframe (either from on top or wicking in from the undertray via the mounting screws - it takes a long, long time to drain, even after degreasing and jet washing my subframe twice it was still draining.
The socket is one of the oil drain points.

Understood. Thanks Jim. So this is "expected behaviour" post-oil seal. That's good at least.

In the meantime, I looked at the coolant pipes, and this is what I found ... so at least I shouldn't have to drop the engine in the near (or far) future for _this_ reason

In case it would be necessary in the future - there is no reason to drop the engine to replace the pipes. The intake manifold needs to be removed, then you'll have access.

Noted. I hope I never have to find out, since I feel like they're still pretty far away from even beginning to rust, but that's very good info as I feel like that's not the general opinion on the matter.