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hello people
well I have a sad tale of my much loved RS4 .
the oil light came on a week last friday , on checking the underside of the car found it was covered in oil . RAC called and car lifted to Audi main dealer where it has always been serviced .
the problem was traced to a corroded oil cooler hose . ( should this have been spotted during a service ? )
The upshot is they say there is too much damage done , turbos , cam chain , upper engine etc etc to repair . and they are advising a new engine fitted for £18k . . . . . phew !!
I met the audi main engineer on Saturday and he went to great trouble to explain all he had found , I also took a RAC man with me and he agreed with his findings .

the car was only driven for no more than quarter of a mile when the light came on . please be careful everyone check those hoses and connections .

I don't have £18k so it looks like the car is right off . very sad it's only done 46k miles and is in first rate condition apart form this problem .


sorry to depress everyone on a Sunday morning , but this kept me awake last night .

jk

buy it back and fit an s4 lump, will cost a lot less than 18k

Was there any untoward noises before you stopped the car.If it was me i would get a second opinion from a specialist ie mrc etc.In my experience audi dont know what there talking about.

wouldnt cost anywhere near that to rebuild the engine with new/good s/h parts where needed

I'd certainly second the view above about getting it to MRC... Doug would probably be able to source you an engine in worst case for a considerably smaller sum of cash!!! Sorry to hear your news, good luck.

always engines on ebay.de,or as said above find an s4 lump,you can get it to 450bhp without too much work

Send me a pm if you want to sell the remains...

thank you people for your kind words and advice.

the truth is the car starts and runs fine , well to my ears it does but the experts can hear things which I strain to hear . . . . I could drive it away and have no problems according to Audi but what if ?....

I will contact Doug on monday and see what he says .

jk

if its still driving and not making too much noise it can be repaired,at worst used for spares to build a fresh one

I'd say audi might be playing the VERY safe option saying u need a new engine!

Unlikely you'd need turbos, cam chain, or any head components, if you've not seriously damaged the crank first, as this is the first and most oil dependant component in the oils journey!

I'd say very worse case you might just need crank regrinding if its run dry on 1 of your journals, altho if its not making any noise your probably fine!

Doug is definatly the best person to speak to!

Did they remove the engine from the car?
If not how can they judge how serious any damage is. Fair enough if the turbos are gone, but you'd know that by other means. Audi and RAC are not specialist enough with these cars to judge the internal damage by just listening to these cars.

If all that happened was that the oil light came on, then its in no way terminal.

I'd suggest getting it trailered to a specialist like MRC for a few hundred quid, as worst case scenario, they could get it back to good health for a LOT less than the 18K quoted.

again thanks all for advice , it is much appreciated . thank you.

looks like MRC is the top option . and one I will certainly be following up .

there was oil left in the engine but how much ? they take 9.5 litres ? . the incident happened on friday and the car sat in my drive over the bank holiday until tuesday when it was picked up . during that time my drive now has a lot of oil on it , also the tow truck had a lot of oil on it by the time it arrived at the garage , so there must have been oil in the engine .

the engine was not removed from the car . the only work done so far is to replace the oil rad and fill with oil .

jk

No disrespect to audi but nowaday mecanics there just replace parts....and none of them are qualified enough to open an engine of this sort.... they will always take the easy route: very easy for them, no trouble and they still make money.

Your engine did certainly suffer some damage here and there but it not good for the bin !!!!!!!! Spend few grands and it can be fixed.

If the same did happen to me i would go straight to MRC

I have a small oil leak from the same place - also a corroded pipe. Getting both pipes replaced next week - car is off the road until then. Is this more common than we think?

I'm glad I replaced my oil cooler pipe, which visually looked bad! I was contemplating at the time; glad I did change it!

They take around 6litres of engine oil, not 9.5!

Best to get a 2nd opinion, and even in the worst case scenario, just take it to a specialist and get the engine rebuilt, and even with new parts wherever necessary won't cost anywhere near £18k!