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Hi guys,

Got back from a trip out yesterday, left the car on the drive for a couple of hours and when i was walking back from putting it away for the night I noticed a small dark patch on the drive. First i thought the usual 'please be the aircon puddle', but dipping my finger in it confirmed it was annoyingly oil. Got under the car this morning in the garage and there was oil on the ground in a couple of places, so I put it up on the axle stands and the leaking oil has just been collecting in the plastic engine guard and dripping out where there are holes. So I've removed the plastic tray for a closer look this morning and think I've found the problem. It looks like the black hose going into the radiator(?) has split at the end. At first before I took the tray off I was thinking could it be the oil cooler, pipes, etc. as they are all known problems, but having cleaned everything up and waited for the oil to build up a little again it appears that this is where it is coming from.

Can anyone advise what this is, and is it an easy fix or should I take it into Camberley Audi to get sorted? I just wanted to try and at least locate the problem myself first before taking it to a dealer - not saying I don't trust them but there's always the 'blind' aspect if I don't check it out myself and they say oh it needs this and that replaced, when it hopefully only really needs a new hose.

The below shots are taken by the left wheel, looking forward towards the front of the car, so sitting in the car this is the hose going into the left side.

Any help and advise is much appreciated.

i,m afraid its the dreaded iol cooler , the hose your seeing is the one that runs across the top of the cooler from the drivers side and then turns 180 deg into the cooler , whether you can get the hose off the cooler depends on the kit you have, if you have a dremel you can cut through the nut and open it up without wrecking the treads and sealing taper , then you might get away with just one hose or do both at the same time (good idea ) or you may need the whole lot done from audi or the aftermarket replacement kit which is reportedly more efficient and importantly the metals are not dissimilar like OEM

or worst case "just" pay £1400 and get it all replaced with OEM which will last around 5 - 7 years before failing again unless perhaps the joints are painted / protected with something to keep the water away from the joints

I had my pipes and cooler replaced by Camberley Audi for the above cost then sold cooler (with pipes still attached) for £250 I think to someone who had more time / inclination than me and no doubt salvaged the cooler

so mine cost me £1150 in the end - not too bad considering cost of Forge cooler / aftermarket options

Had the same problem with mine. Same pipe too. Took it to a local Indy garage who replaced the pipe saving the cooler. Cost around £300/£350 ish. If the cooler thread isn't too badly corroded you stand half a chance. Pm me if you need details

Thanks for the replies guys, not what I was hoping to hear but at least I now know what it is...

So, and sorry if this is a silly question, if it's just that end bit of pipe that's split and causing the oil to leak can I not just have that section of silicon piping removed and replaced (as per ginors4)? Surely if it's just the pipe, it doesn't need a whole new cooler putting in at a cost of £1400? Would that whole section of pipe running from the top of the oil cooler on the drivers side down the left where it 180s and has split not just unplug and be replaceable (after draining, etc), or is the oil cooler one whole sealed unit that incorporates this pipe as part of it?

It's a frustrating situation, just had the car freshly serviced a few months back, DRC all sorted and re-gassed, real coil springs replaced, etc. all done by Camberley Audi, 4 new tyres, MOT'd, and ready to sell for someone else to enjoy (need something bigger now we have a 9 month old son), but I love the car so much I've just been keeping hold of it and making it work for our situation until the right 'bigger' car came around, now this goes and happens...

I of course do not want to 'bodge it', but if replacing the pipe will solve the problem without unneccessarily needing to spend another £1K+ I'd be quite happy.

The issue is that the pipe would have by now corroded onto the cooler.
As the pipes are steel and the cooler aluminium, galvonic corrosion causes the less noble metal (in this case the aluminium) breaks down and turns into gunk. If this happens too much then the threads on the cooler won't take a new pipe.

The only other option is to have new fittings put on the radiator when you take it off.

Gotta ask - why is the rs4 not big enough for a 9 month old?

pipes are around £250 cooler is £560, a few sundries then there is labour - cost quickly mounts

as others have said, if you can get pipes off cooler and leave cooler intact then bill is going to be a lot less

audi wont attempt this tho - mrc for example will but you may still find it cant be done due to corrosion on cooler threads

its a tricky and annoying situation and I just couldn't be arsed with faffing around and got the lot replaced

as ads said, why isn't rs4 big enough ? I bought mine a few weeks before our little boy was born and kept it for 20 months. we went to belgium when he was 8 weeks old with all the clobber that entailed- no problems at all! (and at 8 weeks there is a lot more stuff than for example at 8 months)

I then bought a 911 Turbo

(which coincidentally we can still fit everything we need in!)

adsgreen wrote:The issue is that the pipe would have by now corroded onto the cooler.
As the pipes are steel and the cooler aluminium, galvonic corrosion causes the less noble metal (in this case the aluminium) breaks down and turns into gunk. If this happens too much then the threads on the cooler won't take a new pipe.

The only other option is to have new fittings put on the radiator when you take it off.

Gotta ask - why is the rs4 not big enough for a 9 month old?

+1

And Audi will not entertain any engineering work ie stripping corroded pipe fittings to save a cooler, if it does not come apart as per the "Audi procedure" then they will replace as necessary

You would have to source a local indie, if your close to Audi Camberley, the "The Phirm" is just down the road on the A30

adsgreen wrote:The issue is that the pipe would have by now corroded onto the cooler.
As the pipes are steel and the cooler aluminium, galvonic corrosion causes the less noble metal (in this case the aluminium) breaks down and turns into gunk. If this happens too much then the threads on the cooler won't take a new pipe.

The only other option is to have new fittings put on the radiator when you take it off.

Gotta ask - why is the rs4 not big enough for a 9 month old?

crazy that Audi would use two metals together in this way if they know they're going to end up with corrosion issues. Think I will get an indy to check it out and see what shape the cooler's in, if it's okay then hopefully they can get the required work done to the pipe without needing to replace everything, guess we'll see. I'll post again once I've had it checked out.

How am I fixed for driving it to the place to get it checked out /repaired? Looking under the car this eve hardly any more has dripped out - just a small droplet has formed on the base of the nut where the split is, it hasn't dripped off, and that's since last night. Is the leak more prevalent when the engine is running and I've been out in it for a while, rather than if it's just parked up doing nothing?

adsgreen, I personally think the car's fine for a 9 month old, yes I could probably do with the Avant rather than a saloon right now just for sake of ease (that's not an admission the Avant is better than the 'loon BTW, we all know the saloon is by far the best! ) but as it's our main 'family' car the wife likes to travel in the back with the little fella, and I'm six foot plus so need my seat pretty well back which doesn't leave much room for her (she's tall too). Also mine is running SS+ with pretty low profile 275/30/19s all round so the ride is quite firm and 'bumpy' (the latter her opinion obviously, not mine) - not hepled by the roads around our way being terrible. Then there's just my own frustration that I haven't really been able to drive it 'properly' in ages - so it all adds up to probably selling the RS4 and getting a larger 4x4 for the family stuff.