Does anyone know what this is for?

[c3nturi0n]

Hey guys,

Today i did some general maintenance on the car such as ‘leaf / debris unblocking’ + also installed new BMC Air filters.

Upon closer inspection under the hood i noticed that the following hose is tad loose (highlighted - Badly i know ). Could someone shed some light what is it for before i order a replacement?

[Jim Haseltine]

That's the breather hose between the oil tank separator and the PCV oil separator on the RH rocker cover. It gets brittle over the years and sometimes will disintegrate when you touch it. The tank end is easy to remove and refit, the other end isn't.

[c3nturi0n]

Cheers Jim... mine’s very loose on the rocker cover end.

What purpose does it serve? And guess more importantly is it ok to drive until i get replacement hose?

[IanH755]

That pipe carries the gas/fumes/oil residue from the oil tank separator (removes bigger oil particles/residue) and feeds it into the PCV oil separator (removes small/fine oil particles). If you remove the pipe then you will have a fine oil/air mist sprayed around your engine bay which will be a cosmetic nightmare to clean but also has the very slim chance that, should that air/oil mist hit the red-hot manifold, it could catch fire.

Here's how the Oil system works - the first two pics show how the oil mist is separated from the liquid oil -



Then these two show how oil mist is then finally separated again into oil and air.

[Jim Haseltine]

mine’s very loose on the rocker cover end.

Then it's either broken (usually the ribbed piece breaks away from the fitting) or somebody has had problems pushing the fitting on hard enough for it to positively seat. And that I can understand as it's seriously awkward.

[pcorpe]

anyone have a part number for this pipe?

[IanH755]

07L103213C

Item 8 on here - http://www.oemepc.com/audi/part_single/ ... ng/e#sec_8

[pcorpe]

thank Ian, ordered one just in case, got a sneaking suspicion mine's not fitting as well as it should (given the burning oil smell)

[c3nturi0n]

Yup - i should get mine through TPS tomorrow (~£30).

[pcorpe]

building on/ high jacking this thread, I seem to have a leak here somewhere, the smaller of the 2 feed pipes looks to be the culprit, anyone else seen this? seems to be oil around the top and down all the sides of the reservoir.

[c3nturi0n]

With cars now into their 10y anniversary and the amount of heat that gets regularly accumulated under the bonnet, it comes to me as no surprise that some (plastic) items are deteriorating over time.

Something i also noticed on mine is that some oil got spilt around the tanks that leaked on bottom tray. Cleaned during last service and it’s all good (false alarm). Suggest to check on yours too if it could be something similar?

[pcorpe]

thanks for the reply. i think mine is a little worse, and it's bugging the bleep outta me. when parking in the garage at night after a reasonable drive (lights on) i can see the oil burning smoke!!! so somethings not right, can't be a massive leak and must be hitting the exhaust somewhere then burning off. no drips on tray, nothing on floor of garage, but you can defo smell it, and in the right circumstance see it, just can't find where it's coming from...

(not needing to top oil up so can't be too bad)

[c3nturi0n]

Check for oil or residues in the middle of the engine block (fairly low down). O rings under the Oil cooler either completely cook or l disintegrate over time causing oil to start leaking... somewhat tedious job as manifold etc needs to come out but would suggest to address sooner rather than later. Eg. If it ‘overflows’ it could damage the alternator to name one.

Hope that helps.

[Jim Haseltine]

The more I strip off my engine, the more leaks I'm finding. The breathers are misting, cam covers are leaking and as for the oil tank... well, once the oil pump is off, all the hoses and the tank are coming out as well. Judging from the amount of oil that has dripped from the subframe over the last couple of weeks I don't think it'll ever rust.