These oil leak threads are popular. Here's another.

[joesnow]

The missus noticed some oil on the floor by the Audi the other day so this morning I dropped the under tray and it's pretty much confirmed it's the oil cooler or pipe on the passenger side.

The oil on the under tray was directly below where the pipe attaches to the cooler, this fitting had oil on it and there was a drip on the bend where the pipe comes over the top of the cooler.

Couple of questions then,

1) I'm pretty confident working on cars so how easy is this as a DIY job?? Does it sit directly behind the bumper??

2) If I were to buy replacement parts what would I require??

3) if I took it to Audi to do the work what's the chances of any good will?? I bought it as a private sale but has full dealer history.

4) How risky is it to drive it?? Not lost a noticeable amount of oil and not sure how long it's leaked for.

Any help appreciated??

[joesnow]

Pretty sure it's oil that's leaking



The two smaller dots are drips off the end of the power steering fluid dipstick and the smudges are from me wiping my fingers under front of the car.

[Batfinnk]

Might sound stupid but smell them. They both have a very different smell.

[joesnow]

Will give it a go. When I was under this morning it definitely smelt like oil but then I don't know what power steering fluid smells like.

[adsgreen]

Iiirc it's hydraulic fluid and smell le piss. Sniff the filler cap.

Looking at elsawin it actually looks DIY able.
Bumper off.
Front crash bar off
Detach and move iut of the way power steering rad.

http://elsaweb.spaghetticoder.org/doc/A ... 29329995/3

The tricky part and is un documented is removing he oil pipes at the engine end - I don't think will be too hard.

Oil pipes are about 100 quid or so, cooler 500 then labour and vat is about total of 1100-1300.

[adsgreen]

Be good to get a picture of 'the bend'

[Timster]

Who's Carol ?

[sakimano]

Could be your oil lines have rubbed enough to cause a leak. The annoying rubber donut spacer is on the one line to prevent running the metal braided lines together ends up moving and not doing its job.

You can get underneath and see if that's the source.

[joesnow]

Iiirc it's hydraulic fluid and smell le piss. Sniff the filler cap.

Looking at elsawin it actually looks DIY able.
Bumper off.
Front crash bar off
Detach and move iut of the way power steering rad.

http://elsaweb.spaghetticoder.org/doc/A ... 29329995/3

The tricky part and is un documented is removing he oil pipes at the engine end - I don't think will be too hard.

Oil pipes are about 100 quid or so, cooler 500 then labour and vat is about total of 1100-1300.

Thanks for the link. I was thinking about dropping the bumper anyway to have a closer look and but based on that I might just buy the pipes and cooler and replace them myself. Although I won't tackle this till I know how the pipes connect for the engine. Hopefully one of the site sponsors may be able to chip in regarding removing the pipes from the engine ( Doug, Glenn???)

[joesnow]

Who's Carol ?

Carol Service. Scrap paper found in the boot from my lads preschool Xmas show.

I even thought about ripping that off cause I knew someone would mention it

[joesnow]

Could be your oil lines have rubbed enough to cause a leak. The annoying rubber donut spacer is on the one line to prevent running the metal braided lines together ends up moving and not doing its job.

You can get underneath and see if that's the source.

I think regardless where the leak is if a pipe needs to be replaced there's a good chance the cooler will need to be done as well. Although I would happily be proven wrong as it would reduce the cost of repairs quite a bit.

[adsgreen]

Could be your oil lines have rubbed enough to cause a leak. The annoying rubber donut spacer is on the one line to prevent running the metal braided lines together ends up moving and not doing its job.

You can get underneath and see if that's the source.

Wrong side - the rubber spacer is on the drivers side (on lhd cars).

[joesnow]

Does anyone know if this would be covered by a warranty????

[adsgreen]

Generally corrosion isn't.
I'd be interested to see how the solid pipe on the passenger fails. It could easily be argued its a material defect which should be covered.

[joesnow]

Maybe I should have taken that warranty out.

Bumper should be coming off this week so will get some pictures of the pipe work. The pipe is quite easy to see through the front grill so will take a look in better light tomorrow.