Hello, I’m new to this forum. I purchased a used S6 a few months back. No issues for the first 30 days, then the leaks started. I had all of the gaskets changed, and the OSV changed as well. The leak stopped, but now I’m getting an oil burning smell and smoke from the passenger side of the motor. I took it back, and they told me it was the oil pan gasket (that was changed 1 month prior). I left with the car, and it was good the first night (local drive home). The next morning, I got on the highway, and the smell/smoking came back the exact same way. Returned to the shop, and now they’re telling me its coming from the head gasket. The owner told me, it is a known problem with these engines, that the headbolts need to be retorqued. Has anyone heard of this issue, or is there any advice you could offer?
Spooler first off welcome to the forum.
Can you give us some idea on the mileage on the car. The past owner is wrong head gaskets are not a common problem on these cars. I have a strong feeling the oil isnt coming from the head gasket. Are you getting any oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. is the car having any issues with over heating.
This isnt to say that there isnt a chance that oil could be leaking down the side of the block or even leaking from the oil seperator line or the oil coolant block on the motor.
Where are you located.
Yeah I don’t know that it’s a known problem (bolts retorqued), but gasket issues are common apparently. Had all of mine redone after bought the car (engine/trans out)… Warranty from shop on gasket work for a year, so that helps.
The car has 100k miles on it. No over heating issues, or coolant mixing. The oil separator line hasn’t been changed. I will look into that. Thanks for that idea. It is definitely an oil related issue, because you smell it inside and outside the car. What I did notice, is if I drive at low rpm’s it doesn’t give off the smell/smoke. I’m in NYC
Was the oild seperator replacedm they are a common point of failure and can leak down the back of the block onto the underside of the engine too
yes it was replaced. Im gonna try replacing the hose now to see if that takes care of the problem
chasing that demon on my car as well…So far the prevailing guess is it’s leaking somewhere on the front of the block, but the whole underside was so wet, that it was hard to nail down without disassembling everything.
Mechanic put some UV dye in the oil and We’ll see where the glowey wet stuff shows up!
Spooler do you get any oil drips under the car. Im thinking you have your belly pan on so probably not but here is a quick oil leak run down.
oil in the front of the motor check the oil filter O rings.
oil on the side of the block and in your situation it could be a valve cover gasket or the oil coolant O rings on the bottom passenger side of the block. This tends to go bad after you have changed other PCV gaskets due to the system no longer leaking at certian points and full system pressure find the little leaks that happens over time on these O rings.
I know you said that the gaskets were changed but even after a valve cover gasket change you can find small weep spots you need to use a small amount of RTV on the lower side of the head as oil tends to sit there and can build up and weep out when the car is off. This causes a oil smell when driving and the exhaust heats up
it’s likely leaking from where the oil filter meets the block under the intake manifold.
I had that exact leak, and the oil pools under the intake and there is a hole at the front just under the oil pressure sensor for the oil to drain out of. Took me a while to figure it out, but requires removal of the intake, ect.
I think I posted about this earlier. But it’s a $4 gasket that fails. Oring between Oil filter housing to block is what you’re looking for.
^^ exactly where my leak was - $15 for the bottom double o ring and top o ring as a set plus about 6 hours of wrestling to fix!
Spooler I’m in the NYC area as well battling the same demons. Just curious how you made out and what shop you used to get your work done?