Loosing oil fast!

kimenemark · January 10, 2022, 8:40pm

Hi,

I’m suddenly loosing oil and rather fast. Approx. 1 liter in 20min. but mostly when engine is cold. When engine is warm and I fill up it doesn’t loose nearly as much… also not over night. Seems there has to be high oilpressure.
It started after a very cold period here (well below 30F).
It is quite noticably from the back of the engine, far right hand side (passenger side)
I have tried to locate from where it originates with a snake camera (not sure thats the name ) but it’s very tight and not easy to maneuver… any ideas?

Regards
Kim

Kimovitzh · January 11, 2022, 9:51am

Doesn’t sound good

Could you take some picture from the leak area underneath?

kimenemark · January 11, 2022, 10:28am

Nope… hope it’s comming from somwhere up high
Will take picture asap… within the hour I hope
BTW. Would be quite helpfull with an image of the engine seen from the right… navigating the “snakecamera” is not easy

Kimovitzh · January 11, 2022, 11:00am

This is what I have

kimenemark · January 11, 2022, 12:58pm

Thanks… thats a lot more than I have

Sorry … took a bit longer…

It drips at the “corner” … there is a kind of flat surface above the pan where it seems the oil flows before it drips down (1 drop per second @idle w/cold engine) so I don’t believe it comes from back of engine but rather somewhere on the right hand side of engine above the pan

kimenemark · January 11, 2022, 4:42pm

I have “hijacked” a couple of user @eng92 images (sorry if I’m out of line… pure desperation )

Green circle shows the area.
Blue line is where I believe to see some oil flowing.
Red arrow is where the oil drops down below the car.

Am I right in my assumption that it can really only be oil cooler or valve cover? And most likely oil cooler??

Is it possible to change the oil cooler seals/o-rings without pulling the engine?

EDIT: Hmm… must admit I’m a bit jealous of @eng92 for his beautiful, shiny engine/trans and I have the deepest respect for his hard work

Kimovitzh · January 11, 2022, 5:09pm

I believe that you can remove the front and radiator pack and generator and then access the oil cooler.

kimenemark · January 11, 2022, 5:30pm

Thanks Kim… I have just downloaded RLF from Audi and I just have to drain coolant ( ), remove generator (can’t find that in RLF), mounting bracket for generator (4 bolts) and should then have access to the cooler (detach coolant hoses and remove 5 screws).

Not keen on having to change coolant already again, but no engine out required… thats a huge plus

eng92 · January 11, 2022, 6:23pm

Although it may not be necessary, having the radiator out, makes the cooler o-rings much easier to change. I did mine the first time about five years ago. They were not leaking as badly as yours, but they had been leaking for a while and left a nice mess underneath.

Depending on how ignorant it is to get off, you may want to consider replacing the circled alternator coolanthose.

I had to wrestle with mine a bit and chose to reuse it. Fast forward four weeks and it failed right at the bend when I was about 300km from home.

kimenemark · January 11, 2022, 6:45pm

Thanks @eng92

jludt · January 13, 2022, 1:19am

Seconding eng92’s advice but also adding my 2 cents; replace as absolutely many hoses as you can while you’re in there. There are two hoses on the oil cooler and one coming off the crossover pipe. I think there is another line attached to the alternator that you might also consider. After I did my oil cooler o-rings and alternator then got things buttoned back up it was a couple days before one of those hoses sprung a leak - had to tear it back down again, it sucked. I start talking about it in post #10 of this thread. If needed here is a detailed diagram with parts numbers I bookmarked back when I was doing all of this work.

kimenemark · January 13, 2022, 9:29am

Thanks John @jludt
I have ordered the following…
07L 121 053 C
07L 121 053 E
07L 121 057 M

That would be pos. 25, 30 and 36 on this https://audi.7zap.com/en/rdw/audi+a6+s6+avant+quattro/a6q/2006-448/1/121-121060/

But you think I should also replace pos. 37, 38 (4F0 819 378 H and 4F0 819 376) … is that correctly understood?

jludt · January 13, 2022, 1:54pm

If time and money allows for it - I would. Totally your call though, obviously. You could only change what you need and end up having thousands more miles before any issue. Or you could end up like me tearing it back down a few days later because a leak was sprung.

kimenemark · January 21, 2022, 3:58pm

I ended up buying the 4 hoses because I had a very hard time even getting the old hoses off… I had to cut ALL of them along the hose to break them free!!

I was also surprised to discover that the o-rings had very little to do with rubber anymore… they were very hard almost like bakelite and very brittle… no wonder they couldn’t hold back oil
I’m quite convinced they have never been renewed and that it was and has been my worst leak from the engine!

TIP: use very fine sandpaper to remove any scratches you inevitably will have after cutting and do yourselves
a favour and buy new clamps… it is all in all not a cheap repair (for what it ends up “repairing”), but I never wish to have to get in there again or at least for a very long time

Oilcooler is mounted again and 2 of the 4 hoses but then the weather got worse here (doing the job in my driveway) … I can work with 25F or below, but rain

Kimovitzh · January 21, 2022, 4:31pm

Same with valve cover gaskets. They turn so hard that it would impress any teenage boy out there.

kimenemark · January 21, 2022, 4:59pm

I fear those as well … one of the gaskets is no longer available and the cover including the gasket is (at Audi) over 4000DKK (over $600)

EDIT: to be exact… 07L 103 471 Q is DKK4218 +VAT and 07L 103 472 D is DKK4176 +VAT
07L 103 484 F is still available for DKK361 +VAT but 07L 103 483 F is no longer available

I would buy a set of the gaskets on the spot

Kimovitzh · January 21, 2022, 5:49pm

Bought mine at AUTODOC for like 110 dkr