Oil leak points on our S6. Passenger wheel well smoke

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

Car 2007 S6.
What’s been replaced.
3 Oil filter assembly o-rings on top of the head when doing carbon clean.
Both valve cover gaskets recently by Certified Audi Shop, when I was having small oil spots on my brand new driveway of our newly built house. (Wife wants to kill me)

Symptoms.
First off oil consumption. I go through a quart every 500-800 miles.
Recently, I have been smelling burning oil and noticing light smoke coming from my passenger wheel well. This happens at traffic lights. When I open the hood while it’s running there is no smoke coming from the engine bay, only the wheel well.

What I want to know is the most common oil leak spots so I can check and not pay someone out the butt to look and tell me some BS.

Thanks,

Russell

#2

Are you sure that the smoke is not steam? Unrelated to the oil leak issue, the passenger-side wheelwell is where you’ll see steam/smoke from a coolant leak related to the reservoir and/or hoses connecting to it. The tank can form hairline cracks that are hard to see (I took my whole tank out, looked it over with a flashlight for 20 minutes and never spotted any leaks, but it was in fact leaking somewhere), and the cap itself is a now-known issue that causes hidden leaks. Also the plastic Y-connector going into the tank always breaks.

As for oil, I had some leaks in my car as well. The oil pan seal is one thing to check, and the oil cooler leaked on my car as well. I would say, clean the engine of grease/oil residue as much as you can, then park over a piece of cardboard and see exactly where the drips are landing, look directly above that and try to figure out where it’s coming from. These motors run HOT, so seals seam to be a fairly common issue over time.

#3

Also, a quart of oil consumption every 1k miles or so is not unheard of, seems to be what a lot of people report. 500 miles is a little extreme, however. Like I said, see if you can clean as much gunk out of the engine bay as you can, and it’ll help you find the source.

#4

scott covered a lot of the bases.

The carboard under the car is a great place to start. make sure there is an actual oil leak first. The car should leave the small drips.

The oil consumption is going to be about 1 quart every 1 to 1500 miles. Thats normal for aluminum motors. Even the new aluminum motors consume about that much.

as mentioned by scott check the coolant and make sure your not loosing coolant.

The last place to look is at the PCV system. The PCV system and oil separator will consume oil of not changed or serviced regulary. Its a good think to check for and to check into

#5

Thanks guys,
I changed out the coolant tank when I did the oil separator on the back of the intake manifold.
If I get time I’ll take the plastic skid plate of while the car is on ramps, and try to wipe everything off that I can.
I have a complete brake kit of front and rear drilled and slotted powerstop rotors and new pads I’m going to be putting on soon. And I also have two outer CVS boots to replace both torn front axels, if in have time. Once it gets everything done I’ll just drive around for a day with no skid plate and see where the drips come from.
The drips I’m getting now that come through the joints in the plate are on the front right quadrant. It will be interesting to see where they actually come from on the block.

#6

its a good idea to take the skid plate off and put a piece of cardboard down and drive over it each night. the thing about trying to find out where the leak is coming from with the skit plate is that the skid plate will just drain the oil down to the lowest place on the plate. It might be coming from the front of the motor but if the plate slopes back the oil will drain down and come out the back.

I usually place a cardboard piece under the car and keep tabs on where the drop marks are. Just make sure you wipe off the under side of the car well as most drips tend to hit things and ride the serface of things and ride them before falling all the way to the ground