Washer Fluid Leak and smoke from coolant reservoir area

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

Hey guys, looking for some advice on two issues i’m having.

Couple weeks ago during a very “spirited” drive i started to smell fumes of some sort in the cabin. it’s weird to describe the scent but i’m sure it wasn’t fuel or the typical oil fumes (had those before). I didn’t detect any lack in performance of the vehicle (i still don’t). When i arrived home and when i stop at lights and signs etc. i’d see small amounts of white smoke coming from the coolant area (front passenger side close to the wind shield) i instantly assumed it was coolant leaking on hot parts of the motor. Two weeks went by and i noticed there is no drop in coolant level then out of no where my “windshield washer fluid low” warning light cam on.

Questions: Has anyone experienced something similar could these two issues be related?

#2

Hello all!
Joined a while ago, just getting around to all this

I think I have the same smell…but I think you have better luck than I do. I have not been able to drive the car, its been sitting in a garage, so it may just be remnants of the time this happened and hasn’t really been able to breathe.

On a 2007 S6,

Took car out one day and had a misfire, drove easy home and parked. Couple days later turned on, took for a ride. No VCDS at the time, used a normal scan tool to read codes. Came up misfires cyl4. Changed coil + plug on 4, started car - smoke poured out from around the reservoir but I couldn’t pinpoint it and there’s an odd smell, definitely some coolant, but cant put my finger on it because it smells off. More sour than coolant sweet?

Drove it about 20 minutes to the doctor. Would miss down low under load, probably when intake flaps open.

Stopped for a slice of pizza, left car running. Coolant poured out of the overflow while I was in the pizzeria. Had distilled water in car just in case. Filled up reservoir, drove to doctor, parked, appointment took an hour, started the car back up without losing coolant. Babied the car home, no issues with misfire I can pretty much make it happen on command.

Park car at home, coolant out of overflow…car has now been sitting. Car was carbon cleaned 2k miles ago along with OFH and vally pan gasket, various PCV hoses (done by shop) has its issues with oil leaks still.

Have not owned the car long. Definitely has VC leak and exhaust leak. Possibly OFH and front crank seal. I have since bought a VCDS Hex V2 and plan on scanning the car in the next couple days. The oil I think I can deal with, the misfire is a little too scary. Mech said engine is not hurt. Any ideas/guidance?

#3

In these cases if you smell anything but don’t see anything on the ground its always a good idea to try and be ahead of it. I would suggest pulling off the belly pan and take a look. Usually if something is dripping the belly pan holds it quite well.

Always hard to try and diagnose without really being there seeing or smelling it. While its possible its from your washer fluid you would have to top them both off and then not use the wasther fluid.

It is common for the coolant tanks to crack and weep out coolant under pressure. That is something to keep in mind.

#4

chille_

Consider starting a new thread just for your issue. This way as you find out more and update it others can follow along and see it to its resolution.

If coolant is porting out of the resivware there is definitely something going on. I Would start with running a scan on the car. Have you replaced the plugs and coil packs.

#5

I also want to mention the Coolant Reservoir cracking. I’m on my 3rd reservoir in 40k miles. These engines get so hot that that heating and cooling really brittles the plastic reservoir. My last 2 had such small hairline cracks, I could not see it with the hood open and engine off. The biggest tell tale was a sort of sweet/musty/chemicaly smell while driving.

Finally, one day I got home and left it running and did a sweep around the engine bay. Saw some wetness near the reservoir. Sure enough, on the back side, I could see very minute amounts of coolant leaking out. It was dripping on to the hot exhaust manifold and boiling. This was the source of my smell when I had the climate control on.

This was also such a small leak that it was not noticeably causing a drop in coolant level, which is also why I never though to check it as a source of my issue, since the level was always full.

#6

Thanks for the responses, i was hoping this would’ve been more common but it looks like i’ll have to treat this like i’m having two separate issues.
I’ll start with the washer fluid leak I rarely ever use the windshield washer fluid so it being low is conformation enough of a leak.
Is this leak normally the tank or hoses? what’s the most likely source of leak in this system?

#7

Update: So i finally got around to addressing this and another major issue i had… shortly after this i had the pleasure of having my oil cooler o-ring break (not quite sure how that happened) leaking oil all over the ground while at work (60 miles from home). Imagine coming out to your car after a hard day’s work and seeing the rainbow coming from underneath your car… luckily i had a few quarts of oil in my truck and i put 2 quarts in and drove home barely making it as all 2 quarts leaked out along the way and the car stalled and I literally coast into my driveway. I should have played the lotto that night.

After a few months i towed the car to a local Euro shop in Oxford CT, they replaced the oil cooler due to the presence of milkshake oil in that localized area. They also replaced my passenger side valve cover gasket and camshaft actuator o-rings.

Turns out the smoke was my camshaft actuator o-ring leaking oil on to my exhaust manifold.

Camshaft Actuator o-ring replacement