Problems with Toad's 95N 2.6 Coupe - Again!!

[The Hypno-Toad]

Sorry folks but again I need a little bit more advice!

Its an oil leak this time. Got it up on the very rust jack and took jmy life in my hands getting the undertray off about two weeks ago and you could see that it was dripping down from somewhere from the left side of the block. (If you look at the car from the front.). Didn't think it was too much of a problem and was obviously going to get to my mechanic to get it fixed but then last night after a top up, I stopped at a roundabout and the smoke coming from the oil dripping onto the exhaust was very worrying. I dumped the car at my friends house and we went out in his car instead but when I left later in the evening he said that it had left a nice little slick of regular drips out of his drive.
So it is now sitting on in my car park with a little puddle forming where I have put a sheet of cardboard.

Now to my untrained mind here is the weird thing; the oil pressure and temp gauge are fine, showing no problems. No low oil light either. (Although that could be broken as the dipstick doesn't lie), the water temp seems spot on as well. Now everyone else I've spoken to have sucked their teeth and said head gasket but how could it be if all of those are okay? Is there an oil pump or a major union on that side of the engine that might be causing the problem? (he said hopefully!!!)

And if it is the head gasket does anyone know how much? It looks like engine out to me & I'm afraid that will be the end of the Panzer as I'm guessing it will be a fair few hours and at todays labour rates that will be more than half of the what the cars worth.

Any thoughts (yet again!!!!) gratefully recieved. I really don't want to let her go.

Edited by The Hypno-Toad on Saturday 12th July 21:46

[Robatr0n]

It sounds to me as though oil is weeping from the rocker cover which arean't too bad to access. Have you been keeping an eye on the engine oil level? How is the car running?

Give Ian at SeaSpray Motors a call and ask him some advice as he has alot of experience with the Audi Coupes and he is the only guy I trust either of my coupes to and his prices are very very reasonable.

http://www.seaspraymotors.co.uk 01895 813900

[The Hypno-Toad]

Robatr0n said:

It sounds to me as though oil is weeping from the rocker cover which arean't too bad to access. Have you been keeping an eye on the engine oil level? How is the car running?

Give Ian at SeaSpray Motors a call and ask him some advice as he has alot of experience with the Audi Coupes and he is the only guy I trust either of my coupes to and his prices are very very reasonable.

http://www.seaspraymotors.co.uk 01895 813900

Thanks for that Robatr0n, I will give him a call on Monday.

I had been keeping an eye on the engine oil and it seemed to be okay up until about a month ago when it started going down on a regular basis. Also it seemed to be getting a little darker than usual. It seems that the oil is coming out from lower down the engine than the rocker cover but there is so much stuff in the bay, as you know, it is difficult to see! The car is running perfectly, really smoothly except when you start her from cold. If it hasn't been run for a couple of days or its been really wet, it does run a little lumpy until the car gets some temperature. Having only driven company cars for a few years I did think this was normal for a 13 year old car.Then she is as good as gold, idles at just under 1000 the needle as steady as a rock. The engine is one of the reasons I love this car so much, the torque on the motorway is fantastic. Sad I know.

Thanks for Ian's number.

[istoo]

Valley gaskets on the 2.6 and the 2.8 are prone to going, not a massive leakage but enough to spot a driveway and be an annoyance. i did mine on the coupe during a tappet change, not expensive just takes a long time to get there! One of these if your doing X then consider Y jobs.

your oil gauge should sit at 5bar whilst driving and drop to 3bar on idle, once the engine is warm.

[The Hypno-Toad]

istoo said:

Valley gaskets on the 2.6 and the 2.8 are prone to going, not a massive leakage but enough to spot a driveway and be an annoyance. i did mine on the coupe during a tappet change, not expensive just takes a long time to get there! One of these if your doing X then consider Y jobs.

your oil gauge should sit at 5bar whilst driving and drop to 3bar on idle, once the engine is warm.

Hi istoo, more useful info as always from your good self. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you but as this was my day off I thought I would wait til now to go for another run in the old girl.

So taking my life in my hands I popped some 'Wynns No leak for Oils' into her and gave her a 22 mile round journey. The engine itself still appears to be running like a train and when I got her back to base after giving her a reasonable amount of speed (after letting her warm up) the oil was still at the top of the dipstick. However.....

The oil pressure was not showing what you recommended. It started on idle at 3 but by the time I came back it was more like 2-2.5. When it was at speed it was showing between 4-4.5. I think this is new because I seem to remember that it was always sticking on three at idle. I still can't see where it might be coming from and she seems to be leaking PAS fluid again..

Any more thoughts? apart from looks like its doomed!

Edited by The Hypno-Toad on Tuesday 15th July 21:26