B8 S4 Ownership

[Adrian E]

That’s a LOT to be losing! Must be some evidence of where the coolant is leaking from? Presume it stinks of coolant in the engine bay?

Amazed they didn’t change the thermostat when they had it in bits - £50 part and 6 hours to get to it.....

There’s loads of little hoses under the supercharger - id expect it to be piddling out somewhere

[fastgerman]

Hi Adrian, yes it stinks of coolant and the front of the engine is pretty wet. I’ve taken the plastic cover off the top and everything looks wet at the front. Because of the under tray, I can’t see where it’s dripping.

Ps it’s been hammering it down with rain so my troubleshooting is probably worthless

[fastgerman]

Some better detective work:

https://youtu.be/aSw01dxTUok

https://youtu.be/D0s3ggo-_V4

It is dripping coolant from the front of the engine on the right (under the furthest pulley)

I notice it dripping more when the engine is switched off.

Thoughts?





Ps some more of the receipt:

Edited by fastgerman on Sunday 1st November 10:50

[Adrian E]

Water pump?

ETA - I found this video quite helpful at pointing out potential problems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=TCH13...

Edited by Adrian E on Sunday 1st November 16:28

[fastgerman]

Yes I think it’s the water pump or pipes in that area. Had no idea that big aluminium lump was a water pump, the pre-facelift B8 has a black plastic part there.

Good link also thank you :-)

[matrignano]

matrignano said:

It can almost reach the bottom of the expansion tank, if I let it.

Tank, hoses and thermostat (supercharger off) have been checked or changed multiple times.
Sometimes pressure tests don't produce leaks, other times it does leak, but there is no visible evidence of where it might leak from.
Next step suggested by the garage is to take the heads off, but they are busy and haven't been "able" to put the car on a ramp for the last 2-3 weeks...

Right.
Garage put a UV dye in the coolant and it seems the dye has made its way in the oil.
Coolant in oil = engine Kaput

Extended Audi warranty only covers max. £5,000 per claim, and engine costs twice that.

Does anyone have contacts at Audi UK to see if I could get some goodwill offer from them?

I know the car is 10 years old but just in the last few years I've had engine oil leaks requiring the engine out, mechanotrics requiring gearbox out, water pumps and thermostats, suspension leveling sensors etc.
This car is a lemon and I feel it would be justified that Audi UK contribute towards the repair.

[catso]

matrignano said:

Right.
Garage put a UV dye in the coolant and it seems the dye has made its way in the oil.
Coolant in oil = engine Kaput

Could it be the oil cooler?

Asking because I had an A3, 3.2 in which the coolant contaminated the oil due to a leak in the oil cooler (heat exchanger). IIRC the repair was about £400.

[Adrian E]

Goodwill claims are largely dealt with at main dealer level now - they have a budget for it, so you need to persuade them your case is valid (which it sounds like it is, assuming previous repairs have also all been done at main dealer level)

If you get nowhere with it, there are breakers in Germany on eBay who have proved pretty reliable at supplying good complete engines from crashed cars that will get it mobile again. You'd need to take it elsewhere to be fitted, as I doubt a main dealer will be interested in the work. Depends if the warranty co will entertain this option, given the inherent risks of fitting anything second hand - there are 'warranties' and there are warranties actually worth the paper they're written on!

[mrdanbartlett]

Hi all,

Very off topic and random, but has anyone ever seen any cool examples of engine swaps on various Audis?

Like I know some Z4's got converted to run an E60 M5 V10. I just wonder if anyone has seen the same in the Audi world?

Imagine an S3 running the 4.0 S7 engine (probably wouldn't fit).

[matrignano]

matrignano said:

Right.
Garage put a UV dye in the coolant and it seems the dye has made its way in the oil.
Coolant in oil = engine Kaput

Extended Audi warranty only covers max. £5,000 per claim, and engine costs twice that.

Does anyone have contacts at Audi UK to see if I could get some goodwill offer from them?

I know the car is 10 years old but just in the last few years I've had engine oil leaks requiring the engine out, mechatronics, requiring gearbox out, water pumps and thermostats, suspension leveling sensors etc.
This car is a lemon and I feel it would be justified that Audi UK contribute towards the repair.

Right this is getting shadier by the minute. Would appreciate advice from my fellow PHers.

Garage reckon the engine overheated (coolant found in oil) and want to strip down the engine (£3,000 to diagnose). They think the issue could be the head gaskets, and/or oil pump, and/or damaged head or block.
(Audi Extended) Warranty does not cover for diagnostic so garage want me to fork the £3,000. They then reckon the warranty would not cover the repair as the car overheated (although I have not seen any evidence of that), and overheating is on the exclusions list.
Garage claims that since the car has had a bunch of thermostats replaced going back to 2016, that is evidence of prolonged overheating and therefore warranty is void.

I have asked garage to provide info on diagnostic done so far, and they are refusing to provide me with the workshop report!
I want to see if they have checked the water pump, thermostat, oil separator/PCV valve, supercharger pan valley etc.
The PCV valve seems like a likely culprit but they won't tell me if that was checked...

I am weighing my options now and wonder if I shouldn't take the car back and take it to a specialist like AMD or MRC and let them fix it, but it would be out of my own pocket as the warranty only covers main dealer repairs.
OR
Let me them carry out the engine out diagnostic and hope the warranty will cover whatever the issue is found to be
OR
Sell the car as it is (probably as scrap)

Ideas, thoughts please?

[fastgerman]

Adrian E said:

Water pump?

ETA - I found this video quite helpful at pointing out potential problems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=TCH13...

Edited by Adrian E on Sunday 1st November 16:28

Sorted for £555 at Guildford Audi, yep, water pump. Car is only on 32k miles, seems a bit early for so many cooling issues. Touch wood it’s sorted for a while now.

[fastgerman]

Adrian E said:

Goodwill claims are largely dealt with at main dealer level now - they have a budget for it, so you need to persuade them your case is valid (which it sounds like it is, assuming previous repairs have also all been done at main dealer level)

If you get nowhere with it, there are breakers in Germany on eBay who have proved pretty reliable at supplying good complete engines from crashed cars that will get it mobile again. You'd need to take it elsewhere to be fitted, as I doubt a main dealer will be interested in the work. Depends if the warranty co will entertain this option, given the inherent risks of fitting anything second hand - there are 'warranties' and there are warranties actually worth the paper they're written on!

I would go this route also, friend of mine has dropped a TTRS engine in a Lotus Exige. Bought the engine for a couple of £k and it’s done less than 5,000 km.

[mrdanbartlett]

Hi all,

So my car is tell me it's due a service in 30 days, but it says 'oil change' - I thought it always alternates between a major service one year and a minor (oil change) the next? Just to give some background:

Nov 2016 - major service
Nov 2017 - minor service
Nov 2018 - major service
Nov 2019 - minor service (I prob do about 5k miles between these services)
Nov 2020 - ? should I be doing a major or minor, due to lockdown I've probably done 1-2k miles since the last service.


Also the car is over 100k now, it's a manual B8, clutch was done at 92k or so. Should I be doing some other jobs - such as the super charger belt and oil? Brake fluid gets done every 2 years.

It's an impossible car to replace for anything under £20k so I'll likely hang onto it for a while yet, I'd like to remap it but seems a bit silly to spend 10% of the cars value on a map.

[Adrian E]

Supercharger belt should've been done by now (I forget the recommended change interval, but it's not in the service book!) and might as well have the auxiliary drive belt done at the same time as the front end has to be pulled forward into the service position to do either belt.

See my post above with details on changing supercharger oil (it has to come off to be changed) so depends where you're getting work done as to whether they'll be interested (it's not even in the schedule as a job that needs doing, but Audi will sell you the fluid at similar cost to gold by weight!)

[mrdanbartlett]

Thanks Adrian, will look at getting the belt done.

Re the service do you think it needs a major or a minor?

[silentbrown]

mrdanbartlett said:

Thanks Adrian, will look at getting the belt done.
Re the service do you think it needs a major or a minor?

IIRC the only real difference (cost aside!) in the official Audi schedule between oil change and inspection services is the pollen filter, and a road test. It's probably flagging up the wrong one because it wasn't reset correctly after the last service.

Have a look in the handbook and service receipts and check when air filter, fuel filter and plugs were last changed, and when they're due. I think plugs is every 50K miles?

[Dr G]

A major is only needed every 40k; every othe ryear is excessive unless you're rattling up the miles.

Very slight generalisation:

1yr/10k - Oil service
2yr/20k - Oil & Inspection (+pollen +brake fluid)
3yr/30k - Oil service
4yr/40k - Oil & Inspection (+sparks +air filter +pollen +brake fluid)

...then roll back round to 1 again.

If you want to see the factory maintenance tables for your car (not what the internet or a franchise say) then send me your reg or chassis.

[mrdanbartlett]

Thanks all!

Ok so checked and

-plugs & air filter were done Nov 2018 at 96k (car now on 102k).
- pollen filter done Nov 2016

'toothed belt' not been done - unsure if that is the Aux belt of SC belt.

Thanks
Dan

[Raddors]

mrdanbartlett said:

Thanks all!

Ok so checked and

-plugs & air filter were done Nov 2018 at 96k (car now on 102k).
- pollen filter done Nov 2016

'toothed belt' not been done - unsure if that is the Aux belt of SC belt.

Thanks
Dan

I believe toothed belt refers to the cambelt which the S4 doesn't have so you can disregard.

I just had a few of the jobs Adrian recommended done alongside my 80k service at MRC. Got water pump and thermostat done as well as s/c belt and oil change. Thanks Adrian for the info on this. Like you guys trying to get some preventative stuff done as I can't think of anything I want to replace it with currently.

[mrdanbartlett]

Hi all,

Random but seeing as I likely cannot see me replacing the car anytime soon (just nothing takes my fancy this side of £25k+) - I may tweak the car - has anyone replaced the B8 grill with a Rs4 'honeycomb' one, any pics if so? I was thinking of a silver one as my car is black.

What about the Window chrome - anyone wrapped black? (on a black car ideally).