Oil leaks

[ghemmings]

Seem to have developed an oil leak. I've started to smell a slight burning oil from inside the car when sitting at the lights. When I pulled up on the driveway tonight, a small stream of smoke was pouring out of the offside front wheel arch. Opened the bonnet and I saw some smoke coming from the back of the engine (this all cleared up after about 2 minutes). It seems like oil is dripping onto the exhaust and burning off (I think). Just checked the oil level (fine) taken it for a blast and had another look, but no smoke, just a slight hot oily smell from the engine bay. Has anyone had this and got any ideas what the cause is? I am assuming its the rocker cover gaskets, although can't see anything apart from slight weaping. Is this common? My 8 has 139k on the clock. Cheers in advance!

[IT_S8]

Hiya - I've had a couple of A8's with a leaking final drive seals on the back of the gearbox. The smell is slightly different to regular burning oil - If you look under the car after a drive, you might see oil / slight wiff of smoke coming off the Cats which are directly underneath.... About £300 from Audi to fix, or half that at an automatic transmission specialist....

Hope that helps, and if not then it may serve as reference :-)

[NickGUK]

[ QUOTE ]

About £300 from Audi to fix, or half that at an automatic transmission specialist

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a common problem and even cheaper if ya do it yourself, FULL procedure here

http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/auto_transmission/transealreplacement.html

[ghemmings]

Thanks for the advice. I checked underneath the car and yes, the left hand cat is covered in oil. Tried to get the seal from an Audi stealer, but the part is on a 6 week back order!!! Has anyone any ideas where i can get one quickly? Part number is 018 409 399 B. Cheers in advance.

[thenamesross]

Sounds familiar. Ive been waiting a month for a gearbox sump gasket. Not sure where you could get an alternative but I would try and use original parts where possible when it comes to the gearbox for piece of mind if nothing else.

[ghemmings]

Thats funny, my mechanic got a gearbox sump gasket (and strainer/filter, etc) for me early this week from the main dealer. It was next day delivery. I wonder if different dealers have differnt stockpiles of parts?

[Ska]

www.VAGPARTS.COM

[grdunn123]

I've recently noticed a smell like burning plastic after a drive, no sign of any oil leaking on to drive at all....does this sound like a similar problem to the above??

[Atomic]

Theres so many places you can get a oil leak without it dropping on the floor these days.

Best bet is to have a peek under the car near the rear of the box looking for moisture (check the link near the top of the page to audi pages and you will see that various parts will show signs of oil).

Another area is around the front drive shafts on a quattro which is very easy to spot, just remove the front wheels... ideally one at a time ;p even if it's not the drive shafts that will expose enough of the bottom of the car to see if it's dry and if not roughly where the oil is comming from.

Another spot seems to be fatiged oil breather hoses... again look for oil leaks at the side of the engine, possible visible with the front wheels off again.

[grdunn123]

I'll have to have a look.....ran over a large bit of plastic bagging on the motorway a few weeks ago, usual story, tried to avoid it but couldn't. Watched for it reappearring in my mirrors which it didn't! When I got to work it was still there but managed to fish it out without any bother. I thought a bit may have melted on to the hot exhaust and that was what I was smelling but still getting similar smell weeks later. Saw this post and just wanted to make sure it wasn't an oil leak somewhere. Doesn't smell 'oily' though.

What are you gonna do without your '8' for the next 2 weeks???