Crack in oil pan

Mon Nov 1 20:34:57 PDT 2010

Jay;

I don't know about the A6, but the large M26 drain plug on the UrS oil pan
can be very difficult to remove if it is overtorqued on installation - as in
impossible to remove. I recall at least one lister who had to weld a socket
onto the oil pan plug to get it off after stripping the head and exhausting
all other alternatives. When I bought my UrS4, the drain plug head was badly
mangled and the plug was extremely tight. I've found that torquing the plug
to the 25 ft.lb spec makes it easy to remove at the next oil change.
Anything tighter and it can be very difficult. If the A6 pan has the same
issue, the plug may have extremely tight and the tech cracked the pan
wrestling with it. If that is the case, they know what they did. What kind
of shape is the hex head on the plug in? Is it a new plug? (i.e. they
mangled the old one and replaced it).

HTH

Fred Munro
'97 S6

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of Jay M
Sent: November 1, 2010 10:37 PM
To: esanborn at gmail.com; chance9121 at gmail.com
Cc: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: RE: Crack in oil pan

Thanks everyone for your replies. I am not the original owner of this A6 and
Eric's reply below got me thinking....I asked the guys at the garage what
size wrench they used to loosen the drain plug and they said 19mm. If my
memory serves me correctly my other car...the UrS6's drain plug is 19mm but
this car in question here is a C4 2.8 6 cylinder. I am pretty sure, or maybe
I am having a senior moment here fellas but I thought my other 2.8 C4
vehicles had a 17mm drain plug right?? or wrong?? Anybody know for sure what
the stock size C4 A6 2.8 oil drain plug is?

Anyway, after considering the advice given here on the forum by this
wonderful Band of Brothers, I have decided to replace the pan instead of
repairing it. However, I am an inquisitve SOB and just to satisfy my own
curiosity, would like to know how this crack could have happened. The car in
question has 132,000 miles on it. I have had 4 or 5 other C4 Audis with more
than 200K miles and I have never had this problem. The shop that did the
work is comprised of two young guys that are VW specialists, turbo upgrades,
etc. and they were genuinely very nice guys working hard trying to make an
honest buck; very admirable in my eyes. I am not 100% sure they are actually
at fault. The facts: Prior to my arrival at their shop my car was not
smoking and/or leaking any engine oil at all during the drive and after my
arrival at the shop. It has been over 2,000 miles before I even had to add a
drop of engine oil to top off the oil level prior to this oil change so it
is safe to assume this car does not burn or leak much oil. I was in the
garage when the belly pan was removed for the oil change and the underneath
of the belly ban was bone dry. However, in a nut shell, there was absolutely
none, not even a miniscule hairline crack in the oil pan BEFORE I brought
the car in for the oil change. As mentioned above, I am not the original
owner of this car and I am sure this car has been to Jiffy Lubes and the
like where the local wrenches over torque the oil drain plug upon tightening
causing stress to the aluminum oil pan. It has never happened in my 30+
years changing my own oil but perhaps it is possible that somewhere down the
line of this car's oil change history, that, in this particular instance,
when this particular mechanic loosened the drain plug, he unknowingly and by
no fault of his own, caused the crack to the oil pan??? Even after talking
to the mechanic after my smokey 10 mile ride home after the oil change I
asked him, "Are you sure you initially loosened the drain plug instead of
tightening it when you were draining the oil?" He responded correctly saying
lefty loosey..tighty righty, blah, blah blah.... Maybe this is just a huge
coinicidence and this mechanic was just in the wrong place at the wrong
time? 

Your thoughts and previous experience on the matter are appreciated.

From: esanborn at gmail.com
> Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 19:55:59 -0400
> Subject: Re: Crack in oil pan
> To: chance9121 at gmail.com
> CC: quattro at audifans.com
> 
> We got my wife an '03 GTI earlier this year with the 1.8T. The previous
> owner had used a speedy lube and the first thing I had to do was replace
the
> aluminum pan. They had stripped out the pan and then used an over sized
> self cutting plug. I didn't realize this of course until I got it home and
> proceeded to change the oil. That was an expensive oil change. My
> local independent VW shop keeps 5 or 6 good used pans on hand at all
times.
> The later ones have steel inserts for the drain plug the earlier ones did
> not.
> 
> While there is a chance the crack was there and his work on it just opened
> it up further, I would imagine it was related to their work. I wouldn't
> trust anything but welding or replacement. In order to weld it correctly
> you would need to remove it so you might as well get a good used one and
put
> it on.
> 
> -Eric
> 
> On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 7:47 PM, NIck Miller <chance9121 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Aluminum oil pan and too much torque. Like impact wrench style.
> > Somethings
> > gotta gives
> > On Nov 1, 2010 5:46 PM, "Grant Lenahan" <glenahan at vfemail.net> wrote:
> > > i have no idea, but i would not. Too critical.
> > >
> > > How did he crack it?It might not in fact be his doing, although one
would
> > think he should at least have seen it.
> > >
> > > Grant
> > >
> > > On Nov 1, 2010, at 5:33 PM, Jay M wrote:
> > >
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> I took my 1996 A6 to a local independent garage today for a quick oil
> > change, first, and needless to say last time I will take my car there
> > again.
> > On the drive home I noticed a lot of smoke coming from engine bay. I
pulled
> > over and checked oil level and I was down 2 quarts after driving about
10
> > miles. I added oil and got the car home for inspection and noticed oil
> > dripping from a hairline crack totalling about 1 1/2" in the shave of a
V
> > near and around the oil drain plug. After much discussion with the
mechanic
> > who did the oil change, he flat out denied responsibility for the crack.
> > Can
> > this crack be successfully repaired with JB Weld on the inside and/or
> > outside of oil pan, or TIG welded or do I have to source a new pan to
fix
> > the problem. I am just curious if there are any BTDT's that have used JB
> > Weld or similar products to repair cracks in their oil pan. Any input is
> > appreciated.
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >
> > > Grant Lenahan
> > > glenahan at vfemail.net
> > >
> > >
> > >
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