[s-cars] RE: Help with problem oil leak - long (Dave Ellis)

[Matthew Russell]

Never underestimate the power of foot powder...

Spray foot powder (like Tinactin) applied to a clean surface is one of 
the BEST ways to identify where and what is leaking.  Works for 
everything, oil gas, coolant, etc.  This should help you to localize 
the leak, or at least figure out what to start taking apart.

Everyone should keep a can in the garage, IMO.

-Matt in CO
92 s4



On Friday, April 15, 2005, at 01:07  PM, 
s-car-list-request at audifans.com wrote:
> Hey fellow S-listers,
>
> I had my '93 S4 in the shop last week for a slew of work (timing belt
> change with all the works, new suspension - Eiback Pro with Boge
> TurboGas, etc.).   One item of particular interest was to have a
> persistant and fairly large oil leak (a 250ml per day Mobil1 habit)
> corrected by replacing the crank seal which was deemed by everyone
> involved to be the culprit.
>
> Anyways, after picking up the car it seemed the oil was leaking just as
> much (although the car handled *much* better, but that's another post)
> and that the culrpit had not been the crank seal after all.  Oil is
> still dripping off the oil pump housing and blowing back onto the
> downpipe and other hot bits, and I still can't see exactly where the
> oil is leaking from.
>
> The oil only leaks with the car running, slowly at 2 bar and somewhat
> more at 5 bar, and for a short while after the engine has shut down.
> Oil pressure continues to be good however, 5 bar when driving and 2 bar
> at idle.  It is not leaking from the bolts holding the timing belt
> idler/tensioner pulley onto the block, and though the leak is getting
> the crank seal and crank bolt very oily, it is apparently not the crank
> seal.
>
> I have not been driving the car much for the past six months because of
> the leak, but now that I'm selling my A4 and moving to one car I need
> to get this resolved.
>
> Some photos I took of the leak last fall are linked below.  The photos
> take place over the period of about one minute and show the oil leaking
> over the freshly cleaned front bottom of the engine (actually the oil
> pump):
>
>   http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/54496/oilleak-img_1869.jpg
>   http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/54496/oilleak-img_1870.jpg
>   http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/54496/oilleak-img_1871.jpg
>   http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/54496/oilleak-img_1872.jpg
>   http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/54496/oilleak-img_1874.jpg
>
> My mechanic beleives that it could possibly be the oil pump gasket, or 
> a
> cracked oil pump.  I concur, but It's also occured to me that it could
> be a leak in the oil pan gasket or a had gasket leak.  The difficulty
> is that the source of the leak is hidden.
>
> What does the collective wisdom of the list have to say?
>
> Thanks!
> -Dave
>
> '93 S4
> '99.5 A4 1.8t (soon to be sold)