this guys go warrants and all kinds of stuff, you can kinda tell he firing on all 6 cylinders

 

New oil pan would be the best, welded would be second, and JB Weld would be just another alternative. If you cant weld and dont know somebody that can, its a simple fix for a small crack. This is just something you dont go telling people about, using JB Weld on oil pans. There is a guy on vortex that uses JB Weld on his intercooler piping (dv and map flanges) and made almost 500whp. Held fine.

 

Only someone that has never used JB Weld would say not to use it. The stuff is like magic. I would trust irfor a longwhile to hold up a cracked oil pan. I see it as a very good temporary fix until you can get it either welded or replaced.

 

Second ^^^^^^^^^^

JB weld bonds very well to metal, and can handle very high temp, It would still be a third choice, and a temporary fix, but I say go for it until you are able to pull the pan sometime and do it right.
Just dont tell the next guy who buys it that you jb-welded the oil pan, and its holding just fine.

 

I personally would have it welded. However, if you JB it make sure you drain the pan completely and use some kind of degreaser so that there is no oil in and around the crack at all. Otherwise you might get an area that the JB won't bond to.

Beer Mod is giving you good advice about the grinder. By putting a slight 'V' in the crack it will allow the weld to get deeper into the metal and give a better bond than just surface welding it. Since the pan is aluminum (aluminium for our Brit friends) it will need to be TIG welded if you go that route.

PS, I'm not a tree hugger but dumping 3 quarts of oil on the ground everyday ain't cool...fix it one way or another ASAP.

 

I just got a new one from autohausaz.com for $115 and probably $20 for the gasket. I feel like if you are going to take it off to clean it, you might as well just shell out the $150 for a new one and have some peace of mind that the problem wont come back.

 

Question... similar topic, slight thread hijack, sorry.

I'm looking at buying a 1999 1.8T A4 that had a small misfortunate meeting with a guard rail and subsequent ditch which dented and split open the oil pan. (also blew both airbags and disabled the car's starter, but I digress only to mention that it hasn't been run since the accident).

How long and tedious of a job is it getting one of these oil pans off? I have an S4 but it's been purring like a kitten so I haven't tried to crack anything open yet, but the wife keeps stealing my car and I'm getting sick of it - thinking about fixing this A4 and letting her have something to play with.

Thanks for the info... $135 doesn't sound like a bad deal at all.

 

i just replaced mine yesterday on my b5. like klum said its only like 115-120 for the pan and 20 for the gasket.

easiest thing in the world to replace. 15 or so 5mm allen wrench bolts on the outer pan and then about 10 screws on the inner plate. only tough part is the front sway bar that blocks 5 bolts ...gotta get a round allen head for that unless u wanna take it off [:'(]

defintly worth it unless u like replacing all that oil

 

i once jb welded a big metal stand leg back onto a couch...
and its still holding.. probably close to 2 years later