Drove the A6 up to the top of Independence Pass here in CO yesterday. Elevation, 11,500', gained via numerous twisty and fun roads. The car ran great, the "air bag" light went off again (expected as the code shows those aforementioned seatbelt tensioners too tight) and the car was parked at the summit smoking heavily from the engine compartment area. No other initial symptoms and, of course, I popped the hood, took a look, saw nothing and found the fluid levels all normal. Given the miles, the hard workout I put the car through on the twisty roads and having done one once before, I'm suspecting an intermittently failing power rack and pinion unit. There's really no place in the rear of the engine to lose/leak oil and I have noticed in recent months, an oily smell on occasion. Any thoughts? I looked at my/our online parts sources and find no availalbe rack and pinion units! Any ideas for the part out there? Car's still runnin' great otherwise!

 

A 'heavily smoking engine compartment' is not really a good thing .

Refresh my mind... Did you replace all the crank/cam seals? What about the rear main?

The oil pressure sender is a favorite leaker, as is the oil cooler o-ring. These will leave the car 'smoking' after a hard run.

If that rack was going that bad, you should see a fairly rapid loss of fluid.. the smell of hydrualic fluid is more 'pungent' than 'sharp/acrid' like an oil leak.

 

Well, thanks for your inquiry, Jim, and your ideas. No new rear crank seal but new camshaft seals on the back end of the motor. I did change out that oil filter o-ring per your sage counsel earlier in this adventure. I've yet to crawl under the car and remove the bottom shield to take a look but I've driven the car since and incident at the top of the climb and it didn't nor hasn't leaked one bit since! Go figure! Obviously an intermittent problem. . .The smell of the smoke does leave me thinking it's the Pentosin fluid burnin' on the exhaust but it's hard to tell since it's no longer leaking and there's NO drop in ANY of the fliuds. Stand by. . .What fun!

 

Hey Out There My Fellow Audiphiles!
Just bought a '97 A4 Quattro, 2.8, 5-speed, for my son, who's about to head out to SoCal with it for college. Guess what I'm doing? Yup, the timing belt, this time, without all the interference!!!! Don't have a new manual for this and would welcome any thoughts on getting to the front end stuff, which is far tighter/compact than the '96 A6. Fan shroud removal???? Hope you're all enjoying the summer season with those Audis out there. . .

 

Howdy again,
Well, I've been thrashing all day long on the new A4 as I slowly get to the timing belt to replace it. So far, so good but I've hit a snag in that the Fan/Fan Clutch Pulley is hung up and there's a couple of 8mm cap head bolts behind it that I believe are necessary to remove befor I can completely remove the cast bracket it rides in/on. I'm reluctant to try too hard to remove it by prying, fearing I'll break the casting so I've got it soaking with Liquid Wrench right now in hopes that I can somehow break it loose. Any suggestions/ideas would be most welcome. Don't remember this as an issue with my A6. . . Here's a couple of pics to hopefully help:

 

IIRC

I think if you spin the pulley you can get the holes to line up with bolts behind it. remove the bolts through the holes and it falls right off

 

I'll try this but the first time I did, I could only see one bolt through the hole, via an inspection mirror, but not the other one. You're reply has given me renewed courage, so I'll give it a go! Thanks again and stand by. . .

 

Just wanted to let you know that I was able to successfully remove those two concealed cap bolts!!! Two different sizes, which are hard to see with such tight quarters and using only an inspection mirror and flashlight! The only thing that suffered in the process was time and my barked knuckles, also due to the tight quarters!!! Thanks for the tip and I'll now hav the belt changed in less than an hour- just have to lock down the crankshaft and then remove the old belt. . .

 

Sorry. Late to the party this time

Glad you got it figured... Question though: did you get the bumper into 'service position'? Makes it alot easier to get in there..

 

Hey Jim et al!
Nope, didn't know about removing the bumper but got the job done anyhow despite my ignorance. Peace of mind is now mine! The existing belt actually didn't look at all bad but the previous owners had no knowledge of when it was changed and with what the job typically costs, one would think they'd remember! So, new belt. Here's a couple of pics of the car, wheels off for cleaning and general inspection. . .