1998 A6 wagon 2.8 12 valve 176,000 miles
I was driving along and the car died like turning off the switch. Found the engine was quite hot. Had it towed home and it doesn't appear to have any compression in any cylinder. filled it with water and #2and #3 appear to get water in them. TB was changed 17,000 miles ago and looks good and appears to be in time. So I'm thinking it has a bad head gasket. Is this a problem with this model? I still don't understand why I get no compression on any cylinder but maybe after I tear it apart I will learn something.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks

 

A bad headgasket will give some compression in all cylinders, so that isn't your problem. You say your car died like someone turned the key off. Any noise when this happened?

I would try a leakdown test next to see if you have any sealing in the cylinders at all. If not, something in the timing belt system failed and you bent all your valves. The next step is to pull the heads and take a look.

If you find terminal damage (and the coolant in the cylinders sounds like a bit more than just bent valves) the question becomes, how much do you like the car? How badly do you need it for transportation? If it is your only means of transportation you have to trade it in. If you have another car and you like the Audi, you can either rebuild or replace with a used motor.

Good luck and if the damage is gruesome, be sure to post some pictures!

Bob

 

It sounds like you lost your timing, like the tensioner let go or similar. The coolant in the cylinders would most likely be the headgasket though, so the heads need to come off. This process should show you what happened. It would be very unusual for all the cylinders to have no compression at once, thus the timing problem guess.

 

Was there any distinct sound when this happened? I hate to say it but I think something terrible happened...

 

When it happened it didn't make any bad noise. It turns over fine and doesn't sound bad. The timing belt looks good and is still tight and taking off the valve covers shows everything turning. I took out the plugs and #2 and #3 cylinder shot out water, or what looked like water. I checked the spark and it has spark. i will remove the intake today if the weather calms down. I'm working outside and the wind and rain is slowing me down a bit! i will also take some pictures.
Thanks for all the replys. This is the first Audi I have owned and so far after a year it hasn't been that bad. I didn't pay much and so far just brakes and tires in it so it's not like it owes me a lot.

 

Not sure how it happened, but it sounds like you hydro-locked it. Fluid does not compress like air/fuel, and does nothing good for an engine. I'm surprised it even turned over. Let us know what you find out.

 

ok so I took the intake off today. Nearly froze to death by thats the way it is here now. Anyway, I am going to have to go get a BIG torx socket to get the head off but I took a few pictures. As you can see the timing belt seems ok, not to say it is. I have had engines drop a valve or bend a valve before and it usually makes loud bad noises and this one didn't. And it still turns over good, just a little fast like no compression.
As you can see the crank is at tdc and the cams look to be where the big holes are supposed to be. I know it's not the cleanest but it did run!