Hello everyone. I need some help. My older brother has a 2000 Audi A6 Quattro.

His wife has been driving it. He has been away working and not been around for the routine maintenance. He told me he thinks his car is a goner and asked if I would come look at it since I work on cars.

So I go over and pop the hood. First thing I notice is a smell of burnt oil. Then I see melted vacuum lines near the firewall. Everything is MELTED. The tube coming from passenger valve cover to the driver side was melted. I touched it and it broke off in my hand. The tube is actually melted from the inside. Also the coolant reservoir tank in empty. It got so hot that is melted the threads to the tank lid and popped it off. From what I gather and receipts I found in car it looks like she was putting normal autozone coolant in the car. The manual says only G12. Also I checked oil to see if I good find anything unusual. It was very black and they had already drained almost 4 quart out and it was still above the "B" on dip stick. Looks like there is some melted rubber/plastic from melted tube. He said his buddy drove it last and temp went over 225 and never came down. I didn't want to start car and scan for codes since its obvious there are big problems going on.
Where can I find the tube from passenger valve cover and what is it even called? Also can i just replace vacuum lines with normal auto parts store lines? These ones were covered in a cloth. Should I flush the coolant and fill with G12? Should I drain engine of all oil and fill back up with fresh and run the engine long enough to scan for codes after vacuum lines are replaced? What would you do? Also we can not afford to take this to dealer or mechanic. Thanks for you time. I can post pics of damage if you think its needed.

 

the valve cover tube thing-o-magiggi is called the crankcase breather hose. Assuming a 2.8, look here.

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Any vacuum hose will do. If in doubt fill the radiator with distilled water from a store, top off oil and fire her up and see what happens. No need to waste money on G12 is it is fried. Also your car will fire without the crank case breather. It may throw a code or two...

 

Thank you very much for the reply. So I'll fill it up and replace vacuum lines. There is a guy parting a few of these cars out. So if I do fill it up and all that and it does not over heat then should I just try normal maintenance and check codes and go from there?

Yes it is a 2.8. Sorry i forgot to mention that.

 

here are the pics of burnt hoses and that one big hose.

burnt vacuum lines

this is the hose that's burnt. Not sure what it is

 

first off i am no mechanic but i do most of the work on my 1997 A6 2.8. What this sounds like is that somebody filled the engine with MUCH too much oil and the piston pressure forced oil into the intake through the valve cover vent hoses. I can't explain the melted vacum hoses but my theory is MAJOR engine overheating.

My personal suggestion is empty all the oil, put new (mine takes 5liters), fix the vacum hoses (with over the counter, The cloth is just for protection), put regular multi purpose anti-freeze (that's what i use) and then start it up.

Hopefully nothing has been damaged but the head gaskets and valve seals may need to be looked at. I bought my car for next to nothing because it had been over-heated and the the engine runs fine at 300,000kms after the head gaskets were done.

Additional note: I was having trouble with overheating and changed some parts for nothing to find out my radiator was literally falling apart and not cooling. The original radiator was brass/copper and never leaked, the metal fins which disperse the heat as air passes through were just corroded to a point they were falling off. Radiator costed 190$ including shipping and it took me 4 hours to change myself.

 

The big hose is the crankcase breather hose as mentioned earlier. The stuff that you see inside is the oil residue. Check out the following thread and refer to the post #4.
Name that engine hose...(pics)

They are located in the back of the engine. IF you follow the breather hose, it will lead you there. Although you can get an updated suction jet pump, you can just clean it with carb cleaner once out of the car.

FYI, these engines are notorious for oil leaks around valve covers and other seals. The reason that they develop leaks is that the PCV system gets clogged like yours and builds up pressure in the crank case. Then the seals go bye bye.

Anyways, back to your original question... Fill the oil. Fill the radiator. Replace the hoses, both the PCV breather hose and the vacuum hoses. As quattor4ks mentioned no need for the fancy audi vacuum lines with the cloth covers... But when you refill the radiator with antifreeze, use G12 Audi coolant if your car originally had G12. Green stuff, mixed with G12 will gel the system.

If all is fine, then drive it as it is until the next big blow up.