Thanks for the input and the explanation of why it happened. My dealer wants me to bring it in for him to check it out. timing chain and water pump is 1275.00 alone.

 

I changed out my vavle cover gaskets about two weeks ago but I left the cam chain tensioner gaskets alone. Maybe that was a mistake. It's been cold here as well and I noticed today some oil leaking on the garage car port and now my wife says the heater smells of burning oil like before when i changed the valve cover gaskets. I guess I'll have to redo the job again but this time with the camchain tensioner seals.
Is there anywhere else oil might be leaking?? the leak seems to be coming from high up in the engine closer to the firewall.....

 

ok, are you talking about a gasket under the alum. blocks or a round rubber seal? got the same thing going on here in southern wis. 99 a6 2.8. did valve cover gasket. still got a leak. burped out 1 qt on a cold day last week. now i'm lookking for next step to fix,but i'm lost to location of suction pump. love car but this is getting bad. is this a normal thing in winter? or just higher mileage car?

now another ( im so lost ) on a 99 a6 2.8 where is coolant temp sensor? temp gage on dash isn't working and auto on heat setting doesn't work. are these all togather?

 

Add my 2001 2.7tto the list. Sub-zero here in WI last week and it started blowing oil. Spider hose (PCV) froze up as far as I can tell and it pressurized the hell out of the crankcase. At 85K I'm due for for TB, Cam seals,VC, and tensioner seals anyway. I'mgoing toget the Bently antackle it myself if Winter ever stops......

 

This is a scary thread. I've been running my car regularly in sub-zero weather (including visiting Chicago back in December when it was -7 on both mornings). I don't rev my engine when I start it and let it idle for a couple minutes before taking off slowly. BUT...is there anyway to prevent these seals from blowing? Does the PCV valve have to be changed (and I'm not sure I even have one in a 2003)? I'd like to avoid the problem rather than having to spend a couple grand to fix it.

 

You should have BEL engine?
Pcv is an assembly (spider tubing) named "breather hose" (+ pressure regulating valve). There are applications for cold climate, non-cold,
regular, etc.
Dealers carry the proper model ($210 can),Labor more than 1h, as everythingbreaks.

Other engine codes have different pcv applications, some have suction pumps.
The information from Bentley is not confirmed by the dealer’s sources (usual mess).

Audi manufactured 2.8 and 2.7 engines for 15 years - leaks were never fixed.
If you do search on oil leaks... there is a plenty of information here and on other forums.

Nothing scary... just $$$ to have the pleasure driving an Audi.

“Audi gods demand sacrifices”

 

Add mine to the list as well... 03 A6 Avant w/ 3.0 70K miles.

It first happened when it was about -10 here in Syracuse a month or so ago, then again today at 0 degrees. Guess I will just not drive it in the cold until I can get around to fixing it.

Is it best to have it fixed at the same time I change the timing belt/water pump?