I just compulsively bought a '97 A4 2.8 Quattro without being smart enough to have it checked out before purchasing it. I have been noticing a burning oil smell, and took it into my local mechanic to have it checked out. The bottom of the car has a huge amount of oil residue, which suggests that the previous owner knew about the problem, and negelected to take care of it. My mechanic said that there was too much residue to even determine where the leak originates, so he put some die in the engine, and asked me to return, so that they could take a black light to the engine, and figure out what the source of the leak really is. He said it could cost up to $2000 to get the car to hold it's oil. Is this really a reasonable assumption? I love this car, but don't have $2000 to drop into it. Does anyone know how I should proceed? I'm desperate for info here! Also, anyone know any good independent Audi shops in the San Fancisco Area? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

dude its probably one of two things a valve cover gasket or a pan gasket both are like $30 parts and can be done pretty easily

 

yeah for 2000 $ you can drop another engine in there including labor.

 

yea i think that mechanic is trying to rape you in the A$$

 

I know its a 3.5 hour job just to drop the oil pan in the 'Audi repair manual'.

 

easy fix man....dont pay that dude 2k for a fairly easy job. its a diy, have that guy figure out where it's coming from...and report back to us.

 

i know you said 2.8 and the answers you are getting are from 1.8 owners,makes no sense,they are not the same motor and people are talking crap.what you probably have is an upper pan gasket leak.there are 2 sections to the oil pan,the lower part that we are all familliar with and can see,and an upper part,which is attached to the bottom of the block as a seperate unit,and it is an extreme pain to fix correctly as it is a silicone bead type gasket that likes to roll out of place when installing new,not to mention all the things that have to be removed to get to the upper pan gasket.

 

Does california have the lemon law? if it does i would charge the previous owner that 2k and just diy. It would be like getting paid to fix your own ride. pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

 

Those arent just 1.8t answers.. It could be any one or more problems that have already been mentioned above. 2.8's do have valve cover gaskets which can leak. The best thing you can do without paying to find out where the leak is coming from is to carefully powerwash or somehow clean all the residue from the engine and wait a day or 2 and then check it out for fresh looking leaks and track them.

 

http://1.8t.org/tuners/

http://www.audifans.com/

http://www.goapr.com/Audi/dealer/locator.php

http://www.giacusa.com/dealers.php?sregion=