So got a great deal on a 2001 A4 2.8 30v 5spd quattro. She had a little smoke comeing from the driver's side smelled on oil. I looke here and saw it was common for the valve cover gasket to fail. I went back with a strong flashlight had the dealer start the car and waited...there it was a drip from the valve cover onto the exhaust manifold. I kept my mouth shut saying only "yup she is smoking" said I was handy with a wrench and got lots of $$ off the price...THANK YOU AUDI FORUMS!! With that said the car is well used with a stealership service history. 122K on the clock. I got under the hood this weekend and while pulling the driver's side valve cover I saw a large vacuum hose going accross the engine to the pass. valve cover into what looks like a pcv valve...there was a hole in it the size of my thumb! I tried to remove it carefully but it crumbled in my hands. I followed it to a junction behind the engine and carefully sawed the lines(off the driver's side too)to save the connectors and replaced the hard plastic lines with 5/8 heater hose. Worked great ...engine covers still fit nicely. I just used some rtv black to see if it would seal the valve cover and seems to have worked as well...no more smoke. I will pull plugs and see if there is any more oil in the holes(there was lots!) I do have a question ,after all this, and will prob have many more in the future. The clutch does not engauge until the pedal is almost completely out. There is a lot of travel to depress the pedal, feels like good tension on the pedal and once engauged clutch seems to hold ...no slippage. Is this like yous? Is there a way to adjust the clutch? Or does this just mean she is almost gone?

 

good snag... Yes i am new to audi but the clutch is like that (after owning a swapped subaru rs with a streetlite clutch and now my dd which was a 96 sentra with the same clutch) it kind of sucks but i got use to it after about 5 days. Post up some pictures, and welcome.

 

Yep perfectly normal on these cars - that's how they're designed and unlike other cars I've had this one doesn't adjust. As for the valve cover gaskets, order them online for less than half the price the dealer charges for them. They'll come with plug bore gaskets as well (to seal oil away from the plug bores) and the swap is ridiculously easy - 45-60 minutes your first time and that's if you're already drinking.

The heater hose you used for the PCV breather setup - was that 5/8" ID or OD? I'm assuming ID based on the size but it doesn't hurt to ask...

 

yup ID. bought 6ft. @ Autozone for like $3.00. Tried 1/2 first but it was too small. 5/8 is snug enough to hold vacuum and I am of the belief that the rubber hose should stand up better than the hard palstic that was there with the engine heat. I also broke some of the really small hard vacuum line that goes to what looks like a blue carbon canister (already drinkin" )...replaced with rubber vacuum line.

 

Very cool - thank you, I appreciate the info. Gonna be doing that, the VC gaskets, and the vac lines going to and from the solenoid panel on top of the engine.

By the way, the canister you mentioned is an evap canister and breaking that line ought to be a step in the VC gasket change procedure. It WILL happen virtually every time.

 

Fix = aftermarket clutch kit. I just installed my Southbend setup recently and it engages near the bottom.

 

See, it's the details like this that makes me really appreciate you experts.

I'm going to be doing the Valve cover gaskets(and probably the cam adjuster seals too as long as I'm in there), and without this comment from ImTheDevil I would not have known to have extra vacuum hose standing by.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

 

Glad it helps. You can drive with it broken - it won't affect how the car runs. When mine broke I used a piece of silicone hose I had left over from my 300ZX as a coupler. It's a band-aid fix that has held for a year and a half and still works fine. Still, I'm going to change the whole length of it when I do the other vacuum lines.

 

...forgot to mention that while over on the passenger side fiddling with the vacuum hose I knocked off a yellow orange sticker..I picked it up and it said Gates Timing Belts and had lines under it for the mileage readings to be written in. I could not read them but this leads me to believe the belt has ben changed...what do you guys think? Don't think Gates belts come from the factory!

 

I'm not sure what brand is used but that indicates that a change has been done. Still, at 122k miles you're basically due anyway and one of the golden rules in these cars is, if you don't have proof that it was done in the last 60k miles, do the full timing service. Trying to save money by skipping it is a bad plan - an engine replacement is a lot more costly than a timing job.