So, long story short, we (Keith, Bill, and I) did a timing service on a B5 S4 last weekend. No sweat, job went well, timing set perfectly, car drives like a dream - not a real surprise since we've been down the whole timing belt road several dozen times.

So the guy comes back and bitches about an oil leak. Well, we didn't mess with any oiling system parts (no signs of cam or crank seal leakage and no seals were in the kit he supplied anyhow) but OK, take a look at it. Turns out the likely culprit was the o-ring on the oil dipstick where the stick tube is mounted in the block. Thing is, on a 2.7T, that runs down the front of the engine, behind the GODDAMN TIMING BELT. No way were we going to tear it all back down again if at all possible.

As it turned out, we were able to put the car in partial service position, remove the cooling fan, driver side charge pipe, and driver side upper timing cover, unbolt the retaining nut for the tube, and wiggle/pry/lever/swear the tube up and out of the block. Keep in mind, there's NO way to really see what you're doing without using a dental mirror and trying to reverse your movements relative to what you see. We did manage to get the old o-ring cut off, clean up the dipstick tube, install a new o-ring, and reassemble everything. Looks like a fix.

Anyhow, no real point to the post other than to vent a little and put it out there that, should someone else end up with a leak at the base of the stick tube, you CAN replace the o-ring without tearing down your timing system. Be prepared, it will suck at a level on par with replacing a steering rack.

That is all.

 

So do the o-ring while doing timing service is another option?


Hope you guys charged the **** out of him

 

Yep, lesson learned. Any future S4 timing job will include that o-ring being replaced to save the hassle. It'll add 3 minutes to the job if the o-ring is changed out and the tube cleaned up while the timing belt is off the car. With it on, it took several hours.

Charged him our standard timing belt job rate and this extra work will definitely not be pro-bono.

 

What a mess! Glad to hear you got it sorted out though.

 

That sounds like a ******* nightmare.

 

doncha wish you had my hands sometimes?

 

Yu, your hands wouldn't have made a difference. It's not that it's a tight fit, just that you can't work easily in there even with a lot of force.

 

It's good that you fixed it. And a good advice too. It will definitely save time if O-rings are replaced before itself.

 

very useful info, thanks

 

Welcome to my old life, but replace your extra income into working for free and now you're a mechanic LOL! Hope your reporting that income to the IRS, i got my dick caught in the IRS's vice last year from doing that. THEY DO MONITOR THESE SITES BTW, especially with Odumma running things. Watch ur *** brah.