I've been visiting this site often and have learned lots of valuable, much appreciated info. I am not a expert by any means regarding engines and car mechanics, but I do enjoy them. Here's my recent dilema;

On Wednesday I took my '01 S4 in for a timing belt replacement(71K miles). Pulling out of the garage I notice a substantial amount (18" diameter circle) of liquid on the floor. It was oil. I checked the oil level and it was a little lower than the previous night when I checked itwhen fueling up. So I asked the service shop to look into the problem.

They told me that my cylinder head bearings were the cause of the problem. To fix it would be $3900, including timing belt(the entire job including tensioner, roller, etc)and valve cover gasket. I went to the shop to see the problem. There was quite a bit of oil on the front of the engine. Funny thing is, the plastic guard/trap on the bottom of the car was dry with not a sign of any oil, dirt, or any other substance. They said it was like that when they took it off. I find it hard to believe the oil could leak from the front of my car and get past that plastic thing without touching it.

Am I getting hosed? Are the cylinder heads prone to oil leaking problems? Would it cause that much oil leakage onto the floor of my garage?

I am going to get it fixed and try to sell. Seems like these cars have too many problems.

 

[sm=bs.gif]...... did you ever have an oil leak problem before the timing belt was changed? if not this is something the shop shoulddefinetly be responsible for.

cylinder head bearings? what bearings exactly? how much was the timing belt r/r?

 

cylinder head bearings...... sounds like a new one to me. If i remeber correctly i think the Cam tensioner seals are prone to leaking and thats probably where your problem is... idk about a 18inch puddle on the floor tho. it usually just makes a dirrty engine.

 

The timing belt has not been done yet. It will be $1200. It was the morning I was taking my car to the shop that I realized the oil on the garage floor.

I noticed small amounts of oil leaking but nothing substantial. The quote they gave me says "cylinder heads are leaking oil through ball bearings." I was very confused, but he pointed out what would be the bearings.

Yes, the engine was quite dirty. I wish I wasn't in a hurry that morning, and in my work clothes, because I would have taken off that plastic trap on the bottom and found where the leak was coming from.

My understaning is that I could get away with not fixing the gaskets as long as I kept an eye on the oil level and didn't mind a dirty engine. But that big oil spot makes me a little nervous. Should I have them not do the heads and valve cover gaskets and save myself the $$? They wanted to do them all at once to save me 7 hours of labor.

 

There are some ball bearings swedged into the oil gallery holes for the camshafts. The factory has to drill these passages in the head and then they shove a steel ball in the hole and that is a possible place to leak since there is oil pressure there. any seals shouldn't leak that big of a puddle from the heads as they do not hold a pool of oil in them. That is possibly what he was saying other than that there are no bearings that could cause that in the head, just seals. but unlikely

 

My bet is on the valve cover gaskets, cam tensioner gaskets, & the cam end gaskets. The plastic TB cover is over them, so it will be clean, the inside will be nasty.

They are all common leaks, & are a PITA to get at all of them, the TB needs to be off to get the cam seals replaced. All the seals are like $60. When I did mine it was well over 30hrs of labor.