Pieces of Junk in my Oil Pain!

[Aronis]

Hello,

I am in the process of replacing the Silicone seal on my oil pain, and when I took the pain off, these pieces of plastic were sitting in the pain. I have not ever seen any pieces in the oil I have drained before and I use a small funnel to pour the oil into the waste can, so chunks bigger than 3/8 of an inch should get stuck in the funnel.

Any thoughts? Guides for the Chains on the Rear of the engine comes to my mind. Sounds like an expensive fix.

Mike

[lswing]

Hmmm, yea when my cam guides self destructed it was everywhere in the cylinder head, but not sure if it made it down that far, or if it could for parts that big.

That was service position, 20 hours, and some other costs and little items. Was $4k, but that was with complete new cam adjusters. You could just do the pads for $50 parts, if that's it, and be much closer to $3k for the total. You have VCDS right? I think blocks are around 70-72, and it's a negative value for the cam adjuster left and right bank. You want to be around -1% to -4%. Further out of range along with loud ticking on idle indicates a cam adjuster pad has failed, or is failing.

[Aronis]

Thank you. checking values today. Did it require engine pull??

[lswing]

Thank you. checking values today. Did it require engine pull??

Nope. Book says to do so. I talked it over with a few folks and the shop, and it's frequently done just by getting engine into service position. The drivers side is easy to access. The passenger side rear is a pain along with the SAI system being in the way.

The shop caused a small SAI leak which I now just clear the CEL for every month or so until it needs to go back in for real work.

Decent chance I'll be moving to Hudson Valley area soon. I'll hit you up for a mechanic and advice around the area.

[Aronis]

My mechanic is a World Class Porsche Mechanic and he how is an independent mechanic. He is outstanding and is in the process of expanding his shop size.

He routinely does things like complete rebuild a 911 turbo engine!

He was able to change my valve cover gaskets without pulling the engine like the book says. LOL. On the passenger side there are a few questionably positioned parts that get in the way and could have been easily engineering differently ,such as 3 mm further away from the edge of the valve cover! WTF...sometimes I think the designers going out of their way to make Maintenance a pain in the A&&.

Mike

[mrdave]

Oil pump chain guide? http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Audi-RS6-4-2-...-/181564560345

[Aronis]

yes, possible, I did not know there were some many other parts inside made of plastic that would break eventually. Often people have the list of stuff to do when the engine is out, but not once do I recall seeing any recommendation of changing the chain guides for the Oil Pump and/or cam interlink chain on the back of the engine. It seems like a great time to have that done!

May be time to sell the RS...

[lswing]

yes, possible, I did not know there were some many other parts inside made of plastic that would break eventually. Often people have the list of stuff to do when the engine is out, but not once do I recall seeing any recommendation of changing the chain guides for the Oil Pump and/or cam interlink chain on the back of the engine. It seems like a great time to have that done!

May be time to sell the RS...

Hope it's nothing too major, but yes those plastic pieces are awfully annoying for such strong block and otherwise solid engine design.

I was a bit miffed myself when my cam adjuster failed. After 3 years and many engine pulls it had never been mentioned as a maintenance item on here. Should be on the top of anyone's list I would say; both due to age and most cars being over 100k miles.

[lswing]

Mike, this sure looks like your pieces of plastic. Hang in there!

http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=114934

[Aronis]

Cam guides are fine on inspection. As it turns out they had been replaced during a prior service. I'll have to check the bill slips. Did not see any other broken plastic pieces.

So it's all set. Waiting on the final bill. LOL.

Mike

[EINHORN]

maybe pieces of the first set?

[Aronis]

maybe pieces of the first set?

That is exactly what I think. I have not looked at my old records yet to see if that part was listed. It may have been done 50 k miles ago LOL..

[Aronis]

I went through all my records. i had the Cam seals replaced along with the gaskets at 127,000 miles. But have no record of the cam guides being changed.

[lswing]

How close did they look at your cam adj guides? They are top and bottom, and the bottom isn't too easy to see I would think. Hopefully they were serviced and replaced as you mentioned. So they took your valve covers off both sides? That's the worst part of it I thought, and once there you might as well replace the cam adjuster pads. I wonder if they just looked at the drivers side which is much easier to see.

Although if a cam adj guide had worn/broke that much you should have some good ticking on idle, maybe even lumpy, with codes and misfires coming your way soon.

[Aronis]

My mechanic said he looked at both sides. He did the gasket replacement and cam seals at 127,000 miles when he was working at the now closed local Audi dealership. I trust him. He knows the passenger side is a PITA to remove but he has done many Audi V8 valve cover removals/replacements over the years LOL....

From what I have been able to find out, the only plastic part that this could be would be the cam guides.

By the way your website www.audirssix.com is pretty nice....

Mike