Coolant leak

[Chung]

While I was having my gas tank replaced the dealer informed me I am leaking coolant from my Oil Cooler housing (behind the oil filter?). The leak sounds correct in that I have lost some coolant since my trip back.

Is something I urgently need to fix since my oil temp levels are not high? My hopes are to hold out until I do timing belt to do a lot of these fixes. (Power Steering leak, Coolant leak, Alternator, who knows what else)

I was quoted $1100 from the dealer which I assume is absurd.

Also a side question, is the bentely service manual the way to go for these car if you want to work on them yourself?

[MaxRS6]

Here is my oil cooler leak story- Tozo in the thread does state it can be done without pulling the engine. However; since they were covering a lot of the cost, I went with it and got some other work done while the engine was out. The $1,100 sounds much more reasonable. I showed the repair method without pulling the engine to the service tech doing the work and they just shrugged and said they were doing it "by the book"- LOL- I guess to rack up hours.

http://www.rs6.com/showthread.php/20998-10-part-results-in-5K-Warranty-Work-Yahooo!?highlight=coolant

[Chung]

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I can convince my friend to help me out in fixing this :)

[TozoM8]

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I can convince my friend to help me out in fixing this :)

This is just to give you an idea how it's looks like. http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/enginemechanical/oilcoolerremovalreinstall.html The RS6 is similar. There is a guy Fusilier http://forums.quattroworld.com/a8/msgs/706.phtml on quattroworld that makes the pipe out of aluminum with double O-rings that should last forever.

[Chung]

Well I have my car at an independant shop right now to have the work above done. They got to the oil intercooler pipe and told me the engine definately needs to be removed to do the work. I am not going to have my engine pulled right now (the bill is already at a stinging point).

Can someone confirm that this pipe can be replaced without removing the engine on a RS6? To me the dealer quoting me 1100 seems to imply that it can be done without an engine removal (ah to go back to when 1100 seemed like a lot of money to fix this). Also, as long as my coolant levels are ok am I at risk of doing major damage to my car?

The only real bummer is I was hoping to get some time savings by combining this with timing, alternator, PS and AC.

Thanks again