I purchase a 2003 allroad last fall and it just had it's 50k service a couple of months ago. This is my second Audi and I love them but DAMN! am I unlucky or do they always have significant problems. (I am always working on my 97 1.8T A4) 8^(

50,900 miles on the allroad. Fiancee gets a coolant warning light this morning on the way to work. Gauge reads normal, heater kicking out heat, 1/2 mile from work and she leaves it in the garage at her office.

I check it out this afternoon, belts are fine, electric fan is turning, but coolant is low (3/4 inch under MIN mark). I know this isn't good since it is a closed cooling system and we have never overheated the car therefore it should never have lost any fluid.

I fill up the reservoir, start the car, get the warning for a little while then it goes out as the engine heats up. No problems right... WRONG!

There are some things that are still bothering me and the reason I will be calling Audi in the morning (although I am sure I am out of warranty by 900 miles and out of luck).

1) I never felt any resistance when squeezing the big coolant return line to the radiator. On past vehicles I could usually feel resistance from the fluid inside when the car was running.

2) The reservior never pressurized even after the car idled to normal temp. I also seem to remember in my 1.8T seeing coolant streaming back into the resevoir via a small return line on top. No flow on the return line in the allroad. (I will take a look at the A4 and verify in the morning)

3) My LARGEST CONCERN. I SWEAR there is OIL floating on the top of the COOLANT in the reservoir!! This has me VERY CONCERNED. My gut hopes I am wrong, but it is brown/black, slippery and smells like oil on my fingers.

Thoughts? Does the 2.7t have an oil cooler similar to the one the oil filter attaches to on the 1.8t? I don't have the Bentley for this car yet but I will be ordering it tonight.

Anyone had leaks in the oil cooler if it exists? Is it a pain to get too? If there is no oil cooler, I am stuck thinking it is a leaking head gasket or something similar although I would expect the exhaust to show signs of contamination.

PLEASE HELP. I love this car but can't afford to have Audi tear down and replace the engine head right now.

 

Good news. I badgered AoA and my dealer for a couple of hours today until the agreed to cover the problem under warranty. Roadside 4yr/unlimited took care of the towing this morning and the dealer found a faulty oil cooler (as suspected by many of you.) They replaced the oil cooler as well as the coolant reservoir and flushed the coolant system. They did not find coolant in the oil system and suprisingly opted not to flush the oil system anyways (seems like a good idea since they know there was co-mingling in at least one direction. I plan to change the oil and filter the minute the car gets back home just to be safe.

Thanks to all who posted responses to my call for help. The forums are invaluable!!

Check your reservoir at each fill up. Not sure how prevalent this is but it could have been ugly.

 

glad to hear problem taken care of

 

My GF has an Allroad as well 2005, hopefully she won't have this problem. I on the other hand had it on my '01 S4. AoA finally will replace the engine. Not sure why they couldn't find the problem. Will a pressure check find point the proble at the oil cooler?