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That is the ECU. And while it looks better with a cover on, the lack of a cover helps in dissipating heat better.
ECS has a cover for it but unfortunately, it's in CF trim and, according to me, doesn't gel well with the rest of the engine bay (the engine cover being a plastic trim and not CF).
Yup, it's from the wheel wells. I popped mine open and cleaned it the other day. I am still not sure why Audi designed a cap for this but left holes in it for debris to travel into the engine bay from the wells. Duct tape over it during the winter sounds like a good idea though!
Yup, it's a badly designed cap solution by Audi. Never had this problem on my old 2008 A6, regularly drove in in snow country & never had grit issues in engine bay.
Mentioned issue at dealership service department were I bought my A4 & they were oblivious & then unconcerned about grit in engine bay! Hence, duct tape work-around.
Looks like Audi did a poor job in preventing dirt and debris from entering the engine bay.
The ECU does look like it needs a cover.
The carbon fiber cover looks a little out of place/garish to me.
Since the ECU needs to have proper heat dissipation, it is better left uncovered anyhow.
Yup. Duct tape is what I ended up doing. Popped open the plastic covers, put duct tape down, made 3 small holes where the plastic covers have the clips, then put duct tape on top. Cleaned up the engine bay with a cloth where there was more dirt.
And while it is safe to hose down the engine bay, I wouldn't advise it.
The most likely part to suffer is the alternator. The windings don't care so much since it is low voltage, but if water gets into the bearings they will soon have problems. Been there, done that, was not happy.
around the opening in the sheet metal, and then pressed the plastic cover down over it. Then I added a dab in the gaps created by the three prongs that latch the cap down. The advantage of gasket maker over regular RTV silicone is that the parts are easily separable even after years of use. And it was left over from when I built racing engines so it was free!
The most likely part to suffer is the alternator. The windings don't care so much since it is low voltage, but if water gets into the bearings they will soon have problems. Been there, done that, was not happy.
Yup. Maybe hosing it down once in a blue moon is okay. The reason I said that is because a friend in India hosed the engine bay of his B9 down and he did make the ecu purposely wet to see if it shorts out because it was exposed (no cover). He said nothing happened and that the ECU was pretty well insulated.
That is also why I said I wouldn't advice anyone to do it though. Because he might have been lucky because h tried it only once. Who knows? But I know a cousin who has an A6 in India and regularly hoses his engine bay down and has been lucky to have his car still running perfectly fine.
Glad I found this thread. I know it's old but gonna add my 2 cents for reference. Personally, mine has dirt in other areas near around alternator and intake so I'm not sure it's due to only these covers/inserts, I see some small gaps at the bottom of the the bay between plastic lower housing cover parts (is this normal?).
This guy replaces his inserts with ECS aftermarket ones from ECS at this link: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-ecs-part...026829ecs01~a/
03-18-2017, 03:42 PM
