TB and valve cover gasket change questions.
 

2004 A6 2.7t s-line. Long story short, I can't find the crank locking pin and I want to know what the 2 other (not the upper and the lower) pipes attached to the radiator are. Am I completely screwed if I don't find the crank locking pin (especially considering that I will be removing the valve covers to change that gasket)?

I'm in the middle of doing a timing belt and valve cover gasket change. I've had a slight oil leak, and when I changed coil packs recently, there was oil on the ends of the coil packs...

To do thee jobs, I purchased the kits from blauparts, and rented the toolkit. At this point, the accessory belt and the timing belt covers are off. The AC compressor is off of the radiator and propped up to the side. The upper and lower radiator hoses are off, and the carrier is extended. However, there are still 2 smaller hoses attached to the radiator. What are these hoses, and can they easily be removed? Ideally, I would like to pull the radiator off if I could, because that should give me more room to work.

I did skip one step along the way, because I could never find the coolant drain for the engine block (for that matter, I couldn't find a drain on the radiator, and just drained it from the lower hose). To get around that, I figured I would just spent extra time flushing water through (there was definitely a coolant mix before, because the old coolant is disgusting and brown).

My biggest hold up right now is locating the crank locking pin. I've marked the old timing belt (which looks fine) and have rotated everything to TDC. However, I haven't been able to locate that locking pin. I did see something that I thought might have been the pin, but I don't see how in the hell I could possible get to it, since it seems to be behind the frame, and it seems pretty far back underneath of the car.

I've read references to pulling off the fender on the driver's side, or removing a turbo pipe that's in the way of the lock. The last thing I did before calling it a night last night was to drain the oil and remove the filter (doing an oil change during this fun anyway). I'm hoping this gives me a little extra visibility above the oil pan.

Anyways, I appreciate all of the help. Thanks.

Find the pin, free the sprockets to set timing, stop marking things, change the cam related seals, do it right.

Why are the pipes at the rad important. No need to touch them. Service position.

STFA for the hole to insert the pin. Not that hard to find.

I've got new seals and everything, and I definitely want to do this right, which is why I'm hunting for the locking pin. I would rather not rely on marks, etc. I just can't find the pin.

As for the pipes on the rad, the only reason that I ask about them is that if I can remove them then I can remove the radiator, which should save my bad back some abuse.

As for STFA, I've been doing that and getting inconsistent information. It's either above the oil pan or way in the back behind, removable by hand or requiring a 2 foot extension.

Thanks for the help.

If you are replacing the seals (2 Cam adjuster, 4 cam, 2 cam plugs), it is not possible to rely on any marks.


Don't. Service position. If you disconnect those lines, you'll get the fill and check the auto trans too. You do not want to go there.

Driver's side of the block, halfway back, above the lower and upper oil pans. Peek between the sway bar and subframe and look toward the rear of the car.

The kit came with those replacement seals. Honestly, I want to do this right.


OK, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I've seen a bunch of pictures with the radiator completely off, or evenm swung over to a side, but none of those mentioned removing anything other than the upper and lower rad hoses, so I was just curious. The service position is definitely more than enough. Especially with the pins that came with the toolkit.

OK, I think this is the information that I was looking for. I'm going to take a look in a few minutes and will let you know.

Thanks for your help with this. I'm only somewhat mechanically inclined, and have done this job before, but never on a car this complicated, so I definitely appreciate any help that I get.

The main difference between this car an most others is the importance of setting the timing when you get the belt back on. You'll see why the pin and bar are critical.

I can't wait to get this pin on, and I'm sure that I will see why it's important. It's held me up for a while, but I want to make sure I do this right.

I think I found it, but it isn't what I expected. I was expecting a 10 mm bolt, however this looks to be a hex bolt, 8mm I would guess. Does this look right? I've uploaded an image of what I'm looking at.

Thanks again.

here's the image.

Also, if that's what I'm looking for, there's a pipe that looks Luke if I remove it, I will have much better access. It looks like removing that pipe in the back (towards the rear) will be a pin, but possible. Removing the mounting bracket looks like a pain too because of a torx bolt behind the ac lines, but again, possible.... That sound about right?

I can't tell from the picture. Sorry.

I will try and snag a better picture. Would it be an indented hex bit (either 6 or 8 mm) as opposed to the 10 mm bolt that I keep reading about? One way or the other, I'm pretty sure that pipe to the turbo needs to get out of my way...

What I'm looking at there is the sway bar on the right, the two on the left are the ac lines I think, and the bar running horizontally is the turbo pipe in question. At least, as far as I can tell. The bolts I'm looking at are recessed hex bolts maybe 10 inches behind the pipes.

It is the crankshaft sensor that your are removing so there is a wire attached to it. It is located on the driverside in the engine block about even with the crankshaft.

Further back than what I'm looking at? This is driving me crazy.

This is a photo from a 2.8 motor, but the location should be near identical:

That's the oil pan in the 1st photo, on the drivers side.

It's a 10mm bolt attached to the cam lock plug, make sure the o-ring comes out.

You may have to bend a metal bracket that carries some wires. Just gently bend it out of the way enough to reach your hand in there. There isn't much room to use a wrench so it can take a while to get the bolt out.

The locking pin should go in at least this far

I was able to put it in by hand. When it's in this far, the crankshaft will not budge in the slightest.

Thanks. I'm going to try and pull out that pipe that's blocking my vision and take another look during lunch. I'm definitely looking in the right area, although I'm not looking at the right thing at the moment. If you look back to my original picture, about 2/3 down on the left side, you can see the edge of my oil drain. The differences that I'm seeing between the 2 is the pipe isn't in this picture, and the 2 AC lines are missing as well.

I'm determined to find this today. The good news though is that I'm definitely looking in the right place. I can't imagine that it would be a foot or 2 more towards the rear. At this point, I think it's just a matter of my vision being blocked by that pipe.

I wouldn't remove any pipes until you know exactly what they are, especially in that area near the AC compressor.

There was a thread recently where a guy was having trouble finding this same plug that you're looking for...luckily he posted a pic of what he thought was it - it was part of the AC compressor, and he could have been injured if he'd removed it.

The pipe I'm referring to is connected to the hose coming out of the bottom of the intercooler. I've already removed the hose, so if I can get it off, it should be fine. definitely not part of the ac system.

Is this it?
 

I'm pretty sure that it's a little further towards the back than I was initially thinking. I've taken a picture of what I think might be it, but I wanted to check before doing anything (I don't want to do anything unnecessary in the Texas heat).

Anyways, this is a little further back, and excuse the close up nature of the picture. I've circled what I think might be the right bolt. On the bottom of the picture looks like 2 electrical connections being held together on the metal clamp in the lower right (and with a twist tie out of the picture). I'm assuming that if this is what I'm looking for, I can just remove the metal clamp holding these connectors in place and hopefully scoot them aside.

Does that sound right? Again, thanks for the help.

Here's another angle. I'm starting to doubt that's it. Am I even in the right area? Thanks.

It really looks a lot like the right bolt - look at the plastic plug the bolt is holding on - compare to OGBULLYLOCDAWG's pics from earlier. But I've never seen it from the angle in your photo...I can't tell what part of the car you're looking at.

Can you take a pic at the same area but from further away?

I just took a quick look at mine, which is the 2.8 (I'm sure it's in the same place). Here is how to find it on my car:

Look at the inside of the driver's road wheel. From the centre of the wheel, go in about 2 feet towards the centre of the car. The plug is almost directly above that point (although you would not be able to reach it from that point due to the metal part that links the control arms of the front wheels). I just eyeballed it now by lying down by the driver's side with my head forward of the wheel, and looking upwards a little, rearwards behid the ac compressor, and inwards towards the centre of the car, about 2 feet away from the wheel. Does that make sense? So it's behind and inward of the air conditioning compressor. The bolt you have to remove faces towards the driver's side of the car, more or less parallel to the ground.

I had to bend a soft metal bracket with 3 or 4 thick wires on it out of the way and then reach in and do it by feel.

OK here is is from a standoff distance:

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...ank_plug_1.jpg

...and close up:

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...ank_plug_2.jpg


...and here is the bracket that I had to bend out of the way (it's still bent out of the way a month later :) ):

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...ank_plug_3.jpg

Going to take a look right now. I will keep you posted. I think the one that I was looking at was wrong. Thanks again.

What I'm seeing is slightly different. I tried recreating the same angle that you had in your image, and I'm noticing a few things. One is that I have the two ac lines going down the back of the oil pan, where I don't see that on yours. Also, I don't see the metal bracket with wires that you were referring to. Am I missing something here?

Is there something different here because I have the s-line?

I can only guess...but I'd bet the difference is that you have the turbo, rather than it being to do with the s-line. Mine is the non-turbo 2.8.

However, from checking my Bentley manual, which covers both engines, it doesn't make a distinction between the 2.7 turbo and the 2.8 for this particular step - so I presume the plug must be in the same place.

So, where in relation to all this is the item you identified in your last picture - the one that looked like the thing we're looking for? If it's in the same location relative to your oil drain plug, then that has to be it.

If you take a look at the last picture I sent, what I'm looking at in the other picture is basically straight up between the frame and the bar that holds the back end of the sound panel on.

I have a feeling that had I jacked up the car instead of lifting it on ramps, I would probably be able to see it through the wheel well.

My other problem with the other thing that I'm looking at is that it doesn't seem to look the same as the other images I've seen. The bolt is silver, there's a black piece that looks like it's connected to possibly a sensor.

Hmm...I'm not sure which thing you're referring to.

The first picture you posted (yesterday) didn't look right - wrong kind of bolt facing at the wrong angle.

But the thing in your pic in post #20 looks exactly like what you're looking for (to me). I can't make out where it is, or which way is up/down etc. - but the type of bolt and the black plastic bit it's attached to look like a perfect match to me. Compare to my close up, and to OGBULLYLOCDAWG's close up from post #15.

The bolt on mine looks like it used to be silver so I wouldn't worry about the colour :) You're looking for a 10mm bolt that holds in a black plastic plug with a very distinctive shape, above the oil drain plug...on my car there is nothing else in the vicinity that comes close to that description.

I'm afraid I have no experience of the 2.7 engine so I can't shed any light on the differences.

One more thing...you've definitely got the C5 platform right? Because I know the C6 was out in 2004 but I have no clue if it would be the same on that car.

Definitely on the C5 platform. The first picture was definitely wrong (although it's physically closest to where yours is located. What I was looking at is probably more to the right (towards the rear).

I will try and get better pictures tomorrow, but what I was looking at more recently is about a foot further towards the rear. The main problem is what isn't in the picture. The larger part next to the bolt doesn't seem to have the indentation that you've got (and that I've seen in every other picture), and actually seems to go up to some kind of sensor or wire. Then again, it could have just been the angle that I was looking.

From an old AW forum post:

https://forums.audiworld.com/archive...t-2764477.html

I'm starting to lean towards having to get that pipe out of the way, and then it will be right where yours is. Unhooking that bracket is going to be a pain because I will basically have to cut an allen wrench down to get it into a bolt over the AC lines to get it loose enough to unscrew by hand. I'm hoping that will give me enough room (and that's where it is).

Also, the large end is pointing towards the front of the car...

I crawled in there during lunch to try and get some pictures of what I was looking at before. I was able to get pictures of the area itself, but I wasn't able to get a clear shot of what I'm looking at. However, I was able to confirm that the larger area of what I'm looking at has no indentation and has a wire coming from it.

Near the oil pan, I was able to unbolt the bracket holding the pipe that's blocking my view, but this only allows me about an inch in each direction to play with on that pipe. I wasn't able to see anything, but didn't have a lot of time to look deeply.

To unhook that bracket, I basically had to take an allen wrench and make the short end even shorter. This allowed me to get to the bolt that is behind the AC lines.

Here are the pictures of where I'm seeing the object in the back. I marked the area that I'm looking with a rag in one of the pictures. I'm basically looking straight up through that spot. In the other picture, I've removed the rag, but added an arrow that points to a wire that runs into the bracket I mentioned when I first uploaded those pictures.

OK I think you are looking much too far back, though it's hard to judge depth from a photo sometimes.

I agree that the part you're looking at is not it.

I've tried to mark your pic as closely as I can to show where I think you should be looking:

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...i/IMAG0175.jpg

So it's not far aft of the oil drain plug - as I mentioned before, it's roughly the same distance from the front of the car as the centre of the wheel is.

Yeah, that's the area I'm going to focus on. I've removed the bolts from the bracket holding the open side of that pipe in the top left of the picture. I've got a little play in there, but not a lot. I'm wondering if I can remove the mount that's on the passenger side holding those ac lines in place, and if that will give me any more room to work.

Cool...and if you haven't done lots of googling on this already, do that - given what is says in the Bentley manual, and the Blau instructions, I'm sure many people have had this exact problem before you.

Yeah, that's what I figured too. I just haven't been able to find a clear answer. Thanks for the help.

2.7t a6 crank locking pin
 

Found it. It's the 8mm hex bolt I was looking at on Sunday afternoon. Pulled it, put the locking tool (3252) in place and the crank is locked down solid. 1/4 swivel socked and at least a 12" extension took care of the job for me. I also have the end of that pipe unmounted, which gave me a little play with it's position. To remove the bolt under the ac lines, I cut down an allen wrench, and basically made the short side shorter.

The bolt
http://i48.tinypic.com/34j8vh1.jpg

Bolt removed
http://i47.tinypic.com/15cdit2.jpg

Locking tool 3242 in place
http://i47.tinypic.com/21opyr5.jpg

The little bastard that's been hiding in plain site.
http://i49.tinypic.com/oh7aqq.jpg

Happy days!

It looks completely different from the one in the 2.8 engine.