BeOhBe

I bought my 2.7t last month, and last week I noticed an oil leak on the drivers side coming from what I was hoping to be just the cam bore plug. It wasn't leaking when I bought it, but it certainly is now. Here's a pic of the area where it's leaking:



I was just trying to get a photo of the plug, to see if it was just that, but it's worse than I anticipated. What would cause the valve cover gasket to be pulled into the engine? Or is that not what I'm seeing here? Originally, I thought my leak was caused by my PCV system, which I haven't ruled out yet as the culprit, but wouldn't that have pushed the gasket out?
Unfortunately, my garage is full of furniture as I'm doing some remodeling in the house, and the weather has not been cooperating, so I haven't done much more than take off my y-pipe. Should I start making room in my garage? It's a 2 car garage, and I can probably cram everything to one bay, clearing up the other half to work on my car. I'm on the fence about just doing the gaskets and rear seals in my driveway versus making room in the garage and doing a complete timing belt service and replacing all gaskets and seals.
For reference, the timing belt was done at 90k, I'm at 135k now.

Oh, also looking for guidance on where to get gasket and timing belt kits from. Seems like most tb kits use a non-oem water pump with a metal impeller. While I've heard bad things about the oem pumps with the plastic impeller, I've also heard bad things about the pumps with the metal impellers. Specifically Graf pumps, which seems to be the one included with most of the kits I've seen.

4Driver4

Installer error.

BeOhBe

Yeah, that makes sense actually. I've found two other botched diy fixes on this car. Botched SAI hose repair, and he/she/whoever broke every single clip off the trim surrounding the hazard flasher. Fortunately the clips were still on their male counterparts, and they still sit well on the trim, so I should be able to just glue them back on.

I hate to find out that they were that far into the engine, though.

Gsrob

One option for valve cover gasket kit - includes a lot of the common failure/leak items...

Blauparts Enhanced Kit

Seems to me that most people like blauparts for their valve cover gasket kits but not necessarily timing belt kits. I may be mistaken though as I am getting ready to do mine since I finally have a garage... FCP Euro and other sites allow you to customize some of the parts you receive with your timing belt kits. My sister just got her timing belt kit for her A4 from there since her friend highly recommended it. So far so good. As you have, I've also read negative and positive reviews for both types of water pumps, especially Graf.

BeOhBe

Excellent, thanks for the info.

I think for now I'm just going to replace the drivers side valve cover gasket and possibly the plug, and then re-do all gaskets and seals when I do the timing belt.

Gsrob

I hear ya there.... I'm torn though on mine. The car has 144k currently and rising each day. I know I need gaskets/seals but I also know that not too long after that I will need a timing belt. My plan, if all goes well, is to replace everything at the same time after things settle down from my move. I've got a week off here coming not too long from now and want to budget enough time and energy, as well as money, for the job. Good luck with your leaks.

BeOhBe

Make sure you budget some extra everything in case you encounter issues along the way. Some of the hoses in there might be fine now, but they seem to want to shatter if you even just consider taking em off...
Ordered a valve cover gasket and a few other things from Blauparts, should be here Wednesday. I'm hoping this botched gasket install is the last of my issues for a bit. But I'm starting to doubt it, lol. Forgot to mention I also discovered that I was missing the MAF o-ring and one of the clips that hold the airbox together. That can't be too good for my MAF sensor. Not an issue, though... yet. New o-ring and clip on the way from ECS. Thanks for your input, and good luck with yours as well.

Open question to anyone that reads this thread: How mad should I be that I paid a VW/Audi "specialist" three weeks ago to specifically look for leaks on my new-to-me A6, and he completely missed this gasket leak?

BeOhBe

Removed my PCV system today, completely clogged up at the crankcase:



While my current evident leak is from installer error, I'm pretty sure this is what sent him in there in the first place.

I also broke the nipple off a check valve that connects to the N249 valve. Doh! I begged it not to break as I removed the PCV, but clearly this valve is a rebel! Oh well, could probably use a new one anyway. Lol.
Made a mental note to break parts I'm replacing, not ones that I'm trying to keep...



1. SAI pump motor (V101)
2. Broken 4-way check valve (p/n 078 611 933 B, or 078 145 733 G for the vacuum supply line with valve attached. I opted for 078 145 733 G)
3. Turbocharger recirculating valve (N249)

Found very little information on the part I broke, but I found a few posts on another website with a picture that matches mine exactly. So I ordered it. Hope it's the same.
Valve cover gaskets will be here tomorrow. And while I wait for my new check valve/vac hose to arrive, I'm debating on replacing the bearing(s) in my V101 (it's louder than it should be), and further troubleshooting my SAI system in general just to make sure it was just the busted combi valve hose that was throwing my insufficient flow codes.

Gsrob

Good information. Can't remember if you said this already but did you order a new spider hose to replace or just clean it out?

BeOhBe

Yeah, I had actually ordered a new one before I started this thread when I first noticed I had a leak. Came across so many threads about it, I originally thought a bad PCV/spider hose had caused me to blow a cam bore plug on the drivers side (where my smoke was coming from). Then I stuck my phone back there and discovered the fragged valve cover gasket. Fortunately, it turns out my PCV system was clogged regardless, so my shot in the dark wasn't a total miss.

If it hadn't been clogged, I would have needed a new one anyway if I had tried to just take it off. Broke almost every clip trying to unhook it from valve covers/crankcase. Then after I broke the 4-way check valve mentioned earlier, I just decided to break the spider hose into sections to get it out. Which I should have done to start with...

Picture of SAI hose and pump (original pump, going to re-do bearings), and PCV system (for an '04 2.7t):

1. SAI pump
2. SAI hose
3. PCV system

edit: forgot to mention, I'm putting off the valve cover gasket replacement until next tuesday when I have more time. Was going to do it today, but I somehow misplaced my in-lb torque wrench and came up empty handed trying to find one locally. All I could find in my area starts at 10 ft-lb, Bentley says to torque to 7 ft-lb. Ordering a new one now, will swap out the gasket when it gets here.