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OK so I ran into the two most stubborn bolts on these valve covers. Particularly the driver side (bank 2) bottom rear two.
They are hard to get to. So here's what I did.
For the rear lower one in the corner you NEED to take the driver side wheel off, and the plastic fender liner. Then cut an access flap out of the flexible-ish heat shield (staring at the shock, look to the left of it, just above 4 hard lines. So towards the front of the car)
Now you have a clear shot with your ratchet wrench and t30...voila.
It gets better.
For the 2nd lower torx bolt from the rear, I read someone was able to use a 1/4" drive ratchet with a t30 bit socket and a swivel. No extensions. I tried but there was a lot of slack in my u-joint and I could get a good reefin' on it. So here's what I had to do:
First, trim down a T30 bit. I pretty much cut it in half. I held it in a pair of vice grips and used a cut off wheel on my grinder. You could use a bench grinder.
Next I had to secure it into a 1/4" drive, 1/4" socket. I put a piece of shop towel over the hex opening and shoved the bit in. Toight!
The shallow profile of this setup JUST and I mean JUUUUUST gave me enough room to remove that 2nd last bolt.
Good luck to anyone else.
OK so I ran into the two most stubborn bolts on these valve covers. Particularly the driver side (bank 2) bottom rear two.
They are hard to get to. So here's what I did.
For the rear lower one in the corner you NEED to take the driver side wheel off, and the plastic fender liner. Then cut an access flap out of the flexible-ish heat shield (staring at the shock, look to the left of it, just above 4 hard lines. So towards the front of the car)
Now you have a clear shot with your ratchet wrench and t30...voila.
It gets better.
For the 2nd lower torx bolt from the rear, I read someone was able to use a 1/4" drive ratchet with a t30 bit socket and a swivel. No extensions. I tried but there was a lot of slack in my u-joint and I could get a good reefin' on it. So here's what I had to do:
First, trim down a T30 bit. I pretty much cut it in half. I held it in a pair of vice grips and used a cut off wheel on my grinder. You could use a bench grinder.
Next I had to secure it into a 1/4" drive, 1/4" socket. I put a piece of shop towel over the hex opening and shoved the bit in. Toight!
The shallow profile of this setup JUST and I mean JUUUUUST gave me enough room to remove that 2nd last bolt.
Good luck to anyone else.
Vastly simplified plan B, having played in past with little Torx bits on end of a ¼" drive held in with duct tape and such. You can buy Torx bit "ends" BTW in sets. But the one that collapses tool and all into one easy and relatively short "head"...Just get a set of allen wrench shaped Torx tools. Like: https://smile.amazon.com/Bondhus-318...orx+wrench+set or about a gazillion other choices now. Haven't used of late on a 4.2, but come in handy for other various tight fit Torx situations. Can never have too many tools...
All buttoned up.
By far the most time consuming part was cleaning the mating surfaces and groove that the valve cover gasket sits in. I replaced all valve cover seals, gaskets and the cam tensioner gasket and half moon seal.
Cleared codes and went for a 50km drive. No CEL yet but I plugged in the ol generic OBDII reader and I still have p0430 o2 sensor bank 2 below threshold....I'll plug in the vcds here in a bit...
Thank you for the help and pointers. If p0171 and p0174 pop up again I'll be changing out the maf
Still facing p0430 p0174 and p1130..
I'm going to try and use vcds to see some measuring blocks and figure out what's doing what.
I noticed when I pump the brakes, the voltage to the pre cat o2 drops. It's sitting pretty low as is.
The reason I mention pumping the brakes is because I lost brake assist. I have harder braking. Sometimes when I first start the car in the morning that the pedal is already hard.
Before I replace the maf I'm going to get at that suction pump valve and see if I can't grab a part number from it.
Also if I move/bend/twist the brake booster hose where it connects to / runs through the fire wall, I hear a hissing noise. It's a 90° bend connection that looks like it pressure fits in place
So. I went through some measuring blocks and live data.
The freeze frame data showed that under load (1400 rpm) the ecm believes a lean condition is present on bank 2 (P0174) and the corresponding cat inefficiency (P0430)..
So I looked at my fuel trims. At idle when vacuum is highest, I monitored Short term fuel trim - (STFT) showed no corrections or at very least a minor minor positive adjustment (more fuel for more air detected)
So I don't believe it's a vacuum leak because the long term is above 20 which influences the short term. In short - issue gets worse as vacuum is removed via load aka throttle.
I smoked the engine before and after I replaced the gaskets. No leaks after.
I monitored my o2 sensors. All seemed to be working in correct voltages except 1. Bank 2 sensor 1 just would not budge from .100 mV.
Today I'll be replacing the bank 2 pre cat o2 sensor to see if that's the problem.
I'm pretty much at a loss after this. I doubt my cat is clogged. Next I would go after fuel issues (new filter already installed) to see if I'm getting proper pressure and then delivery..
can't recall if you replaced the PCV valve. If so, only use OEM Audi part. I learned the hard way.
btw...i had the same codes and replacing the PCV valve and MAF fixed my issues.
I'm waiting on installing this o2 senator because I'm currently doing timing belt/ water pump and also oil cooler pipe. once wrapped up I'll stick in the sensor and update this thread.
03-28-2017, 08:02 AM
