YKallroad

Sometimes there's a burning oil smell and a whiff of smoke from the passenger side rear of the engine. Sometimes not. What gives? Seemed to be worse when the outside temperature was warmer in summer. Nothing since it's cooled off somewhat.

Ideas?

sb_gli

Typical leaky Valve Cover, Cam Chain tensioner, Cam cap seal symptoms. Oil seeps from all these gaskets and drips on the exhaust manifold. Replace all of these gaskets to fix. It's not that hard to do, you just need one special tool (camchain tensioner compressor, it's a little cross shaped tool with a long allen bolt running through it and can be found on ebay for $10) to do the job. Search a little and all your answers shall be found.

jhart2.7t

Agreed! I don't know why Audis are plagued with gasket leaks, maybe the higher pressures from the turbos, but I've also read that their naturally aspirated engines have gasket leaks as well. Both my VW VR6 Jettas had to have all upper gaskets replaced as well. Maybe it's just a German thing.

YKallroad

My biggest issue is that I can't see anything up in there, too tight. I will be searching for a DIY on it, thanks for the input. Maybe Blauparts has videos on how to replace them.

YKallroad

Ordered the gasket kit from Blauparts, and the cam tensioner tool as well. And a cabin air filter because mine is...yuck.

Wish me luck!

jhart2.7t

https://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng.html The DIY can be found here.

sb_gli

keep in mind you don't have to remove the camshafts to replace almost all the gaskets. I think I remember the blauparts video removing them. There's a couple cam seals that you'll miss, but those are less prone to failure anyway.

YKallroad

Thanks for that. I was going to use the DIY listed in this thread. I'm not sure what the Blauparts instructions included in the kit says to do, I'll report back.

silverd2

BlauParts kits always include the cam adjuster gaskets. By the book, to remove cam adjuster, you're supposed to lift the cams with the adjuster.

IF you see evidence of a cam adjuster gasket leaking, at the very least you need to use the special tool to release tension on the cam chain, in order to lift it enough to put a gasket under it...possible(?), but very tight work. If it doesn't look like it's leaking, I would leave it be.

I have replaced cam adjusters completely by only removing the intake cam (plus the adjuster compression tool)..tight, but doable. As for just swapping gaskets, I'm not sure...never tried it.

PetrolBear

Do not forget to check the right side turbo. Mine has a leak on its cool side only when its hot but then its smoking due it leaks to its hot side as well.