A8L4.2V8

finished my first oilchange on the new car (im am not a novice mechanic, i have been wrenching for almost 20years)
and i must say that this is without a doubt the worst car i have ever done it on.
getting the airbox out was annoying as hell (the guy in the youtube instruction video broke his, so no help there)
and what the F*** is up with the oilfilter location? what where they thinking? that the oil would last the life of the car?
and when you finally get the filter out, good luck getting the new one back in, cause the damn lid doesnt fit. why is there a metal pipe blocking the filter lid? it boggles the mind how stupid those engineers must have been........ after 1.5hour of swearing and fiddling i managed to force the basterd on there.
is there an oil filter relocation kit for the a8? cause if there ever was a car that needed it.......

end rant

Jack88

Sounds like you had a harder time than most, usually I hear people complain about the cover itself and the plastic it's made out of. stripping. I hated doing it on my brother's Buick Enclave. A filter wrench would have made it easier, but it's basically above the crossmember and under a bunch of other stuff. There is no good angle to get at it, and when you do, it dumps oil all over the place.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

Yes, the location is a little hard to get to, but i don't recall any metal bar, after air box removed, it's quite straight forward. I only change oil every year or 15k miles, so it doesn't bother me that much.
Cheers,
Louis

A8L4.2V8

there is a steel pipe that ,runs across the top end of the filter lid, its snags the lip of the lid and stops you from putting it back on, major design flaw. a kink in the pipe or a slight bend would fix it (but it would still be a pretty **** job though)

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

I'm sure Audi engineers were told that Audi A8 owners don't do the work themselves and have money to pay the dealers to do it, so design for DIY wasn't their criteria :-). They never thought of people here in this forum.
Cheers,
Louis

A8L4.2V8

yeah. i get that but think of the poor (or soon to be rich) mechanics xD

JulianHicks

I think you may mean 'worst engine i have ever done it on'

Those of us with the Euro A8s that have a 3.0 Diesel engine have a two minute job:

1) Open bonnet and lift off engine cover - 30 seconds
2) Unscrew filter housing cover at the top of the V6 block - possible 1min 30 seconds

Julian

richard-tx

I have had the displeasure of really difficult oil filter changes. They were so bad that it makes the 2004-2006 oil filter change childs play in comparison. Having said all that, the most difficult part is removing and installing the air box. Removing the fender liner is easy, so is the actual filter change. If you attempt to change the filter without removing the fender liner, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

So if I don't want to remove the air box, then i remove the wheel and liner?
I'll weight to see which one is less troublesome?
Lesser evil?
Cheers,
Louis

Mister Bally

OP, Don't feel bad. I've had my '04 for almost twelve years and have done 21 or 22 oil changes on it. The very first one I did a few days after buying the car, I actually couldn't find the oil filter. Even though I had a new one ready to go. So, I just changed the oil. I had the service manual on order but did not yet receive it. I changed the oil & filter a week or so later.

My first few Oil & filter changes took me about two hours at a relaxed pace. Now I take about 45 minutes at a relaxed pace.

The filter holder was designed by Mann & Hummel, not Audi. The filter holder cap is not that bad once you've done it a few times. I attach the new filter to the lid and then insert the filter into the case & spring-thing.

I've never removed (even partially) the fender liner to do the oil change. It's not mentioned in the service manual.
Did you drain the residual oil in the filter canister? There is a small drain plug for it. There is a replacement seal in the Mann filter boxes. Not with the Hengst filters. You can suction it out with a vacuum pump or oil extractor if you don't remove the drain plug.