Tools: t-25 torx driver
Short fat stubby screwdriver
19mm socket or box wrench.

Summary: no big deal if you are experienced at under car work. It's less time to do it myself, than drive to dealer, and at the 10K change, all they really do is oil and filter anyway. Here are the details:


1. raise car. My ramps are too steep and too tall, need to put a pair of 2X6 ahead of ramp for car to drive on, to elevate the front of car, before front wheels touch the ramp. With the 2X6, car climbs ramps easily.

2. Remove lower engine cover:
There are 12- torx screws plus 4 short ¼ turn captive screws, all need removal before cover comes out.
Start with the 4 ¼ turn captives. These screws are not easily visible, they are on front at left and right edges of the cover, on a vertical extension of the cover, that rises up a couple of inches . No room for a long screwdriver, but a short fat one will easily fit Just ¼ turn, and then you pull them out of their receptacles with just finger pressure.

Then the 12 torx. Start with the front ones, since the front of the cover is held in place by tabs, and once the last 2 on the rear end are out, the whole cover just slides back a couple of inches, comes right out.

3. Oil drain plug. Facing rear of car, 19mm wrench. Trajectory of oil flow fairly long, since it flows rearward not down, at least a foot back, so place your oil receptacle with that in mind. I reused the gasket, not sure if it's supposed to be replaced with new.

4. Filter: location is not excellent, try a variety of filter removal tools, see what fits. Mine was in my opinion over tightened by the dealer, very difficult to remove, in fact one of my filter removal tools deformed the filter, and it still didn't budge. Finally I unscrewed it. And it spilled quite a bit of oil. Best removal technique, after it's unscrewed, appears to try to keep it vertical and move it forward ahead of a big transverse hose, which will move out of the way enough get filter out.

5. Reinstall cover: slide tabs on front , first. Put just 1 torx screw in rear most hole to hold cover in place while you check for the multiple alignments that are necessary for it to go back in: at the 4 captive screws up front, and the front corner edges need to fit on top of the bumper edge.
Tighten captive screws first. It's not that easy, since the receptacle is on a flexible plastic sheet, so you need to put your hand behind the receptacle, then push the screw in, then give the ¼ turn.
Then install the torx working from rear forward, since the alignment of the holes isn't that perfect, and its completely blind.

6. overall, took less than an hour and a half including plenty of time to look around underneath. Try it, its not hard.
Mel G.

 

Great instructions. I used a hammer and screwdriver to punch and drain the filter to contain spills.

 

Re: DIY ...Sounds like a pain in the ***... but so is taking to the dealer!

 

a local quick lube type place to deal with this. :-(

 

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/24521/tt_oil_filters.jpg"></center><p>Maybe this will help some to tell if the dealer has changed the filter on their first oil and filter service. The filter on the left is the original German factory filter. The filter on the right is the U.S. Audi filter. Mine came back twice with the German filter still installed. This helped me to decide to do my own oil and filter changes. Not sure that they even changed the oil. If I were leasing the car I probably wouldn't have been to concerned. But since it's mine, I didn't think this was right. I change my own oil and filter now. Factory Audi filters are like $7.00 from the dealer. The instuctions posted above are very good. This filter info is probably only good for the owners in the U.S. If I were still having the dealer change the filter I would mark it somehow, just to be sure. Hope nobody else has this problem.

 

I recently bought 2 oil filters from my dealer and both are exaactly like the one on the left with gray writing and the "LANGZEITFILTER" type.

 

That's good to know. My dealer said the U.S. filters were the only thing I could get. I wondered about that when I got mine. Part numbers are the same. But you can see there is a difference in the filter itself. It was still the original filter on my car anyway. Thanks for the info about the German filter still being available.

 

Yeah, I guess it is a regional thing. My dealer is supplied through West Coast.

 

Since receiving more information on these filters. Thank's to OTTO BURNER! Don't go back to your dealer and complain about the German filter still being on your car. It is possible for them to have used one for your service. OTTO BURNER had purchased German filters for his car. Hope I didn't cause any people problems that have seen my post on oil filters. Glad to have received more information on this. Thanks! OTTO for speaking up.