Hello Gang! Well as you may know, after months of searching I finally purchased a TDI a couple of weeks ago. This was a 1-owner Q7 and it was serviced it's entire life at Audi - Cape Fear. In fact the dealer is supposed to be sending me all of the maintenance history but I haven't received it yet. This Q7 runs and drives great and we've racked up over 3,000 miles on it already.

I got an oil service kit from FCP-Euro and figured I'd do an oil flush & change last night after I got home from work. Well things didn't go so well. I put in the 2 cans of Liqui-Moly Engine Flush and let the motor idle for about 10 minutes, and shut it down. Crawled under and started to remove the screws that fasten the front and rear under-belly trays. For some reason almost every screw was hard to remove, they fought me every inch of the way! Finally dropped the the under trays and was greeted by a rear main seal oil leak. This leak looks "active" even by Audi's standards, so it should be covered under warranty. I then inserted a 6mm hex into the oil pan drain plug and attempted to loosen it, but all I felt was that gut-sinking feeling of the tool spinning in the hole. I looked closer and was horrified to see that the torx cavity was all stripped out, there was no way I could remove it...!!!

So there I am, with a hot engine, with oil flush in it....ready to be drained and no way to do it. By now it was after 7pm and I had to act fast, so I drove over to Harbor Freight and purchased an oil extractor (Hold Industries 2.3 gallon fluid extractor). I then inserted the appropriate hose into the dip stick tube, and had to hook up an additional hose as none of the hose pieces by themselves were long enough to reach the pump unit. To make matters worse was that rubber barbs / grommets didn't fit the hoses or pump unit well so when creating a vacuum you could hear leaks at each joint. So I had to pump with one hand, and try and hold the hoses "just so" with the other hand to get oil to flow.....oh what a great night I was having! It took forever but I finally sucked out all of the oil I could, and poured in the ceratec additive and then the oil. Everything worked out but unfortunately I do not believe I got all of the sludge out and need to perform this flush & change again when I can remove the oil pan drain plug.

I'm guessing that the drain plug has been buggered up for a long time, and the Audi dealer has been doing oil changes using an extractor, therefore never dropped the under trays, etc....so this leak has gone on undetected for a while.

I guess my next step is contacting Audi to discuss the rear main seal leak. Within a couple of hours driving distance are these dealerships: Audi of North Atlanta, Audi of Atlanta, Audi of South Atlanta, Audi of Marietta, and Audi of Montgomery, AL. If anyone has any experience in working with any of these dealerships please let me know how it went. Thanks Everyone...

 

Regarding TDI warranty work, I am fearful of getting the run-around from the dealer, so I did some on-line research about customer service, etc. It sounds like Jack Ingram Audi in Montgomery, AL would be my best bet. If anyone can corroborate this that would be greatly appreciated.

 

Be sure you look all around the engine for any other leaks too, although the front splash-guard looked fairly pristine, so not likely to have much going on there up front. You do want to look up at the back side of engine, preferably from under car to see if the 'turbo-pipe', adjacent to the turbocharger is leaking oil from it, as that's a common oil source (turbo seals), and there shouldn't be any oil in that pipe. Anything you see, make a note of, as you want to get any fledgling leaks on the record with Audi, and noted on your invoice record, even if they don't meet Audi's definition of an 'active' oil leak yet. That rear main seal has got some drip going on and a nice sized catch stain on the splash guard, so unless they want to dispute that it's covered under the warranty and play those kind of games, it's kind of a no-brainer.

You should call ahead to see about scheduling the service, and get them to acknowledge it is covered by the extended warranty so you don't have to play games later. Also, this is the call to find out about getting a loaner car, or what provisions they will make to provide you a car, since you are some distance away. When I spoke with Audi N America to escalate a recent warranty claim, they offered to put me in a rental car/provide reimbursement, etc., as the dealer had none available.

 

The good news is if you have any remaining diesel gate warranty, YOU are covered. This is my car and they covered an engine out reseal on it. Along with lots of other new parts. https://www.audiworld.com/forums/q7-...years-3034439/ My oil leak was a drop ever few seconds.

 

Yes while I was under there I did look up at the turbo piping and all...no other leaks anywhere on the motor, very clean and dry. I'll start some correspondence with Audi of Montgomery about warranty work & a loaner vehicle - thanks for the tip.

 

NP, you will want to go over the prior Audi service records to see if the EGR Cooler's been done yet or not, as that one is a pretty big enchilada too. Both of ours started leaking coolant about 105k-108k miles from the EGR system, which I thought was interestingly consistent given the fact that they were driven completely differently over their lifetimes...one with significantly less than average mileage (our '10), and the other greater than average mileage with a lot of highway flying time on it (the '15). Pay attention to your coolant reservoir, as it will tell the tale of the EGR coolant leak before you will notice it otherwise; it starts off pretty slowly. I mention this as I know you have limited warranty mileage remaining on yours, so you want to maximize your benefit from the Audi shops while you have them on speed-dial.

 

I just received the service records from Audi for my Q7 TDI - not a lot to report. From the time it was purchased new in 2014 through early 2019 there were no repairs / issues at all. Normal services were performed on schedule, oil changes around every 7k to 8k miles, and occasional tires mounted and rotated. From year 2019 onward, here are the repairs / services performed.

08 / 18 / 2019: Mileage at 64,524: Performed Multi-Point Inspection per Audi Standards and for North Carolina Safety Inspection. Performed the 85k Mile Service.at customer's request, changed oil, oil filter, reset service light, filled washer fluid, filled coolant reservoir. Checked and adjusted 4-Wheel Alignment. Performed GFF/Guided Functions.

06 / 15 / 2020: Mileage at 90,097: Performed Multi-Point Inspection per Audi Standards and for the North Carolina Safety Inspection. Checked Battery under Load - OK. Performed 23Z9 Software update. CEL is on but runs fine, issue was faulty Glow Plug - replaced. Cylinder #2 Pressure Sensor Fault - replaced & adapted. Rotated tires per customer request. Performed DPF Regeneration.

05 / 13 / 2021: Mileage at 98,106: Performed Multi-Point Inspection per Audi Standards. Customer Complaint - AC blowing warm air, recovered Freon and found only 500 grams present, filled system to 1,050 grams, and AC output is now normal, customer to monitor AC system going forward.

08 / 10 / 2021: Mileage at 99,927: Performed Multi-Point Inspection North Carolina Safety Inspection.

 

Interesting prior owner drove put 25k miles on car in less than 9 months between August 2019 to June 2020; now that's a road-trip.

Don't forget to drain/fill those driveline components. Show some love to your front/rear differentials, transfer case, and of course the transmission...oh, and you always make sure the fill bolt on top isn't stripped/stuck, and can be removed prior to draining any of those.

 

Thanks 10Q7TDI_Prestige....I have the oil for the transfer case, but only one bottle of the differential gear oil - need to get 1 more bottle. That's a good tip about the fill-plugs....shouldn't be an issue but you never know till you check.

1) For the Differentials I'm using Liqui-Moly fully synthetic Hypoid Gear Oil - SAE 75W90.

2) For the Transfer Case I'm using genuine VW / Porsche Transfer Case Fluid VW G 052 536 A2.

 

I wasn't able to find a Liqui Moly product for my diffs since it calls for a GL4/GL5 compatible hybrid; it does not call for a GL5. If you go to the Liqui Moly fluid finder, you should be able to easily verify what they have for the 4L Q7. I did verify on several 'famous maker' fluid finder sites that they don't make a suitable fluid for these differentials (meeting the correct specification, anyway) In this case, the newer spec, pure GL5 fluid is not appropriate to the application...I was a little disappointed I couldn't put the Liqui Moly hypoid in there, so be careful to observe the spec fluid requirements. There are several other really good options to meet the correct spec of GL4/GL5, which is exactly how it should show on the labeling. That combined spec rating basically means it is backwards compatible and won't harm the metals used within these differentials, whereas the pure GL5 can be corrosive to specific metals.