Mommasboy

Okay, so I was trying to replace my valve cover gasket on my AMB 1.8t, and in the back of the valve cover thee is a y looking ripe the connects into the valve cover, a black plastic valve, and then connects down into a plastic crankcase breather tube. I broke that plastic tube, and I heard that there is a way to remove the entire pcv system rather then have to deal with all the frail plastic garbage under the intake manifold. I've been searching for any type of write up with some pictures or something to show me exactly what this requires, but haven't found anything. If someone either has a write up, or has the link
to one, please send it to me.

Thank you

lyleswk

With some hesitation, I provide the following link. I would never do this becuase a) state emission folks will make you reinstall if they notice it missing and b) the car / ECU / etc was built with this installed and you may end up with other long term issues if removed. But, it's up to you.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...ighlight=p0411

ultraslan

hey i just found mine is broke and leaking oil as well. i took out the intake manfold and took out the pieces of plastic that were broken. just picked up the part from audi , i have the part number you can get it online for cheaper. http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/06a103213f/ES7934/
thats the part that was broken. sorry cant help much but just take the clamp on side and the other part that goes into the engine has clip on the bottom of it i took it out using two flat head screw deivers

dlucke17

I started the DIY Coolant flange fix b/c it was leaking and now my car is not running properly. Long story short (and will forward through a TON of cussing), I started to fix the flange & valve cover gasket and broke the breather tube. Found a write up on a fix for that and continued my work. I then buttoned it back together and now I am guessing I have a vac leak. I hate this car (04 Audi A4 Quattro)!!!

Plus, I noticed the link for the part you gave and mine is different. This is the part # I need 06A103213AM, which ECS Tuning has it as well. http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/06A103213AM/ES7938/

dlucke17

Just wanted to give an update to this POS / PITA DIY thread... I thought this was what happened to me also, but think it was just a coil/plug... Crap, who knows... READ MORE

If you don't want to read my full write-up, I will do my best current movie impression and give you the end now, then gentle walk you through the story...

The car is running in pretty good condition (still would like to seafoam and may have a small vac leak I have to chase down).
Initial issue - Coolant leak (coolant flange) / Oil leak (Valve cover gasket)
Along the way issues - Broken breather hose AND elbow / couple check valves / valve cover stud / THEN troubleshooting that turned into new plugs & coils.
FINAL TALLY - $197.00 ish in parts & shipping Downtime = 3+ weeks & I am pretty sure I took away 10 years of my life because of this BS job!!!

THE STORY (Best told in a timeline)
11/16
So, as initially stated, the coolant light was coming on and there was a pretty awesome smell coming from the car after a little warmup. I had the car looked at by my local VW dealer (thank god I knew someone) and they pointed out the coolant flange & that my valve cover gasket was slightly leaking. He quoted me 6+ hours labor (4 on the flange, 2 on the gasket) plus $100+ in parts for just the gasket & flange. So you can do the math to get an amount of money I was not willing to pay before doing some research. I have done most of my own auto work unless its under warranty or dealing with welding or machining and have been tuning/tinkering with imports for awhile now. Not to mention I am currently working on a project to swap a Infiniti Q45 V8 into a Nissan S13 240sx AND my DD is a lightly modded LS powered Chevy Trailblazer SS. So how hard could this be, right???

WTF was I thinking!!?!?!?!!??? I should have left the car at VW or better yet, hit that big *** pine tree that just happened to be in the middle of the road on my way home. (lol) Either way, off to the house I went, ready to research for parts and DIY's...

11/17
Found the Parts on partsgeek.com and I found DIY's and by the bunches... But there were only a couple that were really in-depth to the work that one was getting themselves into BUT none of them really hit on everything. the best write ups (DIY: B6 A4 1.8t ** Upper Vacuum/Breather Hose Replacement (Brittle/Crumbly).

11/22
Had the day off, so started working on the car. The could DIY's I found were nice but still just did not elude to the amount of 'prep work' you need to do to move stuff out of the way just to get to the freaking coolant flange. SO FYI you will have to move almost every vac hose out of the way and by doing this, YOU ARE GOING TO BREAK SOMETHING!!! Be it a check valve, breather tube, knuckle, something is going to get broken, so be ready for everything!!! So I would get a little work done... Go research and find a different thread... Go get a little more work done... Go do more research... As you can see, this was a PITA!!!

11/23
PARTS IN FROM PARTSGEEK... I started removing the valve cover and one of the studs broke off. When I removed the cover there was plenty of stud sticking out, but if you can imagine (or if you have been in these shoes) I was freaking out!!! Took a deep breath, did some research and then was able to follow some info I found on removal/threading (later in the process). AND actually it was pretty damn simple! I do not advise breaking one just to find this out on your own of course.

TOO MUCH TURKEY!!!!!

11/26
PICKED UP PLUGS / COOLANT. With the valve cover off I noticed that a lot of oil had been getting to my plugs but the car never smoked or misfired. I replaced the plugs either way. I replaced the valve cover gasket and placed the cover back on to keep working on getting to the flange. (REMEMBER: At this time the only parts I had ordered were the gasket and the flange)

11/27
Getting to the flange is literally a PAIN IN THE A$$ (and legs and neck and back and forearms if I could have shown some pics). I removed most the vac lines shown in DIY. I removed the top pancake valve and just tried to reposition it to the drivers side of the motor when 'snap', it broke in TWO places. If you follow that hose connected to the pvc valve down, it goes to a TEE then to an ELBOW that goes into the crankcase. Well pretty much on both sides of the tee the hoses just feel apart and the elbow split on both ends (didn't really know this at the time). I continued to get to the flange but it was getting late and I needed to take a break...

11/28 - 12/2
PICKED UP HEATER HOSE KIT. The next morning I knew that I had broke the breather hose but did not know the extent. Plus, I didn't even think I was close (which really I was) to getting the flange out so I had my work cut out for me. I found a DIY breather hose replace and it was pretty straight forward. The only issue for me was that I broke the elbow going into the crankcase AND there is no DIY to fix that. At the time I didn't know it, so after getting the flange out, fixing the breather tube the best I could and putting it all back together, I let the car idle for about 20mins and everything seemed to be smooth.

12/3
I started her up in the morning, and the car ran like $h!t.... I was SOOOO F-ING pissed!!! I rechecked everything I could and all arrows pointed to the broken breather elbow (so I thought). I called VW parts and they wanted almost $90 + tax for that little elbow. ECStuning had it for less than half that. So F the Stealer, I will find a better way.

12/4
Sunday night I was looking over options on how to fix this breather tube and elbow issue and many people pointed out that this should probably have been a recalled item. These tubes seem to break as soon as any slight shift in the paradox. So I removed EVERY VAC line I could that tied to the car!!! Every one... I had a plethora of vac hoses in my garage and for one reason; to make sure there would be no more leak!!! I replaced every clamp I could (I would love to beat the crap out of the guy that invented these clamps also, BTW!!!) and waited on the next step.

12/5
I found www.034motorsports.com and they had created a fix with their threaded block breather adapter for the 1.8t's. I spoke to customer service on Monday morning to verify they had these in stock and to make sure it would be shipped out then. Long story short, USPS priority mail which was promised 1-3day trans time was not going to show up till 5-7days later. I emailed customer service about my issue and got a response from Paul Gutierrez with 034.

12/8
He looked into the issue and then shipped out the same order for me again over night FEDEX. So I have to give a quick shout out to Paul and the guys at 034Motorsport for the above and beyond customer service!!!!

12/9
034MOTORSPORTS PARTS IN. If you are still awake, FEDEX dropped the needed adapter and 90 to me a little before 3pm. I did a little work to get the adapter in and some of the tubing, but did not finish.

12/10
ORDERED IGNITION COIL. I finished putting all the hoses back in, intake, coolant, checked all levels, hooked all coils and was ready to fire... Started the car up and still running like crap. Now this was a new issue as the car may have had leaks in the past but we never had issues with the car misfiring. I was able to get a friends OBDII scanner and pulled 3 codes all dealing with misfires. I simply changed the coils from the problem cylinders and erased the codes from the ecm. When I started the car the next time I was told that one of the coils was bad. After picking up a new coil (They have already been replaced twice by ME!!) the car was running!!!! YEAH...

Synopsis of my story, again:
PROS - Saved $$$ / Doing the job on my own. Oh, F that.. NO Pros!
CONS - Time car was down / Horrible Audi engineering (from the coolant flange, breather hose material, stupid *** 1-use clamps, studs, I could go on) / Still paid over $200 / Can't feel my legs...
COST - $200 (give or take a couple bucks)
PARTS - Flange / Gasket / Stud / 3/4 Heater hose kit / 15" 3/4" Heater Hose / Hose Clamps / Coolant / CV / Billet Adapter and elbow / Spark Plugs x4 / Ignition Coil
CAR TIME-DOWN: 20 mother-fing days!!! Most of that was shipping time

OH, DID I MENTION 2004 AUDI A4 QUATTRO 4SALE!!!!!

dlucke17

FYI... Here is the location for the breather adapter from 034MOTORSPORTS.COM...

http://www.034motorsport.com/engine-...18t-p-392.html

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PART and 034MS!!!!