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I believe it will be inevitable for everyone to have to make this repair. I live in colorado so the climate is super dry and that cannot fair well for plastic pipes going through drastic heat cycles.
I ponied up the $40 and bought the billet piece the duke recommended. I had my car pulled apart already so access is more than ideal but still crappy if you ask me. getting the alternator and oil filter out of the way isnt an easy job. I can't wait to find this hidden oil cooler.
To be clear, my coolant spilled out car turned off while i filled the coolant reservoir, the hole must be huge. I will post a photo of the carnage when I mine my way there.
Same thing happened to me. Was non-drivable for 2 days. I also replaced the oil cooler assembly
Every maker is chasing those mileage averages and saving weight is a large factor. Look at the new Q7 they managed to pull 700 pounds out of it, you know a lot of that was material swapping.
[QUOTE=dvs_dave;24783382]BMW/MINI just as bad. Just had to replace the ludicrously complex (it looks like an artificial heart!) plastic thermostat housing/main coolant manifold on my Mini Cooper S because it had developed a crack and was leaking.
BMW/MINI just as bad. Just had to replace the ludicrously complex (it looks like an artificial heart!) plastic thermostat housing/main coolant manifold on my Mini Cooper S because it had developed a crack and was leaking.
This is ridiculous.
Yep, did that on our 2010 Mini S at 50K miles. The part--and the design--are a piece of crap. Notorious if you look at the Mini boards for about 10 minutes. Plastic that dissolves at 50K miles--due to erosion and chemical reaction apparently--with factory coolant (which i had even changed once) at 5 years old. On mine right at that main turn where the semispherical bulge is. Audis have their issues, but not like that. We're driving ones on the board at 2-4 x the life of those. The W12 one went on mine at 2 Ľ times the mileage, actually cost a similar amount and its housing was made of aluminum. It didn't spring a catastrophic leak, gave me a variety of warnings and codes, and let me drive it for lots of weeks while I got part and put aside time, rather than get towed home fire drill like the Mini.
Cumulatively much less interested in Mini brand going forward, fun to drive or not. Tends to rate high in enthusiast type polls and near bottom on reliability. Stuff like that abomination from their French Belgian whatever era are just an example. The cam chain guide (again, plastic special) is yet another. Always interesting when you go to pull the dipstick out and only some of its length is left--after the chain passing over the guide with the dipstick hole in it eats the rest. Nice diagnostic touch though! I also enjoyed how during warranty the tensioner just backed out of the motor on its own--a screw in design. Or maybe the assembly worker didn't bother to tighten it in the first place after the pint or liter or whatever of regulation booze during the shift. Locktite, nah just splash a little red wine on. Got the class action lawsuit paperwork in the mail on the tensioner/cam chain stuff literally today. But since it was totaled over the holidays and I got the ins. settlement, all done--other than the garage floor of nice S/JCW mod. parts I pulled off for not sure why. A8 needs its home back. Golf R is much more likely the eventual replacement there.
Back to the regular programming, these coolant pipes on the 4.2 are a disappointment. I don't remember something like that on my C5 4.2, but maybe just blessed. On the C4 it was a simple pancake thing under the oil filter that was right in front of you to get at. The W12 curse in the same hard to deal with area (besides the fortunately reliable alternator) is probably the motor torque mount.
I'm glad I haven't had to tackle this issue yet. From everything i've read it's a real pain in the ***. If you use the part linked below it should never happen again.
so in summary, this is the solution. Have fun replacing it. Right now Ive got the oil filter and alternator out of the way. Owner before me RTVed the alternator coolant lines on. smh
anybody know tricks to getting to oil cooler bolts?
has any one had experience replacing this? I cannot get to the pipe because exhaust manifold in the way plus there is a smaller coolant line that blocks access to the bolts.
2004 A8L 4.2L
Any one know how to do this? Remove exhaust manifold?
There's a few threads on here if you search. You have to remove a couple of exhaust manifold studs either by welding on a nut or fitting locknuts to enable removal. This then gives the clearance to move the coolant pipe out of the way enough to get the last oil cooler bolt out.
If the crack in the said little pipe is reasonably stable (which looks like it would be), then something like a Prestone stop leak will work great. I put a 1/2 bottle in my 2004 when I first got it, just because I could wiff coolant every now and then.
03-01-2016, 11:24 AM
