audisowner

17 yr old son calls the other night and says, my 1996 A6Q is <B>suddenly</b> making a weird rattle/scaping noise from front of engine. I listen and think it might be a water pump or tensioner or idler bearing starting to go. We did the timing belt-wp-tensioner-idler-thermostat only 17,000 miles ago.

We start pulling it apart and everything appears normal, all bearings seem fine... Hmm...

Then as we're cleaning up around the water pump I noticed this round part (slightly larger than a quarter), lying in a spot below the water pump (red arrow), which I guess is a freeze plug.


<IMG SRC="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/41959/rattle1.jpg">

Here's another pix of the freeze plug, from the GEBA water pump.

<IMG SRC="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/41959/rattle2.jpg">

Thought someone might be able to use this info especially if they've replaced the waterpump with a GEBA...

audijim113

The picture is a little hard to see. Are you saying the freeze plug popped out of the pump? I'm assuming your not in the Artic or someplace cold where it would freeze.

You didn't say anything about a big puddle of coolant when your son called. Was that the case?

audisowner

Nope, its 80-90 degrees in Colorado. The quarter size plug is in front of the water pump casting. I'm guessing this part of the pump casting is the weakest part of the pump and in the event of a freeze it would break the casting and eventually leak out the plug. The discoloration in the plug casting looks like a "glue" to hold the plug in place.

In my case the plug just became loose and fell out, but the casting (behind the plug) was intact. The noise was from the plug rattling around and contacting the back of the idler pulley.

Hopefully the above makes sense. I just wanted others to know if they had used a replacement GEBA waterpump, they MIGHT have a premature (and not so obvious) issue. Of course it could be just a "one-off" problem knowing my luck...