Starting to worry, possible head gasket failure at 89k miles

**tamadrumr88** · 05-21-2008 09:22 PM

Aside from the usual "Audi" quirks I'm kind of surprised something like this would happen at what I consider to be low mileage. About two months back I shut my car off after a long drive and noticed that there was coolant running down the heat shield on the passenger side of the valve cover (which is odd because it's well above the head gasket) and dripping down onto the hot exhaust manifold leaving a chalky, white residue. I could never reproduce this event so I let it go.

This afternoon I came home from a short drive and heard something dripping down on to what I believe to be the exhaust/exhaust manifold. I couldn't pinpoint the sound other than it coming from the rear of the engine. It rained overnight so I suppose that water in the engine bay may have been sloshing around but it sounded like a steady drip (like a faucet). I had the ECS Ultimate Timing Belt Kit done 12k miles ago in Nov '06... my coolant level is now at the "MIN" line. Is it normal to burn off some coolant?

It looks as though my valve cover gasket is leaking at the rear so I'll replace that in the mean time. What else could leak oil and/or coolant at the rear of the block? Coolant temp sensor flange, cam chain tensioner seal, etc

I'm going to degrease the back of the engine and see if I can't better pinpoint the leak and report back

**creechsa4** · 05-21-2008 09:46 PM

most likely the coolant temp sensor flange. those go out @ will. since the block is angled toward the passenger side, coolant may leak that way under pressure. hopefully it's something that simple.

**alen** · 05-21-2008 09:55 PM

from personal experience i would say the headgasket would be the last thing to go.
my block went before the gasket did.

**tamadrumr88** · 05-21-2008 10:03 PM

From ECS: ES#2913 $6.29.... I hope that's it!!!

**khj677turbo** · 05-22-2008 02:49 AM

I agree, more then likely that plastic piece has seen better days, that or the rubber o-ring you see in the picture is shot. Its a tuff place to get at tho, not much room to work your tools. If this is leaking you should see some puddling on your transmission housing as well.
If your valve cover is leaking then it will drip near or on the cat., that back portion is a problem area, sometimes cracked or leaking at the half moon part of the gasket. Dont forget to use gasket maker on the corners, the last shop i brought my car to did and i had a mess all over the garage floor

**Stampy** · 05-22-2008 05:31 AM

Hey I did one of those before. It was a real sumbitch. like mentioned previously, not a lot of room.

**AudiMV** · 06-03-2008 07:21 PM

i was changing my oil this weekend and say a lot of dried coolant leaking near the firewall from somewhere on above the transmission and dripping all the way down....close to the cat as well....could this be the leaky part?

**Russell2686** · 06-03-2008 07:52 PM

my buddy bought his car and was driving it home and on the way home the cap on flange flew off and then the flange cracked.
They ended up fixing it in a parking lot with basic tools so you shouldn't have much trouble doing it. Just make sure you have a cap for the second hole if the flange you buy has 2. (the dealer sells them for like 1.50)