HELP NEEDED: Dealership cannot identify this issue - Can you?!? -VIDEO-

[DaPurpleRT]

Guys,

My earlier post outlined my situation where a miss resulted in a trip to the Audi dealership 140 miles away. They said the issue was the plugs and one coil and they'd do the 4 plugs and coil for $330. I said no thanks I can do that myself. Rented a car and my brother and I picked mine up. Changed plugs and coil and strangely all the plugs had oil on them... The dealership had done an overhaul for the oil consumption issue on the 2.0 months earlier so I'm not sure if that is related.

Anyhow, so changed the plugs anyhow and shockingly (not) the miss at startup remained (I suppose up until the oil was sufficiently burned off). Blue smoke pours as that occurs. My friend, an ASE Master Tech came by and we took the plugs and coils out again - all coated with oil. We cleaned and replaced and on the second startup all issues were still there. I called the dealership and after some unnecessary back and forth they agree to look at it and MAYBE repair it without additional cost and send it back to me. They have it a week and say the issue was one of their previous techs messed up installing some kind of sealant on the intake manifold (when they were working on the oil issue I presume) but they had it 100% guaranteed fixed after keeping it 5 days (I was without a vehicle these 5 days of course). They return the car and... the issue remains.

I contact them and the initial thought they throw at me is I didn't use Audi plugs (I used NGK gapped to Audi spec). I tell him to let me ensure there is no oil on the plugs. I take it apart and am astonished. First the screw holding the CP rail on was tightened so hard I was BARELY able to get it removed with a Torx nut driver. Once in there every plug has oil but cylinder 3 takes the cake. We could hardly get the plug out because the oil pooled in the spark plug sleeve was so deep. You could hear it suctioning. I was shocked. Now, after they worked on it, it is FAR worse than it ever was before.

I contact them again... The plan? Have the car towed then they will diagnose and MAY fix it for my CPO deductible. I, however, will be required to rent a car and take a day of work to retrieve it in addition to the CPO deductible. Counting time off work, parts, rental cars, gas, etc I am already out $1000-$2000 trying to repair this warranty issue. This seems to mean little to nothing to Audi though.

My question is, before I send this car off again to parts unknown - Does anyone know what can be causing this? It just shoots various cylinder misfire codes. The dealership says they have never seen this and are clueless.

Also, does anyone from Audi corporate frequent the boards? When I had a Cadillac they always had folks on the forum ready to help and step in if needed. I would imagine it would be similar for Audi?

Thanks in advance for all your assistance.

Here is a photo of the plug once removed from the car (yes all the tools are covered and dripping from oil in the spark plug well):



Here is a video of the removal (you will probably be shocked):

http://youtu.be/36jwzeRgYHc




-Anthony

[auditink]

so what was actually done at the time of the fix for your oil consumption earlier? This looks like a lot of oil is getting into the cylinder so I'd suspect the oil control rings are not sealing properly. After the consumption fix, are you still seeing the 2.0 consume oil?

EDIT: wait, is just the spark plug port filled with oil? it could just be a bad valve cover gasket.... from the picture above the spark plug doesnt look to have any carbon build or or signs of burning oil, its just covered in oil

[DaPurpleRT]

I believe a ring job was the "fix".

I have seen some oil consumption but nothing like it was before (when they forced me to do the oil consumption test I was going through around 1qt per week).

I have only SEEN the spark plug hole with oil thus far as that is as far as I went into it. The dealership supposedly had it tore down farther however.

[auditink]

If they fixed the rings, than you shouldn't be consuming oil like you were, and I'm sure they probably already replaced the PVC before they did the ring replacement but make sure. If you are only finding the oil in the plug ports I bet it is the valve cover gasket causing oil to end up in the plug ports.

[DaPurpleRT]

My friend and I thought about this and also about the spark plug well seals. But I'm sure with the situation the dealership must have considered and checked these simple items?

[DaPurpleRT]

The dealership says there actually isn't any valve cover gasket on the 2.0T.

They said that on the camshaft bridge there is sealant that is used that was resealed last visit.

[DaPurpleRT]

I have contacted Audi Corporate and after a lot of back and forth they finally would only offer to facilitate communication with the dealership.

I can say after dealing with two folks from the team they are by far the rudest, most condescending, and wholly unconcerned customer service agents I have ever had the displeasure of speaking to. The Cadillac Corporate support was in a whole other league comparatively.

[Mike@PureMS]

I'd recommend changing the oil separator to the earlier version.

[DaPurpleRT]

Guys, after the fourth trip it ended up being the head not sealing.... They got a new head (took 2 weeks due to shipping...) and that issue seems fixed.

Now onto the next issue in my new thread....