Heads up, front coolant pipe nipple is very brittle.

[infinkc]

Well found this out today. The small nipple coming off the front coolant hard pipe will become brittle over time. The pipe is made of plastic, so it's a matter of time it will fail.

I always wondered why Audi went with the plastic lines as when I had my b5, the plastic tee on the coolant tank would always break.

The front hard line is made of this exact material as the old b5 tee is.

The nipple that connects to the coolant res line just gave way on my today.

When I extracted the broken part from the hose it just crumbled.

I was debating buying a new pipe, but you have to get the car into service position to get it out.

I decided to cut off the remainder and tap it and use a brass barb.

I used a 1/8 npt barb with 5/16 nipple.

Here is a pic: hope this helps anyone that runs into this same problem.




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[miztahsparklez]

Hmmmm


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[BlownOne]

I 100% agree that using plastic on something that gets hot and cold over and over was a bad idea. Glad you came up with an easy, quick and cheap fix brotha!

[Audibellybutton]

Did you have to cut off the remainder? I was thinking of tapping into what’s left of it. Or capping the old one completely and tapping into a new spot on the pipe

[DriveBikeRun]

Resurrecting this because it was helpful and may help others. I didn’t even realize that the nipple had broken off until I was reassembling everything because it broke off inside the rubber hose to the reservoir.

I shaved off what was remaining of the nipple and tapped a hole in that same spot. Had a small leak through the fitting threads even after using Teflon tape, so tried using JB Weld (marine weld version) and it’s sealed up like a champ so far.

IMG_1295.JPGIMG_1296.JPG


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[Dorny1]

Had the same issue...Wish i would have seen this, bought a new tube instead.

[Fresh.S4]

same thing happened to me. got it replaced when did the pcv/ water pump

[Ford Prefect]

Same

IMG_1620.jpg

Been like this for over 20k miles


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[Magnesium]

This just happened to me. Suddenly coolant was pouring down under the car, I must have bumped this line (currently tearing it down for PCV and misc maintenance). What a ridiculously chickenshit design. This is why I hate newer cars. Many years of working on older 911's and Ferraris, and this Audi in comparison is a snap-together model airplane kit. Except the plastic is a decade old and has been heat cycled a thousand times and crumbles like chalk. Cheap cheap cheap.

For those who tapped a nipple, what did you use to seal it?

[B7TitaniumA4]

For this very reason, when I did my engine out service at 97k miles (chains and just about everything possible) I replaced ALL of my coolant lines and hose ends. The heat this motor creates is insane.
I purchased an 8P A3 with 175k miles recently as a project car and as I removed the engine, all of the hose ends have broken from being brittle. I’ll be doing the same massive replacement of parts on this as well!


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[mcoomer]

Similar circumstances here. I put the car in service position to clean the carbon from the Secondary Air System, and decided to the do the PCV and water pump/thermostat at the same time. Ordered all new hard coolant lines just to avoid having one break during the work, or at any point in the future. I just don't trust plastic, particularly after 170K miles and all the heat cycles that come with those miles.

[san_diego_s4]

Could you share which coolant lines you replaced and where you bought them?

[san_diego_s4]

I had the same issue as others on this thread. Was working my way through water pump/thermostat/PCV/carbon cleaning and noticed that the nipple had broken off somewhere along the way. I’ve got my car in service position already so will just replace the whole pipe.

[ThisGuy683]

Could you share which coolant lines you replaced and where you bought them?

At least for b8.5 (my15), the part number that I used was VAG-06E121045BB

And if you're doing PCV and all that while you're in the valley, the part number for the coolant pipe there is VAG-06E121065N

[san_diego_s4]

Awesome, thank you! Those are the two I’m replacing while I’m in there, just wanted to make sure I’m not missing any additional ones.