Oil leak - could it be fatal?? Help please?

[philKS2]

Hi all...

I'm trying to buy an S2, and appreciate that they are all a few years old, with high mileage, but if they have been looked after they should be fine...

I've seen one which drives well and has smooth engine etc, looks great...BUT...

The engine is splashed with oil.. it's in the little wells by the tops of the spark plugs... and a look underneath (without it on a ramp) indicates some dripping down there.

The owner says it "doesn't use much oil" which could be interpretted as meaning it DOES use oil!!!

To a niaive person like me it looked like oil was leaking from the oil filler cap.. which raised these thoughts:

- if it's just a poorly sealed filler cap, why hasn't it been replaced, as the owner has had the car fully repaired and maintained at a VW Audi garage

- A friend said the problem could be piston rings going - and the escaping compression forcing oil out of the filler cap.. which could mean a hefty engine rebuild soon?


So my questions are ....


- Does this piston ring theory sound possible... and if so whats the maximum damage - my mate thinks if it causes serious piston/cylinder damage in time, it could costs thousands.

- Is there any way to check if the piston rings are OK ...(other than dismantling the engine which presumably will cost hundreds in labour???


Other clues:

There's no under engine protective panel ..shouldn't there be one?

The trip computer gave 20mpg average on a 10 mile run round country roads...we never hammered it, but were up and down the gears.. I guess this is about right??

The car has acres of history, and has had plenty spent on it every time something needed doing, all at one VW-Audi garage.

Thanks for any help you can offer

Phil

[ericd]

Hi all...

I'm trying to buy an S2, and appreciate that they are all a few years old, with high mileage, but if they have been looked after they should be fine...

I've seen one which drives well and has smooth engine etc, looks great...BUT...

The engine is splashed with oil.. it's in the little wells by the tops of the spark plugs... and a look underneath (without it on a ramp) indicates some dripping down there.

The owner says it "doesn't use much oil" which could be interpretted as meaning it DOES use oil!!!

To a niaive person like me it looked like oil was leaking from the oil filler cap.. which raised these thoughts:


- if it's just a poorly sealed filler cap, why hasn't it been replaced, as the owner has had the car fully repaired and maintained at a VW Audi garage

- A friend said the problem could be piston rings going - and the escaping compression forcing oil out of the filler cap.. which could mean a hefty engine rebuild soon?


So my questions are ....


- Does this piston ring theory sound possible... and if so whats the maximum damage - my mate thinks if it causes serious piston/cylinder damage in time, it could costs thousands.

- Is there any way to check if the piston rings are OK ...(other than dismantling the engine which presumably will cost hundreds in labour???


Other clues:

There's no under engine protective panel ..shouldn't there be one?

The trip computer gave 20mpg average on a 10 mile run round country roads...we never hammered it, but were up and down the gears.. I guess this is about right??

The car has acres of history, and has had plenty spent on it every time something needed doing, all at one VW-Audi garage.

Thanks for any help you can offer

Phil

just to clarify , you can see "small pools of oil in wells next to spark plugs...", I'm guessing you mean next to the injectors/fuel rail (on the right as you look at the engine, I could be many things , It could also be somebody with a shaky hand when filling up with oil, seen this a few times in the garage, if it's in the wells near the front of the engine (closest to filler cap ) then I wouldn't worry too much, clean up with a rag and see if its sticky , as usually means it's been there for a while ..


sure they're should be a engine undertray, if I was trying to sell a car I knew I had an oil leak I'd put an undertray on to catch the drip/leak, why not ask if they've got it and look for any oil staining, or if you get the chance look under the car when it's running or staionary and see if it's obviously dripping.

personally if somebody gave me the car to look at with the observations you've made, I'd probably say at one time somebody has overfilled it with oil, potentially causing the excess oil to leave under pressure at the filler cap (though usually this would be in a spray pattern) check for any such oil spray marks on underside of bonnet, overfilling with oil can result in engine stress and cat/exhaust saturation

the oil you see in the underside of the engine could be the excess or overspill making it's way south, could also be a leak from one of many subsystems ; hydraulics, brakes, etc, etc which now looks like oil/dirty due to the fact
that there's no undertray...

I'm sure you'll get a few more suggestions shortly

HTH

[Greg_S]

If the oil is gathering around the spark plugs in the wells there it is likely that your cam cover gasket has gone and needs replacing.

[s2dude]

If the oil is gathering around the spark plugs in the wells there it is likely that your cam cover gasket has gone and needs replacing.

and this is not that big a job......

What would a good indy charge guys??

£150~

[GirlRacer]

Phil, i have replyed to your pm.....

[GirlRacer]

ps... if you wanna see vinny (thats its name) see if you can sort out
a forum member to help you out????
Im sure there is someone out there

[iain1067]

You can do the cam cover yourself, simple job, if you have oil in the spark plug holes then it could also be loose plugs and we all know what will happen after that, an expensive head rebuild. Oddly enough it seems a common thing on 5 cycl audis for them to leak oil out of the plug holes, had this a few times in my 10v days, just needed to clean where the plugs seat and it's normally nothing more than that.


Iain