1999 B5 S4 oil smoke from engine bay

[hale-pope]

Festive Greetings. I hope someone may be able to give me some pointers please. I have had an oil burning smell for 6 months or so from my 195k 1999 year S4 and it uses a lot oil but does not drop any on the ground, the exhaust smoke on start up is clean and disappears when warm. I (my garage) have changed the breather pipes but this did not help and then changed manifold gaskets along with the half moon ones too but again, this has made no difference and they actually said they were in very good nick when they took them out. There is some oil seepage on the driver's side turbo.
On Christmas Day (thanks for nothing Santa) there was, for the first time, oil burning smoke visible, coming from the engine bay. The attached photo shows the location though the smoke did not come out in the photo. The location is at the back of the engine bay and the blue paintwork you can see is the driver's side shock strut. You can see some oil residue and oil residue is all over the place there. Any tips would be appreciated. Thank you. Ben.

[spartacus 68]

It uses a lot oil but does not drop any on the ground, the exhaust smoke on start up is clean and disappears when warm.

When you say the car uses a lot of oil, how much exactly?

Have you removed the engine under tray? It might not be leaking onto the road as the engine under tray has foam insulation and it's amazing how much can end up here. I'd check here first.

Came across this on youtube... could be similar?
B5 S4 Camshaft Cap Leak - YouTube (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry0sKRILK0Q)

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/417521-How-to-change-driver-side-rear-camshaft-seal

[Nigella]

I know its a completely different engine but I had the same on my AFN TDi...


It turned out to be the filter connection from the crank case breather to the cam cover/rockerbox cover.

Even with new seals the oil sometimes finds its way onto the cat and smokes a little... I places a tie wrap around the base of the rubber tube where the breather hose joins the cam cover and so far, 8,000 miles on, no leaks....


Just a thought....

[hale-pope]

Thank you for your input. She has uses maybe 1 litre per 1000 miles but with this new oil issue it is bound to ramp up, though I will not drive her until the issue is sorted for sure. Good tip on the oil being soaked into the tray. Excellent link for the cap issue - here's hoping. I shall go armed with this info to the garage.

[hale-pope]

Many thanks. This too is an excellent idea to explore.

[Doctle Odd]

These engines leak oil at the rocker cover and the crankcase breather goes brittle and breaks off.

[hale-pope]

Well more stripping down is required as the source of the leak cannot be found without doing this but it does seem that it is not the turbo thank goodness but I write here but it ends up being.