HI I think i am going to buy a 98 A4 v6 5spd with 136,000 miles. I have not looked at the car yet but the guy said the car runs great other than an oil leak. He said you notice it after you drive it for awhile you can smell it burning on the exhaust.

i am pretty knowledgeable about cars but have never had a audi or vw v6. Is there any common problems that this could be other than an valve cover gasket or something simple? I quess i just want to make sure it is not the head gasket or something of that magnitude. I am driving kind a far to look at it so i will buy it when I first look at it.

So is there any common leak problems I can check? and how could i tell if it is the head gasket besides checking the coolant. Thanks!

 

ask the guy to bring it to a local shop and have it steam cleaned. what it most likely is, is that when some one changed the oil they didnt quite get it all in the oil fill hole and it collected around what is i think the number 4 spark plug. from there when driving it slowly runs down the top of the head and then drips down on to the exhaust manifold.

The steam cleaning btw should only run the guy like 45 dollars depending on how much the labor is at the shop he brings it too. I spent 45 on mine cause its a "half hour job" and the labor rate was 90.

 

Valve cover gaskets seem to be a frequent problem with the a4s, and usually at about that mileage. I'm replacing mine tomorrow, only cost me $27. Easy and cheap fix, and you could probably get him to drop the price if you bs it and say u notice a head gasket leak ;-)

 

Mine has the exact same problem and it's the valve cover gasket. mileage is almost the same too at 139K

 

i definitly disagree... theres noway that the rim around the fill cap can hold enough oil to have this problem for more than about a day...

 

i dont know, cause it was going on for about a month, until i got it steam cleaned and its been fine since. It was the fact that it collected around the spark plug thats directly below the oil fill cap. there are multiple deep rings there that it can and does collect in.

 

I would also go with the valve cover. Cam seals are a known problem as well.