Front crank seal replacement was the latest venture.
Replaced Timing belt 20K ago. No leaks. Garage floor clean & drip free.
Car is kept inside & cosy. Pulled into drive, stopped & had to wait for daughter to move so I could pull inside. When inside & closing door noticed puddle of oil on drive (about a cup full) ???!!! Found same under car. Crankseal had suddenly fell completely out & when stopping oil would slosh forward & right out onto the ground. Tore down front of car & when I removed crank pulley, you can see what I found in pic... crank seal laying right out of block on crank. Luckily it must have just happened as oil level was just below add.
Now my question is.... Do they intensionally leave the backside of the pulley hollow so this can happen (a good way to sell cars is to design them to catastrophically fail outside of warrantee) or are those who design this crap just that stupid!
Yes the car is nice to drive but outside of warrantee I have no idea how anyone could afford the repairs (I'm fortunate & have garage/tools/ability).
Wife's '09 328xdrive is similar nice driving pile of junk. Could go on for hours on many issues but overall suspect that they are still getting back at us for WW2.
By the way, the old seal could be slid in and out with little/no resistance.
Suggest replacing & retaining next time you do a timing belt.
Cheers
TheCounty

 

Seems like a faulty seal, it shouldn't slide in and out easily. The hollow crank pulley's a red herring since the seal shouldn't slide out and touch the pulley regardless, even if the back was flat.

 

I'm with Mad Cow. Something's really wrong with this picture. Even a badly worn seal isn't going to get lose in it's race. No matter how bad they are, they have to be pried out. Was that seal changed at the last t-belt job? I wonder if it was an aftermarket seal...or just the wrong one.

 

Not wrong seal.
Been in for a long time.
Hard and aged.
Not leaking prior. (yes everything else has leaked & been resealed, just look at the pic, but those are other issues)
Both missing the point... why have a purposly dished out pulley to accomodate seal actually being able to fall out. If the seal could only move out the 2mm clearance from block to pulley then it would only result in immediate minor drip instead of dumping oil in quantity.
This car is a hemmoraging goat that would embarrass any cork gasketed North American '50's sled.

 

So it sounds like you are saying the pulley should have been designed to expect that seal to slip out. If it moved enough to rub on the spinning pulley, that would be an improvement? I'm with the others; something was wrong with that seal or how it was installed. My crank seal has been in place since it was installed almost 20 years ago, and hasn't moved, or leaked.

 

Why design it otherwise.... unless you prefer oil dumping out in volume vs a slow drip?
By what I've seen, if you prefer big failures, this is your dream car.

 

600,000 miles of Audi driving here. Never had a seal do that.

 

Because this way the crank pulley's lighter. And it'll only be a slow drip until the pulley wears away the seal and it all comes pouring out anyway.

You're just looking for a reason to be angry.

 

^^^This^^^

 

I've had my '96 for almost 10 years, and never had a "big failure" of any kind, excepting a fuel pump that gave up after 225,000 miles. Its at 255K now and doesn't leak a drop of anything (I know mtroxel, hard to believe!). This is also the first I've ever heard of a seal that just slips out like that. Maybe you've got a problem car, but I'd bet most B5 A4s are around the 200K mile mark and running well.