Alright just posting this up in hope of some info:

1997 a4 5sp 1.8t all stock as far as i know
1. is this a normal sounding 1.8t
My dad says it sounds off to him
2. Near the beginning half when i go behind the engine and i turn the light on you can kind of make out a leak,
i believe it may be the head gasket???

3. over by the power steering reservoir there is also a huge mess beneath it, i believe it may be caused by the reservoir but not sure.

4. coolant disappears for no reason and i have not noticed coolant leaks so idk where its going.

Car runs fine never had an issue but wanna start taking care of all of this to ensure car continues to run good.

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Sounds like the cam chain tensioner. Either it's bad, or you have very low oil pressure so it's not fully actuating. Oil light on?
I can't see the leak. What is it? Oil or coolant?

Got to track that down. Sure it isn't motor oil? Is there PS fluid in the resevoir? If not, don't run the motor. You'll burn up the PS pump. Auid PS fluid is green, but that's not to say someone didn't just dump some generic PS fluid in there (which would be very bad for the pump).

See anything in the exhaust? Does the exhaust smell like coolant?

 

1. Nope no oil light and idk if itd be the cam tensioner any way to determine that.
2. i believe its coolant after looking it some more yesterday so i think the issue is the coolant flange.

3.there is p/s fluid i always make sure there is some in there. although it means constant refills every once in a while. well when it drips down it is just clear and feels oily, its not dark colored like the oil... and i always use the little tin container "mineral based stuff". Pentosin i think is what its called..

4. exhaust looks clean no smoke or anything just smells like every other cars exhaust...

 

So...maybe your leak is where the coolant is going. If you don't see anything funny in the exhaust, it's about got to be a leak.

Check the hoses going in and out of the PS fluid resevoir. Sometimes those get lose on that car, but ya gotta track that down.

The sound still sounds like a cam chain tensioner to me. Go to a parts store and buy a stethesocpe. Put it right over the cam tensioner and see if that's the location of the sound. Don't know how many miles you have, but 130,000 to 150,000 is the range they tend to give up.

 

yea im right in that range 148k.

the whole engine id going to be pulled and we are going to go through the whole thing new lines, gaskets, and every leak will be fixed as well as timing and wp.