Car is a 2001 a4 1.8t FWD tiptronic.
I need to remove the oil pan from my car, I crawled under there today and was somewhat suprised by all the things that were connected to it/in the way. So I checked in my haynes manual and it has a 20 step process to get the oil pan off, including an engine hoist and front bumper removal[sm=jawdrop.gif].


My question is this: is there an easier way, or do I really have to do all of this? I'm used to just unbolting 10 or so bolts and dropping the pan. If I have to do all that I might aswell just pull the whole engine out so I can do the partial rebuild I wanted to do.

Thanks in advance any replies

 

well do you need to remove the lower oil pan or the upper oil pan. to remove the lower oil pan it can come right out by removeing a few bolts. as for teh upper pan you need to remove the front sway bar and some other stuff

 

Well the oil pan on a 1.8T is a bit of a PITA because the subframe is in your way so you have to drop it down without dropping the motor with it. We usually use an engine support tool which hangs the motor by the fender wells. What your gonna have to do is use a jack on the bell housing of the transmission to hold it in place, then un-bolt the subframe and let it hang by the suspension. Now you should be able to get at all the bolts on the pan, but two of them are hidding in holes on the bell housing, use a flash light to see them, your gonna need a long 1/4 extension and a T25 socket i believe to pull them out. Make sure not to drop the bolts into the bell housing!!!!! Once you get all the bolts loose you might have to give the pan a wack with a rubber mallet to loosen up the gasket material so the pan comes free. When the pan droppes down its not gonna just slide out, you may need a friend to help pull down on the subframe so you can sneak out the pan, i usually un-bolt the a/c compressor and let that hang by the lines as well because it makes it that much easier to pull the pan out.
When you put the pan back on you HAVE to use the factory gasket material if you don't want it to leak. You get the tube, cut the top off evenly, then lay a 1/4 inch bead around the pan like i have in the pic. (NOTE: your only gonna have 5 minutes to put the pan up before the stuff drys up, so make sure you have a friend and some bolts handy)


Compliments of auditech some time ago.