Ok, this is my first ever ? here. The Bentley official CD manual describes a very different oil cooler then the A8 I have in my shop. The dealer parts image is more like it but has no actual cooler seals listed. Anyone care to comment? Artemus avwaudi

Good Evening, Artemus,

That is an alias that I've been known to use in years gone by.... has a nice elegant sound to it. My boss used to call me that.

I looked at the available information on the A8 cooler, and you are correct in saying that it is sparse. Audi has recently done some updating, so if you'll tell me what year you have, what engine code you have, and the Bentley CD that you have (AD24?), I'll see if I can help you with an illustration or whatever.

Arthur LeBrun
Bentley Publishers

HI, WE HAVE BEEN REPLACING SEVERAL OIL COOLERS AT MY DEALERSHIP. CUSTOMERS THAT HAVE EXT WARRANTS, THE EXT WARRANTY WILL NOT COVER REMOVAL OF ALTERNATOR TO REPLACE OIL COOLER DUE TO NOT ON MOTORS TIME, AND CAN NOT FIND STEP BY STEP DIRECTIONS THAT CLEARLY STATES THAT THE ALTERNATOR NEEDS TO BE REMOVED. HAS ANYONE SEEN DIRECTIONS THAT WOULD CLEARLY SAY THAT? THANKS..

While on the subject of oil coolers: I just had mine off (2001 A8 with 100K miles) to replace that ill conceived PLASTIC coolant pipe that always goes bad...by design!! The Bentley manual tells you how to rebuild the cooler, but offers NO mention of how to get it off the motor. I could NOT have done this bear of a job without this article:

http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/enginemechanical/oilcoolerremovalreinstall.html

If you intend to tackle this job, please read every word of that article carefully...especially the second half. My eternal gratitude goes to the writers. The alternative would have been near $1000 to have the Audi dealership replace a $10 part, which seems to be exactly the reason for choosing PLASTIC as the material for this impossible to get to coolant pipe between the block and cooler. No excuse, on a car in this price range!

I love my Audi and most of the design features, BUT this is a part that HAS to go bad and ALWAYS does. The same PLASTIC pipe was on models before mine and, as far as I can determine, was still in use through at least 2006.

The end of the pipe that was broken off and still in the engine block (which ALWAYS happens) was easy to get out, because it was the consistency of cooked sugar...bore no resemblance to ever having been plastic. The other end of the pipe, in the cooler, was still hard plastic. Over time, the heat of the engine block (or a combo of that and 'contact corrosion' ?) seems to cook the pipe till it crumbles and leads to a serious, but hard to locate coolant leak.

It's impossible for me to believe that Audi engineers didn't know this would happen before going into production...or, at worst, very shortly after putting it into the real world. Yet this known expensive flaw continued for years and for all I know, still does(?). I am NOT a conspiracy-monger, but one can only believe that it was designed or left unchanged, solely for the purpose of generating revenue for Audi service departments.

If anyone can give me one believable reason, from a sound engineering viewpoint, why this pipe is NOT made of aluminum or another suitable METAL, I will eat my computer and post a video of my doing so online.

Shame on you, Audi!

2000 Audi A/8 MOTOR OIL IS PUMPING OUT THE EXPANSION TANK WHEN THE ENGINE IS RUNNING. WHAT DO THINK THE PROBLEM IS ?