oil pan - gasket??

[whitecabby]

Howdy.
Last weekend I decided to dust off the Cabby in anticipation of the salt and snow washing off the roads sometime in the near future. I started it and began backing it out of the barn when I noticed a huge very fresh oil spill...and alas it was growing. Turned her off, jacked her up, and discovered that some genius before me had repaired a hole in the oil pan with some liquid weld. Did a decent enough job of blending that I hadn't even noticed when changing the oil in the past. Well, thank the Lord for small blessing - thankfully the liquid weld gave out when it did instead of cruising down the highway!

Ok, so looking through the repair book I couldn't find whether or not I need a gasket on the pan. I ordered a pan that vaguely said "comes with gasket when relevant". It didn't come with a gasket. But when I pulled off the old this morning there was an old cork gasket in place.

Do I want a gasket??? Or should I just use a liquid gasket? Unfortunately I know just enough about this stuff to get me into trouble and haven't had any success finding this topic in forums etc.

Thanks, Josh

[Briano1234]

You need a Gasket, either cork or the upgraded one. DO NOT USE SEALANT.
There are the 2 bolts at the bell housing that you can't over tighten. or cross thread, they strip.
use a 1/4 6pt socket and a short wobble extension and a long wobble extension to replace them.
Tighten them to 15 ft/lbs any tighter and strip.....Strongly suggest using a torque wrench.

I have a pseudo fix but that is for later if you strip them.

[whitecabby]

Great thanks. I'm ordering a gasket now.

I picked up a pan that was supposed to come with a gasket "where applicable"; since it didn't come with a gasket I had this pipe dream that I wouldn't need to wait another week for another part

Thanks for your help. Josh

[whitecabby]

Howdy, so...this easy project became more of a pain in the ... than I anticipated. After spending two weekends wrestling with the pan unsuccessfully for two free weekends I decided to have someone else come to my home to do it (I'm lucky enough to know a mobile mechanic).

Anyway, after waiting a few weeks for him to free up, he came out this week and re-did the pan installation.

Only to discover that, while I certainly did need to replace the pan due to the original puncture, my post-installation leaking wasn't coming from the pan. Rather, its coming from the oil filter housing above. With two of us out to watch it was much more obvious what was going on.

So, I've ordered the gasket for the housing the filter screws onto. I see this job mentioned tons of times in Cabrio forums, but not Cabriolet...any idea what I'm in for with this? It looks awful doggone tight in there. Should I use silicone with the gasket?

And why would it go so bad so fast? I'm not talking a drip here. I'm talking a stream of maybe 1/2 quart in less than 30 seconds. Any thoughts?!

[CalAltaDubber]

OK there are two parts to the oil filter housing. The oil filter housing itself and the oil cooler, the squarish housing where the oil filter attaches, that has two hoses connected.

Provided that your engine is in OEM configuration, it sounds like the gasket for the oil cooler is screwed. This would lead to oil escaping in great quantity from the top of the oil cooler. To replace the gasket, remove the oil filter. Then remove the nut from the shaft that the oil filter screwed on to. This will allow the oil cooler to separate from the oil filter housing. Hopefully the two hoses are long enough to completely remove the cooler from the shaft. (If they aren't, they will need to be disconnected, and that will mean some engine coolant will spill.)

Simply remove all remnants of the old gasket from the oil cooler and the filter housing. Place the new gasket on the filter housing and reinstall it.

If the oil leak is where the housing attaches to the block, it is accessed by removing the two attaching screws. This is a little more complicated, because there are several wires and hoses that need to be removed for access.

Hope I made sense.

[whitecabby]

yes, that makes sense - thanks for the help! No days warm enough to drive with the top down yet, but I typically use this as a daily driver once the salt is off the road...and I miss it!

[whitecabby]

Wow, its shameful how long this has taken me to return to.

So - I ordered what I believed to be the gasket needed - Audi A4 VW Cabriolet Jetta Oil Filter Bracket Gasket VICTOR REINZ 028115441C from ebay (not sure what it goes to, but the drop down says it fits my year car. And of course, if its on the internet it must be true) and, having separated the housing from the cooler I have found a very clearly broken o ring.

Do you happen to know what this o-ring is called? i'm finding tons of similar product for the Cabrio but thus far no luck with the Cabriolet. Is "Victor Reinz Oil Cooler Housing O-Ring Part #B32299" what I need here?

Thanks Josh

[Calimus]

Not sure what he victor reins part number is....but this should be what you are looking for and this is a very trusted vendor.
http://www.germanautoparts.com/Volkswag ... gine/146/1

[Briano1234]

that should be the correct one. Autozone and advance both have that for about 5 dollars.

[whitecabby]

Wow, that was a very easy repair. Thank you for your help - I've got it back on the road now!

[CalAltaDubber]

Glad it worked out for you.