What's it like changing the exhaust manifold on an S3, she's a blowing.

J

jackpilk

Registered User
Joined
Feb 11, 2012
Messages
70
Reaction score
0
Points
8
Location
NULL
As the title says I've got an exhaust leak from the manifold.

If you've been in the same situation how have you gone about fixing the problem?

Has anyone done this under the bonnet without taking the head off?

Thanks
 
It can be done, but access is awful, you may need to "make" some special tools to access some of them.

If you can drop the downpipe and turbo, you will have better access but tbh that's more work as pulling the head
 
It was in at Audi recently for it's coils to be replaced so they gave it a complementary health check and it shows there was an exhaust leak on the manifold area. I've been looking at getting a new manifold and all necessary gasket to cure the leak as the manifolds are prone to failure.

If it was just the gasket to the turbo exhaust side that's leaking is that a pain to change too?
 
where abouts are you? near sheffield?
 
aragorn said:
Didnt JimGrim do his recently without touching the head?
Click to expand...

Correct but only because I went above and below on ramps. Dropped downpipe, removed turbo etc...as part of it. 6 hours to install I reckon in total.

Really difficult to fit. How people have done without taking either head or bits from below is anyone's guess.

Sam Bryant mate did without I have heard but not sure his name.

It's very tight and I had to modify the heat shield too as it was rattling due to close proximity with new Mani which contacts and expands when under duress.

Well worth doing though.
 
Id bet the turbo has a slight crack as wel,be prepared if you are changing the mani!
 
Its certainly a good excuse to upgrade:icon_thumright: people CAN and HAVE ran with cracks in their turbos for ages though....But would you feel comfortable putting your foot down knowing its cracked?
 
The upshot is that it's a right git of a job regardless of how you do it basically.

I have changed so many now it's daft however I think that head off is the best way.

Two reasons. You check check the condition of the engine's interior at the same time, and you also get a belt change into the bargain.

Secondly, you can make sure that each manifold nut is done up to torque, and is firm and tight. This is not something that can be done easily when attacking it with the head on - a lot of the nuts are done up to 'I think that'll be alright' torque... Not good.
 
Whoa!!!! right... first things first....

Establish where the blow is first... K04's typically blow the manifold/turbo gasket.... the crackes that generally happen tend not to play a major part in all of this as they crack regardless and can continue to be used in most cases...

The manifold/head gasket rarely goes... never seen one in all the cars I have done... there is no need to advance to taking the manifole off for this...

Changing the gasket for the mani/turbo is relatively easy... the 3 bolts are normally a **** and I have had to drill them out before so its advisable to get the correct socket for them (can't remember what it is off hand...)

You will need to replace the bolts anyway as they will be stressed which is partially the reason why the gasket goes as the heat cycles and constant expansion/contraction stretches them a tad and loses clamping force on the gasket which then leads on to it blowing as it fractures from the more direct heat...

Only use VAG/Audi gaskets when you replace them and make a note of the orientation of the gasket when you remove it as it only goes in the one way..

<tuffty/>
 
Thanks tuffty

I will head to the dealers Tuesday to grab the bolts and the gasket.

Anything else I will need apart from possibly a drill and some patience?
 
jackpilk said:
Thanks tuffty

I will head to the dealers Tuesday to grab the bolts and the gasket.

Anything else I will need apart from possibly a drill and some patience?
Click to expand...

...hope they come out easily and not need drilling... they are hard :)

Undo them cold and spray lots of penetrating fluid on them and let it soak...

Couple of other problem areas.... the downpipe/turbo gasket has been known to go and the flexi is candidate too... I would advise you look over the car yourself to determine where the blowing is coming from as Bill had a Leon Cupra R that had been to 2 SEAT dealers to identify a fault that turned out to be a split TIP... it had almost come away from the turbo it was that bad and both dealers missed it saying it was lambda's and MAF's and other such expensive bits... took pretty much seconds after hooking it up to the smoke machine to find the massive leak...

Dealers ain't all that! :)

Useful for parts though...

<tuffty/>
 
<tuffty/> said:
...hope they come out easily and not need drilling... they are hard :)

Undo them cold and spray lots of penetrating fluid on them and let it soak...

Couple of other problem areas.... the downpipe/turbo gasket has been known to go and the flexi is candidate too... I would advise you look over the car yourself to determine where the blowing is coming from as Bill had a Leon Cupra R that had been to 2 SEAT dealers to identify a fault that turned out to be a split TIP... it had almost come away from the turbo it was that bad and both dealers missed it saying it was lambda's and MAF's and other such expensive bits... took pretty much seconds after hooking it up to the smoke machine to find the massive leak...

Dealers ain't all that! :)

Useful for parts though...

<tuffty/>
Click to expand...

Well I ran the car earlier from cold so I had a good 30 seconds before I burnt my hands, so I felt around and it feels like it's coming from as close to the turbo as possible, if that makes any sense?
The blowing is a lot more noticeable on cold start up, which no doubt is because it's at fast idle and it's revving slightly higher but then you can't really tell it's blowing when it drops down to normal idle.

Would it be worth just replacing the mani to the turbo gasket first (because that's where I'm pretty sure the blowing is) and if that fails start looking at the other problem areas?
 
jackpilk said:
Well I ran the car earlier from cold so I had a good 30 seconds before I burnt my hands, so I felt around and it feels like it's coming from as close to the turbo as possible, if that makes any sense?
The blowing is a lot more noticeable on cold start up, which no doubt is because it's at fast idle and it's revving slightly higher but then you can't really tell it's blowing when it drops down to normal idle.

Would it be worth just replacing the mani to the turbo gasket first (because that's where I'm pretty sure the blowing is) and if that fails start looking at the other problem areas?
Click to expand...

Sounds like the turbo/manifold gasket to me... will go quieter when warm as the heat expands the metal bits closing the gap up a bit...

just change that one for now... its the easiest of the lot lol..

<tuffty/>
 
Well hopefully it's that one, fingers crossed!

Yes I've heard they know there stuff over there.
Was thinking of a Revo map once I've fixed my never ending problems.
 
Well slight progress for anyone who's interested..

Got the car on the ramp and can see someone got a bit excited and coated the downpipe gasket face with exhaust paste and so by the looks of it the manifold to exhaust gasket too :thumbsup:

I'l be picking up the necessary parts for the job Wednesday and getting the garage to do it as the downpipe looks like a ball ache to get to.
 
easy job!!
(under the car)
start by taking off the catalysator which is attached to the downpipe.
the screw off the shoe which holds the downpipe to the chasis (with rubber)
(bonnet)
next you need to take off the 3 torx bolts which holds the turbo to manifold.
then u need to unscrew 3 of those nuts which holds the downpipe to the turbo and the last nut under the car. (your arm enters between the right front wheel. then u can push down the turbo and get more space to unscrew the manifold.
remember to stuck all of the holes of turbo!!. u might drop nuts and etc.
u need to take the airbox of and all the hoses to be able to reach "easily" to the last 2 nuts on the right.
i´ve have put all the nuts back by hand except higher nuts numbers 2 and 3 counting from your right when having your manifold in place..for those 2 i used he ratchet extension and tip of my fingers.. jejee i advise to buy new torx bolts for the manifold and before taking them off use penetrating oil.
 
I know this is a bit of an old post... But finding the route of the noise is doing my head in!!

Could a hole in the manifold to turbo gasket be causing my horrendous noise?
Sounds sort of like a whistle? Almost like "Tweety bird" ??
I've had a blown exhaust before (Flexi pipe after the cat went) and that sounded a little different. This noise is more high pitched

Started off just when the car was at roughly 3000rpm. Now its starting to become noticeable when I start the car up when its cold.
Also with the car being the S-Tronic model, there is a spike in volume with the noise when changing gear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

willh92
Exhaust manifold blowing
Replies
6
Views
891
willh92
willh92
kelk11
Manifold/exhaust blowing
Replies
14
Views
1K
Andrew@A.L.D
Andrew@A.L.D
Lacey123
s3 exhaust blowing....
Replies
0
Views
982
Lacey123
Lacey123
skinz
manifold blowing
Replies
7
Views
2K
s3dave
s3dave
viper6
Exhaust manifold bolts coming loose on 2001 S3
Replies
10
Views
2K
viper6
viper6
Top
Back