Thing is, the only thing going through the oil cooler is oil - coolant
doesn't run through there. So why the oil cooler inlet and outlet would have
coolant around them is a mystery unless the physical location of the oil
cooler could make it prone to having coolant drop on it - I don't know the
physical layout of your car.

Mike.

"KWS" > wrote in message
news:vqvxc.17609$HG.9034@attbi_s53...
> Thanks for the responses.
>
> This is not a stain. It's a lump o' crud, actually many lumps o' crud at
the
> oil cooler. Since the oil cooler is just a block of something (looks like
> aluminum), there isn't anything to specifically top off.
>
> Also, the crud is at both the inlet and outlet locations, suggesting to me
> that it is the nature of the thing to leak. If not, I would have expected
> maybe one or the other would be affected, but not both.
>
> Perhaps it has something to do with the aluminum interface. A casual check
> around the rest of the engine compartment did not reveal similar
gatherings
> of the crud.
>
> Another possibility may have to do with changing the oil filter. The car
was
> serviced by Audi for the first 50K miles of free service. Now that it's
> beyond the magic mark, I do the stuff myself. The first time I changed the
> oil filter, it was quite a job. Apparently, some gorilla socked it down
real
> good and I had to contort it quite a bit before it broke free. The stress
> may have been transferred to the cooler lines and caused some weeping of
the
> coolant. Hard to tell.
>
> That problem is cured by tightening the oil filter hand tight. Doesn't
leak
> and it doesn't take an impact wrench to get it off.
>
> Another Audi item of note: the dealership consistently overfilled the
oil.
> I, of course, do not.
>
> Best,
>
> Ken
>
>
>
> "Chris Bartram" > wrote in message
> ...
> > daytripper wrote:
> > > On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 06:14:24 GMT, "KWS" > wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >>My 2000 A4 1.8T has pink crud on the oil cooler where the coolant
lines
> are
> > >>connected. Is this stuff hardened coolant? It is present on both the
> inlet
> > >>and outlet and has been there ever since I bought the car new. The
> coolant
> > >>level does not appear to be changing.
> > >>
> > >>Is this normal?
> > >
> > >
> > > It sure sounds like coolant - if you ever notice pink chaff flying
about
> > > inside your cabin you'll know the heater core has gone to Heaven ;-)
> > >
> > > I'd expect it's not normal to have coolant stains around the oil
cooler,
> but
> > > might they be the result of sloppy topping-off?
> > >
> > > /daytripper
> > > '00 s4 6spd
> > It *does* sound like coolant. Probably the hoses weeped a little at some
> > point, and the crud has probably sealed it. As long as the coolant
> > doesn't drop I wouldn't worry too much- check for any actual liquid
> > leaking though.
>
>