On the 4.0T, the front crank seal and timing cover gasket seep right as the water pump and thermostat come due — and reaching any of it means putting the car in service position. We bundle the whole job at your home.
The twin-turbo 4.0T in the S6, S7, RS6 and RS7 packs enormous hardware into a tight bay, and getting at the front of the engine means putting the car in service position — the front-end carrier comes forward or off entirely. That access cost is why this repair is a bundle: by the time these cars show oil seeping from the front crank seal and timing cover gasket, the water pump and thermostat are due on the same clock, and they all live behind the same teardown.
The oil side announces itself as residue around the crank pulley, slung outward by rotation, and as sludge accumulating at the cover seams. The cooling side shows up as P0128 when the thermostat loses calibration, temperature creeping over normal, or proper overtemp events as the pump weakens. Individually each item is modest; together, behind 15–25 hours of access labour, they define the job.
Doing these piecemeal is the expensive mistake — pay the service-position teardown once for the seal, again for the pump, again for the thermostat, and the access labour alone triples. The right version of this repair opens the front of the engine once, renews everything in the access path — crank seal, cover gasket, pump, thermostat — and closes it knowing nothing back there is on a countdown.
If your Audi is doing any of these, this is the likely cause:
Two clocks are running. The oil seep only widens — front-of-engine leaks on these cars migrate onto belts, pulleys and sensors, and sludge buildup marks where it's headed. The cooling side is less patient: a weakening pump on a twin-turbo V8 is an overheat waiting for a hot day, and overheating this engine puts a five-figure repair on the table. Bundled now, it's one big job; deferred, it's the same job plus whatever the overheat cost.
Yes — service position is a procedure, not a shop fixture. The front carrier comes forward at your driveway or garage, the work happens over two to three days, and the car stays secured at your place throughout. We confirm your space works before booking the job.
Because 15–25 hours of book labour at dealer rates dwarfs the parts cost — the access is the job. We quote one flat price for the complete bundle — teardown, seal, gasket, pump, thermostat, fluids, reassembly — before any work starts. On a job this labour-heavy, a flat quote matters more than anywhere else.
You can, but the math is against it — both jobs sit behind the same 15–25 hours of access, so splitting them means paying the teardown twice for parts that were both due. Bundling is the entire economic logic of this repair, and it's why we quote it as one job.
Everything in view: belt drive components, pulleys and tensioners, accessible hoses, and any other seal showing age. With access this expensive, anything marginal should be dealt with while the engine is open — we photograph what we find and you decide before anything extra is replaced.
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