Interesting, linkage rod "fell off" my varioram plenum flapper/door
 

I had an oil leak coming home from work one day. I tried to find the oil leak and in the process, while I had the engine access door off of the car and the car running, I heard a funny noise that sounded like something hard rattling against plastic. It almost sounded like a screw or nut had gotten into the air intake tubing past the air filter. So I asked the guys to look into that while they were looking at the oil leak.

It turns out that the socket had fallen off of the flapper in the plenum (I think for the varioram). I couldn't hear the noise with the door on over the engine. The guys said that it had been like that for a while because it was worn. It'll be nice to have that fixed.

Photos from the shop.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1741116057.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1741116057.jpg

The noise. I guess the linkage is under the plenum which is why I didn't see anything.
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They haven't been able to find the source of the leak. They have the motor/area cleaned up and have run the car quite a bit. They want to get the varioram fixed and have me pick up the car, make a run or two to work and then bring it back for them to look for the source of the leak before there's a ton of oil everywhere. It looks like I'm going to get my car back tomorrow, but without the oil leak fixed.

Time to get an IPD plenum:D

Interesting, I’ve never seen that before. I had an Audi S8 years ago, that was a common problem. I upgraded to metal linkages to fix the issue.