I have had a NIGHTMARE day! The long and short of it is something fell down the dipstick tube and I now need to remove my oil pan to fish it out before starting the car. I looked under the car and can't help but notice the frame cross member right in the way of the oil pan along with the engine mount bolted to the oil pan. How the hell do you remove and oil pan from an A4 1.8T quattro? Do i need a cherry picker (I don't have one) to lift the engine while removing the oil pan? I have changed a number of oil pan gaskets in the past and not had difficulty. Has Audi designed a nightmare oil pan?

 

Yep, nightmare oil pan!
Wouldn't you have guessed?
I will try to upload the engine and oil pan removal procedure from the repair manual.
If it is of any help?

 

Five more pages, 4 more to follow

 

Last 4 pages.

 

Okay, I put this DIY together as a Photobucket file. Try this link, if it doesn't work for you I'm still happy to email it to you.

Click here for the Link

 

can anyone tell me if it is necessary to take out the transmission in order to take out the oil pan to replace the gasket

 

Nope, there are 2 windows through the transmission bell housing. You will have to turn the flywheel to access the 2 screws through the windows. Once you get those screwed out the oil pan slides out. I spent an hour figuring this out. Very frustrating.