Positive crankcase ventilation valve

Hi Guys. I'm a new member and a total newbie to Audi after many years of Mercedes w203 ownership. As with any new purchase of an older vehicle (mines a 2007 B8 Avant S.line 2.0TDI Automatic with 150k). One starts working through the issues with the car. As a nearly 70 years old retiree; I am guilty of rather enjoying this sometime frustrating process.

I bought the car in March and was very impressed with the performance, but initially as I was unaware of the state of the timing belt I drove everywhere like 'Miss Daisy'. Until one afternoon a few weeks later I paid the price... the car did not want to start, engine light came on...when it did start, it was exhausting black smoke and would only drive in limp mode.

I dropped it into 'sport' mode and did a twenty mile drive up the motorway after which the engine light remained off.

The car has been reluctant to start on a couple of subsequent occasions so I took off the engine cover to see if I could spot any obvious faults. The egr valve appears to be a new unit and recently replaced. But the gasket between it and the manifold appears to be 'slathered' in a jointing compound. Which I think is strange because I believe the seal should be a metal gasket with a crushable moulding.

Flipping off the intercooler pipe at the throttle body join shows a heavy coating of black oil.

My guess is that maybe I have a pcv valve issue at the root of this problem. And frustratingly no one seems to stock a replacement. Audi dealers quote £300 for a complete valve cover including pcv. I hope maybe someone can suggest a solution.

Thanks for reading this

Tony Alcester