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Took my car to the local specialist today as i have seen a couple spots of oil over the past couple days on my drive. Anyway he pointed out the dampness around the rocker cover gasket area's on both sides and said it's not urgent but they need changing, cost approx £200 + VAT. He also said that the cam chain tensioner gasket's could need changing, he was just pre-warning me incase he got down there and they do? Cost, well he only got to the, about 8 hours labour bit and i abouit hit the floor

Has any body else had to have the cam tensioner gaskets changed? Does what i am being told sound right? Any opinions or help appreciated.

Assuming that the S4 and RS4 engines suffer similarly, then yes, I had a this issue last year. Instead of getting dripping oil, I was getting burning oil smoke coming out of the offside front wheel-arch. Turned out to be the rear cam tensioner oil seal, the leaking oil was dripping onto the cat. Had that done and the belts changed at the same time, all by MRC, car was with them overnight and cost about 1300 from recollection. Doug did a top job. He also found a few leaks on my turbo system and rectified them.

I've now got some traces of oil on my bellypan so suspect that the other cam tensioner oil seal on the front nearside of the engine may have gone, or if I'm lucky, it's the cam cover gasket. £200 for changing both cam cover gaskets sounds about right.

Are your belts due for a change anyway? Useful if they are.

Jarv

Hmmmm ok then. So i'll have to go down the cam cover gasket route first as they are definately leaking slightly, then if he finds the worst then so be it. My belts and everything were changed at 72-73k so they dont need changing for a long while yet as i am only on 95k. It's a shame to have to strip evertything down for 2 gaskets as nothing else needs done?

Oh well i'll see what happens when they strip her down.£££££'s i hope not.

I think the sensible approach is to expect the worse. Give it to someone who has the ability and the special tools to be able to strip the top end off to replace the cam tensioner oil seal gasket, and if it's just the cam cover gasket, then that's a bonus.

Pretty well any decent mechanic can replace a cam cover gasket, but if he takes it off and discovers he's out his depth, then you've wasted at least £100 quid because all he'll be able to do is put it back together again, and you'll need to replace the gasket again when you finally get the cam tensioner oil seal done.

One thing to add is that you will need to change the belts as they shouldn't be re-tensioned, and they may have been contaminated with the leaking oil anyway.

HTH

The tensioner gaskets can be changed without removing the belts, you need the special tool to compress the chain tensioner which will give just enough clearance to replace the gaskets.

Interesting. I take it that's just the front one you're talking about and not the rear one as well? If my front one has gone, that would certainly save a few quid.

You can do both of them but the rear one is more fidly to do.

Maybe Doug will be along to comment as to whether it's a method he's used before.

I suppose if the front end has to come off then it might well be worth changing the belts anyway, even though they were done 20k ago At least my belts wouldn't need changing until i get to around the 170k mark. I'm still hoping it's just the cover gaskets

I'm going to get it booked in next week hopefully then we shall see.

No the front end is not needed to remove. You just have to open rocker cover, and remove the inlet cams. Here is quite good info-page of the job: http://robsaudiworld.com/2.8camseal.htm

The bank 2 cam is more difficultier to remove, because there is this camshaft sprocket cover in a way.

s4-99 wrote:I suppose if the front end has to come off then it might well be worth changing the belts anyway, even though they were done 20k ago At least my belts wouldn't need changing until i get to around the 170k mark. I'm still hoping it's just the cover gaskets

I'm going to get it booked in next week hopefully then we shall see.

What was the outcome to this s4-99?
Did you have to replace the tensioner gasket/half moon or was it just the cam cover gasket.

s4-99 wrote:I suppose if the front end has to come off then it might well be worth changing the belts anyway, even though they were done 20k ago At least my belts wouldn't need changing until i get to around the 170k mark. I'm still hoping it's just the cover gaskets

I'm going to get it booked in next week hopefully then we shall see.

What was the outcome to this s4-99?
Did you have to replace the tensioner gasket/half moon or was it just the cam cover gasket.

s4-99 wrote:I suppose if the front end has to come off then it might well be worth changing the belts anyway, even though they were done 20k ago At least my belts wouldn't need changing until i get to around the 170k mark. I'm still hoping it's just the cover gaskets

I'm going to get it booked in next week hopefully then we shall see.

What was the outcome to this s4-99?
Did you have to replace the tensioner gasket/half moon or was it just the cam cover gasket.

Make sure the tensioner solenoid its self is not leaking. I have seen some car`s leaking from this rather than the gasket, it does not take much to damage this.

There are two small torx bolts and a o ring seal securing the solenoid, a slight knock can cause a good oil leak

Mmm don't remember posting that 3 times!!,must be going mad.
Can you enlighten me on the potential solonoid leak as i didn't realise that there was an 'o' ring there.
Is it a big job to do or just a case of removing the two T30 torx bolts and replacing.
Is this the 'bit' at the top end or bottom end of the cam cover?(when viewed from the front)