Oil in spark plug wells

[ruedisrs6]

Yesterday, during a regular service of air filters I decided to take a closer look to the spark plug wells. And I found a substantial amount of oil in each of them on the driver side (RH). The oil is not leaking from the cylinder head cover seal, but from the one between the cylinder head and the camshaft mounting frame. I had a repair of this recently in the A4 3.2 (2007 model) and the seal was hard like plastic. So, I am afraid that I have to do the same on the RS.
On the 3.2, I only removed the rear chain covers and let the chains and the camshaft adjusters and of course the camshafts in place. Of course in the RS there is no space to remove the chain covers, so I thought to let them in place and simply seperate the upper part which is sealed to the mouting frame. But what I am afraid of is that the mounting frame does not come out because of the oblique form (do not know the exact englisch word, sorry) of the frame at the rear.
Has anyone been able to change the seal between the cylinder head and the camshaft mounting frame without the engine out ?

Many thanks, every advice is welcome.

These brittle seals when these cars become older really frustrate me .....

[Jim Haseltine]

From what I learned while pulling my engine I doubt it can be done with the engine in place - not because there isn't room to remove the mounting frame but because firstly access to the fixings on the cam covers is restricted and secondly the turbo coolant and breather pipes are almost impossible to remove - the RH can just about be done but the LH side really needs the engine dropped by a few inches and pulled forwards a bit too. My car has been back on the road for a month now and is exhibiting signs that suggest some of the stem seals are leaking - now that definitely is an engine out job and although I'd be prepared to tackle it myself is likely to go to a professional as my garage is in use by a long term project and it's not really a task I'd like to attempt in my driveway.

[ruedisrs6]

Many thanks Jim for the reply. I was afraid of that. I considered using one of these oil leak prevention oil additives for rubber seals only, however I am quite concerned that this might cause more damage than it helps.

[Tomtouw]

were u able to fix the problem yet?
i have the same issue.

[Jim Haseltine]

When I first changed the plugs in my car (about 6 months after I bought it) I found a number of the plugs wells had oil in them - one of them up to the ceramic on the plug. It was impossible to work out where the oil was coming from but on checking I found that the rocker cover bolts weren't tight, maybe the cover gaskets had compressed a bit. Tweeked them tighter and haven't seen enough oil to mention oil in the wells since then.

[ruedisrs6]

I had to redo the replacement of the rubber seal of the cam girdle a few weeks ago on the 3.2 FSI of my wife's car and found that it is impossible to remove the cam girdle with the chain cover in place. So no way to replace the rubber seal around the spark plug weels at the bottom of the cam girdle with the engine in place.
You can easily find out if the camshaft cover seal is leaking or the cam girdle seal by checking if there is oil at the most upper edge of the well (you can see parts of the camshaft cover seal there). If there is oil, then its a leaking camshaft cover gasket. If you see some oil moisture at the top of the small diameter end of the ignition coils, then its a leaking cam girdle seal.In my case it is definitely this one which is leaking.
I tried a leak preventing oil additive (LecWec) and - although I was super critical with this - it seemed to work at those wells with only minor leaks. However, those with the larger leaks are still leaking even after 3 months. So I ended up to apply a thin layer of a silicon sealant (Dirko HT) around the transition from the cylinder head to the cam girdle. I did this very recently and have not checked the status, but keep you informed.