Hi im new and im thinking about buying this 96 Audi A4. It needs a head gasket and I was wondering how hard this was to change by myself. I know alot about other non foreign cars and was wonddering how hard it is on an Audi.

Thanks

 

you have to do a timing belt job with it, but other then that, take the valve cover off, unbolt the head, replace the gasket, put the head back on with new bolts, then install the new timing belt. you need a special bit to take the head bolts off.

 

Thanks for the information, this will probably help.

 

Newbie question - Why do you have to do a timing belt job at the same time?

 

timing belt connects the head and the block, cant separate the two without taking everything holding them together off, and you cant reuse a timing belt.

 

I recently brought my 98 1.8t in with a spark plug fragment in a cylinder (head was removed) and had a valve gasket changed ($1100). I asked the mechanic for an estimate on a timing belt change at the same time and he said another $1050. Any idea why he'd want so much if the belt was already OFF?

 

either

- your mechanic knows what he is doing, the timing belt was recently changed, and he knew the trick on how to get the head off and back on without putting the car into service position (removal of the whole nose of the car) and how to reuse the belt and was doing that to save himself some time and cost of parts and therefore couldnt easily do the timing belt at the same time

or- he does not know what he is doing and does not know that usually both of those jobs require removal of the same parts of the car, so it doesnt have to be done twice.

or- you asked him after he was finished putting it back together again from job #1.

the timing belt kit and water pump cost about $350 for parts. if the car is already apart he shouldnt charge you more then 1-2 extra hours of labor for the belt install while working on the head.

on a side note, ask him what the compression test numbers were on each of the cylinders after he got the pieces of spark plug out of there.

 

Thanks so much for the information. The mechanic said he didn't remove the old belt, just loosened a tensioner to do the cylinder work. He didn't record the compression numbers, but said they were within limits. The belt has 90k miles on it, and I think I'll find another shop to do the work.