Well, as most of you know, my local performance shop recently went the way of Enron. At least minus all of the embezzling and illegal stock dumps. So I had to resort to the dealer again, against my better judgement. My two problems were not anything I am equiped to fix myself. 1. Wheel bearing (no press) 2. Front Cam seal (not messing with the timing belt myself). So, two and a half days later I get a call and the total is over a grand. And they didn't even buy me dinner.

The service manager called me the first day to tell me that there had been several things done to the car that do not follow the Audi sevice recommendations. I thanked her for her Steven Hawking like insight. I'm 64,000 miles out of warranty, what do they care?

Anyone else have to have the front cam seals done? At what mileage?

 

killin me here. No one?

 

my seller did all up to date maintence gratis b4 i bought it

 

I'm not much help.

My auto mechanic replaced all front seals "prophylactically" when he changed the timing belt, water pump, etc. As usual, it is one of those jobs where the front engine seals cost a grand total of 10 dollars, and the total for the labour is a grand.

 

sorry to sound like a dumbass but what is a cam seal on the 1.8t and where/how is it accessable? I will be changing my timing belt in a few months and wonder if this is replaced while doing the t-belt change. had my dealer do my first t-belt and they never said anything about a cam seal.

 

Not at all 1.8t20v, good question. Hey, I figure maybe I can help someone else out. You actually have to remove the timing belt cover and the accessory belt tensioner to get to them. You can't even see the seals when the timing belt cover is on. Basically front of the engine, below the valve cover and under the timing belt cover. The seals themselves are nothing, it's just the labor that killed me. After talking to the tech that did the job, it doesn't sound as bad as I thought it would be. He said that the right time to do it is when tou do the timing belt and water pump. That way you don't have the additional labor charge, since you are already there for the pump and belt. If I'd have found this site 50,000 miles ago, I could have saved myself a lot of money in labor costs.

 

Thanks for the info Doose. So the cam seal is something else that can be done with the timing belt. Are there other seals to replace while doing this? I have a list of other things that I will do for easy accesability - vac lines, bpv, efk, snub mount - I would like to change everything for preventave maintenance purpose that I can. Do you know if this is easy to replace? Hope im not hijacking the thread I guess it is kind of related.

 

[According to my mechanic there are three seals needed, all easily done when the front is pulled off to change the timing belt.

 

To elaborate a bit, both intake and exhaust camshaft seals should be changed, and the crankshaft seal should be changed too. All are accessable from the front of the engine once the timing belt etc, cam pully are removed.

Seals cost anywhere rom 2.50 each at autohaus to 4.50 each at ECS.

Beware this advice is from someone who has read it, not actually done it. I leave that to my mechanic.

 

I don't go to the Stealer anymore - here's why: I once owned a 1992 BMW 535i. It was overheating and blowing a lot of steam. Didn't have either the time or the inclination to trace the problem so I took it to the dealer. They quoted me $1,250 for a new rad, hoses, clamps, thermostat and labour. Told to go $crew and took it a mechanic here in Montreal who works on the classics (356, my 1961 XK150S and some 300 SLs). He fixed the problem (turned out to be a hose) for a grand total of $101.68. He works on all of my cars now.