couchaudi

Hey everyone, I need some advice.
First of all, the patient in question is a 2001 A4 1.8tqm (AWM).

Long story short, I replaced the lower control arms and TRE's cause I was eating tires; alignment was way out, and so after trying 3 shops in the area, I was forced to make the 30-mile drive to Wausau Imports. Great, grand, wonderful. All in all, it wasn't going too bad. This was my first time at a dealer and my car's first time at a dealer in over 5 years. Sure, I paid an extra 20 bucks for the alignment, but I got their crazy inspection deal for free. Cool...so far...
However, after two hours, the service manager came to me and told me a few things:
-valve cover gasket bad
-cam seals bad
-rear output shaft seal bad
I'm not too concerned about the output shaft, it's not too bad, but I do see the oil around the vc gasket as well as oil leaking all the way down to the bottom of the a/c pump, however, it hasn't began to drip on the ground.

What I don't understand is he said the cam seals are in the back of the engine. I thought they were in the front, as the cam adjuster seal or whatever was in the back?
I have done the timing belt on this car before, about 25k miles ago, so I dont wanna go through that again just for the cam seals, not yet at least. Also, I'm worried that if I DO end up taking the cam pulleys/timing stuff apart, I'll screw up the timing. When I did the TB before, the only things I didn't replace are the cam seals, but everything else went smoothly; unless I did actually minutely change the timing somehow. The car runs great, but it still urks me. Plus, I'm not even sure how to go about taking those cam pulleys off or how to make sure they go back on correctly...agh.

Another issue:
Left rear parking brake is sticking. The cable isn't contracting (the brake lever is lose when "released"). I tried loosening the bolt that the brake pivots on with no luck. Could there be another spring somewhere besides the one on the brake? Anything else?


So I guess if you've made it this far, and if you've got some time on your hands, I'd love some feedback. Should I wait until the TB interval to change everything? Perhaps just do the VC gasket? Save up and let the dealer do it as well as have them check the timing? I just don't know where to start.
BTW, she eats about one (1) quart of oil ~every 3,000 miles.

I would really appreciate any help, thanks.

Justen

heineken8119

ok what is going on with your leak is very common. What you can do is remove V/C gasket and install special tool (I believe you can get them on ebay) to collapse the cam adjuster. Then remove the four bolts that hold the adjuster on. Next what you do is install a pair of vice grips on your intake cam and move slow toward passenger side of vehicle, which will pull up on your adjuster and chain. you can get in then remove the cam adjuster gasket out and at the shop I us a small 90 deg pick to remove the half moon. Then throughly clean notch where half moon came out of and reinstall half moon seal and cam adjuster gasket. Relieve pressure on vise grip and push down on adjuster to put back on dowels. Torque the four bolts to 13 to 15 nm and remove lock pin for cam adjuster. Clean where you V/C goes put a very little tab of silcone on each of the corners where the V/C gasket lays and reinstall you cover. No removing of timing belt and no service mode needed. I would also make sure if you have suction jet pump which is a hard platic y- piece behind the intake to replace it that is what plugs up ans causes cam adjuster seal to leak. I hope this helps you out it is actually pretty easy procedure at dealership I work at I do these in about 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hrs. Good luck

couchaudi

Thank you very much, that's quite a relief. I really didn't wanna do the timing belt stuff ha ha... The job you outlined, on the other hand, doesn't sound too tough.

Thanks again!

Koolgreen

I had the same with my brakes.
Just wiggled it back and forth and wd40'd it.
It lasted nearly a year and did it again.
parking brake works fine otherwise.

couchaudi

Thanks, I'll give 'er a shot.

Koolgreen

just to clarify, I meant wiggle the adjusing lever on the back of the brake caliper.
ie the lever that the cable is attached to.

isn't it funny that the exact same thing can happen like that.
mine is around the 160 k km mark.
or 100k mile mark

Koolgreen

just to clarify, I meant wiggle the adjusting lever on the back of the brake caliper.
ie the lever that the cable is attached to.

isn't it funny that the exact same thing can happen like that.
mine is around the 160 k km mark.
or 100k mile mark

couchaudi

Yeah, this is the second time for me. It happened at about 145k and now again at 175k. The first time was a little easier to cure though; this one's stubborn. No e-brake for a while I guess.