I'm in the process of changing my camshaft tensioner seals, cam caps and cam seals in both cylinder heads on my 98 A4 with the 2.8 engine. My question is when I put the camshaft assembly back in on the passenger side with what I count to be 16 links (as the bentley manual states), the timing marks on the cam don't line up with the marks on the camshaft caps. When I change it to 15 links, the marks line up fine. I checked the other head, I count 15 links and not 16. Has anyone else experienced this issue? I't driving me nuts. I'm leaning towards using 15 links since it lines up the timing marks.

 

I'm not 100% sure so take it FWIW but...

are you accounting for the tension that is going to be added to the chain? If you put it at 16 links, then add tension it will pull back slightly, possibly a 1/2 a link to a full link, thus realigning the timing marks.

just a thought, something I came across in my reading as I am currently trying to do the timing BELT on my 2.7 T