I'm in the middle of a timing belt replacement my A4 w/108K miles. When the valve covers were removed, I noticed significant wear on the several exhaust cam lobes.

Now the job has expanded into replacing both exhaust camshafts. Once I removed the camshafts, I also saw significant wear on the hydraulic cam followers (lifters). I ordered two new camshafts. There is no doubt that many of the followers also need to be replaced.

I've attached a pic of the 12 exhaust valve lifters. The top row is the driver's side, the bottom row the passenger's side. The numbers on the top are the measured wear in thousandths of an inch. I'm undecided on whether to replace all the lifters or reuse the ones with minimal wear.

Has anyone seen this condition? Did the cams destroy the lifters or vice-versa? This car was purchased new, and has had every oil/filter change on schedule with synthetic. Any insight will be welcome.

 

Woody, not sure I can help yet. I have an 02 4.2 and it seems to have one noisy lifter. Did you hear noise? Also out of curiosity, what was your oil change interval?

My car has 140,000

thanks Ed

 

My oil has always been changed at 5000 mile intervals.