I have a leaking cam seal at the front. I have read that some say to do 4 cam seals. Are there two at the back that need to be done or just the 2 at the front and then the crank seal below? Should I do the value covers while I'm at it?

 

i'm not sure about the number of cam seals. what i do know is that they are an inexpensive part, but the labor is RIDICULOUS. somewhere in the ballpark of 10 hours just for the cam tensioner seals. i did my valve cover gaskets at the same time, makes sense since everything is apart.

 

what is in the back of the heads are plugs that seal up the hole. they are in the back of the head in the same spot as in the front. if they are not leaking you don t have to mess with them. now the cam seals are a different story. look up some timing belt diy`s and you`ll see how thats to be done. a whole lot of work. I did mine during a tb change. If ur getting close to needing one do at the same time. I did mine at 75000 miles.

 

the plugs at the back of the head shouldnt be an issue untill extremely high mileage, as they dont have to keep oil from leaking past a cam constantly spinning throught them. Audi did us a favor by gearing the intake / exaust cams off of one another at the back side of the head ( making adjustable cam gears as an upgrade impossible) but this means that there are only 2 cam seals to replace. reguarding the valve cover gaskets, unless they are leaking, you shouldnt touch them as they wont help you pull cam seals in any way.
hopefully you are due soon for a timing belt because everything has to come off the front of the motor to get to the seals. then you'll need the cam locking tool from the timing belt kit to keep the cams oriented properly while you pull the seals with the cam gears removed (the cam gears are not keyed in any orientation on the cam spindle; they will spin freely untill torqued down onto the taper on the end of the camshaft)

 

Thanks all...now a dumb question...I have evrything apart but haven't touched the timing belt because i don't have the tool....once the tool is in place how do you replace the seals? Or do you use the cam tool just to get the belt off then remove the cam tool, replace seals and then put the cam tool back on?

 

i put the bar in place made marks on cam gears, crank gear so i know it would go back in same position. marked cam and cam gear.so that gears would also be in correct position ,removed belt, then bar, then gears.replaced seals installed gears put on bar ,install belt. thats how i did it, maybe someone else has a better way .