2001 S4
So I took my car to get the typical valve cover gasket and cam seals put on because of an oil leak.

Issue #1
They called me and told me that the plastic guide that the cam chain rides in was cracked off and it wedged between the cam and valve cover, and put a hole in my valve cover. So they need to put a new cam chain tensioner on the car and to do that you have to pull the cam out which entails pulling the whole front end. Is this typical or should I suspect that they broke something when pulling it apart?

Issue #2
They noticed in my antifreeze overflow tank that there was oil and it was milky. Where are the possible points of mixture on these motors. I would assume head gaskets, but where else? Any good ideas on finding the problem without throwing money at it?

Any advice is much appreciated. I will more than likely have a couple grand bill coming, anybody else have similar situations, and if so how much did it set you back?

 

Update.

So I went and took a look at my car and the half moon plastic piece that the cam chain rides in is completely missing. The mechanic wants to put a new tensioner. While he is in there he wants to replace the timing belt, water pump, and all new tensioners. The quote was 2800. Is this out of line for this job??? ANY advice???

 

i got quoted $570 just for timing belt parts and on ecs the cam chain adjusters are almost $700 i think they charge 10 hours to do the job so will say $1000 for that then other misc parts puts it at about $2500. is it an audi dealer? if so i think that it sounds about right.

 

No its a european specialist shop that has been around for 20 years. I am going to call and get a quote on Monday from the dealer.

 

everything on these cars is expensive... might just have to bite the bullet if youre going to get the timing belt and water pump fixed