BEW Valve Cover and "The" Gasket ....

I use the phrase "The" Gasket because apparently there is the possibility I might have installed a gasket that may not be compatible with my valve cover.

At 375,000 km's, in 2015 I decided to do a cam inspection. I ordered a new valve cover gasket. I honestly have no idea if there was any sort of warning about compatibility issues for the one I ordered from IDP but if you try to order one now there is warning about compatibility and fit on a BEW valve cover.

Since the inspection, there has been an untraceable minor oil sweat off of the top rear of the head... my bet is the VC gasket is the culprit.

My question, if the gasket is not compatible would it have fit and had only a minor leak or would it have been obvious from the beginning?

After doing a bit of research, looks like if it the culprit and the gasket is not the compatible version, it will mean a new valve cover from VW.... I may try some RTV....

Like I said, its just a minor sweat, usually wipe down the block and accumulations between oil changes.

Martin

Did you contact ID Parts about it?

IDP has always been great to deal with, never really thought about whining about a gasket that when I ordered obviously must have missed the warning about the potential to not work. Besides... who complains about a 2 year old gasket ?

Comes back to my question, if you toss the wrong gasket in, does it puke oil all over the place or does it do a slow weep? If I have to replace the cam cover to fix I guess I will take as a lesson learned. On the other hand, maybe I just need to pull the cover and RTV it (and confirm if I have the wrong gasket in place).

Martin

I thought all PDs sweated oil down the back of the block. Mine certainly did, until I snugged up the VC bolts after a cam inspection. Put a dab of black RTV at the corners where it goes over the humps first, then snug it all down - leak free!

Still have not gotten an answer as to if the incompatible gasket is my culprit but as a word of warning to anybody doing a camshaft inspection, don't go tossing the gasket without first checking the compatibility of the replacement.

Just for chuckles, I stopped by the dealer today, the VC on my version BEW requires cover and gasket combined... they quoted $399....

Martin

Finally got a chance to pull the cover VC off to see if the cover was compatible with the gasket that I installed. Best as I can tell it was the right gasket. For sure I had accumulations of oil (very slight) across the rear of the VC. Triple cleaned everything and applied a thin coat of RTV on various points across the VC side... will have to wait to see if this solves it.

I recommend if you are doing Cam inspection, unless there is obvious damage to the "gasket", don't disturb it (it will probably remain stuck to the cover), clean everything and use a little RTV for the remount...

Martin

I have seen the compatibility warning.
There are 2 different VC gaskets for PD's and you need to compare yours to the new one to be sure it is correct.