Has anyone changed this gasket? The manual does not mention if you have to remove the spark plugs. How easy is it and how long to do. I've changed these before on older golfs but there is a lot of things to remove so don't want to start something that i can't finish if that makes sense.

I think it's relatively easy. I did it on my old Leon Cupra R a while ago.

A couple of points:

 

The first time I changed it I used a cheap gasket and it still leaked afterwards. I then got a VAG one, but it still leaked. So I took the VAG gasket off, cleaned everything and then put it back on with the silicon gasket sealer. Didn't leak after that. The only issue with the sealant is if you need to take it off in the future, you'll need to clean it all off and reapply. Also you don't want to put much on. otherwise it can squeeze out inside the cover. There's the risk that it may eventually come away and end up in your pickup pipe. It might be that I was not doing it right to start with, but I followed the correct steps and torques. (Just to clarify it shouldn't require sealant, it's just what I resorted to)

 

The other point is to be careful not to over tighten the nuts for the cover. A previous owner had done this and stripped the thread in the head. I had to helicoil it, which wasn't fun for my first attempt!

Edited 9 August, 201312 yr by Bobmonga

Did mine yesterday was ok except the rear right of the cover a metal vaccum pipe gets in the way, I had to strip down a lot to get the cover off.

Plugs don't get removed.

Mime leaked like crazy and the gasket had gone all crispy.

Vag gaskets aren't expensive.