Front Crank oil seal

[Fishinbrine]

Evening all, I have read many a post on here about front crank seals leaking and have been to the dealers etc but not really found anything with people doing it themselves?
I'm an experienced mechanic, not with VAG group but hey!
So, my question is, I have looked at the procedure on Erwin to do the front crank seal and it states to remove the sump, is this really necessary? I understand the fundamentals of this but also as a mechanic I know there's procedures and how it's really done!
Anyone else done their own and any recommendations or tips for installation?
I also can't believe the price of the seal/carrier! Even from TPS it's £120+vat!! Plus all the bolts and then a cambelt kit, may as well do water pump or had I? From what I can tell I will probably be doing it again on a few years anyway so maybe water pump at this age/mileage is being over cautious, or is it?

I'm a bit gutted, my vans 4 years old, done 20k miles but servicing at the weekend revealed a damp sump around the pulley area, it's not bad but it's there.....

Looking forward to your words of wisdom, and hopefully not too many people saying the procedures there for a reason! Or maybe in the dealers they're not following procedure and that's why they end up leaking again?

 

[DXX]

If it’s just damp I’d clean it and keep a watch on it until the timing belt is due for replacement, if you’ve only done 20K in 4 years I doubt it’s going to get much worse.
The seal housing is plastic, from what I’ve read it’s too easy to distort it and squeeze out the RTV. Sump comes off to get the RTV seal.
I’ve not done it and probably won’t as my CFCA has a aluminuim housing, VW in their wisdom ‘engineered’ it in plastic on later engine variants.

 

[Fishinbrine]

No way! I didn't know they went from aluminium to plastic! That's progress for you!
Yeah for now I have wiped and cleaned, will monitor it before I actually renew, it is indeed my daily driver but I don't do many miles apart from journeys away in it for holidays and weekends away.

 

[vwjack]

Mines in for this at the moment, cambelt and waterpump too as the water pump has slight leak.
Just had clutch and flywheel done too last week...expensive month

 

[PhillH]

I have used the Corteco crank seals without removing the sump as the have a seal across the bottom. You could add a smear of sealant if you wanted. I usually use the black loctite gasket sealant.