Valve Cover Gaskets.. How much did you guys pay??

bbacho2002

bbacho2002

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I am paying someone $450 this weekend to do my valve cover gaskets and replace a power steering line that was leaking.. is that a good price?? that price included parts.. Just got the car a month ago and already having problems.. lol .. any other problems that I should expect from ls ?? thanks
 
I paid 55 dollars for each side and replaced them myself. On a scale of 1-5 I would rate it a 3. It is not difficult, just time consuming. It should have been cheaper but I could not find the gaskets anywhere else in town except for the dealer...
 
bbacho2002 said:
I am paying someone $450 this weekend to do my valve cover gaskets and replace a power steering line that was leaking.. is that a good price?? that price included parts.. Just got the car a month ago and already having problems.. lol .. any other problems that I should expect from ls ?? thanks
Click to expand...

I can only speak for the V8..if you are paying $450 for parts AND labor (Im assuming this is the complete job, both sides) then that is a great deal. I think I paid somewhere around $550 to $600 for just the labor at the dealership.
 
$1,400 at the dealership + parts - it is not uncommon for the job to run $2,000 in total (at the dealership).

This includes labour, coils, plugs and gaskets.
 
Dealers are a ripoff!!!

Just got mine done yesterday. $475 parts-labor-cost. Done at a very professional shop. I dont care what dealer you go to, they are bad news. And from exsperience, they often dont do as good of a job.
 
wow...

Do I always need to replace the coils and plugs as well or is it just recommended.... ???
 
if your car is mis-firing - and it due to the spark plug wells being full of oil - then the gaskets are allowing oil to pass into the wells. Chances are some of the coils have been damaged.

It is such a huge pain to change the gaskets (or high cost to have someone do it) that throwing in new plugs and coils while you have it apart is a smart thing to do - IMHO.
 
Thanks for the advice

the car is not misfiring or anything but Im for sure replacing the plugs and checking the coils to see if they need to be replaced.. thanks everyone for their advice
 
That is a great deal. The stealership quoted be $800-$1000 to do mine. I gave them the finger and did it myself for $120 in parts. However, it did take 11 hours.:runaway:
 
was it hard??? did you get the vcg kit or just the gaskets?? did you change your coils and plugs too??
 
FYI..I gave an incorrect price on my post above...it was around $900 labor and that included a $100 off coupon
 
yes - it is hard - very tight, hard-to-see quarters.

the passenger-side took a few hours, but the driver's side took the rest of the day.

DSCF2032 (Small).JPG
 
and may I add...it was $900 WELL worth spent.


I initially spent 6 hours on it...the passenger side I could have done fairly easily (but I started with the Drivers side first) but the drivers side? It's tight, uncomfortable, tight, tight, and did I say...tight?

Others here have done it themselves with not much fuss...but not me.


If I had it all to do over again..I'd do the passenger side myself, then take it to a dealer and let them do just the drivers side. That probably would have saved me $500 or so in labor
 
Mechanic just got done.. took him 6 hrs .. He said the coils were a lil wet but not damage.. did not replace.. ( Im crossing my fingers so I dont have problems ) .. did change the plugs .....
 
bbacho2002 said:
was it hard??? did you get the vcg kit or just the gaskets?? did you change your coils and plugs too??
Click to expand...

2 of those hours were spent looking for a missing valve cover gastet bolt. I thought I had dropped it in the engine.:eek: If you have the money, take it in. At the time, there was no way I could pay that.

I got the kit with O-rings and all. I did not change the coils and plugs. I cleaned the plugs and wiped the oil off of the coils. There were not soaked. It has been over 10k later and I still do not detect a misfire.

FYI...It's a nuckle buster!
 
Here is the breakdown of cost to have this work done at my local dealer earlier this year:

PARTS
Coils 6 @ $100 = $600
Gaskets 2 @ $ 42 = $ 84
Plugs 8 @ $ 4.75 = $ 38
Fuel Filter 1 @ $ 19 = $ 19
TOTAL $741

ALL LABOR $655

GRAND TOTAL $1396

(My out-of-pocket was $290, including my one-time $100 deductible, due to my extended warranty.)
 
Wow.. This repair could be really expensive if done at the dealership.. I guess the $450 that I paid was not bad after all, ( specially cuz they replace a power stearing line that was leaking too ) .. Just got it back yesterday and I hope it does not give me any major problems..
 
I just finished the job myself, and have to admit it took the better part of two days. It's nnot difficult but very time consuming. If you have the correct tools it goes pretty well. Most of my time was spent fixing the mistakes I made. The first was breaking a PCV hose about ten minutes into the job, and the second, well I'm still working on. The dipstick and casing need to be pulled out ever so slightly to get to a bolt on the driver side of the VC. Getting it back in has turned into quite a project. That put aside if you have the spare time and feel like saving a couple hundred I would suggest giving it a shot. This way you get a chance to make sure all the covers and seems are cleaned real well. Also with hte money you save you can go ahead and replace all the coils and boots. I went and even changed out all the plugs. It seemed silly to go through all this and not swap everything. The last thing I want is to have to go back in there in a month for a bad coil I was to cheap to replace initially. Good luck Oh and by the way, watch how much you pay for coils. I got some crazy quotes but if you look around parts warehouses you should be able to get em for no more than about $30 each, and they come with new boots. ( 2 Seals, 12 o-rings, 8 coils w/boots and 8 double platinum plugs ran me about $380. Sounds like alot for parts but a dealership is going to charge about $800 + just for these parts and god only knows what for labor..
 
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