Cost to replace Valve Cover Gasket?

Hi all,

I'm about at my wit's end here. I'm currently on my 4th mechanic, and
am very worried he's going to go through the $900 I still have left,
and then some. Problem is: car doesn't start.

The first mechanic is a guy who just fixes cars in his driveway,
without a shop or proper tools.
He said it wasn't the fuel filter or fuel pump, but he thought it was
something electrical.
I told him I expected the spark plugs were bad, and he didn't even
look at that.

next, I took it to Pep Boys. They said that cylinder number one was
bad, that the engine had no compression, but they they don't know
about fixing no engines so I'd have to go to a place that does fix
engines. $100 please.

Next, I took it to the Saturn Dealership. They said the compression is
fine, the engine is still good, but it needs a valve cover gasket.
Apparently they didn;t even try to figure why it won't start; they
just took a look at the spark plugs and said: "oh they are covered in
oil, that's got to be the reason." They also said it needed some other
minor stuff that is not about getting it to start, like a coolant
temperature sensor and a tuneup. $915.00. So I took it out of there
to get
another opinion. $95 Please.

Now it's at mechanic number 4. At least he said: "let's get it to
start first, then figure out what else is wrong." Ok so he's
replacing the spark plugs and spark plug cables, putting one new tire
on it (that went flat while the car was just sitting for a month), and
doing his own diagnosis.
$550. wow. I only have $350 left.

So if I can't afford to pay this guy to do anything else, which I
think is likely, I may have to take
it somewhere to have somebody just open up the engine, slap a valve
cover gasket on it and close it back up again without doing anything
else. Shouldn't it be possible to get that for
about $350?

I've been reading the forum archives on here, and it looks to me like
a lot of you guys have been able to do this yourselves in your own
driveway in about an hour. It's just a valve cover gasket, not even a
head gasket. I tried to get mechanic number one to do it, but he
won't. I thin he's upset that his diagnosis got contradicted. he
never returned my call.

I understand it takes specialized tools and training to be able to do
it, but shouldn;t I be able
to find some place that would just change the gasket and get it done
for about $350?

 

Might help if you told us what model / year you have.
As commonly stated here, engine starts on a combination of spark, fuel and
air. find which one is missing and go from there. If you can't get it at
least running poorly, you can't get a good diagnosis on anything else.

 

Likely a S-series...? Strange, 4 places/people had the plugs out and
only the third noticed the oil in the plug wells? If oil has saturated
the spark plug boots then the spark is probably grounding out. If it is
an S-series 'Compression Sense Timing' could easily be thrown off by
this and unable to make heads or tails of the situation.

Goto Saturnfans.com
Type in "valve cover" in their search bar.
Study the results.

$350 will easily buy decent tools and parts needed but not the skill.
If you understand the walkthroughs people have done then give it a try.


No starts are usually very easy to diagnose unless they're sporadic...

 

An S-Series valve cover replacement doesn't require much skill - just a bit
of patience and confidence. If you have that and do it yourself, it will
cost around $50. It is a very easy repair.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

 

hi all,

I posted on Oct. 3 about my problems with mechanics and getting a
diganosis. I have a 1993 saturn SW2 station wagon. Since then, I
spent
about $550 for the 4th mechanic to change the spark plugs, spark plug
cables,
and supposedly clean the gasoline out of the engine because, they
said, it
had washed the rings, but the rings were still operational. Oh, and
overcharge
for putting a new tire on.

Now it's already starting to have problems again with starting. It's
just like before: it seems to start ok in the morning or at night when
it's cooler, but in the daytime, it's harder. Or when the engine is
warm, it's harder. I have to press the gas pedal all the way to the
floor to get the engine to catch, and sometimes it will just die if I
take my foot off the pedal. Once it starts, and I'm backed out
of the parking spot and moving forward, it's ok.

mecahnic #1 thought it was something electrical, but not anything fuel
related. Pep Boys (#2) was worthless. The saturn dealership (#3)
thought
it was the spark plugs, the valve cover gasket, the fuel filter, the
coolant
temperature sensor, and thought it needed a fuel injection cleaning.
They also wanted to sell me 4 new tires because I had one flat.
Advanced Auto Dynamics (#4) decided it was the spark plugs and
spark plug wires. They said it wasn't the valve cover gasket, that
there
was some leakage but that is common for Saturns, and just to check
it each time I get an oil change.

That worked for about a week, and now it's starting up again. Any
ideas about what I could suggest to mechanic #5? When I can go, that
is....

 

Simple things first (or last), has the throttle body been cleaned?

Steve

hi all,

I posted on Oct. 3 about my problems with mechanics and getting a
diganosis. I have a 1993 saturn SW2 station wagon. Since then, I
spent
about $550 for the 4th mechanic to change the spark plugs, spark plug
cables,
and supposedly clean the gasoline out of the engine because, they
said, it
had washed the rings, but the rings were still operational. Oh, and
overcharge
for putting a new tire on.

Now it's already starting to have problems again with starting. It's
just like before: it seems to start ok in the morning or at night when
it's cooler, but in the daytime, it's harder. Or when the engine is
warm, it's harder. I have to press the gas pedal all the way to the
floor to get the engine to catch, and sometimes it will just die if I
take my foot off the pedal. Once it starts, and I'm backed out
of the parking spot and moving forward, it's ok.

mecahnic #1 thought it was something electrical, but not anything fuel
related. Pep Boys (#2) was worthless. The saturn dealership (#3)
thought
it was the spark plugs, the valve cover gasket, the fuel filter, the
coolant
temperature sensor, and thought it needed a fuel injection cleaning.
They also wanted to sell me 4 new tires because I had one flat.
Advanced Auto Dynamics (#4) decided it was the spark plugs and
spark plug wires. They said it wasn't the valve cover gasket, that
there
was some leakage but that is common for Saturns, and just to check
it each time I get an oil change.

That worked for about a week, and now it's starting up again. Any
ideas about what I could suggest to mechanic #5? When I can go, that
is....

 

Sounds like a classic bad Coolant Temp Sensor:

But, just changing the sensor isn't usually the fix. The connector that
connects to the sensor usually goes bad.

Another area of interest would be the EGR valve.

I hope this helps.

RK
hi all,

I posted on Oct. 3 about my problems with mechanics and getting a
diganosis. I have a 1993 saturn SW2 station wagon. Since then, I
spent
about $550 for the 4th mechanic to change the spark plugs, spark plug
cables,
and supposedly clean the gasoline out of the engine because, they
said, it
had washed the rings, but the rings were still operational. Oh, and
overcharge
for putting a new tire on.

Now it's already starting to have problems again with starting. It's
just like before: it seems to start ok in the morning or at night when
it's cooler, but in the daytime, it's harder. Or when the engine is
warm, it's harder. I have to press the gas pedal all the way to the
floor to get the engine to catch, and sometimes it will just die if I
take my foot off the pedal. Once it starts, and I'm backed out
of the parking spot and moving forward, it's ok.

mecahnic #1 thought it was something electrical, but not anything fuel
related. Pep Boys (#2) was worthless. The saturn dealership (#3)
thought
it was the spark plugs, the valve cover gasket, the fuel filter, the
coolant
temperature sensor, and thought it needed a fuel injection cleaning.
They also wanted to sell me 4 new tires because I had one flat.
Advanced Auto Dynamics (#4) decided it was the spark plugs and
spark plug wires. They said it wasn't the valve cover gasket, that
there
was some leakage but that is common for Saturns, and just to check
it each time I get an oil change.

That worked for about a week, and now it's starting up again. Any
ideas about what I could suggest to mechanic #5? When I can go, that
is....

 

Coolant temp sensor is a possibility. $10 for the part, another $7-10
for new coolant, takes about ten minutes to change.

 

Have the injectors been cleaned and checked, I have a 93 sl2 and had one of
the injectors stick at about 130 thousand miles, replaced it then the
injectors were mismatched and caused a lean misfire problem at idle which
didnt occure all the time, i finaly got a set of injectors from a junkyard
car and cleaned and tested them myself not an easy project! the stuff you
put in the tank will not clean them enough to help! that stuff is only
efective if you use it regularly.

 

er, don;t think so.

 

Oh that's good to know. I just ordered a Chilton's manual and
a coolant temp sensor, but it it's also the connector, I guess
I have to go back to the mechanic. bleah,.

 

Should it be simple for me to do myself with a chilton's manual?

 

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:00:58 -0700, in rec.autos.makers.saturn

Don't see why not. I did mine three years ago with the Haynes for
reference.

Drain coolant
Disconnect sensor
Remove sensor
Apply antisieze compound or teflon tape to threads of new sensor
Install sensor
Reconnect
Refill coolant
Start engine and idle for a minute or so
Top off coolant
-30-

 

well the dealership said it needed a fuel injection cleaning too,
but then they also tried to seel me four tires when I only had one
flat.

I'll be keeping it in mind if changing the coolant temp sensor
doesn;t do it, thanks!

 

Thank you , I;ll try that.

 

You need not drain the coolant. Just do it quickly and you will not lose
much and then you can top it off after the job is done. Have everything
ready to go and it will only leak coolant for a few seconds ...

Bob

 

The connector is easier to replace than the sensor:

You can buy an update for the 96 and up, if I'm not mistaken.

This is for the earlier years, to address the intermittent connection.

RK