Is $320 a lot to fix a gasket valve cover?

Question

I have an oil leak and the nissan dealer told me $350. Now another place is saying $320. Isn't that kind of high just to repair an oil leak? Its a 95 Nissan maxima?

Answer 1

That's about the price I would expect from a dealer. Yes it seems high, but it's almost all labor cost. A good valve cover gasket cost around $25 - $35. So that leaves around $300 for labor. Considering labor cost at a typical service center is around $125/hr, they must be figuring it will take them close to 2½ hours. But I digress....

This is not a difficult fix, albeit a little time consuming. You or someone you know could probably do it in a few hours if you have the right tools. Take a look at the leaking valve cover and you can probably determine how difficult it will be to remove. Even if you spent a few dollars on a book for your Nissan (IE. Hanynes Manual) you'd still be cheaper off and have the manual for other problems that are bound to arise. And there's a certain satisfaction in fixing it yourself.

Lastly, you might me able to lesson or even stop the leak by just tightening the valve cover bolts a little. You should use a torque wrench to do this so all the bolts are all tightened the same or you may warp the valve cover. What have you got to lose? It's already leaking!

Answer 2

Nissan Valve Cover

Answer 3

WOW! I'm in the wrong line of work if people think that's a good price to pay for a valve cover gasket replacement!!! I guess I'd go buy a repair manual at Auto Zone for $20-$25, a seal for $15-$20,a cheap set of necessary tools a Wal-Mart for $20-$25,take 2-3 hours of my weekend and save $250 !! Silly me,huh?!

Answer 4

320 for a valve cover gasket!! yeah thats only too high. valve cover is right on top of the engine,and most of the time easy job to do.also worst place to get repairs is the dealer. go somewhere else or get a buddy to do it. also check into any vo tech colleges around your area,they may be accepting outside jobs and can do the work for you for near nothing.the gasket itself is often less than 10 bucks.call around

Answer 5

It's about right. Most of the cost is labor. The gasket is cheap. Take a look under the hood and see just how much crap the mechanic has to remove just to get to the valve cover gasket. Then he has to replace it and put all that crap back together. It takes a long time.

Answer 6

I think you need to add a little more info, but the gasket seals the gap between the valve/rocker cover and the cylinder head and stops any oil from seeping through.

Answer 7

that is definitley a lot!! A typical valve cover gasket should run between $150 and $200!! I work at a dealer- and it's only about $200 here!

Answer 8

It's reasonable to assume you're going to pay more than 40% of the total cost in just labor alone. I've done it on Nissan 300zx & there's some things involved, but you can do it yourself for just the cost of parts. Get a good manual for your car and start studying, you might just like doing it:)

Answer 9

That's normal for such a repair.
In the Netherlands it would be more (as is the price of petrol: it's about $6.30/gallon over here!)
In this case: don't look at the price, but look at which dealer looks best to you (or which is the friendliest). Because if the repair isn't done good enough, it might give new (expensive) trouble.

Answer 10

Maybe there's other needed service you could have done at the same time to save on labor costs. Timing belt/ water pump/ idler tensioner and pulley? Also check for technical service bulletins on your engine that could be performed at the same time.
http://www.mycarstats.com