What's a good charge for valve cover gasket replacement?

[szh]

Hi, all.

My valve cover gaskets are leaking. Argh

Frontier Infiniti is doing the job today for $850 labor and $45+tax on the parts (ouch)! Is this a reasonable price? I know that getting into the engine is a lot of work, but this seems pretty high.

I considered going elsewhere, but then thought that having people who see Infiniti engines more often are far more likely to be better at doing the work ... sigh!

Z

[911/Q45]

You're already committed to the deal, why would you want to know if you got hosed?

[DAEDALUS]

Considering it's a dealer, that's reasonable. Again, T3 charges $500 for it and they, like most independents, charge less per hour than the dealers. You can look at it like the $350 difference is the "west coast and bay area differential". What do you get for $45 besides RTV?

[szh]

You're already committed to the deal, why would you want to know if you got hosed?

I know ... I was just whining, I guess ...

Z

[Q45tech]

ALL V12, V10, V8 and V6 engines have leaking valve covers ......the angle of the heads vs flat at top on I4 and I6! Every brand, every make, from every country and every planet and star system have leaks...........some are worse some are better depending on oil change habits.

You didn't say if you have an active car [add 1 hour] or TCS [add 1.3 hours] or both [add 2 hours].

With our low labor rate of $68 per hour we charge 7 hours for the basic Q plus any increment for options [ up to 9 hours] + parts .

Sounds like a decent dealer price considering the cost of operating in SF/SJ, California.

Not exactly cost effective to drive roundtrip to Atlanta to save $250-$300.

This like chain guides/chains/plugs/under plenum hoses has a high labor vs low parts cost against the more normal 55% parts and 45% labor of most work.

The worst is transmission rebuilds where $100-$200 worth of soft parts require 15 hours to change......see why trannies are best rebuilt in factories [assembly lines] where you can train people and get them to work for $12-13/hr {rural Tennessee].

[brucepelletier]

I'm in San Francisco and use either Niello Infiniti in Concord (service advisor Jeff Raaberg) or Penninsula Infiniti in Redwood City for my work. Penninsula and Frontier are under the same ownership but I prefer the people at Penninsula. Work with advisor Vince Lopez for the best service. He's very helpful will work with you to get the best price. But it is expensive to do work around here. Wish we Bay Area Infiniti owners could find a good independent shop but I've never found one.

[Q45tech]

94 and later actually have a [2] very expensive 1 piece gasket with the integral rear cam bore plugs vs the 90-93 which use RTV and separate rubber plugs.....actually the 94 takes less time due to not having to scrape out all the old RTV from the channels and polish/grind/scrape the old RTV off the heads.

The book time actually doesn't differeniate between any models! They never got to it assumming that it would all wash out for the manufacturer [warranty]............listen to the howls when a tech gets both a traction and active car! g dam, mfing Q, piece of S Nissan...............but we love them.

We were just talking about all the things that will go wrong with the 2002Q and G35 the other day..........2006-2007 ought to be interesting...........30,000 G35 sold that was the same as the 90 and 91 Q together ......happy days are here again! Sell baby sell....but what we need are V8 with leaky valve coverbers and fried knock sensors and plenum hoses.....guess we'll never see guide change outs again.

[szh]

Hi, Bruce.

I'm in San Francisco and use either Niello Infiniti in Concord (service advisor Jeff Raaberg) or Penninsula Infiniti in Redwood City for my work. Penninsula and Frontier are under the same ownership but I prefer the people at Penninsula. Work with advisor Vince Lopez for the best service. He's very helpful will work with you to get the best price. But it is expensive to do work around here. Wish we Bay Area Infiniti owners could find a good independent shop but I've never found one.

I live in the Evergreen Hills east of 101 in San Jose, so the other Infiniti dealers are simply too far away to be useful. Frontier Infiniti is about 2 miles from where I work ... so it is convenient for me to drop the car off there in the mornings and get to work in 10 minutes after that. Also more convenient to pick up the car in the evenings - I can leave work at 6:15 to 6:30pm, get to Frontier within 15 minutes and be on my way in another 10 minutes!

I sure wish we had somebody like T3 or Jerry Tucker (I hope I got the name right) here in the Bay Area.

Z

[szh]

94 and later actually have a [2] very expensive 1 piece gasket with the integral rear cam bore plugs vs the 90-93 which use RTV and separate rubber plugs.....actually the 94 takes less time due to not having to scrape out all the old RTV from the channels and polish/grind/scrape the old RTV off the heads.

Mine is a 1995 Q standard model. So, I guess it would be the 7 hour job - with gaskets being changed rather than RTV being replaced!

Z

[szh]

I guess one good news about this Frontier Infiniti work is that I get to keep the G35 loaner for two more days.

Of course, today, my wife decided she wanted it. So I am driving her Acura 2.2CL today and she is having fun with the G35!

Z

[Q451990]

the 94 takes less time due to not having to scrape out all the old RTV from the channels and polish/grind/scrape the old RTV off the heads.

What is the best way to get the old RTV off? I've done this job before, and that was the main trouble. I just scraped like hell for a long time and decided if it was on there that good hopefully the new stuff would stick to it. Everything held up well, but I didn't get a long-term test in since the guides failed within 6-8 months. I've never gotten a great seal from the dealership. Ususally good for a couple of years max.

Heath

[911/Q45]

I used a dental pick, glad I wasn't paying a tech for all the time I spent scraping!

[longrunQ]

I got my car back two days ago from replacing both valve cover gaskets and replacing my spark plugs with NGK platinum tipped ones. Total cost was $535

It would have cost about $390 if I wanted to do the valve cover gaskets only.

[Q45tech]

Good point unless your plugs are under 30,000 miles just put new ones in when every you have a gasket resealed as it takes an extra 15 minutes then.

Glad to see Ark is so inexpensive!

[mike, kim, et al.]

My '94 Q was gone through bumper-to-bumper and valve cover gaskets ran $714 for labor, plus nominal parts charge.

[greg_atlanta]

Yikes!

Reminds me why I don't want another Q45 if my '92 bites the dust. I've been tempted to buy a '94-'96 for $8-10K -- but then I'm just starting the $10K+ rehab all over again.