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everything that is wrong!

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xtascox

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Sep 13, 2007
Messages
1,132
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Well I took my car to monroe today to get aligned. I called in the afternoon and asked if it was done and all I got was, "There's a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed." The most prominent to the guy was that seemingly the oil pan gasket was leaking. They wanted $427.83 to fix it for an apparent 5 hour job... ok... so it takes 5 hours to drain the oil, drop the pan, clean it out and throw on a new gasket, bolt it up, and fill it back with oil. Give me a break, but correct me if I'm wrong, please.

Now here's all the other fun stuff that I went through and confirmed on my own(yay):
new front brakes
front end sway bar
control arm bushings
serpentine belt
sway bar links


Fun right? Well looks like the 3l is getting pushed back even further:cry:


*EDIT* I am doing all the work myself. Just in case anyone was thinking I would actually pay that...
 
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im just listing whats on the "estimate" they gave me mostly, all the bushings are shot and the guy actually said he didnt know if the sway bar itself was bad, i figured while im in there and spending the money i might as well replace everything i can afford.

But about the oil pan. its as simple as drain and drop right?
 
lmao, a sway bar go bad? I am sure it can happen, ie it breaks but i doubt that is common.

all of those items you listed are wear items anyway. Since there is a chance that you will have them apart when doing a 3L do it all at the same time.

as for the oil pan you need to drop the y-pipe to get the oil pan out. other then that it isn't to bad, I wouldn't say it takes 5 hours. and again if you are doing a 3L why worry about it now if you are not loosing an appreciable amount of oil?
 
I would suggest finding a mechanic that you can truely trust and won't rip you off.

This is why I learned never to go to any of those sort of places and to just find a good mechanic that is straight forward with me and reasonable in price.
 
BrApple said:
...and again if you are doing a 3L why worry about it now if you are not loosing an appreciable amount of oil?
Click to expand...

Yea thats what I'm thinking, but I would like to take care of everything but the oil pan just because its not going to be until next summer that I can do the 3l. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't making an ass out of myself arguing with the mechanic about the oil pan. He was going on about how the engine needs to be lifted up and whatnot. I couldn't stop laughing.
 
i actually have never messed with anything relating to suspension other than replacing the rear struts. Can anyone help me out because I don't see it to be a hard job to do the sway bar links/bushings, and the control arm bushings. Even if anyone wants to physically help out if you're from the area... it could turn into a small local meet:laugh:
 
The end links will take about 45 minutes if you are old and slow like me! Also I was doing them after work (second shift) so I wanted to be quiet. That time includes jacking the car and takeing the tire off.
 
BrApple said:
as for the oil pan you need to drop the y-pipe to get the oil pan out. other then that it isn't to bad, I wouldn't say it takes 5 hours.
Click to expand...

i think the guy might have been giving him book hours. IIRC when i had my oil pan gasket changed, my mechanic who always gave book hours (which i didn't mind because he was a VERY trustworthy person) said it would take several hours...i dunno exactly how many but the final bill for that was over $300. Not to mention i needed new exhaust bolts cause the old ones snapped off they were so rusted...so i total the job took pretty much as much time as he quoted.

On a 98 there's a good chance his bolts are rusted to hell too.
 
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