Crank seal and valve cover gasket, is this a fair quote?

Wiz · #1 01-19-2004, 06:47 PM

My dealer did an oil change for me and mentioned that my valve cover gaskets and front crank seal are starting to leak. They are quoting $352 for the valve cover gaskets and $380 for the front crank seal. Is this a fair price or should I look elsewhere. I my self have not noticed any oil dripping from the car and the oil loss is not great enough to the extent that I have to add oil between changes. So if there even is a leak its very minimal.

They also mentioned my minor power steering leak which I knew about. I said check the o-ring but they seemed interested in having the whole thing rebuilt insted of taking the simple fix.

Maybe they are mistaking the powersteering fluid for oil? So what I'm asking here is are they trying to screw me over? If the crank seal and valve covers were really bad would I be smelling burnt oil, seeing puddles under my car or be losing alot of oil? Oh, and for some reason they never noticed this the last time they did an oil change (5000 miles ago when they were also replacing my rear clutch, all 4 tires and a sun visor)

The thing is I really don't have alot of money to keep doing major repairs every time I get my oil changed at this place. Any suggestions on what I should do?

As of right now I'm thinking about taking it to someone else for a second opinion. I know another shop that has worked on SVX's before that could take a look at it.

TomsSVX · #2 01-19-2004, 07:56 PM

do it yourself. the crank seal will be time consuming but not very difficult, and the valve cover gasket will also be time consuming due to the limited room to do it. The seals themselves will cost a pretty penny but the labor to do it is gonna be expensive. pick up a repair manual and check it out, if it's out of your league bring it to them but you should be able to do it with a dampener puller and other common tools.

Wiz · #3 01-19-2004, 08:09 PM

Thanks, but don't the reapir manuals cost like $200? (I think the ebay manual backup cds are a scam) That would proablly be most of the cost of the labor. I also won't be doing this anytime soon. Even if I did do it I would have to to wait for summer as I have no where to do it and I don't have the money to get it done by my dealer. If I had some idea of what I needed to do in order to get at these things I might be a little less adverse to the idea of doing it my self. But as of now it would be like driving on to a lake around here with no idea as to how thick the ice was.

EDIT, any ideas on where I can get a manual for less than $200? Subaruparts.com wants $203 for the 1994 SVX.

alia176 · #4 01-21-2004, 11:07 AM

Wiz,

If you're planning on replacing the crank shaft seal, then you might as well take care of the timing belt, water pump and other stuff in the area. This is going in pretty deep. Now, all this sounds horrific but the How to locker should have info on the famous timing belt replacement project. However, if you want to simply replace the valve cover gaskets, then you may be able to simply wing it w/o a manual! Don't forget to replace the valve cover bolt washers (tiny rubber washers).

In any event, wait 'till summer to do any work since none of this is life threatening. You can try to tighten up the valve covers a little bit to see if that slows down the leaking.

Good luck,

Ali
'92

NapaBavarian · #5 01-21-2004, 01:02 PM

I'd try to fix the PS leak first, then clean it out and look for the oil leak. My personal experience with the dealer is that they were nice people...inside...DEEP inside!!! However they need som wallet pading

TomsSVX · #6 01-21-2004, 02:44 PM

chilton makes a manual for the svx and it is only 20 - 30 bux go to your local auto parts store and ask them to order it fo you. it's quite simple for the valve covers but as said before the crank seal is a little more difficult.

#7 01-21-2004, 05:57 PM

Hi, I had my local repair shop replace the crank seal on my 94 SVX. It set me back $466.00. I had the same repair shop replace the valve cover gaskets about 4 months ago. I furnished the parts they did the labor. This cost me $230.00.

You may want them to take a good look at the cam shaft seals(4) and replace them also. Hope this helps.

Wiz · #8 01-21-2004, 08:39 PM

Thanks. I'll look into the manual. I will also contact my dealer about the power steering now that I have a bit more money.

The day right before I found out about the seals the primary hard drive in one of my computers died and I had to buy a new one which set me back $123. Talk about a bad 2 days. Now I'm reinstalling Windows 2000. GRR. Damn IBM harddrives. I lost 60gb of stuff. But on the good side I've been getting alot of clients for computer jobs, so things may not be so bad in the end.

Mr. Pockets · #9 01-22-2004, 09:29 AM

Wiz, I've replaced mostof the parts discussed on this thread so far. The only parts I haven't actually gotten to are the valve cover gaskets. Someday.

I replaced my timing belt and crank seal with a Chilton's manual, but there was definitely some guesswork involved. Normally a Chilton's manual covers very similar vehicles, but the one in question covers everything from the SVX to the Legacy, Impreza, Justy, etc. So it lacks a lot of specific SVX info.

Still, I did the above repairs (and more) with just that manual and a lot of patience.

I now own a set of factory manuals and I can tell you that they are *well* worth the price.

If you decide to do the repairs yourself, I can certainly offer you plenty of advice - as can many members on this site. If you decide to have the shop do the repairs, I would recommend skipping the valve cover gaskets for now and putting the money into replacing the timing belt, water pump and cam seals.