J. Johnson wrote:
> Been a long-time reader of this forum and figured some of you may
> know enough to lend some advice.
> I've got a '96 Maxima SE with about 115k miles on it and it's in
> really great condition, with exception of a few things my local
> mechanic thought should be repaired.
>
> A few days ago, I found some small oil and coolant puddles under
> my front passenger side and took the car in to get checked out. The
> following is a list of advised repairs, repair times, and total parts
> +labor price:
>
> - Replace both left and right valve cover gaskets, 2.8 hours, $232
> - Replace oil pressure sender unit, 0.5 hours, $53
> - Replace upper radiator hose, 0.7 hours, $67
> - Replace power steering suction and pressure hoses, 1.3 hours, $328
> - Replace front passenger lower control arm, 2.3 hours, $357
>
> After tax, shop charges, etc... it comes out to about $1,100.
> Does anyone have any advice as far as pricing or maybe any of these
> repairs that would be fairly simple to do myself? The most complicated
> thing I've done to my car has been to replace the knock sensor or
> change the drive belts, so I'm definitely more of an amateur mechanic.
>
> Any advice is MUCH appreciated, being a college student and thinking
> about how to afford these repairs gives me a headache!
>
> Thanks,
> Josh
Replace both left and right valve cover gaskets - easy, but tedious. You
to remove some stuff just to get at the valve covers. The front facing
valve cover has 24-valve written on it. You should do this yourself,
give yourself time, like half a day, and keep track of all the parts.
Replace oil pressure sender unit - Easy as pie, do it yourself. The
sending unit usually sits just above the oil filter. If you can change
your oil, you can do this.
Replace upper radiator hose - easy as dirt. Don't even THINK of using a
mechanic for this one.
Replace power steering suction and pressure hoses - This may be a bit
challenging. the hoses are hard to get to at the rack end. You may want
to leave this to the mechanic. If you can't afford to do this job now,
you can wait, just keep an eye on your power steering fluid reservoir
and keep it topped up.
Replace front passenger lower control arm - Leave this to the mechanic.
Quite labor intensive. By the way, this has nothing to do with your leaks.
Also, none of these issues are life threatening to your car if the leaks
are slow. Just make sure all your fluid levels are OK. Once a week check
your oil, power steering and coolant levels. You can do each repair
slowly to spread out payments.
CD
|
