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