I think Gaskets change is due to some leakage issue(which is always there). For the belt, is it critical? And can I change it by myself? Can I buy the parts from Autozone?
Any suggestion? I spent $600 couple of months back to solve the coil issue which triggered the SES light. So I want to save cost on these two issues.
Depending on your mechanical ability and assuming you have access to tools and a service manual, you can probably accomplish all these yourself and save the cost of labor. The belt is now 9 years old so if it has not been replaced, consider yourself lucky and get this done. Leaking valve cover is not a major thing assuming it is only a small leak and you keep the oil level up/full.
Good luck. Shop around on the parts as these prices are likely high from Firestone.
For the belt, I searched in Autozone.com. The closest one comes out as KELLY_SPRINGFIELD BELT for a 1996 SATURN SL2 Unit Price: $9.99 Core Value*: $0.00 Part No.: 780K5 Weight: 0.45 lbs.
On Firestone's sheet, it is 755K5 Poly-Rib belt, is this the same item?
Their quote is $31.99, this is way off $9.99 price on Autozone.
Anybody did belt replacement before? This is just regular belt, right?
On napaonline.com, the closest one for belt comes out as: tem#: NBH25050778 Price: $ 21.49 Attributes: Belt - Serpentine Imperial Length: 78 3/8'' Top Width: 11/16'' # of Ribs: 5 Angle Degree: 40 Degrees
Confused now with which belt the Firestone is referring to...
About $20 at the dealer. Firestone is trying to rip you off.
Replacement:
Jack up right front. Remove wheel. Remove plastic splash guards. Use a 14 mm wrench to turn tensioner clockwise and remove tension from old belt. Remove old belt. Put new belt in. Replace splash guards Replace wheel Lower car.
It's about a 20 minute job with relatively simple tools. Use a jack stand to ensure that you don't drop the car on yourself.
$50 is a rip-off for labor for that job.
I don't know if the valve cover on a 96 is composite. If it is, buy the gasket kit at the dealer. Replacing that is about a 45 minute job.
Is there a motor mount in the middle of that belt somewhere? That's the only thing I could possibly think of that may make it more difficult. I remember replacing an alternator but all I had to do was to pull it off the tensioner pulley (which is great, by the way, takes all of the thinking out of it). Anyway, even if there is a motor mount, I still don't think it'd be that difficult of a task.
I replaced the valve cover gasket on my 1994 Saturn a few years back and I was initially a little nervous about it but looking back, I'd do it again. It's no big deal.
Get a Haynes Manual for the Saturn. They're pretty handy for these tasks (it's something like $10). You can find them at most auto parts stores.
Not really very complex. Remove the right front tire, take out the inner fender, hold the tensioner back, and replace the belt. Other than common tools, a belt routing diagram would be useful.
Autozone rents 'special' tools, such as ball joint presses, tubing benders, things that even a well equiped tool box might not have. They have a tool which will pull back the spring tensioner when replacing the belt, but I found that a socket on a long breaker bar worked just fine. Autozone does not rent common tools such as wrenches or jacks.
BTW, the rental is 'free'. Put down a deposit, and you get the deposit back when you return the tool.
The Chilton manual is about twice as thick. I have both, use both, no clear-cut best.
Get a second opinion as to belt service condition. A garage short of work will tell everyone they need a belt replacement. If you are inexperienced you can often be sold a belt you do not need and for more money than you should pay.
Most serviceable belts show some cracking across the face of the Vs. You really need to remove the belt to do a proper inspection and to see how deep the cracking is. (at that point you may want to install a new belt because of labor involved) I have not yet changed the original factory belt on my
96 sw1 with 230,000km. If you replace the belt keep the old one in the spare tire for a spare.
Make sure the new belt is not shorter than the old belt, as shorter will increase the tensioner loading on the alternator bearings. Some replacement belts are made longer to reduce the side loading and reduce alternator failure. I suspect there is a tension indicator on the tensioner. I tried several different belts trying to get the tension UP to what the indicator required on my Corvette, all the replacement belts were slightly longer. After finding a belt that got the indicated tension right I was happy for about two months until the alternator bearings failed. Replaced the alternator and used longer belt, end of problem, (8 yrs. ago).
When my car had about 75,000km, I had an ses light and an OBDII code that the Saturn dealer said was a common problem that would require two new ignition spark coils for about $300ea. I checked the spark plug wires with an ohm meter and replaced one obvious bad one. I was advised to clean the plate under the coils (and engine block) and remount them with clean bolts using dielectric grease on all (ground and hot) connections. Cost about $35 (dielectric grease is expensive and I also installed new platinum spark plugs), end of problem (6 yrs ago).
I had Jiffy Lube change my dual-cam belt out. Cost was $49.95 (incl. labor) and they did it in less than 10 minutes. No need to dismantle anything it seemed.
The valve cover gasket (aka a bead od expensive silicon on a sheet of cardboard) was around $65. I changed mine out at home in maybe less than an hour. Cleaning it all up was the hardest and most time consuming part. It also has the 4 silicon sparkplug gaskets which seem to be the biggest problem for leaks.
You should be able to do both yourself. IIRC the last belt I bought for my
95 SC2(which should be the same belt) was around $20 at NAPA. Its easiest to do if you jack it up and pull the right front wheel off and the splashguards, but it can be done with the car on the ground from the top(although its tough to get the new belt around the crank pulley doing it this way).
Last I knew a valve cover gasket from Saturn for my 95(which is a different gasket then your 96 if you have the composite(black) valve cover) was like $32 and that's easily done by yourself. The big thing is to make sure both mating surfaces are clean. The gasket itself is really a joke, you can make your own if you want. Its just a preformed piece of RTV on a piece of cardboard.
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