Cost to replace Valve Cover Gasket?

Might help if you told us what model / year you have. As commonly stated here, engine starts on a combination of spark, fuel and air. find which one is missing and go from there. If you can't get it at least running poorly, you can't get a good diagnosis on anything else.

Likely a S-series...? Strange, 4 places/people had the plugs out and only the third noticed the oil in the plug wells? If oil has saturated the spark plug boots then the spark is probably grounding out. If it is an S-series 'Compression Sense Timing' could easily be thrown off by this and unable to make heads or tails of the situation.

Goto Saturnfans.com Type in "valve cover" in their search bar. Study the results.

$350 will easily buy decent tools and parts needed but not the skill. If you understand the walkthroughs people have done then give it a try.

No starts are usually very easy to diagnose unless they're sporadic...

An S-Series valve cover replacement doesn't require much skill - just a bit of patience and confidence. If you have that and do it yourself, it will cost around $50. It is a very easy repair.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

hi all,

I posted on Oct. 3 about my problems with mechanics and getting a diganosis. I have a 1993 saturn SW2 station wagon. Since then, I spent about $550 for the 4th mechanic to change the spark plugs, spark plug cables, and supposedly clean the gasoline out of the engine because, they said, it had washed the rings, but the rings were still operational. Oh, and overcharge for putting a new tire on.

Now it's already starting to have problems again with starting. It's just like before: it seems to start ok in the morning or at night when it's cooler, but in the daytime, it's harder. Or when the engine is warm, it's harder. I have to press the gas pedal all the way to the floor to get the engine to catch, and sometimes it will just die if I take my foot off the pedal. Once it starts, and I'm backed out of the parking spot and moving forward, it's ok.

mecahnic #1 thought it was something electrical, but not anything fuel related. Pep Boys (#2) was worthless. The saturn dealership (#3) thought it was the spark plugs, the valve cover gasket, the fuel filter, the coolant temperature sensor, and thought it needed a fuel injection cleaning. They also wanted to sell me 4 new tires because I had one flat. Advanced Auto Dynamics (#4) decided it was the spark plugs and spark plug wires. They said it wasn't the valve cover gasket, that there was some leakage but that is common for Saturns, and just to check it each time I get an oil change.

That worked for about a week, and now it's starting up again. Any ideas about what I could suggest to mechanic #5? When I can go, that is....

Lane wrote:

Simple things first (or last), has the throttle body been cleaned?

Steve

I posted on Oct. 3 about my problems with mechanics and getting a diganosis. I have a 1993 saturn SW2 station wagon. Since then, I spent about $550 for the 4th mechanic to change the spark plugs, spark plug cables, and supposedly clean the gasoline out of the engine because, they said, it had washed the rings, but the rings were still operational. Oh, and overcharge for putting a new tire on.

Now it's already starting to have problems again with starting. It's just like before: it seems to start ok in the morning or at night when it's cooler, but in the daytime, it's harder. Or when the engine is warm, it's harder. I have to press the gas pedal all the way to the floor to get the engine to catch, and sometimes it will just die if I take my foot off the pedal. Once it starts, and I'm backed out of the parking spot and moving forward, it's ok.

mecahnic #1 thought it was something electrical, but not anything fuel related. Pep Boys (#2) was worthless. The saturn dealership (#3) thought it was the spark plugs, the valve cover gasket, the fuel filter, the coolant temperature sensor, and thought it needed a fuel injection cleaning. They also wanted to sell me 4 new tires because I had one flat. Advanced Auto Dynamics (#4) decided it was the spark plugs and spark plug wires. They said it wasn't the valve cover gasket, that there was some leakage but that is common for Saturns, and just to check it each time I get an oil change.

That worked for about a week, and now it's starting up again. Any ideas about what I could suggest to mechanic #5? When I can go, that is....

Lane wrote:

Sounds like a classic bad Coolant Temp Sensor:

But, just changing the sensor isn't usually the fix. The connector that connects to the sensor usually goes bad.

Another area of interest would be the EGR valve.

I hope this helps.

I posted on Oct. 3 about my problems with mechanics and getting a diganosis. I have a 1993 saturn SW2 station wagon. Since then, I spent about $550 for the 4th mechanic to change the spark plugs, spark plug cables, and supposedly clean the gasoline out of the engine because, they said, it had washed the rings, but the rings were still operational. Oh, and overcharge for putting a new tire on.

Now it's already starting to have problems again with starting. It's just like before: it seems to start ok in the morning or at night when it's cooler, but in the daytime, it's harder. Or when the engine is warm, it's harder. I have to press the gas pedal all the way to the floor to get the engine to catch, and sometimes it will just die if I take my foot off the pedal. Once it starts, and I'm backed out of the parking spot and moving forward, it's ok.

mecahnic #1 thought it was something electrical, but not anything fuel related. Pep Boys (#2) was worthless. The saturn dealership (#3) thought it was the spark plugs, the valve cover gasket, the fuel filter, the coolant temperature sensor, and thought it needed a fuel injection cleaning. They also wanted to sell me 4 new tires because I had one flat. Advanced Auto Dynamics (#4) decided it was the spark plugs and spark plug wires. They said it wasn't the valve cover gasket, that there was some leakage but that is common for Saturns, and just to check it each time I get an oil change.

That worked for about a week, and now it's starting up again. Any ideas about what I could suggest to mechanic #5? When I can go, that is....

Lane wrote:

Coolant temp sensor is a possibility. $10 for the part, another $7-10 for new coolant, takes about ten minutes to change.

Have the injectors been cleaned and checked, I have a 93 sl2 and had one of the injectors stick at about 130 thousand miles, replaced it then the injectors were mismatched and caused a lean misfire problem at idle which didnt occure all the time, i finaly got a set of injectors from a junkyard car and cleaned and tested them myself not an easy project! the stuff you put in the tank will not clean them enough to help! that stuff is only efective if you use it regularly.

-- Message posted using

er, don;t think so.

Oh that's good to know. I just ordered a Chilton's manual and a coolant temp sensor, but it it's also the connector, I guess I have to go back to the mechanic. bleah,.

Should it be simple for me to do myself with a chilton's manual?

Don't see why not. I did mine three years ago with the Haynes for reference.

Drain coolant Disconnect sensor Remove sensor Apply antisieze compound or teflon tape to threads of new sensor Install sensor Reconnect Refill coolant Start engine and idle for a minute or so Top off coolant

-30-

well the dealership said it needed a fuel injection cleaning too, but then they also tried to seel me four tires when I only had one flat.

I'll be keeping it in mind if changing the coolant temp sensor doesn;t do it, thanks!

Thank you , I;ll try that.

You need not drain the coolant. Just do it quickly and you will not lose much and then you can top it off after the job is done. Have everything ready to go and it will only leak coolant for a few seconds ...

Bob

The connector is easier to replace than the sensor:

You can buy an update for the 96 and up, if I'm not mistaken.

This is for the earlier years, to address the intermittent connection.