99 camry oil pan resealing and other quotes from dealer.

[mnsweeps]

My local toyota dealer in North Hollywood CA mentioned the oil pan is leaking and recommends pan resealing. He quoted $395 Is it that complex to do? I am not a car guy and have no idea..

if not the dealer who can do it ? Pepboys ? Sears auto ?

Okay here are 3 issues dealer said the car has and quotes.

1) Oil pan reseal - $395
2) Valve cover gasket - $170
3) Transmission oil pan - $140.

[95PimpingCamry]

That is way to much to pay to change an oil pan gasket. And never take your car to a place like PepBoys or Wal-Mart. I don't know about Sears. I would find a reputable independent garage to first determine if your oil pan is leaking (cause it sounds like the dealership is trying to scam you). If it is leaking ask the independent shop how much they would charge.

Find a good garage here:
http://www.cartalk.com/content/mechx/find.html

[1996camry]

that is way to much for just resealing oil pan job. I would chose independent car shop...click the link below then do a search "recommend machanic".
make sure you look location in your area and make few phone calls (compare price $ for the job). look for shop that specialty for your model. You also can read comments from other people.

http://www.cartalk.com/

I wouldn't go Sear to have them work on your car.

[ASG14]

Originally Posted by 1996camry

that is way to much for just resealing oil pan job. I would chose independent car shop...click the link below then do a search "recommend machanic".
make sure you look location in your area and make few phone calls (compare price $ for the job). look for shop that specialty for your model. You also can read comments from other people.

http://www.cartalk.com/

I wouldn't go Sear to have them work on your car.

Sears is a shithole and hires people that can't even change a damn tire, ugh.

As he said, use an independant shop.

[Hajoca]

Just for comparison... Last Wednesday, a co worker of mine (Milton, Ontario Canada) went to a Transmission repair shop, thinking it was ATF leak at the pan.

Trans shop was an independent (not franchise like AMMCO) gave him an estimate of $130 CDN including oil change.

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by mnsweeps

My local toyota dealer in North Hollywood CA mentioned the oil pan is leaking and recommends pan resealing. He quoted $395 Is it that complex to do? I am not a car guy and have no idea..

if not the dealer who can do it ? Pepboys ? Sears auto ?

Okay here are 3 issues dealer said the car has and quotes.

1) Oil pan reseal - $395
2) Valve cover gasket - $170
3) Transmission oil pan - $140.

None of those are complex...the last two are trivial; the first is slightly more involved since it usually requires popping loose a bit of the exhaust system (assuming the car spent it's life in South Cali, 'tho, rust shouldn't be an issue, so the exhaust system thing shouldn't be a problem).

Would you *like* to be a car guy? For $50 in tools (floor jack, jackstands, trouble light, a basic 1/4" metric socket set, and a 30mm socket) and less than that in parts, you could do #2 and #3. Another $20 in tools and about $10 in parts, and you could do #1.

I'm also curious how the dealer came up with the three items. Unless they took the time to clean the oil off of the motor, there's no way they could've determined the pan gaskets were leaking -- often there's so much oil coming from the distributor seal or the oil seals behind the timing cover (which, since oil flows down and to the rear of the vehicle, ends up on the pans) that you can't figure out where the oil is coming from until you've completely cleaned the motor and then looked for new leakage.