After noticing that my car seemed to be leaking quite a bit of antifreeze from some unknown place on the engine, I decide to take it in to Pep Boys to have them run a cooling system check. A couple hours later, they called to tell me that it looked like the head gasket is the culprit. In addition to the head gasket itself, they mentioned another incidental gasket plus the fuel filter in the parts estimate. Factoring in machining the head, the estimate comes out to about $940. So far I’m only in for $27.99 for the checkup.
Here’s the deal, though. My car is a 94 Eagle Summit ESi with about 120,000 miles on it. I like the car, but I’ve got to face the fact that it’s old and not exactly immaculate. I bought it a couple of years ago for about 3K$ and have had pretty good luck with it until now. The prior owner had dented in the front bumper during a minor fender bender and the paint is intact with a few scratches in the clear coat. It’s fun to drive and gets good gas mileage (30 higway, 24 city).
Should I just go ahead and bite the bullet and get another car to replace it? I can’t really afford a new car, so I’m thinking about a used car that’s no more than 5 years old. My daily commute to and from work is only 7 miles on relatively good streets, so I don’t really worry about putting 20,000 miles/year on the odometer. On the down side, my wife isn’t working right now and I’m waiting on my brother to pay off a loan that I gave him. On the plus side, I will be getting an income tax refund this year and my vacation / sick time sell-back check will probably be here by the end of this month. I don’t relish the idea of a monthly payment and higher car insurance rates, but I don’t want to put almost $1000 on my credit card to fix a car that may only be worth $1000.
In this situation, what sounds like the better option: Fix the borderline car and drive it for another couple of years or get a newer vehicle and resign myself to monthly payments for a few years? No pressure here. I’m just wondering if you’ve been in a similar situation and had to make this type of decision.
Thanks!
PS: I’m considering looking for something like a '01 Ford Focus, which seems to re-sell around here for between 5-6K$. They seem decent for the price to me. Opinions?
Though I don’t have any repair estimates, I would assume that a replacement gasket is a rather simple affair…if you have a torque wrench, that is.
The mechanic unbolts the intake and exhaust manifolds and timing belt…marking the position of the latter…and loosens the head bolts, which releases the head as a unit. Both the head and block mating faces are scraped clean of the old gasket, a new gasket is put in place, and NEW head bolts are installed to torque specs, tightened in a spiral pattern starting from the center. The timing belt is put in its original setting, and the manifolds are reattached.
Should take about an hour or less for an experienced mechanic.
I think that the estimate may be correct in this case. I had the timing belt replaced on this car a couple of years ago by a local foreign car mechanic and the labor alone supposedly took 4 hours because of how the engine is designed. I think he may have had to unbolt the engine from mounts and lift it part way to get the job done. Parts and labor on that trip was $400. A gasket was replaced that time, too. (I wonder if it happens to be the other gasket on this current estimate?)
Anyway, shouldn’t the head be machined as a matter of course on this kind of repair? I’d want the surface to be pristine when that new gasket is seated in there. It would be a waste to have to do it because of badly-mated surfaces
I might go and get another estimate somewhere else, but I don’t want to hem and haw on getting this done or getting a newer car.
It not as simple as slapping in a new gasket as suggested. There is most likely a reason the gasket let go and that is why machining of the head was in your estimate. And if there is any warpage of the cylinder block, the new gasket won’t last long. A good mechanic will check the deck flatness before attempting to install a new gasket. I don’t know how much it would cost but I would want the head removed and found out the exact reason it blew before making a decision on whether to fix or replace the car. The Eagle Summit was built by Mitsubishi and 120,000 miles seems to be about how long their products last before major repairs are required. I would probably go for another car.
I have never dealt with an honest Pep Boys. I would seriously consider a second opinion.
And racer72 is absolutely correct: replacing the head gasket on a car is serious business and any reputable mechanic will have the head machined. I had this done on my 93 Chevy Cavalier and I had the rare fortune to have a referral from a coworker of an impeccably honest mechanic who told me the entire procedure that would be done to the car, which included sending it to their machine shop. The price was below $500 and the car has not had a single problem since.
In deciding whether you should replace the car, the budget criteria should be that you should only consider it if the amount of your monthly pay out in car repairs on your current vehicle exceeds that of a monthly car payment. In this case, $940 for a one time job, assuming it is done correctly, will not make that threshold and car payments on a different vehicle will not be in the works.
I think Enola Straight might have been thinking of the valve cover gasket rather than the head gasket. At least that’s my guess anyway.
FTG,
It is tempting to go and repair this vehicle in order to avoid monthly payments, higher insurance rates, not to mention plate and registration fees. However, this repair is going to cost about as much as this car is worth if it was in good running condition–which it’s not. Granted, my daily commute is short, but I’m wondering if my money might not be better spent on upgrading to another vehicle. I have the money to repair it right now, but it would put a fair-sized dent in the savings account. (I don’t really want to rack this up on the Visa card.) I’m still considering going the repair, but I can’t afford to be nickle and dimed to death on this car.
Cyrokk,
Your post makes me want to definitely check into getting another estimate. I’ll probably drop my car off at my local garage to see what they estimate for repairs. If I can get it done for less than $750 I’ll probably go ahead and get it done.
racer72,
Don’t think I’m forgetting your suggestion to get a different car. I’ve heard that Mitsubishi engines sometimes tend to get flaky (read: expensive) with age. I can see getting this repaired and having the transmission go out. Or the A/C. Or the water pump. Or the alternator. You get the idea. The Pep Boys’ estimated repair cost will probably total as much as I would pay for the first 7 months of payments on a newer vehicle. This doesn’t include plates, registration, or insurance for the first 6 months.
If this problem had surfaced about 6 months from now I’d be able to make a clearer decision on whether to repair or replace the car. This assumes that no other major expenses happen during that time, of course.
Thankf for the suggestions so far! BTW: About my Ford Focus idea–what do you guys think of them for short daily commutes and the occasional 400 mile road trip?
No, intake and exhaust manifolds, timing belt, and new bolts (which applies to heads on some, but not all, engines) are associated with removing the head, not the valve cover. I will grant that his estimated time is more realistic for valve cover replacement on some engines.
This line of thinking is often a fallacy. If your goal is to sell the car, it certainly applies. But if your goal is to drive the car, the car’s value to you as transportation could make it worthwhile to invest in the repairs.
Yes, there’s the question. Are you better off spending $X to fix this one, or taking that $X and whatever (if anything) you can get for selling this one as is to buy a replacement.
Funny someone should mention this…My 1989 Dodge Daytona CS Turbo (cost me $2750 when I bought it in 2001; all paid at once) just blew its head gasket right after Christmas 2003. No one could look at it till Jan. 5. The engine guys are machine-shopping it too. They also mentioned that it needs new cylinder bolts and that it had started trying to run on only two cylinders instead of the full four (that explains the violent shaking that made me feel sick while driving it).
Considering that it has already cost me a chunk in repairs and that this newest job is in the $1k range, I’m looking into the pre-owned cars that I can get through my credit union.
Right after Thanksgiving my daughter’s 90 T-bird blew the head gaskets. The shop told us it would run around $900 to repair. Now, considering she only paid $1000 for it to begin with, and the A/C doesn’t even work, we are all for junking it and getting a newer model.
Normally, I would say fix it and keep it on the road, but this car has been a headache from day one. The only thing, IMHO, it had going for it was the 10-CD changer.
I’d do a cost analysis. If you bought a new vehicle, what would the payments be? If $250 per month, in four months time you’d be money ahead to fix it. Today’s cars should last well beyond 100,000 miles.
I have a friend (with a relatively short commute) who buys a beater for $500 - $750, never does any maintenance of any sort, and replaces it when something major dies. The cars generally last a year or a year and a half. I think he may be coming out ahead on the deal.
my SO(pro mechanic) says if you brought it here he would do the job for $600.
side note: i would do anything to avoid a monthly car payment, which i have enjoyed going without for two years now… freeing up a couple of hundred dollars a month by keeping your current car running just seems like a much better deal…
of course, the luxury of having an in-house mechanic (who loves me!) makes that a lot easier for me than for most people.
I’ll tell you , it’s great not having a monthly car payment, not to mention the lower plate costs and insurance. But I can’t ignore the fact that I feel more confident driving a newer car. The Summit has been okay for me, cosmetic problems aside. The mileage is good and it takes off and handles great. However, I’m getting moisture in the trunk from somewhere during wet weather, the car stalls easily if it gets splashed underneath the right-hand side of the engine compartment, and there’s an oil leak in roughly the same spot as the coolant leak. (Is this also possibly fixed by the gasket replacements as well?) I’d also like to have a 4-door now that I have a grandkid to haul around from time to time.
I’m going to pick up my car at Pep Boys this afternoon and drop it at my local foreigh car mechanic to see how his estimate jives up. If his price is significantly lower than the first one, I’ll probably bite the bullet and get the job done.
FWIW, I’ve been looking in the Sunday classified ads and car dealership ads to see what’s out there. Looks like I’ve got a wide selection of vehicles I can get for under $150 / month through financing from my credit union. Pretty tempting…
