My son needs to have the VVT solenoid on his 2011 Mazda CX-7 replaced. He is being quoted $915 + tax. This is a place I trust but that seems awfully expensive - estimates on generic websites for generic VVT solenoid replacements are just a couple hundred dollars. So can any mechanic tell me why this repair is so expensive?
Note: I’m getting this through my son so details are probably missing. If part of the cost was removing both valve covers and clean the oil sludge (son does not maintain his car with oil changes) and my son didn’t tell me, that would not shock me.
Shadetree mechanic here.
A quick search shows that the solenoid itself is pretty cheap - under $50. The labor looks to be around 3-4 hours to get at it, and put everything back together. So, $915 is probably about right. They are going to charge for an OEM part - probably $250, and a few hours of book-rate.
It seems that an independent shop could do this easily for maybe 1/2 that amount.
Just found out the full story. They are going to take off both valve covers and clean out the sludge and do a full oil flush in addition. Like I said I trust these guys and knowing the lack of oil changes this car has had, that seems reasonable to me.
Followup. They say it might be a timing chain issue or something they need to tear the engine down. Considering how inconsistent the roughness is re: only on cold starts. Rough idling. Gets better then gets worse, how likely is it that it is a timing chain issue?
If the motor is as sludged up as it sounds to be, I could easily imagine a car with a complex variable valvetrain could have problems leading to timing-caused roughness coming from the timing chain, the tensioners, anywhere really.
BUT would that be fixed with an oil flush?
Unlikely. Once stuff gets super crudded up (to use the industry standard term) nothing’s going to loosen the gunk short of physical effort like scrubbing or blasting parts in the parts washer.
Thanks for the info. Fingers crossed its the solenoid.
Pray for us lol
Ok hopefully final question. Got the car back today, runs great and no CEL. If it were a problem associated with the timing chain, would all of the problems and a CEL show up almost immediately?