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What is a ballpark figure for a headgasket replacement on a 4-cyl car?

F

Fausto

Elite Member
My wife's Altima is consuming coolant at a rate which leads me to believe the head gasket is on its way out. I really don't want to pony up for this, but I'd rather spend a little now and stave off a car payment for at least another year or so.

Any clue what a reasonable charge for this would be?
 
guyver01 said:
Any clue what the right forum for this post would be?

I swear.. they hand out "Elite" titles to anyone this day and age.
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My apologies. I thought an actual thread about something substantive would be a nice change of pace from the torrent of bullshit we typically see here of late.
 
guyver01 said:
Any clue what the right forum for this post would be?

I swear.. they hand out "Elite" titles to anyone this day and age.
Click to expand...

Having all these separate forums is retarded. I wouldn't have seen his post in the garage, so he wouldn't have gotten my answer.
 
I got a really good deal on the last one I had done. Cost me 750 for parts and labor. I would bet on 1000 or more for most places though.
 
Fausto said:
My apologies. I thought an actual thread about something substantive would be a nice change of pace from the torrent of bullshit we typically see here of late.
Click to expand...

That's why they split up the forums. So that nothing substantive would ever be posted in one of the subforums that generates the most traffic. That's really my only complaint about this forum since they split it up...well, that and trollkemyst.
 
Texashiker said:
Is there water in the oil?

Might be the water pump going out.
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I honestly don't know, but in addition to the coolant consumption, the car is hard to start when it's been sitting for a few days which makes me think coolant is slowly seeping into at least one of the cylinders.
 
Don't go at the head gasket just yet.
Recently the water pump on my 4 cylinder started leaking enough to lower the level, but it never really dripped out where I could see it. It was evaporating back behind the timing cover. Took a while to find and fix that one.
 
skyking said:
Don't go at the head gasket just yet.
Recently the water pump on my 4 cylinder started leaking enough to lower the level, but it never really dripped out where I could see it. It was evaporating back behind the timing cover. Took a while to find and fix that one.
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Isn't there something you can add to the coolant that shows up under UV?

I just want to nip this in the bud before the problem becomes critical and strands my wife on the side of the road.
 
It just took some serious looking with a flashlight.
If it is burning it, one of the sparkplugs will be different.
 
Cost my sister about 800 bucks to get her car's head gasket changed. They also cleaned the throttle body and replaced the valve cover gasket. They also sent the head out to get it machined and tested. It wasn't bad really...
 
skyking said:
It just took some serious looking with a flashlight.
If it is burning it, one of the sparkplugs will be different.
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I actually just replaced all of the plugs and there was no significant difference between them. They all had a grey-ish cast to them, but that was about it.
 
alphatarget1 said:
Cost my sister about 800 bucks to get her car's head gasket changed. They also cleaned the throttle body and replaced the valve cover gasket. They also sent the head out to get it machined and tested. It wasn't bad really...
Click to expand...

Yeah, as I said I'm hoping to get another year or so out of this car so spending the equivalent of a few new car payments doesn't bother me too much. I just wanted a rough estimate so I am not surprised (or conned) when I get this thing fixed.
 
Fausto said:
Yeah, as I said I'm hoping to get another year or so out of this car so spending the equivalent of a few new car payments doesn't bother me too much. I just wanted a rough estimate so I am not surprised (or conned) when I get this thing fixed.
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What year is the Altima? 4 bangers are cheap to fix. If they do a head gasket on a V6 then they'd have to pull 2 heads off. Not fun...
 
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