I never thought I would see the day...

[RoundTop]

This was wierd today, I needed to replace my timing belt, so I called canadian tire for a price quote... not only could then not get the parts..not only could they not find my car in their database (96 GS)... they quoted my $450CDN for labour.

I decided to call Wolfe Mazda to find out the part cost and why not get a quote on the job. First of all the quote for labour was $360 (+$135 for the belt), so lower than canadian tire... when I mentioned what canadain tire quoted me as a "wow, I can't believe you are cheaper" he offered me an addition 10% off the total bill. I'll be taking it in there tomorrow to get the work done.

Never thought I would see the day I took the car to a dealership because they had a lower price.

[lok]

i believe it will be cheaper if u goto little car shops instead of the dealer.. u dunt know any shops at all?...

[n_o_s_21]

I feel sorry 4 you. I just bought a timing belt and new tensioner from lordco. (93 rs) It cost me less than $80 for both, and I think I could instal it myself, The job looks easy in the chilton book.

[RoundTop]

a) it is my only car, I can't afford to screw up
b) the V6 is a much more difficult timing belt replacement according to chilton
c) no, don't know any small shops (at least that I trust)... the last one I used was RX-7 only
d) I don't have the tools for a proper replacemnt (no torque wrench, etc)

[RoundTop]

Well...good thing I took it to a shop, bad things though..

valve cover gasket was worn and letting oil into the plugs... ruined my wires and plugs as well. There goes another 500CDN in parts and labour. At least they are giving me a 15% discount now to save me from taxes.

Sometimes really low mileage is a bad thing. 8 years old with less than 100,000 kms (only had 80,000 at 7 years old) means lots of short trips...which killed the valve cover gasket early. Damn.

good news is that I didn't blow the disty or coil, that it was caught, and that the water pump was fine, so no need to replace that. also, being a mazda dealership they have the parts (or can get them quick).

Oh yeah, also told the guy of the modifications I was doing and he seemed pretty good with it, he'll look into advancing my timing as well.

[MX3-Freak]

500CND to replace a valve cover gasket?

Ill do it for 300 lol.

<small>[ September 21, 2004, 07:42 PM: Message edited by: MX3-Freak ]</small>

[Redhouse]

whoa whoa whoa roundtop..

i bought a pair of perfectly good, used Magnacore ignition leads with no signs of hardly being used... on ebay for 35usd.

mazda in victoria said they'd do both gaskets (not including parts) for less than 200$ labour.

there's a great walk through on probetalk.com about doing IM gaskets/pheno spacers and valve cover gaskets... go searching.

no way with a bit of research and patience will the job cost 500$.

to get the ignition leads you have working "enough" til a pair comes up for sale:

a bit of silicone sealant and lotsa good electrical tape will fix cracked sparkplug insulation leads until you find a replacement set on ebay or wherever. one you've pulled the leads, clean them well and soak up the oil from the spark plug holes with a good shop paper towel so it won't leave behind paper bits (like those blue shop paper towels from can. tire)... a long headed screwdriver can help push the towel down to soak it up but WRAP the screwdriver in the towel.. don't let the metal scratch the porcelain of the spark plug... it could crack it.

reuse the leads you fixed - the cracked ones anyways.. the silicone sealant and electrical tape will stop the spark energy from arcing from the leads into the grounded engine block, therefore not causing the sparkplug to spark fully, if at all...(let the silicone set for a few hours to cure before wrapping in tape (if they are visibly cracked)

the dealership/garage will kill you on the cost of new ignition wires. this will save you a bit of cash.

remember - even if you start the valve cover gasket job and get stuck - you've probably saved yourself enough in labour costs to tow the vehicle to a mazda dealership or trusty garage by taking some of the bits off..

you've got nothing to lose if you have a few basic tools and rent or buy a torque wrench for the valve cover bolts. you can get the gaskets (and grommets and bolts if needed) at a dealership or autoparts store, the liquid gasket sealant just about anywhere.. while you're on ebay, buy one of those cd repair guides for yer mx3 if you don't already have one. it'll help a lot.

btw: chiltons isn't that good... the shop repair manuals on ebay are much much better. AND theres a great, easy to follow (from what i hear) guide on probetalk (written by a user Leska) on timing belt replacements... look it over.. maybe its not as bad as you think?

<small>[ September 21, 2004, 09:08 PM: Message edited by: Greg Ridout ]</small>

[RoundTop]

it is already *AT* the shop. they found the problen while replacing the belt.

yeah, I'm aware of the other issues, but frankly it needs to be done. We shall see when the final numbers come in.

Problem is that it is my only car and i don't have the time (plus I don't have a garage, so weather also has to co-operate). I'm literally booked solid until 2 weeks from now.

PS: That 500 was including all parts as well as labour

Update:

Just got the car back. $1200 total. Owch, but the car runs great. I've got more torque coming out and seems like better response. Anyways, just saying she runs good now. She'll really gain some legs when I add in the intake and tower bars this weekend.

<small>[ September 22, 2004, 05:16 PM: Message edited by: RoundTop ]</small>

[BuGS]

You wanna know something funny, They will probably just use RTV to make a new Gasket and to take of the Valve Cover and redue the gasket takes 10 mins for that but about overnight for the RTV to dry. I did this on a 94 V6 here in town. Way easy. I would suggest investing a couple hours to learn simple automotive things from a local car owner or machanic you know. It will save you $1000's.

[RoundTop]

Well, $500 of the cost was doing the timing belt. And another $25 was oil change. Had to replace the lead wires as well though, that increased it by $180. The labour cost for the valve cover gasket was 3h.

I'm sure I could learn how to do it myself but for that I need a couple things.. tools, time, and a shop willing to teach me. And time is in short supply.

I already have a chilton's manual...but it is light-years below someone showing you.

<small>[ September 22, 2004, 09:21 PM: Message edited by: RoundTop ]</small>

[Taras]

$180 to replace spark plug wires. Ouch... Sorry James.

[RoundTop]

yeah. it hurt. money well spent as if it got any worse I'd be looking at even more stuff blown up.

And my god my power has gone up since it was done. Driving back home I've got LOTS more throttle response and torque than it has been. Probably a little bit of it is timing, but most probably the new wires and getting rid of the leady gasket.

But yeah. I wish I had had a couple days and a mechanic friend to try to do it myself, but I'm so damn busy that I can't spare 1 day, let alone more.

On the positive side I'm gonna be installing my air intake and upper strut tower bars this coming weekend, so that should improve things even more. (I'm going to widen the hole in the frame to allow for a 3" inlet pipe

[Shades]

What I'm confused about is that you have time to add the mods, but not time to save yourself a couple hundred dollars to do your own wires and valve cover gasket.

Yes, the timing belt is a very big hassle and I would of got the thing changed at a garage if I didn't have time.

Well I hope they changed more than just the belt when they were down there. Maybe some pulleys, tentioners, and I would of changed the water pump since everything is off and it's right there.

You're paying for labour mostly and parts are cheap compared to labour, so why not change those moving parts?

Maybe it's cause I'm poor I see it in a different view... I mean I changed my valve cover gasket, distributor O-ring, wires and plugs, and distributor in about 4 hours following Chilton's... yes Chiltons. Parts was about $100, and the dealer wanted $750.

You feel for the increase in power is probably due to the new plugs and wires.

[What]

I had this happen a couple of times in the past. I then started going to the dealer first for prices on parts. In the long run... it turns out that they really are more expensive 'most' of the time.

Stock timing maps are severely shy of where they should be. Advancing timing on these cars do wonders... from dynos at the shop on an Escort GT while back, to my underpowered 1.6 SOHC. Biggest difference in power came through cranking the timing (not the case with every car out there mind you).

<small>[ September 25, 2004, 12:17 AM: Message edited by: What ]</small>

[lok]

u really should go to a small shop man... i get things done way cheaper at a shop..