Valve Cover Leak Question

[Timdojo]

Hey Guys,
Just got my car back from an oil change, and I was told I have a pretty bad Valve Cover leak. I couldn't really find much on the forum, so..

1) How hard is it to fix?
2) About how much would it cost to get in fixed in a shop
3) How urgent is this? Pretty much.. will I be ok driving for the next week or so?

Lol sorry, just have no idea what to do when looking under the hood.

[02gtzgalant]

its not hard just time consuming. it will prob take 3hrs so at $60 an hour plus cost of part so prob around $200-240 at a shop. and yes it will be fine. depends on how bad the leak is. if u have an oil spot under ur car then keep an eye on the oil levels

[M-Rod]

First off before anything is assumed, do you have the 4 cylinder or V6?

[beam514]

^^ Depending on whether you have an I4 or V6, it can be very easy, or a little more time consuming.

On the I4, it should be fairly easy.
On the V6, the front valve cover is very easy to access. The rear requires you to remove the battery, intake piping, intake manifold, etc.

if you do this yourself, DO NOT BUY FEL-PRO VALVE COVER GASKETS (for the V6 at least). I have found that they fit VERY poorly, and when I took my valve cover off it fell to pieces

[Timdojo]

I've got an 02 I4.

If it's going to run me just a couple hundred, I think I'll play it safe and have someone do it lol.. I don't trust myself with it

[M-Rod]

A couple hundred!?!? You realize you could do this yourself for the cost of a gasket.

Follow this: https://www.thegalantcenter.org/showthread.php?t=37183
You don't have to actually remove the spark plugs either, unless you want to replace those also.

[Frankv]

DO NOT BUY FEL-PRO VALVE COVER GASKETS (for the V6 at least). I have found that they fit VERY poorly, and when I took my valve cover off it fell to pieces

Dayum...too late for me ha ha!

[Timdojo]

A couple hundred!?!? You realize you could do this yourself for the cost of a gasket.

Follow this: https://www.thegalantcenter.org/showthread.php?t=37183
You don't have to actually remove the spark plugs either, unless you want to replace those also.

Lmao. I'm only thinking that way because my last car had a few simple problems that SHOULD'VE been very easy to fix (think it was spark plug wires and a couple other things), and a friend and myself went to work on it... and uhh.. disaster. and then I got my 8g. haha. It was cheaper to buy another car than to try repairing the damage we did to that thing.
So I'm not sure if I trust myself with it, just because I'm not absolutely sure what to do.

Sounds stupid, but I'd much rather pay 2-300 than to totally screw my car up again. lol

[beam514]

this is such an easy thing to do though. If you mess up doing this, I don't know if you should even drive a car :p

haha jk jk
but seriously this is EXTREMELY easy

[Jeffylou87]

I'm actually gasket shopping right now because my rear one is leaking.. I have a V6 too =( I wanted to get the felpro but beam, you're scaring me.. What should I get?

[beam514]

I honestly don't know what brand to use. I swapped my front 6G74 valve cover (which had the Fel Pro gasket) back to my 6G72 valve with the old (what I believe to be OEM) gasket. No leaking. The fel pro gasket was too big for the valve cover, if that makes any sense. It had to be smushed onto the valve cover and just was not a good fit at all

I'm gonna ask around to see what other V6 owners are using

[SPD_FRK]

CarQuest has a good fitting rubber gasket that I used when I replaced mine on the V6.

Part# GSK VS50270 $57.97

[littlerick]

the i4 shouldnt be more than 150 or so to replace even at the dealership but like others said its very easy to do

[Timdojo]

hmmm.. haha alright I may give this a try on my own hahaha

Thanks everybody!

[run1206]

I have a small leak in my head gasket too, noticed oil coming out a few months ago. Gonna follow the link m-rod posted, gasket shouldn't cost too much. Most likely will do it myself along with the spark plugs and oil next week.

[M-Rod]

CarQuest has a good fitting rubber gasket that I used when I replaced mine on the V6.

Part# GSK VS50270 $57.97

Yes CarQuest! Any gasket purchased there is either Victor Reinz or else we source them from a partner company that specializes in OEM parts for imports.

[Timdojo]

Lol i decided to drop the thing off after all.
Cost me around $85, one hr of labor ($50) and parts.

Thanks guys

[ezekiel.glnt]

Ive used a felpro gasket on my v6 and i had no issues, that was about a year n a half ago, no leaks...yet. but i also put a lil gasket maker on it too.