Quote for some work - reasonable?

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johno1234

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#306933 5-Sep-2023 11:43

Wife's J120 Toyota Prado (4.0L V6 petrol) in for a service... amongst other things there is an oil leak around the valve covers and the spark plugs need replacement.

The quote is $1250 for two valve cover gasket replacements and $435 for the spark plug replacement. Are spark plugs that expensive or does half the engine bay need to removed to get to them?

Should I shop around or does this sound right?

Cheers

Bung

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#3123830 5-Sep-2023 12:59

The plugs could be about $40ea but they have to come out for the valve cover reseal so I think there's a bit of double dipping on labour. It's not as if they're going to put it all back together then do a plug service.

johno1234

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#3123843 5-Sep-2023 13:56

That's a good point, @Bung

I would have thought the gaskets would be less than $100 each and the labour a couple of hours but I don't know how much overhead work is required to get to them. $1250 sounds like more than a day's labour plus parts...

Back when we drove Holden Kingswoods and Ford Cortinas, changing sparkplugs was a half hour job and they cost $1 each. Now... $450?

Senecio

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#3123852 5-Sep-2023 14:08

Most places now would be up around $125-$140 per hour for labour. So if you factor in ~$500-$600 for parts that would leave around 5-6hrs for labour. That doesn't sound too far a stretch for that sort of work on a V6.

Did they give an hourly labour rate on the quote?

cruxis

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#3123854 5-Sep-2023 14:18

Sometimes what I do is get the engine model number, type and go look for find youtube video of what work is involved to do a valve cover gasket replacement, then you can get the gist of the job required, and a better "feel" if it is a fair price.

Example for a GR-FE engine

2003 Toyota 4Runner Valve Cover Gasket Replacement - YouTube

Bung

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#3123865 5-Sep-2023 14:53

johno1234:
That's a good point, @Bung

I would have thought the gaskets would be less than $100 each and the labour a couple of hours but I don't know how much overhead work is required to get to them. $1250 sounds like more than a day's labour plus parts...

Back when we drove Holden Kingswoods and Ford Cortinas, changing sparkplugs was a half hour job and they cost $1 each. Now... $450?

Looking at the video the Spark wells have a seal in middle so plugs could stay in head but principle is same. The seal job virtually does all the work of exposing plugs.

Modern engines running Iridium plugs last a lot longer between changes than old $1 plugs in a Cortina. I think some Toyota have close to 160k between iridium plug replacement. When you had a Kingswood you could sit beside the engine.

johno1234

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#3123886 5-Sep-2023 15:51

Senecio:

Most places now would be up around $125-$140 per hour for labour. So if you factor in ~$500-$600 for parts that would leave around 5-6hrs for labour. That doesn't sound too far a stretch for that sort of work on a V6.

Did they give an hourly labour rate on the quote?

No hourly rate given just a fixed price which I am sure came straight out of their service price catalog and has nothing to do with the actual time the job takes. Toyota dealership so likely to be exorbitant.

Think I'll get the plugs done now though - they took a photo and they were seriously eroded, which would explain the rough idle and poorer than usual fuel economy lately. The oil leak was just a tiny seep so those gaskets can wait. I might get my independent guy in Whangamata to quote. He did a nice job replacing the shock absorbers on the same vehicle.