My daughter is a poor 21 year old college student in Burlington VT. Last week, her car (76,000 mi.) stopped running in the middle of the road. Just stopped. Had it towed to a local place who said it was the timing belt - problem is when the timing belt goes it can apparently damage the valves, but you can’t tell until you fix the timing belt. so okay, we’re poor (did I say poor and starving…!) Anyways, they fix the timing belt - valves are beyong repair ! apparently 1 valve has no compression, two valves are 15 lbs. compression and one valve is 30 pounds compression. The guys says, two options … fix the valves, very costly (he suggested we don’t do it) buy a used cylinder head and hope the valves are good. So the question is, what do you do…still owe $2,000 on the car - Mechanic says to fix it. probable cost with used heads plus the timing belt…$1,200 Am I being ripped off. He says there are no other options and I am out of state…
You’re not being ripped off.
A used cylinder head can be pretty easily checked prior to installation. Most boneyards will give you a warranty, so if it checks out bad you’ll get your money back for the head. I’d go with that option.
Yeah, those are unfortunately your only two options. There are no shortcut fixes or additives that can fix this condition. Sorry.
I am sorry you had to find out the hard way that timing belts should be changed at the recommended intervals (60,000 miles for this car) but the price quoted for the parts and labor is quite reasonable. There have been posts on this forum about people paying $5000+ for similar repairs.
What do you think about fixing the valves as opposed to buying a used cylinder head ? the repair guys said repairing the valves was way too expensive – thoughts ?