Wait til it needs a water pump
That should send you screaming and running for the hills!
Tester
It did need a water pump! My mechanic did that for me though. Said it took him 7 hours, only charged me 100 bucks
I’m thinking that this may become a more frequent problem w/newer cars. Difficult to repair I mean. The reason is that manufacturers are increasing using robots to make more and more of a car. And the robots can do it for cheap, but only if they do it in their robot-way. Which means a configuration that is easy for robots to build, but may not be easy for mechanics to fix. New car buyers save money up front on the list price, but pay for it in spades when the repair bill comes due.
The mechanic must really like you a lot. I don’t see how he stays in business with that kind of charge on a labor intensive job.
Your mechanic must be a blood relative
Chilton labor times are 7.6hrs
OEM labor times are 4.7hrs, according to Chilton
Anyways, you lucked out with that cheap water pump replacement
He sold me the car. Said if I had any problems to bring it to him. He’s just a family friend. So any ideas on the hole in the second set of pictures?
The JB Weld or Great Stuff has a 50/50 chance of working. The real fix is a replacement cover from a salvage yard. But, the first option is really cheap and can be removed if it fails. I’d use an epoxy putty, like Steel Stik over JB Weld only because it won’t run out of the hole.
I’m getting a new car soon so I only need it to be temporary. I’ll go ahead and try the jb weld with some epoxy. Thanks for all the help everyone!
@GeorgeSanJose It’s a question of terminologies. The camshaft cover not only covers the camshaft(s). It also covers the top of the valve stems and whatever the camshaft(s) actuate to push the valves open. If there is a camshaft under the cover, and not a set of rocker arms that are actuated by pushrods pushed by tappets and a camshaft in the block, then it’s a camshaft cover. The OP’s quad four derivative is DOHC not OHV.
Had the OP been changing a valve cover gasket, he would not have had the issues he had with the cover for the timing chain cracking because there would not be any camshafts and cam sprockets there. Pure and simple.
As far as a metal cover hiding a timing belt, I’ve never seen one, but the only Corolla I ever changed a belt on was an '86. That was many years ago, but I’m pretty sure that cover was plastic. As I said above, perhaps there are engines to which this axiom doesn’t apply, but I have not seen one yet.
Valve covers, cam covers, tappet covers, whatever. It seemed fairly certain that the person who broke the rear timing cover trying to remove the cam cover had no mechanical inclination, @MG.
I was lucky enough to long ago recognize that a musical instrument in my hands was an instrument of torture for anyone in the house and chose to leave them all to those with musical talent. If Ferrante and Teicher will leave their carburetors alone I will leave the keyboard alone. and life will be good. Muffin’s talents are not under the hood of a car.
Ferrante and Teicher? How old are you? 
When I took my ASE tests I was timed with an hour glass.