Good comments all around, thanks. I may have paid too much, didn’t shop around. I haven’t used it yet, may take it back if I find one cheaper. I’m working to solve a high idle problem that is worsening week by week, but I’m working around that by just turning down the idle adjustment screw once in a while. I can do that another week if I have to. There is a NAPA nearby, I’ll check there for their price. The guys there at NAPA are more knowledgeable and helpful than the big box store I go to actually. Just the big box store is closer. I used to have a NAPA discount card when I lived in Colorado, could get a fairly substantial discount from list with that card. I think I lost the card though. I’ll ask the local NAPA if they’ll give me a new one, couldn’t hurt to ask.
Does anyone else think retail big box auto parts stores prices have gone up significantly? These parts stores seem to be bent on profits and nothing else now-a-days. The big box parts store I go to, up until a couple years ago they had a separate parts counter at the back of the store in a quiet location, with their best experts to help. Now to buy any part at this store you stand in line with the folks who are buying car freshener, at the front of the store. The staff is in a mad rush and it is so noisy it is hard to hear what they are saying, and they can’t hear what I am saying. I have to repeat myself any time I give the car make/year/engine code/etc, as they don’t hear me correctly the first time usually.
Back to the gasket … hmmmm … if nothing less expensive found, I guess I still have the option of buying a sheet of gasket material and making a copy from the one I purchased, then take the purchased one back for a $9 refund. Is this ethical? I wonder … hmmm … that auto parts retailer, though more and more expensive, has always treated me ok so probably won’t do that. But if I find another gasket for 50% less, I’ll take it back. I think it is ethical to insist my vendors’ prices be competitive.
As with dB4690 above, I’ve made may own gaskets before from sheet gasket material, just b/c I didn’t want to wait 2 days a special order to arrive. I did this for the carb gasket on my truck 3 or 4 years ago, works fine. (I’ve done this using old inner tubes too for lawnmower gaskets … lol … that worked ok too.) I understand a pro mechanic wouldn’t be able to cost-justify it time-wise. But I’m not billing myself $100/hour, so if it takes 30 minutes to exacto-knife out a gasket, I can do it in the evening and watch tv while doing it, and it is sort of a relaxing task, arts-and-crafty, a sort of return to kindergarten … lol … so no worries.
About the comments above, using sealant … the shop manual for the car specifically says to not use sealant for the throttle body gasket, not even a dab of sealant to hold the gasket on while you tighten the bolts down. It goes out of its way to make a point that the mechanic should simply hold and align the gasket on while positioning the TB to the mating surface on the intake manifold. I’m not sure why, but there is a reference elsewhere in the shop manual that RTV fumes will contaminate the O2 sensor and ruin it. I’m presuming that is the reason the shop manual says not to use sealant for the throttle body gasket.