I have a 05 CTT and have an oil leak on the driver's side. Nothing new with this car but read on. Fixed the O-ring at the bottom of the turbo. Leak came back and replace a pressure hose and a valve cover. Thought that was fixed but the leak came back. Now the leak is at the cam shaft cover or somewhere in that vicinity. According to the dealer, the proper way to fix it is to pull the engine out remove the cam shaft cover and re-apply the sealant. Forty hours of labor.

Here are my options:
1) Suck it up and pay the $5k and hope that the obvious pressure issue is resolved, the car will drive the same since the engine was removed and put back and humpty dumpty was put back together with no issues.
2) Cut my losses and trade it in for a prius.

Has anyone seen this with their CTTs? Your thoughts?

 

whats the charge per the percent you paid for the car?

the devil is in the labor......if you can find an import shop I bet you get it all done for 3k-3500........ping other Long Beach owners or change your title to reflect Long Beach CA owners?

 

While I certainly haven't done it - does the engine actually have to be removed to R&R a camshaft cover? Seems there would be enough room (from when I changed my plugs) to wiggle the cover up and outta the engine bay.. let me see what the factory manual has to say about that.. hang on..

Just looked. Section 15-91-21 of the service manual covers R&R of the valve cover (assuming this isn't what you're talking about) - and it does not require removal of the engine. What is called the camshaft cover sits on top of the actual heads - and according to the manual does call for engine R&R...

What exactly are they talking about removing?

I found the best diagram in the PET parts system - and what usually would be a complete one piece cylinder head is actually a two piece assembly on these engines. The bottom is where the intake and exhaust ports are - and the valves and springs. The top part is where the camshafts are - and the hydraulic tappets. PET does show a number of parts that screw into the side of the driver's side head that might be a cause of a leak.

While the manual says the engine comes out for this - I wouldn't be that certain it needs to... although you are getting into removing the cams and timing chains, so it might well be easier to do this on an engine stand then leaning into the engine compartment.

I'd use a mirror and maglite and try to determine where the leak is actually coming from (or a video probe from Harbor Freight - on sale this week for $89..) You might luck out and find one of the sensors or other screw in parts is the cause of the leak, and major disassembly might be avoided. Or not - if not - that just sucks..

 

+1 I would definitely check out if it is possible to be done while in the car ...

or option B if your getting sick of the car then trade it ... not for a prius though lol and cut your losses so to speak and get another toy

 

The problem with Dealers is they replace the entire everything and use estimated hourly labor........it might take them 18 hours (as they have plenty of practice) but they will charge you recommended 40 hours.

And they have a "due diligence" to check every possible issue and rebuild an entire solution etc instead of a targeted piece.

This is why every time you do brakes at dealer its 1500 and they do pads flush, rotors, everything.........even if you just did the same thing before at 10k and are at 20k miles.

 

Here's an update. Took the car to another shop that specializes in euro cars. They cleaned the engine and found the source of the oil leak. Left side valve cover gasket. $351.50 to replace. I'm glad I took it to another shop to get another opinion. If I didn't, I would have ended up with a prius.

 

What difference does it make? Honestly? This is a silly way to view repairs.

I anything you should look at the value the car brings to you and maybe if you could replace that value with a proper working car for less than the repair.

Should have nothing to do with what you paid for the car. What if you won a CTT in a raffle? Would you get rid of it the first time it needed fuel?

 

Value is different from one person to another.

I don't think you consider the purchase price of the car rather the current market value of the car. On KBB.com, the trade-in value of the car ranges between $21,000 - $24,000. If I went with the $5K route, is it acceptable to pay for a repair that equates to 20-25% to the trade-in value of the car? Paying the $5K in repair doesn't increase the market value of the car.

 

No, but paying for repairs is part of the cost of driving cars, period.

So you would have to look at what you could get trade in plus up to $5,000 if that were the repair value. According to the numbers above this means you are shopping for a $26-$30k car. (if they will give you that for it hitch a known $5000 repair issue looming) I can't think of a single $30k car that will do what the CTT will do without having the same potential repair costs.

 

A bit pricey - but dunno what the gasket costs (on a BMW - the valve cover gaskets and hold-down donuts run about $100..)

Glad to see that a shop actually looked for the problem, rather then guessed at it and quoted the worlds worst case price.

 

Can you share the name of the shop that you used. I need to get the Cayenne servised.