So i have a customer car to do numerous repairs on. A saturn SL2.

water pump, new rad, yada yada yada. I decide to go to GM directly to get the Valve cover gasket for the car as the ones from advance looked a little cheap to me and i like to do jobs once.

So, i had to special order the valve cover gasket, took a week to come in, and when i showed up at the dealer to get it, this is what transpired:

ME: "hey, im here to pick up this VC gasket" *show him the order receipt.

he heads into the back to get it.
comes out with this:



I immediately say, "hahahahaha! nice. thats funny bro!"....
but he wasnt laughing.

the parts guys said, "whats so funny?"

I looked directly at them and said, "is this a f@#king joke?"

They said, "no, this is how they come."

I opened the plastic and looked closer:



I said, "this is f@#king gasket maker squeezed onto a piece of 1 ply cardboard with gaps and globs all over the place!"

they were like, "you just have to add some gasket maker to the bottom to seal any discrepancies."

I said, "this is the biggest piece of shit i have ever seen." keep in mind, this OEM gasket cost $50.05!

They were like, "what are you expecting sir?????"

I said, "something that will f@#king seal a valve cover and spark plug tubes. not a 6 dollar tube of gasket maker for 50.05. My oem honda valve cover gasket set for my s2000 was only 38.00 and it is a real rubber composite material, not bs splattered on paper."


by then they had attitude and said, i just needed to trim the gasket in areas and add gasket maker and it would "work ok".

I asked about this:



I said, "how in the hell is this even going to fit into its place?"

they just looked at me like i was a snob, so i said, never mind, i am not paying for this shit.

then they pointed to a sign on the wall that said, "All saturn parts sales are final. no returns" next to it was a sign that said, "all other gm parts sales require a mandatory 40% restocking fee for returned items."

I said, "what the f@#k is this?! i can get better service from a drop shipper on ebay with an 89% feedback score.

they didnt care and i walked out with that bs.

just thought i would share what GM is selling in 2012 for replacement parts for their vehicles. my mind was literally blown yesterday.

 

Mother of God.

 

Thats nothing new bro. Its nearly impossible to even get saturn parts at all in our area. As far as GM's quality, it's been failing for the last 30 years. There's a reason they went bankrupt. There new shit isn't any better either. All there stuff is built in Mexico and China and shipped over here to be assembled. Nothing American made about it, as if that ment anything anymore. There great money makers though. I can find 2k worth of stuff wrong with any 3+ year old GM on the road, guaranteed. We call them gold mines at our shop. My best days money wise always come from Tahoe or Suburbans when the customer says "check it over for a trip". When they closed Saturn all there suppliers got shit on so everyone stopped making replacement parts. That crap your getting is from a second hand manufacturer in china most likely. Not to worry though, at the rate the old GM stuff blows up you won't have to worry about finding parts for them for very long. It's actually quite sad that today's American produced products are so crappy. When I shop for something now i'm looking for made in japan or Koreo. The waves of Americhinese junk that wash ashore these days is just pitiful. Big shout out to the Unions and our wonderous government for trashing what used to be the best made products in the world.

 

The cardboard lable even says, "Saturn made in the USA 2010". what a disgrace!

 

If it does the job why are you bitching? What's next plastic intake manifolds and valve covers on BMWs?

Oh wait.

As for the cost, well you just got screwed by a dealer.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/92-95-Saturn...-/140550291520
Aftermarket is even cheaper
http://www.carpartsdiscount.com/auto...ml?3593=272796

So can you show us how this is actually not doing the job it was supposed to do? Some of the other posts are mindless GM bashing and certainly are false. GM's quality today is much better than 30 years ago... even if GM did suck today (and they don't) it would be better than 30 years ago.

Yes, sometimes we, even we engineers who understand these things, are shocked by what is a workable solution.

 

There's the Rockville I know and love.

 

I can garantee you there is no way on planet earth it will go into the slots and seal the oil out. With the gaps shown and "trimming" that needs to be done, its pathetic. Facts are facts: its a sad and overpriced "solution" to a terrible design flaw.

 

I missed you too

 

Prove it. Look, contrary to what you might think, it's not in GM's best interest to use a solution that doesn't work. BTW, have you noticed how much valve cover gaskets actually compress over time? It's quite possible this will do the job. If not, well find me some post where someone is bitching about this failing. I mean I'm sure if this doesn't work someone is complaining about it. Doing a search for posts in the last year shows no complaints. Maybe you got unlucky or maybe you don't know what you are looking at. It happens. I was kind of shocked the first time I was given a stainless steel exhaust manifold flange "gasket". It was for a 1.6L Miata. I had plenty of experience doing this sort of job on Toyotas and an old Ford. I had never seen a gasket that looked to be made from a harder material than the exhaust pipes! Well it worked and never leaked. Live and learn. You should have tried it this time. BTW, I found at least one post did complain about using RTV. Go figure

 

I have a 42 year old Chevy and I can say its build quality isn't great, I doubt if it will last another two or three decades. GM sucks.