Bent valve?
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Joined: Jul 2002
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From: Long Island, New York
Compression and leakdown tests are diagnostic jobs. Be wary of any shop offering it as "complimentary", especially one trying to sell you WELL OVER 2k worth of unnecessary work under false pretense on a perfect running car.
Joined: Mar 2005
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I don't think I've heard of even ONE example of someone that ACTUALLY needed to replace even a SINGLE valve spring on these motors... so that's red flag #1 for me.
The fact that their numbers are higher across the board isn't worrisome, gauge calibration probably. The fact that cyl #3 tested lower initially and now #2 is the suspect cylinder is the red flag here for me.
The fact that that they did a "complimentary" compression/leakdown is the 3rd red flag. It takes a decent amount of effort and isn't a hard-and-fast result, and has to do a lot with listening to air noise. Almost sounds like they were wanting to set you up.
$2k for a full valve job isn't unheard of, but there are cheaper/better alternatives. I paid a little more than HALF that for the best quality work you can find. PM Jordan (forgot his username) or Billman250.
The fact that their numbers are higher across the board isn't worrisome, gauge calibration probably. The fact that cyl #3 tested lower initially and now #2 is the suspect cylinder is the red flag here for me.
The fact that that they did a "complimentary" compression/leakdown is the 3rd red flag. It takes a decent amount of effort and isn't a hard-and-fast result, and has to do a lot with listening to air noise. Almost sounds like they were wanting to set you up.
$2k for a full valve job isn't unheard of, but there are cheaper/better alternatives. I paid a little more than HALF that for the best quality work you can find. PM Jordan (forgot his username) or Billman250.
These kind of threads sound awfully familiar. I'm wondering if it's who I think it is.
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Joined: Apr 2012
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Yes, it's threads like these that really tighten my sphincter whenever I think I may have a car problem. It kills me to think that I can bring my car in, pay thousands of dollars, and they do more damage than good or "fix" something that wasn't broken. And it's a widespread problem. I'm hoping (praying) that my perception is jaded because I learn about the instances on these boards and hope that there is a large chunk of people that take their cars to get worked on everything is fixed no problem, and they're on their merry way with no issues. But somehow I believe that's just not the case.
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2016
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Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2016
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took it to a different shop and it is indeed leaking (now in cylinder 4 (95%!)
this is so strange that all of the tests are so different... the shop i took it to i trust a lot, but they are a German shop, you think that matters for such a simple test? or maybe i did lots of damage at autocross this weekend?... i didn't really even red line it, so not sure whats going on.
this is so strange that all of the tests are so different... the shop i took it to i trust a lot, but they are a German shop, you think that matters for such a simple test? or maybe i did lots of damage at autocross this weekend?... i didn't really even red line it, so not sure whats going on.
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took it to a different shop and it is indeed leaking (now in cylinder 4 (95%!)
this is so strange that all of the tests are so different... the shop i took it to i trust a lot, but they are a German shop, you think that matters for such a simple test? or maybe i did lots of damage at autocross this weekend?... i didn't really even red line it, so not sure whats going on.
this is so strange that all of the tests are so different... the shop i took it to i trust a lot, but they are a German shop, you think that matters for such a simple test? or maybe i did lots of damage at autocross this weekend?... i didn't really even red line it, so not sure whats going on.
