i've noticed the last two times i drove my car over 30 miles on the highway on hot days, that when i exit and come to that first stoplight, my car is smoking from the hood. i'm pretty sure it's coming from burning oil from my oil leak. maybe?

when i brought my car into mercedes of carlsbad to check my oil leak, they said the valve cover gasket should also be replaced along with the notorious head gasket. total cost about 1500.

my question is has anybody in san diego got this job done at a shop and how much did you pay and are you satisfied???
thanks for any input.

 

Yea, I had the headgasket replaced along with the timing seal (i think that's what it's called)...cost about $1200 for parts and labor. After changing it, all is good!

As for the smoke thing, I had that happen once and it never happened again. I think the oil may have sealed up the leak for a long time (about a year or so) then the oil leak started happening again, so needed to be replaced.

 

yo g-dawwwwg! thanks for the feedback. your input is always helpful. man, that smoke thing was scary...the things that go through your head when its happening.

hopefully i can get some input on some trustworthy shops in sd to help me a little with costs. maybe i should go through the dealership, at least i get a car while its being repaired. we'll see...

 

hey man,
No prob at all I know...i was thinking the same..."oh *****..what's wrong, is it gonna blow, melt, etc???" :p

IMO, i think going through the dealership would be a good idea because if your going to spend that much money at a regular shop, give or take around the same amount, it's a piece of mind that atleast it's MB techs working on the car and they'll guarantee their work for a year (most dealers do warranty their work for 90 days to a year). But check around, quotes I got were right around the dealer quote, so I decided to have it done by MB.

Let us know what happens man. Good luck!

 

ok, it' supposed to be done today. i brought it in to "house of mb" in sd. the guy quoted me $600. it sounded kinda sketchy but he assured me he only uses dealer parts. so i went to check out his business (garage). went there and it's in a gated area (plus), had a line of benz's outside (that's good too) and thought i'll give him a try. left it mon. afternoon and went to check it out last night. head was off and he was installing the new gaskets. we talked about 30 min while he worked, just shootin the sheeznit, when he says you know i misquoted you over the phone (my jaw drops thinking here comes another $600), but i'll stick it becuz it was my fault. he looked up the wrong engine. so i said i'd bring him a 12pack of his favorite beer, spaten. he said a six would do but i insisted. so we continued talking and he gave me advise about parenthood that i'll probably use in my life. good ol bavarian guy.

i'll let you guys know how the car is running in a couple of weeks.

 

You all suck. I got quoted 4000 dollars from my dealer.