Hi, all -?
I took my van to the dealer as my local go to guy wasn’t available for a 40K service at 155K miles. Major issues discovered included a coolant leak and an oil leak. The coolant leak requires a new water pump altho it was replaced 4 years and 20K miles ago. The part is on order.
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I was told the oil leak was from a valve cover gasket -which the service advisor informed me when I asked was diagnosed by putting something in the oil and using a UV light. The engine is still intact. The dealer told me the gasket parts are no longer available and they couldn’t find an aftermarket source. I did get the part numbers which are listed here as follows:
022-133-227B -1 needed?
022-133-227D - 2 needed
022-133-227A-1 needed
Other gaskets that were needed and available included 022-103-483-E (1 needed) and 022-103-484-F (6 needed). I am unclear as to why they are needed. The answer from the service advisor was along the lines of "the technician said so".?
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I am at the dealer's mercy as I have no clue about any of this. The only positive thing is that I was told the technician working on the van was a Eurovan owner but of course I didn’t think to ask to talk to him.
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My question for those who know about these things - are there alternatives to these gaskets? I did look on GoWesty and found 022-133-227A which is listed as an intake manifold gasket-lower for the princely sum of ?$8.94. ?The Bus Depot has A ($6.82) & B ($28.81) but not D. I didn't order them yet.
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My sense is to let the dealer do the water pump and the rear brakes - but to keep searching for gaskets and find someone else to do that repair. Is that reasonable? What kind of risk of engine ?harm do I have by putting off this repair? Much of my reluctance is the dealer’s charge of $280 to diagnose each issue … - for example I asked them to find out why the motor for the external mirrors didn’t work - ?$280 ?to tell me the fuse was ok but wanted $480 to take door panels off to continue to diagnose the issue ?and then whatever to fix it. Plus a warning that the plastic parts could break. Grrr. Said no to that one.?
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Thanks for any advice!
Kate
