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Old 03-30-2015, 03:28 PM   #96 (permalink)
oil pan 4
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Location: NewMexico (USA)
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Sub - '84 Chevy Diesel Suburban C10
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I figured out what was wrong with mine.
It just needed its 70,000 mile everything change.
Took it to the dealer 100 miles away, by trailer. They charged me $200 to diagnose it, that's not bad at least I knew what was wrong. Told me there were 4 things wrong with it.
Said it needed an ETC valve, MAF, diverter valve and oxygen sensors.
I didn't know what the ECT valve was so told them to replace it. Turns out that was actually the Engine Temperature Control sensor, I already replaced it with one from napa but it was bad. It is literally the easiest part on earth to change, you need no tools to do it. They charged $30 (not bad) for the sensor then $100 for the install, which took them maybe 20 seconds to do. If their service rep knew what they were talking about I could have saved $100.
The MAF was about $200 after core charge, I installed that. They wanted another $100 for 4 minutes of work to do that. I got the MAF from the dealer, everything I could find about the MAF on these vehicles is "only get an OE MAF from VW".
They wanted about $200 per oxygen sensor with parts and labor.
They wanted $88 for the diverter valve and another $100 to put that on too. That diverter valve takes about 1 minute to install and a pair of channel locks. I put on an ebay special that cost me $44.
Then after all that they wanted $100 to clear the codes, a job a $50 code scanner can do. All that added up to an initial quote of $1200 to $1300 to fix it for me. I got their bill down to about $480 putting most of the parts on my self and turning in that MAF core.
If I could have gotten it done for $380 (-$100 for the temp sender install) I would be loving the VW dealer.
I put the front oxygen sensor on from advance, that was $80 to $100. I bought the rear O2 but I may return it and not even bother.
So really basic tools plus an oxygen sensor socket could save you $800. All of these parts aside from the O2 sensors were about as difficult to change as an air filter. The O2 sensors just require that O2 socket and some way to get the vehicle up off the ground. So if you can do an oil change you can do an O2 sensor change.

And it needs an oil change, they only wanted $72 for that. Don't remember if that was in their original quote or not.
Doing it my self only costs about $35 even using the more expensive Castrol VW spec oil and proper filter. Next time I am just going to use rotella.
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1984 chevy suburban, custom made 6.5L diesel turbocharged with a Garrett T76 and Holset HE351VE, 22:1 compression 13psi of intercooled boost.
1989 firebird mostly stock. Aside from the 6-speed manual trans, corvette gen 5 front brakes, 1LE drive shaft, 4th Gen disc brake fbody rear end.
2011 leaf SL, white, portable 240v CHAdeMO, trailer hitch, new batt as of 2014.

Last edited by oil pan 4; 03-30-2015 at 03:38 PM..
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