ford quoted me >$600 to fix leaking Oil Filter Adapter

[sehaare]

Hey guys.

I've been looking at my leaking oil filter adapter where it attaches to the engine for a while now (1998 V6 SOHC, auto) And I'm not sure that I can even get a wrench up there to loosen the old one let alone get a new seal/ring in straight, and tighten it back up.

This seems like a common problem as these get old the adapter seal starts to leak. Has anyone done their own?

I don't want to get it halfway off and be stuck. Might just be worth biting the bullet and paying ford.

Steve

 

[97xlt4.0]

I've reached a similar conclusion...I got lucky and changed mine out during my engine swap. One thought would be to loosen the motor mounts and jack the engine up a bit if it would help your angle.

 

[RangerX]

Its the dealership, they're supposed to gouge you! Take it to a regular mechanic and get a quote.

 

[1998Exp]

We tend to forget that for a business (dealership or an independent), time is money. If the job is time-consuming (as this one appears to be), it will be expensive, even if no great skill or fancy equipment is required.

Its the dealership, they're supposed to gouge you! Take it to a regular mechanic and get a quote.

 

[RangerX]

We tend to forget that for a business (dealership or an independent), time is money. If the job is time-consuming (as this one appears to be), it will be expensive, even if no great skill or fancy equipment is required.

"We" are not forgetting anything. It's not that this job is time-consuming, it's that a dealership charges higher rates for any job.

 

[sehaare]

here is my thoughts. There is zero clearance up there to get a wrench in. I seriously thought that they would have to pull the engine to get to it. The Tech that I talked to said that he has done them before without pulling the engine, but there is a chance of cracking the exhaust manifold trying to get the adapter to a point that he can swap out the O-ring/gasket. While I normally do most of the work myself and use a non-ford shop for alignments, I don't see me being able to do this from on my back under the car and my fear would be that:

1) I'd get it off but not be able to get it back on
2) crack the manifold since I've never done it before
3) screw it up and have it leak again after it was all back together.

I don't think that an independant shop would have any experience with this specific problem. If this was something simple like an oil pan leak or a valve cover gasket leak I'd do it myself so experience counts on this one.

So I think that going with a ford guy who has done it before gives him a better chance to not crack the manifold and for it to seal up right when he is done. Also if it does start dripping again down the road I can just take it right back to ford for free.

 

[sehaare]

for anyone thinking about this. Final bill was $802 (including the fricken 10% cook county Ill tax) ouch, but once you get over the sticker shock that it's going to cost over $500 to fix a damn oil leak whats another $300.

Labor was only $307 so probably 3 hours and I doubt that I would have got it done in 3 days. Parts were $454 but it looks like they replaced everything including a new oil filter adapter.

So If I have to pay someone to do something at least this is one of the few times that the labor wasn't more than the parts and everything up there is new and if it starts to leak again I'll take it right back in.

So in the end, I had to get it fixed because it was getting worse and I'm glad that I didn't try it myself.

 

[bill06447]

Oil-$5/quart. Cardboard for the driveway-free. I know what my choice would have been. But glad to hear you got it fixed and at only 200 over the estimate.

Bill

 

[sehaare]

Oil-$5/quart. Cardboard for the driveway-free. I know what my choice would have been. But glad to hear you got it fixed and at only 200 over the estimate.

Bill

Trust me after they said >$600, I stared at this thing for hours trying to figure out how I would get a wrench on it while I was on my back on the garage floor. I was most worried that I might just be able to break it loose but then not get it out and not get it back on straight.

I think that after they got the old one loose they ran into problems, because they had the car for 3 days because they had to order additional parts. So I think I would have been screwed.

I normally do all the maintenance myself on my cars. I've swapped engines and transmissions in other makes. Done clutches, timing belts, front half axles, on several different makes. I just got done replacing every pieced of the front suspension on the 98 XLT, AND this scared me more than anything else that I've done.

I just got to drink a little less beer and work a little more overtime and they $800 will be back in the bank in no time and I can sleep at night about the car.