I just purchased an almost pristine condition 1999 a4 1.8t quattro for $250. the timing belt had sheared the teeth, and I noticed the water pump was bad. I'm thinking the leaky water pump may have cause the belt to skip. anyways, I got an ultimate timing belt kit and head gasket set from ECS tuning. All 20 valves were bent and I was able to get them all from ECS tuning for $312 shipped 2 day air. the shop fising the head told me the valves would be $400. I told him I found them for less and asked him how much the labor would be and he said about $500. This seems awful high just for labor. any tips or suggestions? The car is super clean and nice. Thanks in advance.

Brian

 

I've seen this complete job cost over $3000.

You may want to have the head machined as the valves may have damaged the valve seats. New valve seals while you're in there. Gaskest for intake and exhaust manifolds, possiblly new head bolts/studs. Personally I haven't seen a t-belt job cost less than $500 so I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

 

I am doing all of the work myself. I have already removed the head. it is at the machine shop. the machine shop is charging $500 labor on the head itself. none of the guides were damaged. I got new guide seals, cam seals and new valves. I have sent many heads to get re-built and have never paid that kind of money unless the head was really screwed. this guy says nothing on the head was damaged except the valves. I am not thinking of getting a used head instead.

 

I got a full head gasket set, head bolts, timing belt, tensioner, small pulley, tensioner pulley, water pump, thermostat, head bolts, all new belts, the works. I have everything I need so far.

 

500 bucks is not a bad deal to do all that work. im sure theres some machining that needed to be done. i bought a newly re manufactured head for $750 (250+500 labor) so thats about right.

 

There is a ton of time setting this head up with new valves. Count the valves...

Putting the keepers in each of the 20 valves is a royal pain in the keester.

Personally, I would have paid the extra $80 and had him supply the valves - that way he had the whole job and there would be no question on warranty. But it sounds like you are truly pinching pennies and don't care about warranty.

Just don't try to go back to the guy if anything goes wrong.

 

I'm not trying to pinch pennies, the woman is lol. I personally wanted to get the sodium filled valves. She wants to do it cheap and I keep telling her that cutting corners is not something you do with a finely engineered german car. I had to talk her into the timing belt kit. They just don't understand. I don't half way do things on any car. since she is paying for the repairs she is trying to pinch but I told her you don't do that on these cars or you'll pay by having to do it again. My other question is can we re-use the lifters? the guy st the head shop says yeah as long as they are "drained" where you collpse them to get sll of the oil out. If we have to replace them she is going to have a fit. I keep telling her not to coplain, I mean look at the price we paid for the car. Thanks to you all for the advice. .