1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
It cost me £475 at Squire Furneaux for a head gasket replacement on my '87 2.0T about 6 years ago. They also quoted me about £500 to do the same on my Aero about 18 months ago. I won't go into what happened next (it's documented on this BBS), but it ended up costing me nearly £2000 and took a few months and eventually a letter to the managing director to sort out.
That's when I decided to do my own work and just use them for parts I couldn't get elsewhere and the odd thing like pulling the ABS fault codes, which I was having done today when I saw what looked like your car. I'm happy with the relationship I have with them now. It should be said that they are rather better now they've moved to Dunstable. I think they were very overstretched at Aston Clinton. I also think they lost money on the job in the end.
Sorry - had to have a rant.
However, back to your point: there is quite a lot of labour involved and I believe Squire Furneaux charge about £55-60 per hour (US $80-90 for any of our transatlantic readers who are interested). The gasket set, I think, was £45.85 + VAT. Oil at £23.75, coolant at £20.13 (all plus VAT). If labour is 5-6 hours, that looks about right. Remember that labour includes things like cleaning gasket faces and performing a test-drive.
One thing I have never had a problem with is their pricing when compared to any other Saab dealer. However, you could probably get it done at an independent garage for nearer to £200-300.
As for anything else, they'll probably decoke the head as a matter of course (they did on mine), but you could ask anyway. Perhaps valve stem seals could be done, but if they don't otherwise need to take the valves out, labour will be expensive again. Also, Saab charges an arm and a leg for those seals, which can be bought elsewhere at a fraction of the price. Then again, they told me they should have changed them first time round on my Aero (they had had to replace two valves), so the head came off again at their expense to replace them (parts at my expense).
Perhaps some timing chain work, but that can be done at some other time without taking the head off.
Other than that, I don't think there's much else you can do with the head off that you can't do with it on.
It's worth asking their opinion on the state of the internals. In the service department, I've dealt mainly with Maurice and Paul over the years, and they will go out of their way to discuss your car with you. Despite any difficulties I've had in the past with Squire Furneaux, Maurice and Paul are good guys who really know their stuff. Ask for one of them by name and ask your question about what else should be replaced - they will give you a straight answer. Tell them Bill Jones told you that.
posted by 62.253...
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