Cylinder exhaust valve repair cost
Cylinder exhaust valve repair cost
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Discussion

JohnnyBear

Original Poster:

5 posts

24 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
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A few weeks my Kia Sportage started to loose power. I took it to the garage they did all the standard stuff, coils, sparks, etc., as well as a compression test. Nothing in cylinder 3. They didn't want to go any further so I took it to another garage who confirmed a burnt exhaust valve in cylinder 3. The advice was an engine replacement costing £4k. I then had a conversation with a specialist engineering company who said that they could repair the head. It's a standard charge of £495 to receive the vehicle, remove the head/engine, diagnose and cost for repair. Now, the issue I have is that I don't know what we're talking roughly for a valve repair so I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of an idea as the mechanic from the specialist engineering place is keeping his cards close to his chest. The car is currently worth around £5k in the used car market. I don't particularly want to put thousands of pounds into the valve repair option. Thankfully for any info, thoughts, experience, advice.

stevemcs

10,128 posts

120 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
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I thought it was the bottom end on these, rings and worn bores ? £500 to remove the head, refurbish it and put it back together with new oil, coolant, head gasket set and bolts, new chain kit is stupidly cheap ....

JohnnyBear

Original Poster:

5 posts

24 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
quotequote all
It's 500 just to remove the head and diagnose, not do any work on it. If you don't like the price for the work, you get the head back disassembled.

Krikkit

27,909 posts

208 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
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stevemcs said:
I thought it was the bottom end on these, rings and worn bores ? £500 to remove the head, refurbish it and put it back together with new oil, coolant, head gasket set and bolts, new chain kit is stupidly cheap ....
It's 500 quid to recover it, strip down and quote. No fix.

hidetheelephants

34,910 posts

220 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
quotequote all
A replacement valve shouldn't be much, even if they're taking the mick £100 tops; the rest is a gasket set and maybe lapping the new valve in if the seat has been marked by the damaged valve. OE gasket sets can be expensive if pattern parts aren't available, potentially £2-300.

Krikkit

27,909 posts

208 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
quotequote all
hidetheelephants said:
A replacement valve shouldn't be much, even if they're taking the mick £100 tops; the rest is a gasket set and maybe lapping the new valve in if the seat has been marked by the damaged valve. OE gasket sets can be expensive if pattern parts aren't available, potentially £2-300.
Unless the seat is burnt out

Jader1973

5,019 posts

227 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
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I’d be also want to know why it did it.

No point in fixing the symptom and not the cause.

hidetheelephants

34,910 posts

220 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
quotequote all
It's possible, but impossible to know until the head's off. Depending on the size of the insert there may be enough meat to recut the seat even if it is burnt beyond lapping in.

JohnnyBear

Original Poster:

5 posts

24 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
quotequote all
This is all really helpful.

I think what I'm hearing is that it's potentially going to cost less than 1.5k.

hidetheelephants

34,910 posts

220 months

Tuesday 16th July 2024
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Jader1973 said:
I’d be also want to know why it did it.

No point in fixing the symptom and not the cause.
A single burnt out valve is most commonly either a material failure of the valve head, perhaps an inclusion in the metal, or a result of valve spring failure.

BertBert

21,109 posts

238 months

Wednesday 17th July 2024
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JohnnyBear said:
This is all really helpful.

I think what I'm hearing is that it's potentially going to cost less than 1.5k.
I'd take that with a pinch of salt. Most PH finger in the air estimates look woefully low to me as these do.

Bobupndown

2,865 posts

70 months

Wednesday 17th July 2024
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BertBert said:
JohnnyBear said:
This is all really helpful.

I think what I'm hearing is that it's potentially going to cost less than 1.5k.
I'd take that with a pinch of salt. Most PH finger in the air estimates look woefully low to me as these do.
If it's a valve and seat I can't see how it could possibly cost a grand on top of the £500 strip down fee.
I bought a complete reconditioned head for s Td5 Discovery and it cost £600, diy'd fitting though.

Decky_Q

2,049 posts

204 months

Wednesday 17th July 2024
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In these situations I always reccomend a 2nd hand head for £500ish. I have seen many times heads being skimmed, valves replaced etc and then the moment of truth and it starts with issues requiring the head off again to remedy.

stevieturbo

18,035 posts

274 months

Wednesday 17th July 2024
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Heads gonna come off either way, so not an unreasonable step if it has been proven there is an actual burnt valve.

Then ascertain whether a second hand head, or repair is the most viable option


JohnnyBear

Original Poster:

5 posts

24 months

Thursday 18th July 2024
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That's the conundrum. I'm cool with paying the 500 to get the head off and a diagnosis but it's what comes following that that's creating the uncertainty. If I knew it was going to be less than 1.5k I would have it done tomorrow. I've asked the mechanic for an estimate based on different scenarios and I'm waiting to hear back from him. This will hopefully give me an idea of price range. I feel confident that if it's a valve repair/replacement I'll get another 3-5 years out of the car.

JohnnyBear

Original Poster:

5 posts

24 months

Saturday 20th July 2024
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I'm going ahead with getting the head done. The unknown aspect of cost is terrifying, not gonna lie. To make that feeling worse someone said to me last night, "The head is usually given a complete valve job at the same time as replacing the dodgy one because the rest of the valves and guides probably need attention, too. If one exhaust valve has failed, the rest are probably on the verge of failure if they haven't already started to leak." I did not need to hear this!

Anyway, we'll see what happens. £495 gets it disassembled and diagnosed. Hoping for no more than a grand on top of that.

hidetheelephants

34,910 posts

220 months

Saturday 20th July 2024
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Do these things have a rep for burning valves? If the compression was ok on the other 3 pots then the valves are working even if they are on the way out; once the head is off changing more valves if necessary is not going to add much cost.

Smint

3,280 posts

62 months

Saturday 20th July 2024
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Having done all sorts of jobs like this in the past, the big unknown is the head repairable.

It more than likely is but be aware they could find the head cracked or even burned away from the exhaust gases, indeed the top of the block might be damaged too where exhaust gases have burned a channel, there could be visible bore wear too, it might be repairable but before you go ahead maybe have a look see what the used engine market is like, so if the present head/engine is scrap you've already done the searching and have a used engine or two pencilled in.

Obviously best if the garage doing the job source and supply a used engine if needed, if you supply and it proves a dud you still have to pay for all the labour involved removing the dud and fitting another.