Yes they are non related. The valve cover gaskets hold oil in the valve covers. No coolant goes up to the valve covers, only oil. At the same time, oil should not be in your coolant. That would either be an intake manifold gasket leak or a blown head gasket. That would be much worse.

If you were low on coolant, I would want to know why. 01 3.0 has a well know problem with the water pump, and a plastic thermostat housing. Either of those could lead to consumption of coolant. I would start asking questions about the coolant problem and see if they can give you a good answer as to why that was happening.

BTW you can do the valve cover gasket on your own, it is fairly straight forward - but there is usually a reason for THAT to leak as well, and on an 01 3.0 it is usually the oil sperator. You need to figure out if they will look into that.

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2001 E53 3.0 5pd