I have a 2009 X6 3.5i with about 82,000 miles and recently had both the oil filter housing gasket (two of them) and the valve cover gasket replaced. My local BMW quoted $3900 Cdn for the job with 18.9 hours labor (if you can believe it) to do the valve cover gasket and 5 hours to do the oil filter housing job. The problem arose when I decided to go with an independent mechanic who apparently has done this particular job many times. He quoted me $2000 Cdn for the entire job and said he'd have my vehicle back in 1 or 2 days max. Well, a week later I finally get my vehicle back and I not only still smell burnt oil but also a strong sweet coolant smell in the cabin. Also, the $2000 quickly jumped to $2600 when he cracked my valve head cover during re installation and replaced my plugs, which I decided was a good idea. Decided to take to BMW to get inspected and the coolant had oil in it and the oil had coolant in it. Apparently this happens when you do the oil filter housing gasket but the independent mechanic didn't bother to change the oil or flush the coolant and said "it wouldn't hurt anything" to just leave it as is. Long story short, my valve cover gasket is still leaking (although not as bad as before) and the oil filter housing gasket is not leaking, the good part of the story. BMW quoted me $2700 to redo the valve cover gasket but I'm just going to leave it for now as I can't smell burnt oil as of yet and don't want to spend any more $. Moral of the story, you get what you pay for. Especially on such a labor intensive job. The independent mechanic said he would fix it but I've decided he's not touching my X6 again.
12-10-2013, 05:00 PM
Valve Cover Gasket Blues
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