Drive Belts/Valve Cover Gasket Question
 

I was the at dealer yesterday getting a new rear window regulator and when they did the normal check of the car the mechanic said my drive belt is starting to show cracks and I have a slow oil leak (need to replace a valve cover gasket). I have an '01 3.0 with 83K miles---I did the belts 2 years ago at an independant shop and only have 18K miles on them. Do they get replaced that quickly ? And how major is a slow leak in the valve cover gasket ? I plan on going to an independent shop when it's time to do them but not sure if I have to do them right now, etc.

You can do those yourself very easily. I believe we have two belts, one for the alt, water pump, power steering and another for the a/c compressor. Depends which one they are referring to.
Your valve cover gasket is very easy and you can find the DIY in the articles section here. Check this out and scroll down to find DIY on Valve covers: http://www.bavauto.com/newsletter/20...newsletter.pdf

Belts usually last at least 65k miles. I cant imagine why yours would be cracking unless they dried up somehow. I bet the mechanic was just saying that after looking at the mileage on your car and not at the belts themselves.

A slow leak from the valve cover gasket is something that should not go unnoticed. I would get that replaced as soon as you find the time or money. You never want oil leaking anywhere on your engine. Spark plugs could foul, oil pressure will lower, ignition coils could go out, not to mention your engine will look like a mess. Treat your engine well. Its only as reliable as you make it.

You are probably right because he also said do the brake fluid and coolant flush. I did the brake fluid 2 years ago and coolant about 2.5 years ago. I guess he saw that I had not gotten those done according to the records at the dealer. They quoted me like $450 for the valve cover gasket which I will do at an indy shop. And I don't think that can be that bad either as I have not had the low oil lamp come on yet (I'm guessing that would happen since it's leaking a little oil).

If you are at 83k and have a valve cover leak on a 3.0i, this is probably a separator issue. Change the valve cover, the separator, all the separator hoses and the drive belt.

Unless you know for sure you have a new separator, I would change it. It will only cause the valve cover gasket to fail again. At 83k on an '01, the separator is not long for this world, and valve cover gasket leaks are a tell tale sign. You could pull the butterfly in the intake manifold and see how much oily goo is on it to confirm, but I would go ahead and do it.

You could do the valve cover gasket yourself with a metric socket set from wal-mart, a crescent wrench, a tube of RTV, and the gasket, which is a $40 or so part. But like I said, if the separator is bad, you will end up doing it again soon.

If you wait for the low oil light to come on, you will be down nearly half the 8 quarts you are supposed to have. Do not wait for that instance to take action. These engines consume oil by design, and by the time the low oil light comes on, you are very close to doing damage.