alright so my 98 ls400 is in the shop and i have an oil leak. the shop is saying that they need to replace the valve cover gasket and that the parts and labor is estimated at $350. what the hell?!?!? is this right? are they giving me the wrong name of whats being replaced? its hard to believe that a this gasket and labor for it is going to cost that much....someone please give me some insight...

 

You're talking about probably 2-3 hours of billed labor, plus parts. $350 sounds about right.

 

I don't know about your LS400. I have a 97 ES300 and in order to get to one of the valve covers (there are 2), I had to remove the intake manifold, egr stuff, TB....etc.

For me, it took roughly 2-3 hours for the job (i.e. anti-seize lube, cleaning, etc).

 

i did a valve cover gasket for my 1995 ls400 thats pretty low to how i see it hehe. parts alone for me was expensive, since i bought all oem parts. you need both valve cover gaskets, than the new gaskets/spacers for all 16 bolts, some fpig, if you really need it 8 spark plug gasket.
so 350 not bad at all.

 

for that type of work, sounds about right... 2.6 hours is what the book calls for... then $60-$100 for the parts, off top of my head...