Hi everybody. First of all, I'm new to the forum, so thanks for having me! This site looks great and in searching through the forum on Sunday when I changed my coolant you guys have been really helpful. Anyhow, I have a 1996 3.1L LS which I took into the dealership today for a fuel injector cleaning. While there they inspected it and let me know that the oil pan gasket is "leaking like a sieve". I don't believe that is true, because I don't see oil pooling up under my car in the garage, but regardless there is a good amount of oil on the pan. They told me this service would cost me somewhere around 800 dollars, although she could offer me a price of around 700. That seems like an awful lot to me to replace a gasket. I am not super mechanically inclined, but I've been doing a lot myself lately, and getting more comfortable with it. My question is, is this an easy thing to do myself? Anyone have any experience with it? Thanks a lot!

 

hello and welcome to the MCF! i'm sure you will enjoy your time on here.

i can guide you through the general procedure, but i have not ever done this on your model year. i have done this on other cars and i would assume it's similar.
before you start, you will want to go to your local auto parts store and they will hook you up with the correct gasket for your vehicle.

--first you will want to drain the oil into an oil drain pan and set it aside.
--next, there will be a series of bolts securing the pan to the engine block and you will want to loosen all these to drop oil pan off the engine.
--then clean ALL of the oil gasket material off the oil pan and engine block to prevent leaks when you put the new gasket on. you can do this using a putty knife, old screwdriver, or anything to scrape it off. if it doesn't all come off, you can buy gasket remover from the parts store for pretty cheap.
--next, place the new gasket on the oil pan and reverse the disassembly process. make sure the bolts are torqued properly so you dont squish the gasket. put the oil back in and you're done.

if you are not able to do this yourself, i would suggest taking it to an independent shop with a good reputation. they will give you a much better price than the dealer in almost all cases. good luck and i hope this helps. anyone feel free to chime in if there are some things i missed.

 

 

Awesome, thanks for your replies, guys. I spoke with the service tech and asked her if it was just that simple, and she started shaking her head. It sounds like the engine will have to be lifted and supported in order to do it, but I'm not sure. I still have to have a look underneath the car, and have a look at my Chilton's manual. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's a really labor intensive job. If anyone else has any experience with this let me know!