Rep Power: 0

We recently moved to new state and left mechanic back home who was awesome! Took 04 civic to dealer (terrible,yes) for timing belt, water pump, and drive belt replacement to keep up on maintenace (only have 120k miles).

Had to take back to dealer due to misfire codes the day after car was back with me.... Weeks later.... Yes, dealer has had my car for weeks! Told its either head gasket ($1600 to fix) or worse, cylinder head ($5100 to fix).

What's a reasonable price for these repairs and is it worth it? I'm still trying to figure out how this happened as I had no symptoms! Being female I'm very suspicious of all this...service manager is female also.

Thanks!!

 
Rep Power: 512

I had a local shop quote me at $1450 for a head gasket job (mine involved replacing all 16 valves), so $1600 isn't too far off. Replacing the cylinder head will, indeed be a lot more to fix. The list price on a new cylinder head assembly (including valves and rocker assembly) is about $2800, so that kinda justifies the price hike. Someone that works in Honda *ahem* might be able to tell you whether or not that much of a price increase is legit or not.

 
Rep Power: 229

I checked All Data, a mechanics cook book so to speak...

It lists parts price for the Head at $1101.80 (I'm not sure if this is their cost or retail).

And a service time average of 7.3 hours.

Shops around here charge $100+ for labor per hour so I'd guess the Head should cost $3-4000 retail plus $700-$1000 labor.

That's with a brand new head though. you can buy a used engine for $300... So maybe shop around for used/reconditioned heads at parts stores, then find a mechanic to install the part.

 
Rep Power: 512

The $1101.80 that mac25 gave is just the cylinder head and bearing caps. My price was assuming Honda slaps in a whole new complete cylinder head assembly.

 
Rep Power: 229

Right thx J =D.

 
Rep Power: 518

I don't do numbers man, it's hard enough just fixing the cars.


If this engine was misfiring from the moment OP picked the car up from having the timing belt job done, I'd wonder if someone bent a valve or two.
Of course, nobody would ever 'fess up to something like that, right?

 
Rep Power: 512

I, uh, just had something in my throat at the time and felt the need to transcribe that throat clearing in my post.