HEAD GASKET

Hey everyone, I'm new to this but have read a lot of your posts. I have an issue, took my 13 Tacoma TRD 4.0 into dealer for an oil change and tire rotation, Hour and a half later they tell me I have a bad head gasket. Truck has been babied it's whole life, has 92k on it. There have been NO signs or issues with the truck, They say they saw it in the oil. They want $5000 to replace head gasket on ONE side only. Is this uncommon ? just has taken me by surprise.

 

I hate this shit. Thank them and get tf out of there for a second opinion.

 

As stated above, pay them for the oil change and tire rotation, then leave. Check the oil level and color before you drive away to verify that they did change your oil. DO NOT RETURN. Find a local mechanic. Or, better, learn to rotate your tires and change your own oil, and find a local mechanic to use when things get hairy.

 

Adding; I do not believe that any reputable shop would change a head gasket on only one side of a V6 even if your 2013 4.0L V6 does need a head gasket (which I doubt).

 

Did they say how they came to this deduction? Especially the spacific side? Without an hour labor for a proper diagnosis? Dealerships do NOT diagnose for free. IF it is a questionable, I'd send an oil sample to a lab (I use Blackstone) for analysis in a case like this.

Yes the pre 07(?) 4.0 had hg tendencies but yours is newer, 《 100k and sounds like you're taken care of it?

 

Thanks, this was my big brothers truck, he passed away in 21. He always took it in for this so I have just kept with it. I have a good friend who's a retired GM mechanic, he says to just watch everything. He thinks it's a scam.

 

They said left bank, showed me a pic of crystallized antifreeze looks like on top of intake. " they need to tear down" for proper diag. Yes, this truck looks and runs like new.

 

We are seeing a lot of slow leaks at the back of the engine.

ask for a photo and proof of the leak. If it’s a small pink stain, save your money

 

its not impossible but most unlikely...
Was your coolant low? $5K seems awful high for one side. Plus why would they only do one side if they got it tore down already. I'd monitor your oil and check your coolant.

 

If you don’t have any problems, drive her around for a bit, buy an SOS kit from caterpillar. They usually have a 24 hour turnaround from reciept

 

Suspicious how they claim they "saw it in the oil" but only want to do one side

 

That way they can charge you twice when they do the first side and see that they didn't fix it and do the second side.

 

One side is criminal, chains and tensioners should be done.

also 10 years means time for valve seals

 

Exactly
I would run away as fast as I could from any mechanic that offers to do one side only. That's some weekend warrior driveway shit

I believe you about the external pink crust though, I've seen it here and there

I haven't seen milkshake oil anywhere other than ancient old pushrod engines and/or 90s Japanese cars with aluminum heads on cast iron blocks. It's just not really a thing anymore

I'm wondering if they found the old "moisture under the oil cap" and tried to get greedy