Cost of complete overhaul of all components.

[quaimodo]

I would first like to tell you about my car. I recently just purchased my 98' Talon TSi awd from a dealer here in Alaska. The car had one previous owner who was an elderly lady and had all the documents down to every time she filled it up at the gas station. It has 147000 (highway only for the most part) miles on it. She used this car as a daily driver to drive from Eagle River to North Pole to work. She even threw in a brand new clutch with it along with winter tires. I paid $6100.

The dealer told me that the car needed to have its timing belt replaced ASAP and that it would cost around $900 to get that done. I thought that was a little expensive even for a new DSM owner like me. I did some calling around to get an est. cost of parts and labor and it was around $500. The alternator belt started to squeal so I got right on top of that and replaced it, but in doing so found out that the car still has all the the original belts and whatnot on it. I had considered to start modifications right away but after finding out this bit of information steered me more towards a complete overhaul of of my car including fluids, belts, and whatever else that may need to be done. Keep in mind that I am not so savvy when it comes to auto mechanic work and I am still learning.

My question is, what is the approximate cost of a complete overhaul on an Eagle talon and or if anyone has ever gotten one done. I realize I'm a "noob" and I did do research on this topic before posting this, but there wasn't any posts referring to a "complete" overhaul, just of specific components. I am a previous owner of a 91' MR2 turbo and had to sell it before I went into the Navy (I am out now). I always loved the way the Talon looked and heard a lot of good things about it so I jumped right on this opportunity to join its community. Thanks for the input

 

[TunaTalon]

While you need to catch up on the maintenance it might be a good idea to hold off on the "complete rebuild" until you learn more about the costs and benefits of the myriad of different ways the 4G63 can be modified.

All of the rubber pieces on your car are ten years old and not to be trusted. Except for the timing belts and crank pulley most of the rubber pieces are cheap to buy and easy to replace.

The first thing to take care of is the timing belt and all accessory belts. While you are replacing the timing belts it would be a good time to replace the crank pulley. They are notorious for failing. Just count the threads on this site about squealing belts.

RRE sells a "Larson hose Kit" with silicone tubes to replace all of the old vacuum lines. For no extra cost you can get a little under hood bling.

The radiator and heater hoses are probably old and cracking, but easy to get to.

Replacing the rubber brake lines at each wheel with stainless lines will give a better brake feel and a warm fuzzy feeling when thinking about how much pressure the old hoses can hold.

I replaced the fluid in the transfer case and rear differential at about 120K.

For a daily driver in cold weather ignore all of the tire posts on this site and get a good set of all season tires with a M/S stamp.

Enjoy.

If you still want a list of parts for a complete project e-mail me and I will return a copy of my stroker project document. (See my profile.)

 

[nytescion]

My complete (performance) overhaul cost me 1525. But that was with me doing all the work. I couldn't imagine what a shop would charge. But if i had to guess....somewhere around 4-5 grand...

But if your talking about just maintenance overhauling than i would say 1700 parts and labor?

these are just guesses

 

[exitreality1]

I would definitely go out and buy a Haynes or Chilton's manual. My Haynes manual has a checklist for tuneup items at intervals ranging from 250 miles to 60k miles. I would start at the biggest interval (60k miles, in my case) and replace those items such as timing belt, fuel filter and plugs. Then just work your way down to the 30k list, 15k list, etc., until everything is taken care of. And, of course, since you're still learning, step-by-step instructions for everything is always nice.

 

[Splitpi]

900 for a dealer to changed the timing belt is about right in my opinion. It is a surprisingly labor intensive procedure and the parts alone will very from $250 to $400.

Make sure they replace with new parts:
Water Pump
Timing Belt
Balance Shaft Belt
Timing Belt Hydraulic tensioner
Timing Belt Tensioner Pulley
Timing Belt Idler Pulley
Balance Shaft Belt Tensioner Pulley
A/C accessory Belt
PS and Alternator Belt

I would also recommend a new fuel filter, Thermostat kit, new spark plugs (Get NGK only ... no platinum or irridium... just plain old copper NGK's as specified by the factory) and plug wires.

The process of changing the water pump will involve draining the radiator and require new anti-freeze, so changing the thermostat should be a small charge as its only about 10-15 minutes more of work to do it after the radiator has been drained.

But I agree with your dealership... you need to change the timing belt ASAP.

 

[quaimodo]

I would just like to thank you guys for your info and advice. I did call the Chrysler dealership here and asked them how much replacing all my belts including the timing belt would be. They said about $600. So I'm thinking that is a pretty good price but I didn't ask them how much a Kevlar belt would cost. I'm not sure how much that is, but all I know is that a regular timing belt costs about $30-40.

Again thanks for your input and I'm sure I'll be posting more questions later on