Questions and Answers
Quest Exhaust Manifolds
Q. Vincent, I recently got an estimate of approximately $2,000.00 to repair/replace my cracked exhaust manifold from a Nissan dealer in a Chicago suburb. This was discovered while getting it checked at 90,000 miles.
I also needed new ball joints, timing belt replaced, new water pump, front brake job and other minor items on TOP OF the $2,000.00.
I decided to hold on the manifold at the suggestion of the service department.
My question:
How urgent should this be to get it fixed and what does the exhaust manifold do ? What sort of risks am I taking by not repairing it now ? My wife drives it with my three children, should I be worried?? Not being the mechanical type and having no idea about cars other than how to change the tires and filters I am a bit lost.If you could shed some light on this issue I would be thankful.
1997 Nissan Quest
3.0 liter
Automatic transmissionMichael
A. The exhaust manifolds bolt onto the side of the cylinder head and collects the exhaust from, in this case, each of the three cylinders and routes it to the exhaust pipe. You have one on each cylinder head. Now if they are cracked, the exhaust gas leaks out and could collect inside the passenger compartment. It also makes the car noisier.
Their price is way too high Michael, let's price this out.
The right exhaust manifold is $249.46 and the left is $215.41. The gaskets are $3.60 each. These are dealer prices from Nissan. The labor to replace both of them is about 4.1 hours.
So we are looking at about $475.00 in parts. At a labor rate of $80.00 (that's a high estimate) you're looking at about $328.00 for a total of about $800.00. I guess the other $1200.00 is a tip for the technician. Do they have any job openings there for me?
Now if it was me, I would get two used manifolds from a junk yard for $75.00 each.
How dangerous is it? Well Michael, if it were my wife and three children in the car, I'd see what I can do about getting it fixed as soon as possible. The inside of the truck could fill up with carbon monoxide, which is an odorless gas and... well you know what would happen.
I'd hook up with a shop that will do the job with used parts and save a ton of money over the dealer cost.
Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA
