So, I just called my local dealership and asked them how much to revamp the whole timing set. I of course being the "educated" CSS user, had to read off each part individually for this awesome employee. I told him I wanted the whole thing done, guides, tensioner, chain and so on. Heres what he told me.....

The 4 hour job was just for the chain, and only the chain. No guides, no cam sprockets, and NO TENSIONER!!! WTF

I asked him wtf is the point of just replacing the chain!? he said of course, I dunno. Great, now I gotta find a shop.

So moral of the story, if you are taking your car to the dealer and ask them to replace the timing chain, you could be getting screwed, they are basically doing nothing.

Price for everything was quoted at 1150, not the 900 most people are quoted.

 

You can do it in under 3 hours for less than $350

 

Is there a walk through or anything? there are literally no car people in Oregon, I'm on my own on this one and I reaaaalllly don't wanna make a tiny mistake which results in me destroying my motor.

 

Omg @ the price!!

 

Yeah, I'm taking it into an engine shop on Monday, 702 through them, thank god

 

Do it yourself man. There are alot of cavi guys I've seen on youtube doing it. Now it's obviously not exactly the same but for the LSJ it would be fairly close. And then get all torque specs/exact procedure here, but seeing it on youtube will definitely make you feel better about doing it.

 

This.

The build book. Follow it. Very easy. Just take your time.

 

Hmmmmmm I'm gonna look that up. Makes me nervous, I saw a guy on fb that said he messed up and grenades the motor.

 

If you have some mechanical background, and can read, you should have no problem man.

Read the build book, look at the photos. Go through it in your head, and take your time.

 

In for results

 

Now are you talking about a Haynes manual or the actual gm service manual?

 

Honestly ill probably take it to the guy for 700, and I know I'm sure I could do it myself, but theres that little bug in the back of my head telling me if you duck it up you have no car and no money for a motor!

I said the same thing about my transmission though.... had to do it myself after the shop messed up and I was out 400$$$, lol, gotta love it

 

GM build book

 

Gotcha, really should get that, but Ive nearly taken my car back to stock (college student needs reliable dd) so I wouldn't have to deal with stuff!

 

I'm lucky my bother is a mechanic so if I need car repairs I always get parts at his cost and labour for next to nothing as it's the family way

 

Lmao, yeah my family is full of back in the day mechanics, tools, tons of them. But they're telling me just to be on the safe side on this one. I was just posting this to forwarn people who talk to a dealership so they don't get screwed.

 

I only went to the dealership when the warranty was in force and repairs were free now that the warranty is long up I wouldn't let them change the air freshener in my car.

 

If you don't feel comfortable, then by all means take it somewhere. Doing timing chain replacements isn't hard, but just time consuming to make sure everything is correct. I have done them before, but never on an LSJ. Since there isn't a side timing cover on the LSJ engines, I dread ever having to do one. I doesn't look like there is much room to see what you are doing with the engine in the car

 

Not even the air freshener!?
I asked them if they could warrantee the labor if I brought in brand new gm parts, they said no. I said so if it blows up on the way out of the parking lot I'm screwed? He said yeah...

Well then dealership.

I can see not covering parts, but the labor?????

Thanks gm. I will not be using your half assed service

 

Go to another dealer. That's BS. whenever we do them here we change EVERYTHING. most of the time there's one or two broken guides and the balance shaft tension is always junk.

 

Yeah when I talked to the shop I'm taking it to he said yeah I'm doing head work on a couple cars this week.

Confidence in shop = chic chica yeah

 

Unfortunately, most dealerships know dick about the SS. It has happened to me at least 4 times now, at 3 different dealerships, that I asked the parts guy whether he has a certain part in stock. When I specify that it is for a 2010 Cobalt SS, they ask me things like: "what engine is that"? or "Is that the 2.4?" or "Two liter or 2.2?"

Things like that have completely steered me away from having ANYTHING done at the dealership ever since my warranty was up. smh...

It's really a sad statement that, although I've never had an ounce of mechanical training or schooling of ANY kind, I'm still a much bigger expert on ANYTHING to do with my car than ANYONE at the dealership I bought it at...

 

Every time I've talked to a dealer I get mad and usually end up yelling at the guy for being an idiot, not sure why thought this time it would be different!

 

Paypal me $20 and I'll send you a .pdf of the entire Cobalt Shop/Service Manual.

DIY ftw.

 

i am lucky as well, my buddy is a GM tech. $680 + 1 case of beer. Got a complete deluxe timing kit changed out, zfr installed and valve springs done. I helped him. It was that hard to do at all.