That’s what failed on my Dodge Neon. Just an $8 part. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when it started leaking last week I ended up putting in a quart of oil every couple of days, because the car left puddles everywhere it went.

The problem is that the camshaft seal is right above the timing belt and the parts that control the engine’s timing. When the oil leaks from there, it gets all over the timing elements, eventually causing the timing belt to slip off or break, which basically totals the engine. So they have to replace the whole thing, not just the one seal. And this is also where the water pump is, and they highly recommend replacing that at the same time, since it’s $240+ labor just to get in there. If I didn’t change out the water pump and it started having problems later, it would be that much more again to just get in there to replace it. So I had them change the water pump today also. Turns out that it had indeed started leaking, so I was vindicated.

By the time everything was totalled that needed to be done, the estimate was over $900. The weird thing is that they had another Neon in there right before me with the exact same problem. Apparently the other car was in worse condition, because the owner had let it lose too much oil and driven it too much without getting the problem fixed. The engine was still working, but the repair place couldn’t guarantee the engine’s condition or performance. The benefit to me was that they’d just done this job when they started on mine, so they knew the routine and were able to shave a couple of hours off the expected labor time (4 hours instead of 6). So that saved me over $60.

Large, unexpected expense, to be sure (stoopid cars!), but at least I got to save a little money and now have a car that’s solid and performing well again.