I have had my 90 NA in the shop for the past two weeks trying to diagnose a hesitation and stumble at low rpms. The first dealership could not find the cause and so now I moved the car to another dealership friday and they began working on it today. They called and said the car has the dreaded "90 CAS/Cam condition" often described as soft heads where the CAS and cam joint wear out because of a manufacturing defect (check the FAQ under hesitation). Alot of people like to deny the "soft heads" rumor but I guess this proves it is true. My car is a fairly late production year 90 I believe. The mechanic quoted roughly $850 to replace the CAS with a 50/50 chance of the problem not coming back any time soon. To replace the Cam and CAS it would cost *hold on tight for this one*.....$3600----I am still in shock, I could buy a rebuilt motor for that much I am sure. I have priced the parts at carparts.com and it was $370 for the CAS and $133 for one of the cams. They said it would be about 26 hrs labor at about $80 and hour and they want to change the timing belt while they are at it. (It has less than 8k miles on a new timing belt, pump, seals, tensioner, etc.) I baby the car religiously and do every sort of preventative maintenance possible but I do not know how much more money I can dump into the car. Certainly not $3600. Has anyone else had a similar problem with the CAS/cam and looking back, what was the best road to take? Are the dealers estimates even reasonable or should I go somewhere else? I need as much input as possible on this matter so please feel free to respond with any relevent comments! Thanks!
Follow Ups
Me and the Z may be reaching the end PLEASE READ---> - z-extreme19:09:40 03/11/02
