Cam seals are good to change while the engine is apart. I'm surprised nobody chimed in about the common "while yer in there" items

 

Front main seal, and the oil pump O-ring are both really good to do with the timing belt change. In addition, it's not a bad time to replace the thermostat and waterpump too. But they shouldn't tack on tons of extra labor for that stuff. Maybe $200 extra including parts(gaskets and seals are cheap)

 

It seems they aren't doing the ft. main, oil o-ring, or waterpump. So you could wait until one of those things shows signs of needing service, then do them all toghether. Or in 60,000 miles at you're next timing belt change.

Well they did the things I'd mentioned earlier and I did the trans fluid change (filter change and 3x fluid change) and I'll be changing the diff fluids soon.

One worry is that when I got the car back I noticed a "clunk" sound when I started it up most times but not all. I took it back and standing there with the head mechanic we determined it was an engine mount bolt that was not tightened down all the way. He also noticed that the mechanic who worked on the car had installed a bracket backwards (the bracket that supports what I want to call the "air box")

The clunk sound disappeared when he tightened the loose engine mount bolt but I'm wondering what else the original mechanic might have screwed up. I wasn't left with a feeling of security.....

 

On to reading tire threads next.

 

John