Valve stem seal replacement.

Niran gomes · October 12, 2020

Hi experts,

My car is a 01' sonata Hmatic with the four cylinder. And I think the valve stem seals have worn out. The car is at 199000km on the clock.

Oil starts burning after idling for 30 seconds or so and immediately after revving the engine. This i think means that the valve stem seals are bad. I am quite positive its not the rings.

●My question is, should the head be removed in order to replace the valve stem seals? Which will also require a new head gasket, Timing belt as well because we're at it already.

●How much does it generally cost to do this replacement(stem seals only) on a 4 cylinder 16 valve engine. The car has a transaxle if that matters.

Please leave your valuable experiences. Would help me out alot.

ajm · October 12, 2020

The head must be removed to get the valves out, grind them and replace seals or also valves. Since Korean engines are similar to European, I would check twice if phasing the head is a good idea instead of just following the workshop recommendation to phase.

Since the head is removed it's a good time to change rings, slew the cylinders and any other routine repairs since you don't want to remove the engine again after some time.