Chevrolet Cruze — Valve Cover Gasket Replacement Cost

Based on real repair records · last updated September 4, 2026
$328
typical range $244 – $450 (parts + labor)
typical labor time 1.9 hrs · parts $105 · labor $182 · the rest is shop fees & tax (medians)
Median and middle-half range computed from real Chevrolet Cruze valve cover gasket replacement repairs.

What owners actually paid

$244
1 in 4 paid less
$328
half paid less, half paid more
$450
3 in 4 paid less

The shaded middle is where half of all these repairs landed: $244 – $450. A quote inside that band is normal. Cheaper or pricier isn't automatically wrong — but it's worth asking why.

Real repair reports

These reports are a recent sample of real, paid Chevrolet Cruze valve cover gasket replacement visits — quoted the way the owner and the technician actually said it.

Car owners said

“Cruze valve cover gasket”
2013 Chevrolet Cruze · 96,934 mi · $258 · 0.8 hrs labor · May 2026
“Diagnose engine oil leak”
2016 Chevrolet Cruze · 78,997 mi · $507 · 2 hrs labor · May 2026
“check valve cover pcv”
2014 Chevrolet Cruze · $271 · 1.1 hrs labor · Mar 2026
“Checked oil leak, found valve cover gasket leaking”
2014 Chevrolet Cruze · 64,112 mi · $204 · 1.1 hrs labor · Jan 2026

What this repair is

The valve cover gasket seals the top of the engine. When it hardens with age, oil seeps down the engine sides — the classic slow oil leak with a burning smell after highway driving. The gasket itself is cheap; access is what sets the labor on V-type engines.

Is your quote fair?

If your quote lands between $244 and $450, it's inside the range where half of all real Chevrolet Cruze repairs of this kind land — and the typical job takes about 1.9 hours of labor. Quotes well below aren't automatically good news (economy parts, or related work skipped) and quotes above aren't automatically gouging (trim variants, premium parts, seized hardware) — but both ends deserve questions.

The symptom behind this repair

This fix most often shows up when owners report Burning Smell From Car or Car Running Rough or Misfiring — those pages show how often each complaint actually ends here, and what the alternatives cost.

Take this to the shop

The FixDozer Fair Price Report puts this page on one printable sheet — the fair range, parts and labor split out, and what moves the price — so you can compare a written quote line by line.

Download the Fair Price Report (PDF)

View it online · Not sure what's wrong? Start from the symptom

Where these numbers come from. FixDozer computes statistics from a large, continuously updated body of real-world US automotive repair records.