Toyota Repair: 99 RAV4 2.0 Engine Smoking, valve stem seals, toyota dealer

Question
We are looking at a 99 RAV4 with 137K miles. The owner says it smokes after sitting. I learned from your site that this is from valve stem seals. What would it cost to fix this? How long could you wait until you HAD to fix it? What would a Toyota dealer charge? Would you let a non-Toyota dealer fix it? Would you buy it? They are asking $4800. It is in good shape otherwise.

Thanks,

Tim

Answer
The toyota dealer would charge about $950-1,000 to replace the valve stem seals, $4,800 seems reasonable, waiting to have the seals replaced will only make things worse and if you buy it with the intention of keeping it I would ask the seller to come down to $4,000 and have it fixed after the sale. I would also highly recommend that you have the seller agree to have the car inspected at a toyota dealership to see if any other repairs may be needed, this will be at your expense but it may be worth the $80-90 inspection fee to find out if there are any other major concerns, if the seller does not agree to this steer away from this deal.