Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: bexandpower on 19 November 2006, 17:08:57
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Hi,
Just recently bought a 3.0 elite. Checked the history and the belt needed changing so i had it done, also had an oil and filter change whilst it was there. The car then decided she would cut out when i was driving her so i had a new crank shaft sensor fitted. All was well in the world of omega driving then last night on my way back from a meal out i heard a really nasty noise coming from the engine (sounded like very badly tuned diesel). So i got nice mr green flag out to come tow me home (even though i am nearly on first name terms with the garage now lol). The mechanic that towed me home said that it could be the big ends? and then suggested that i dont bother getting them fixed either go for a recon lump or get this one recon'd. I'm in a bit of a pickle here as we love the car and dont really want to get rid of it but at the same time i dont want to part with thousands to keep it. Any help or prices on recon lumps would be really helpfull. One thing though the car has only done 89k and the big ends have gone??????? i could understand it at 200k is this strange or am i just cursed?
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I would check the cam timing first. When you did belt, you did use a proper locking/timing kit??
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Hi and Welcome :)
Id be suprised if the big ends have just failed like that. Usually if a problem they get worse over a period of time
Was the timing belt tensioner changed at the same time as the belt? Just thinking if not it may be thats that failed, you may be lucky or not :'(
Im sure an expert will be along shortly to advise more than i can ;)
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I would check the cam timing first. When you did belt, you did use a proper locking/timing kit??
I see Jaime has ;D Must type faster next time ;)
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Very unusual for bigend or crank bearings to give trouble unless something drastic happens to the oil circuit.
I would suspect the valve timing has slipped due to tensioner or idler failure or that the tensioner wasnt tightened up properly.
If you are lucky the noise will be the cambelt slapping against the camcover, but if the belt has jumped more than one or two teeth then you will be looking for a pair of replacement heads due to bent valves and broken valve guides, the 3.0 suffers much more damage than the 2.5 when this happens.
Where are you based? Update your profile to include location...there might be someone nearby who can help with the diagnosis or repair.
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I had my local garage do the cambelt and tensioner change i asked them to do a full kit as i know what can go wrong with these and as they charged me nearly £300 i should bloody hope it was a full kit. I also had an oil and filter change whilst it was there i was a bit supprised when it went like that all of a sudden i have known big ends to get worse and worse. Oh just one other thing it was not idleing right at all when the noise was going on it was jumpin from 500rpm to about 2000rpm.
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just one thing if i had a serious oil fault would i not get a fault light on the dash?
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The oil pressure light on most cars only comes on at very low pressure, the bigends and mains need good oil flow at high pressure to avoid over-heating.
I was thinking more of blocked oilways due to past neglect or a collapsed oil filter etc.
Your problem sounds more like valve timing but Im a little puzzled by the idle variation unless its just the response time of the idle control loop as it tries to stop the engine dying completely.
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So therefore considering that if the timing has been put out by a badly fitted kit the that would be the fault of the garage would it not? I did ask for a full kit that does include tensioner and idler does it not?
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So therefore considering that if the timing has been put out by a badly fitted kit the that would be the fault of the garage would it not? I did ask for a full kit that does include tensioner and idler does it not?
I've heard some garages do not use timing kit, as they often change belts on cars where cam timing is not adjustable... ...and they assume Omega is the same.
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Yeah when i first spoke to the garage i made a point of asking them that it was a full kit and that it was a genuine vx kit
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Just a thought , but if the timing was not set up properly would the fault not have been apparent as soon as the car was started ? Sounds like something might have slipped?? :-/
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Just one thing to add i did go over a level crossing just before it happaned
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Just one thing to add i did go over a level crossing just before it happaned
Didn't belt the sump hard did you?
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Not 100% sure about this, if its a genuine Vauxhall kit and its fitted by a garage you get a Guarantee against
failure .
What does your receipt from the garage say?
Sounds like the timing belt from what you describe
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Just one thing to add i did go over a level crossing just before it happaned
Didn't belt the sump hard did you?
nooooooo. didnt clonk on anything
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Not 100% sure about this, if its a genuine Vauxhall kit and its fitted by a garage you get a Guarantee against
failure .
What does your receipt from the garage say?
Sounds like the timing belt from what you describe
receipt says:
To renew timing belt, tensioner and guides
renew oil and filter
1 cam belt kit @£115 +V.A.T.
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Not 100% sure about this, if its a genuine Vauxhall kit and its fitted by a garage you get a Guarantee against
failure .
What does your receipt from the garage say?
Sounds like the timing belt from what you describe
receipt says:
To renew timing belt, tensioner and guides
renew oil and filter
1 cam belt kit @£115 +V.A.T.
Well they charged you full retail price for it :(.......just outa interest theres 3 different cam belts kits for a 3.0......whats your engine number?
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1. New tensioners do fail as well... the garage may have done everything 100% and the new tensioner may still have failed.
(my Vx dealer had to re-do the whole cambelt kit the day after they installed it because the new tensioner was noisy out of the box!)
2. But - some crank pulleys had rubber vibration dampers, if the rubber fails then the inner part of the crank pulley will rotate freely and independently of the outer part, the result is similar to a tensioner failure only the belt does not actually snap!
3. On balance the pulley separating seems consistent with a low-mileage older car - it's the ageing and the sudden load of the engine starting that kill the rubber, not motorway mileage.
4. Whether it's the tensioner or the crank pulley, big end problems on a 89k V6 is almost unheard off (unless the engine has been seriously abused/neglected?), and the symptoms are in-line with some sort of upper valve problem. The bad news is that if the valves hit the pistons - for whatever reason - the engine is very likely to be a goner...
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1. New tensioners do fail as well... the garage may have done everything 100% and the new tensioner may still have failed.
(my Vx dealer had to re-do the whole cambelt kit the day after they installed it because the new tensioner was noisy out of the box!)
4. Whether it's the tensioner or the crank pulley, big end problems on a 89k V6 is almost unheard off (unless the engine has been seriously abused/neglected?), and the symptoms are in-line with some sort of upper valve problem. The bad news is that if the valves hit the pistons - for whatever reason - the engine is very likely to be a goner...
But would the engine still run on all 6 cylinders if the valves were bent?
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probably not very smoothly methings :-/
first things first - if your spanner competent ( if not we can talk you through stuff) can you pop the cam cover off at engine front and have a look inside to see if the belt has jumped a few teeth or not, there are markings on the cam cover top.
Do you have the car or is it at garage?
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probably not very smoothly methings :-/
first things first - if your spanner competent ( if not we can talk you through stuff) can you pop the cam cover off at engine front and have a look inside to see if the belt has jumped a few teeth or not, there are markings on the cam cover top.
Do you have the car or is it at garage?
unfortunatly car is at the garage so could be a little hard to do that but i do have to spek to the garage today i will post when i know more.
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Not 100% sure about this, if its a genuine Vauxhall kit and its fitted by a garage you get a Guarantee against
failure .
What does your receipt from the garage say?
Sounds like the timing belt from what you describe
receipt says:
To renew timing belt, tensioner and guides
renew oil and filter
1 cam belt kit @£115 +V.A.T.
Well they charged you full retail price for it :(.......just outa interest theres 3 different cam belts kits for a 3.0......whats your engine number?
I'll have a looksy would that be on the log book?
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Not 100% sure about this, if its a genuine Vauxhall kit and its fitted by a garage you get a Guarantee against
failure .
What does your receipt from the garage say?
Sounds like the timing belt from what you describe
receipt says:
To renew timing belt, tensioner and guides
renew oil and filter
1 cam belt kit @£115 +V.A.T.
Well they charged you full retail price for it :(.......just outa interest theres 3 different cam belts kits for a 3.0......whats your engine number?
I'll have a looksy would that be on the log book?
be on v5 posibly on original owners manual, first couple of pages,
Personally id get it out the garage, or at least tell them to do nothing with it right now. Its your car so your perfectly entitled to go have a look to check belts - we have had a few horror stories of crazy quotes to fix these things from dealers ( im thinking allenm`s in particular)
Only thing that would stop me looking under the bonnet and checking belts would be if you have a full warranty that the dealer reckon you could invalidate, in which case you shouldnt be paying for fixing it anyway :-/
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Thanks fo the advice,
Getting the car dropped home now. I will have a look when i get back from work
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Thanks fo the advice,
Getting the car dropped home now. I will have a look when i get back from work
...can you check if the crank pulley separated...?
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Thanks fo the advice,
Getting the car dropped home now. I will have a look when i get back from work
...can you check if the crank pulley separated...?
How would i tell?
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You can see the crank pulley from the top and even better from below, just look at it and see if there are any signs of cracked rubber. It would have like an inner metal bit near the centre and a larger outer bit around the inner bit, and between them a layer of rubber. Try moving the pulley with a tool to see if there is any play between the two bits. If however the pulley seems solid i.e. looks like made all from steel then you are not affected by this....
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Looks like no problems there