Complete Newbie with large engine problem

[bexandpower]

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

[bexandpower]

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.

[Taxi_Driver]

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?

[Markjay]

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...

[bexandpower]

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?

[Markie]

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?

[bexandpower]

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.

[bexandpower]

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?

[Markie]

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  :-/

[bexandpower]

Thanks fo the advice,

Getting the car dropped home now. I will have a look when i get back from work

[Markjay]

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...?

[bexandpower]

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?

[Markjay]

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....

[bexandpower]

Looks like no problems there