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[ianrobbo]

Guys,

First post on this site, though I had a few on the 'other one'.

My brother-in-law has a 2000 MY 2.5V6 auto facelift estate, and has big problems. He was driving to work yesterday, car started juddering, lack of power, running rough, ticking noise from engine. Limped to work, got RAC out, they took him to a Vauxhall dealer who has diagnosed no compression on No.5 cylinder, probably a valve problem (don't specify inlet or exhaust, but that's what you get for £180).

They quoted him a minimum of £2500 to fix it! Irrevelevant whether it's a fair price or not, he just can't afford it.

I plan to go to his in London this weekend, and take the cylinder head off. My own Omega is a 4 pot, so I have a few q's for you V6 experts:

1. Has anyone any experience of sticky valves/dropped valves/broken springs etc on the V6 engine?
2. I appreciate that there is poor access, is removal of 1 cylinder head a practical proposition, or should I seriously consider taking the engine out?
3. When (if) I sort out the cylinder head, I will need a locking tool kit for the timing belt - may I borrow/hire one from anyone?

All opinions/advice welcome!

Ta,

Ian

[TheBoy]

Welcome to site

Heads can be done without removing engine.

Robin Hood was doing a DVD on head changes, may be worth contacting him for a copy, even if he hasn't fully edited yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if cambelt tensioner had failed, causing the problem in first place, so replace belt and tensioners.  You will need locking/timing kit to retime the cams.

[ianrobbo]

I know for a fact he had the belt & tensioners changed back in the summer, so I think that isn't too likely (although anything's possible).

Ian

[TheBoy]

I know for a fact he had the belt & tensioners changed back in the summer, so I think that isn't too likely (although anything's possible).

Ian

The garage that did it, did they use a timing kit? If it was back street mechanic, probably not...  ...which may explain the current situation.

[ianrobbo]

I know for a fact he had the belt & tensioners changed back in the summer, so I think that isn't too likely (although anything's possible).

Ian

The garage that did it, did they use a timing kit? If it was back street mechanic, probably not...  ...which may explain the current situation.

No idea - I'll find out at the weekend.

[TheBoy]

Do not attempt to replace belt without locking kit

[theolodian]

Do not attempt to replace belt without locking kit

Or, by extension, install cylinder head.

[ianrobbo]

Guys,

Thanks for the advice about the locking kit, if you read my original post you'll see I'm already aware of the need for one, what I really need is advice on valve problems! The timing belt is still intact, the tensioners haven't failed, the engine was still running (albeit roughly - no compression on No.5 cylinder).

Does anyone have any experience of dropped/sticking/burnt valves, broken springs, maybe even bad hyd tappets?

Ian

[TheBoy]

Soz, can't help with the last bit, hopefully one of the engine gurus will be along shortly...

[theolodian]

I suppose it could be a bad follower or even a broken cam (being the last cylinder).  Haven't heard of any problems along those lines yet, and don't know any magic checks for that before taking a bunch of stuff apart.

I'm not an expert on these cars, but on these forums it sounds like the only valve problems are when the camshaft failed before, everything looked alright, and then a short while later it started playing up and turned out that the guides were cracked when the cambelt went.

[rpont]

I'd take the cam cover off first and have a watch while turning the engine over with a ratchet on the crankshaft. Also take the plug out and have a look at it, see if anything has fallen off. No 5 is drivers side at the back in case you were wondering.

Loss of compression can be due to rings or valves but presumably they put some oil into the cylinder to check if it was rings.

Some pics of under the bonnet with bits missing here if it helps:
http://www.infohitsystems.ltd.uk/Gallery/dirwrap_photo.sh?path=Car

Best of luck.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Do you know any of the history of the car?

The only valve problem I have ever known of was on my own car.....some muppet had re-built the cylinder heads after the belt broke/jumped some teeth and didn't sort the guides. As a result mine ate a piece of guide that came loose....the result, a slightly bent valve!

1-3-5 cylinder head is a bit easier to remove and access is a little easier than the passenger one.

If it was me, the first thing I would do is pop the cambelt cover off (PM Robin Hood and get the cambelt DVD as it will be of use for this job nad a bargain at 3 quid delivered) and wind the crank around to TDC to allow a basic check fo the belt timing to be done. When this is checked, you can then set the crank to 60 deg before TDC and remove the belt (its now safe as no valves make contact with pistons).

Then follow the cam cover gasket maintenance guide to get the drivers side cam cover off. Remove the cam belt backing plate and progressively remove the cam bearing caps to pop the cams out.

Before popping the head off, pull the followers out one by one and try to press the centre button in (its on the bottom side)

As for sticking valves, never known them on the V6...plus snapped cam...highly unlikely

[Marks DTM Calib]

Should have also said, I would do a compression test myself first......

[ianrobbo]

Mark,

Good point about the compression test. I'll have to see what state the engine is in when I get there, I know the Vauxhall dealers have removed some bits including the cambelt cover & rocker cover, don't think they got further than that.

As regards the car's history, he's had the car about 3 years, bought it from a car supermarket with about 50,000 up, has about 100,000 now. Nothing untoward has happened in the time he's had it, and I think it had full history when he got it. Dunno if anyone managed to mess it up before he got it.

Ian

[Markie]

As Mark said...these engines are generally bombproof. One would assume a correlation between cam blet / tensioners etc and recent problems.

My dilemma would be ( and it is with my veccy) will it run long enough ( without further damage) to do a compression test?

Also removing the heads is not a huge problem - can be done in situ