Wildly fluctuating temperature after service on SV6

[dunzsv6]

Well, worst fears have been confirmed, small blown head gasket on passenger side. It's only small as it only leaks around 300-400mls every 5-7 weeks. Holden says that they wouldn't even touch it until it is a leak as at the moment it's only a weep. Only problem now is that it is a $2-2500 job to get the heads taken off, machined, new gasket set is worth like 400 and labour is around 6 hours min!!!! very pissed off with Holden how can this happen to a 4 year old car? Where has the Holden quality gone? May aswell buy a Kia!!!!!

 

[the_trademarc]

Well, worst fears have been confirmed, small blown head gasket on passenger side. It's only small as it only leaks around 300-400mls every 5-7 weeks. Holden says that they wouldn't even touch it until it is a leak as at the moment it's only a weep. Only problem now is that it is a $2-2500 job to get the heads taken off, machined, new gasket set is worth like 400 and labour is around 6 hours min!!!! very pissed off with Holden how can this happen to a 4 year old car? Where has the Holden quality gone? May aswell buy a Kia!!!!!

Like I said, it depends on how quickly you took to notice a problem, if it was instantaneous then it would have been avoided. (I check my car everytime the temp hits halfway).
If you drove around for a couple of weeks with the temp gauge going all over the place, then there's a good chance you would damage the gaskets on any vehicle, Holden, BMW, Kia, Tata, lol.

So it comes down to how you treat a car, not how its built.
Ive seen 3-year old VZ SV6's that are in such bad nick I wouldnt even pay 4k for them. And then you have ones like mines which is nearly 4 years old, and the owners have taken care of them, that would still fetch min 18k on the market.

 

[dunzsv6]

I look after my car extremley well, and the temp guage sits at it's normal 2 bars 99 percent of the time and it seems only every 5-7weeks it would lift up to red and then drop back down to normal running temp once I pop the cap and release the pressure and add a tiny bit of fluid. That's why I replaced the radiator, pump and fluid not thinking that a modern car could pop a head gasket! My mech. Thinks that it was the reason the previous owner sold the car because of it. To make matters worse the car service history has been all done by one genuine Holden dealership and I don't understand why they hadn't picked it up before warranty ran out as I bought the car with 104,000 on the clock.

 

[the_trademarc]

I look after my car extremley well, and the temp guage sits at it's normal 2 bars 99 percent of the time and it seems only every 5-7weeks it would lift up to red and then drop back down to normal running temp once I pop the cap and release the pressure and add a tiny bit of fluid. That's why I replaced the radiator, pump and fluid not thinking that a modern car could pop a head gasket! My mech. Thinks that it was the reason the previous owner sold the car because of it. To make matters worse the car service history has been all done by one genuine Holden dealership and I don't understand why they hadn't picked it up before warranty ran out as I bought the car with 104,000 on the clock.

Hmmm in that case it could just be stiff luck! Lol!

 

[dunzsv6]

haha, oh well on the bright side, while the heads are off, I might have to get some porting and polishing done !!!! (and tell the missus that it is required) lol

 

[slidways]

this may b a stupid question but am i meant 2 top up coolant into the overflow bottle or were the radiator cap is?

 

[PaulSV6]

Both, better to be safe than sorry!

 

[Trevor 062]

Is it normal for the radiator cap to be very hard to unscrew, mine unscrews normal for about 2 rotations, but then hits this patch where I nearly need a hammer & chisel to unscrew it all the way off.

 

[PaulSV6]

Was it cross-threaded or dirt in either thread?

 

[kblume]

Rad cap should be tight-ish, but if its binding up that bad, somethings not right.. As PaulSV6 mentioned, maybe it is cross threaded, or there is some crap in the thread?