VS on its last legs, some advice?

[Gippy]

Hi, new here

We have a VS Acclaim sedan and it would seem it's very close to dying completely. In the last few weeks its just going downhill.

It has a
New water pump
New thermostat, was the wrong one, currently has none.
New radiator

Main issues-
The previous rumble (that was mainly an exhaust that needs replacing) is now a full car shudder when its turned on.
The temp gauge is very erratic, but doesn't say its ever on the red even though the cars behaviour says otherwise. Connected to the fact it has no thermostat?
The heater tap leaks and leaves the car steaming and smelling.
Loud sloshing sound (although I read online that could just be water going through the heater core and some cars do it, some don't. Is that right?)
And the loveliest thing of all, when it warms up and you've driven a few kms, the motor starts knocking.

Tried replacing the leads and spark plugs but we didn't have the right tool for the spark plugs. With the leads, well, changed them over and it quietened down and ran better, however by the end of the day it sounded way worse than before so put the old ones back in a day later. We have assumed they were the wrong ones.

So, short of taking it to a mechanic (which is obviously the most logical option), any ideas?

[soop]

Replace the alternator and coils.

[Brett_jjj]

Id start by doing an error code check.Heres a link that shows you how to do this quick and easy test.If any codes show up,post up on here what they are.
---Checking error codes VR/VS (Revised)---
Id also flush out the cooling system with a hose,then get a new thermostat and heater tap to get the cooling system back to how it should be.Id even throw a new radiator cap on there as well.Make sure the radiator has got the proper coolant in it and not just straight water.Then I'd do an oil and filter change,use a 20W-50 oil.Also fit new spark plugs,(double check them to make sure they are the right plugs,for NGK brand,they should be NGK BPR 6EFS 15,or for AC Delco brand plugs-they should be R42 LTS6),the sparkplug gap should be set to 1.5 mm.Also you can buy a sparkplug spanner cheap at most auto places.And as soop said above,replacing the 3 ignition coils is worth doing too if the new plugs and leads dont help...These coils seem to loose their "performance" with age,they end up breaking down completely and not sparking properly when the engine is under load,which can cause misfiring or even backfiring etc,and generally just bad running.

[darcycammo]

The heater tap leaks and leaves the car steaming and smelling.
(heater taps are cheap like $15 - $30)

Loud sloshing sound although I read online that could just be water going through the heater core and some cars do it, some don't. Is that right?

(that might just be air try bleeding the air from the cooling system)

[Vee-ard]

IF the car gets steamy and smelly then your heater core has a leak. Not cheap to fix. We're talking 10 hours labour to pull the entire inside of your car apart if you do it properly. If you want to get by, just cable tie your heater tap shut (obviously after you replace it with a new one, sounds like yours is rooted) to bypass the heater core and stop the leak. Or you could even reroute the water hoses in the engine bay to miss the heater core entirely.

[justbad4you]

if your heater core is done liking life (same in my old ute smell and leak on floor) choice for you >> 1 dash out and heaps of work? or 2 cut pipes and mate new core to pipes( ill explian later if you need and post a link) are you wanting to fix the issues yourself? h/core are from $80 TO $120 NEW i did mine in 3hrs by mating a new heater core to the old pipes with oses and clamps> theres some threads on j/c. it worked a treat for me (cars been sold)

The heater tap leaks and leaves the car steaming and smelling.
(heater taps are cheap like $15 - $30)

Loud sloshing sound although I read online that could just be water going through the heater core and some cars do it, some don't. Is that right?

(that might just be air try bleeding the air from the cooling system)

if you going to want it back to 100% the dash is going to have to come out ( there also a thread on the dash out as well )

[shadetreemechanic]

Yeah as everyone said:

fix your cooling system, and heater core
replace leads/plugs
for the knocking, add a few liters of 98 to jack up the fuel octane. if it fixes it you can run on 95 fuel instead

[justbad4you]

and as cheap as poss.......blooody cars lol...

Yeah as everyone said:

fix your cooling system, and heater core
replace leads/plugs
for the knocking, add a few liters of 98 to jack up the fuel octane. if it fixes it you can run on 95 fuel instead

[Krisp]

knocking at revs unless its big ends i would say harmonic balancer. last legs generally means calling up sims is just moments away. so far you have just had general wear

[justbad4you]

sims pay$300 for a commy

knocking at revs unless its big ends i would say harmonic balancer. last legs generally means calling up sims is just moments away. so far you have just had general wear

[Hangman]

And put a thermostat back in it.

[justbad4you]

alternator and coils go starting point

Hi, new here

We have a VS Acclaim sedan and it would seem it's very close to dying completely. In the last few weeks its just going downhill.

It has a
New water pump
New thermostat, was the wrong one, currently has none.
New radiator

Main issues-
The previous rumble (that was mainly an exhaust that needs replacing) is now a full car shudder when its turned on.
The temp gauge is very erratic, but doesn't say its ever on the red even though the cars behaviour says otherwise. Connected to the fact it has no thermostat?
The heater tap leaks and leaves the car steaming and smelling.
Loud sloshing sound (although I read online that could just be water going through the heater core and some cars do it, some don't. Is that right?)
And the loveliest thing of all, when it warms up and you've driven a few kms, the motor starts knocking.

Tried replacing the leads and spark plugs but we didn't have the right tool for the spark plugs. With the leads, well, changed them over and it quietened down and ran better, however by the end of the day it sounded way worse than before so put the old ones back in a day later. We have assumed they were the wrong ones.

So, short of taking it to a mechanic (which is obviously the most logical option), any ideas?

[hdtkid]

And the loveliest thing of all, when it warms up and you've driven a few kms, the motor starts knocking.


So, short of taking it to a mechanic (which is obviously the most logical option), any ideas?

Could be your oil pump is a little worn. or very, my Vs did this when i first got it. for a few reasons.
1 previous owner was a lady. so was probably not serviced properly, when i did the first oil change you should have seen the sludge that came out :O i never seen anything like it.
that went on for 2-3 oil changes till it was flushed out. (poor car probably never seen 2500RPM till the day i got it when i got it was auto is now a manual ROFL )

2, my cars had around 240,000 when i got it and after a bit of i suppose you could call it testing.... i found the oils for older engines made this problem worse, normally something like 20w60
then i tried magnatech and the knocking hasn't come back since.


just to give bit more detail.... when my car started to knock coz of this it was like there was no oil at all getting to the heads. just tapping away like crazy. car had no power, and normally happened after i had been giving it a bit of a hard time.

someone also told me you can try flushing it our with diesel grade oil coz it cleans our your engine, but only have it in for around 500ks. then put a good semi or fully synthetic oil in.

[justbad4you]

yeah i 2nd that HANG

And put a thermostat back in it.

[Gippy]

Hey all, thanks for your advice.
We've taken it to a mechanic who replaced the heater tap and then told us it had a blown head gasket and that it would cost us between $1000-1500 to fix.
And of course at the moment we don't have that kind of money lying around, so we'll have to continue to drive it til it stops.
My bro can get us a new motor with a 3 month warranty for $500. Unfortunately it's 400km away. So now we're just waiting til next pay and then we'll somehow get the vs down there.
So again, thanks for all your advice
Cheers

[Andrew426]

Head gasket on a commodore isnt a hard fix, im sure you can find someone to do it for a hundred bucks and a box of beers.

[bpefi]

Head gasket on a commodore isnt a hard fix, im sure you can find someone to do it for a hundred bucks and a box of beers.

Not a hard problem to fix but if its like quite a few others the heads are probably cracked between valve seats - & that gets expensive to fix. At least with a $500 motor he knows what its going to cost..

[Rhin0o8]

Hey all, thanks for your advice.
We've taken it to a mechanic who replaced the heater tap and then told us it had a blown head gasket and that it would cost us between $1000-1500 to fix.
And of course at the moment we don't have that kind of money lying around, so we'll have to continue to drive it til it stops.
My bro can get us a new motor with a 3 month warranty for $500. Unfortunately it's 400km away. So now we're just waiting til next pay and then we'll somehow get the vs down there.
So again, thanks for all your advice
Cheers

Re-fit the new motor is probably the cheapest way...

then sell your motor for half that price with no head. someone will buy it to rebuild for sure