VX calais broken valve spring

[swordsy00Calais]

hey all,

Just thought I'd share something that happened to my car,
I'd been involved in an accident, and my front and rear bumpers were messed up so I had to get them resprayed under my insurance.
The car was in the shop for 11 days and when i went to pick it up the guy asked if my car always had a miss?
When I got to the repairers i found the car was missing severely, it would barely idle and ran like a dog. So I drove it back to my work thinking it was just an electrical problem.
After spending a few hours on it I had no idea, called the NRMA roadside assist, and of course they had no idea.
This morning I took it to a mechanics near work, they did some testing, found there was no compression in cylinder number 1, after pulling the covers off they found a valve spring was broken and a valve was mis-shapen.
I'm no expert, but I'm assuming that someone at the panel beaters has done a burn out or dry revved the hell out of it. The mechanic said it was the wierdest thing he's seen happen to an ecotec, and has to pull the heads off on monday to check for more damage.

I've called the NRMA and asked them to look into it, they're going to send a guy out monday to examine the car and see what the cause of this is, not really holding my breath.

Any one else had a similar experience? at the moment I'm kinda annoyed, seeing as I dropped off a perfecly functional car and got one back that barely works and is about to come out with a big bill attached.

[acarmody]

No offense mate but I wouldn't have taken it away from the Smash Repairs place.If they broke it then they fix it, if it somehow (God knows how) broke in the accident, they fix it, so either way....

[SSINZ]

Ok im in Perth and i was at my uncles work shop opposite a "apparently well know and good" Panel beater shop and watched a young guy rock up in a VY Maloo droped it off with a damaged front bar then left 20mins later when they went to put it in the shed as it was around closing time i watched as the younger panel beaterstarted it n took it for a spin around the carpark then threw it around side ways (epic drift) then straightend it up and put it into the shed. Also had a mate who has a VS GTS full worked and took it to a very well known Wheel and tyreshop, to get some new mags and tyres on it, when he got it back he started it and the diff was blown - 2 of the yahoos that worked there took his car down the road dropped some skids and bang... idiots needless to say they paid for a complete new 1.

What im trying to say is if there car went there mechanically Good! then thats how it should leave! dont rule anything out. i do not have a clue how that spring could have broken without adecent amount of force.

[swordsy00Calais]

Yeah, I'm wishing i left it there and just told them it was their problem, just hoping the nrma don't act like a bunch of idiots on this one, I don't really wanna have to pay for someone to ruin my engine for me

[acarmody]

I've also seen knob-jockey staff flogging cars at smash repairs, assholes have no respect for others property.

SSINZ, if they did that to the fairly damn strong diff the GTSs have, imagine what the gearbox and engine copped.

[SSINZ]

Yeah i know hey, seriously there are some wankers out there hey!! I hate leaving my car places to get worked on except my panel beater/spray painter as hes a very good bloke who respects everything you have and does the best he can for you and has a good amount of older wiser guys working for him!! I wish you luck with you car man hope it all gets sorted

[0081]

You cant realy blame anyone as they can just snap, i have had 2 fail both times my other half was driving one was early morning 300m from home and the other was after she had been driving with my parents in the car so there was no stupid driving going on.

DO you have after market rockers fitted to the car??

[stockyvrcalais]

i had one let go on me on my old vt calais (gen3), when i bought it it had a ticking noise, and after a few months driving a valve spring let go, got it fixed and no more ticking, but i really think this happens from constant abuse, like caning the absolute shit out of it......

[bigneilsen]

yeah i had one snapped. few weeks after changing rocker ratio. just hope you have droped the valve and ****ed your piston. i reckon if its used for a little thrashing every now and then change to stiffer springs so it doesnt happen again. or is less likely to.

[swordsy00Calais]

well I got it back, $1130 later, and after looking at the car I realised the retards painted the lower part of the bar silver, It should have been painted a dark brown/Metallic colour. and the nrma arent really willing to place blame on the company over it.... YAY

[VTLS1]

well I got it back, $1130 later, and after looking at the car I realised the retards painted the lower part of the bar silver, It should have been painted a dark brown/Metallic colour. and the nrma arent really willing to place blame on the company over it.... YAY

i dont know where the heck you took it for repairs but as you have been told you shouldnt have taken the vehicle away. guarantee you had to sign a vehicle release form or similar before it left the panel shop. once you sign that its generally all over rover. by signing it you've accepted responsibility of the vehicle & accepted the condition its in. if there was a problem it should have been brought up on the spot at the panel shop. as for the front bar being a different color,again that comes down to you should have really inspected the vehicle before you left the panel shop. las panel shop i was in,when i vehicle came in it was inspected,any faults or problems other than the required work was written down. if it had a chip in the windscreen it was noted,if one tyre was bald etc. when the job was finished again the vehicle was inspected then compared to what was written down before work commenced,if any fault found that wasnt there to begin with,we found out why. then when vehicle was picked up by customer again we asked them to go over the vehicle to see if they were happy & had any problems before signing a release form. things like paint a bumper the wrong color does happen & i've seen it happen. painter is to high on the fumes or whatever & makes a mistake,it happens but,it should have been noticed then fixed before you got the vehicle back.
as for the engine repair bill,i know where they could put that if i was given that for a repair cost. what you should have done is just do an engine inspection report(the same type of report which is done for insurance purposes before repair is started or considered)then present the report to the panel shop & see what they say. as for nrma,well that stands for-No Responsibilty Motor Association,lol. they wont say for definate when or how the damage was caused because they insufficent history of the vehicle,you can never say for certain when the fault started to happen(it might have been on its way out before the accident & finally decided to go tp motor heaven at the wrong time in your case) there are numerous factors & they dont want to accept liability for something when theres to many variables. this is where a motor inspection report was a better option if you really were adament you werent responsible for the engine damage.