2012 VE Commodore Wagon SII not cranking over

[nyteshyft]

My 2012 Series 2 VE Sportswagon won't start. It makes a constant clicking sound which I presume is the starter motor. I bought the car second hand with 80,000km about a year ago. It has been serviced regularly, it's now got 138,000km's on the odo.

The weird thing about this is, I serviced the car myself (I work in a panel shop, so have all the necessary equipment, ie. hoist, tools, etc.) yesterday. The car was overdue for a service by about 6,000kms. I changed the oil, oil filter and air filter. The spark plugs were changed last service so I didn't bother doing those but I did buy them, I'll do them at 145,000km. Now, I dumped only 2.5 litres of oil out of it, it needs 6.5, so I put that in it. I know they chew through oil and being 6,000km's overdue for a service I figured this was why it only had 2.5 litres in it. I then drove the car from my work to home, which is a 50min drive, it performed perfectly fine, no issues.

Later that afternoon my mrs went to drop off one of the kids to a birthday party about 20 min away. She rang me 10 minutes in to her trip saying that the car was making a rattling sound, I told her not to worry about it as I thought it was just the plastic cover on the engine that I must have not put back on properly.

On my mrs drive back home she rang me saying that the car had "locked up" while going 80kmph for a brief second, as if she had planted her foot on the brakes, she then said that the Stability Control turned itself off immediately after that. She was only about 10 minutes from home so I told her to just take it easy and get it here. She rang me again 5 minutes later saying that the car was displaying "Reduced Speed" on the dash, and was only going about 30kms an hour with her foot to the floor, it was also blowing out plumes of white smoke from the exhaust, the car stalled while she was on the phone to me and wouldn't start again. I drove down there and tried to get it to start but it was as if it had a flat battery, ie. starter just clicking but not turning over. So I went back home and got a jump pack and some jumper leads. I tried jumping it first with a Prado, same result, just clicking and not turning over but it was clearly draining power from the Prado. I then tried the jump pack and same thing, won't turn over.

I've got a 600CCA battery that I bought 2 years ago for my previous vehicle, I'm trickle charging it overnight. Tomorrow after work I'm going to switch batteries to see if that does anything. If I remember I'll borrow the ODBII scanner from work and see if there are any error codes. I've checked the relays in the fuse box under the bonnet and the fuses on the terminal in the boot and they all look fine. I don't know how old the battery in it is, it looks rather new but it also looks original, so it could be 5 years old. I checked the oil and it's full and clean, not milky. All fluid levels are where they're supposed to be. Tomorrow when I change the battery I'll check the jump terminals to make sure they're tight as well as the earth on the alternator.

I don't understand how it was driving perfectly for me for 50min, sits parked for an hour then dies 30min in to a drive. I presume the white smoke coming from the exhaust is excess oil burning off? Maybe I overfilled it a bit? When I was filling it with oil, some of it spilled, I wiped up what I could see but is it possible that some oil ended up on some sort of electrical component, a switch or solenoid, causing it to short?

Does anyone have any ideas as to what's wrong or have possible solutions for me to try tomorrow in addition to what I've stated above?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ChRiDDa]

Sounds like the battery to me - VEs tend to do strange things when the battery is on its last legs

 

[redvxr8clubby]

Sounds like the battery to me - VEs tend to do strange things when the battery is on its last legs

But plumes of white smoke coming out of it sounds bad - coolant getting into combustion chamber? Head Gasket? Try the battery for sure, but the smoke sounds bad. If it was overfilled with oil, would expect blue smoke. If you refilled with 6.5 litres after draining that is approx correct fill, it's definitely not overfill. Good luck, hopefully just the battery, but the smoke is worry. If you get it going OK without too much drama you've dodged a bullet. Goes without saying don't let the oil get so low and change it ahead of schedule not late.

 

[nyteshyft]

I only eyed the measurement of oil. So it was approx 6.5ltr, could have been 6.7 or 6.8. If it's overfilled the oil will go past the seals and burn off (so I've been told, true or not?). I checked the oil after the incident and it's clean, not milky, coolant is fine also. Yeah I usually get it serviced by a mechanic on schedule but money has been tight so I held it off and then decided it couldn't wait anymore and just did it myself.

 

[VTS5]

2.5 litres of oil drained out but 6.5 went in!!!! Rattling and smoking engine, then it locked up and wouldn't crank..
I think the bottom end is well done
Even if you able to start it(which I doubt) you won't be able to drive it to nearest woolies and back.
Better look for a new engine.
Please, check your fluid levels regularly.

 

[nyteshyft]

I don't know if 6.5 went in on the previous service. Apparently these engines use up to 2ltr per 5000km, it was 6000km overdue, so since previous oil change it had done about 12,000km. So only having 2.5 left was expected. Even when it had only 2.5 left in it, it was still driving fine, no pinging or tappet noises, just a little rattle on start up but went away within seconds.

 

[bazz61]

I don't know if 6.5 went in on the previous service. Apparently these engines use up to 2ltr per 5000km, it was 6000km overdue, so since previous oil change it had done about 12,000km. So only having 2.5 left was expected. Even when it had only 2.5 left in it, it was still driving fine, no pinging or tappet noises, just a little rattle on start up but went away within seconds.

to use that much oil is unusual , also the 15k between oil changes is not recommended by some on here , so yours did 21k which is not good . I do mine at 10 k & the oil is real dirty, 15 k is too long in my opinion . at 165 ks mine runs well .

 

[Sabbath']

Sounds like you've got a pretty gummed up motor and putting new oil in hasn't helped. I've seen these motors react in a number of ways. I've seen presumably healthy motors have 1l of oil drained and on a refill the motor has seized itself.

In unserviced engines that are finally serviced have loosened off large deposits of gunk which are enough to jam up timing gears. I've seen this manifest itself from a simple no start scenario, to jumping so far the pistons on one bank have smashed the bottom side of the head so badly it's lifted the head enough to pool coolant u car the inlet manifold an s destroy all the top end as well as bend pistons.

You also have the possibility that you've ended up with a large piece of gunk from the sump has blocked the pickup which has oil starved the motor and bottom end. Making it impossible for the crank to roll at a sufficient speed or for the starter to turn it through the resistance.

 

[nyteshyft]

Hmmm, I hope not. The car has a full service history all on schedule with the exception of the most recent one that I did. I didn't think that 6,000km overdue would have completely destroyed it. When i drained the oil to change it, it wasn't chunky or gritty, was a black yellow colour. I'm hoping it's just a battery or something easy. I'll literally have to remortgage my house to replace an engine or buy a new car

 

[bazz61]

Hmmm, I hope not. The car has a full service history all on schedule with the exception of the most recent one that I did. I didn't think that 6,000km overdue would have completely destroyed it. When i drained the oil to change it, it wasn't chunky or gritty, was a black yellow colour. I'm hoping it's just a battery or something easy. I'll literally have to remortgage my house to replace an engine or buy a new car

https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/oil-changes-how-often.266286/page-2