I'm looking to to buying a VX SS however i've heard about the oil consumption problems and the engines having to get rebuild. Does anyone know around about how many Ks these problems started to occur? I'm hoping to get one with as lowest as possiable i've seen them around the 77000-88000 which is in my price range. Would i be pretty safe with these if they haven't shown signs of issues? Cheers
If they didnt show initial signs of these issues, it wasn't going to happen. You will find that most were fixed under warranty anyway. If you are really worried, make sure you surprise the owner so you can get a cold start, any knocking and steer clear. That being said, you need to remember these are an alloy engine, so all sounds are amplified more so than on the old 5.0 litres. Best thing is have a private mechanic check over the car.
They had failure prone rings.... Most would fail around 90,000km if they were gonna go. So any one around 100,000 km and you're going to be pretty safe. It was more an issue on the VT's, most of the VX's didn't have issues. But as said before get a mechanic to look over it and you'll be right. The Ls1 always uses oil, its just something you have to accept and check. As long as the consumption isn't excessive then the engine is healthy. Unfortunately its one of those things you can't really find out till you have the car for a few months. It's a great engine, and more than enough time has passed for it to show signs of problems, I wouldn't be too concerned if I were you, the chances of you getting a dud are slim provided you get a full mechanical check.
Yep, I was going to say they fixed it by the VX. All engines will use oil, it's just the amount that has to be watched.
