Cylinder failure (lost compression) no warranty VF SSV Redline

[Rockyz1904]

Update: thanks guys and gals you were correct, Holden called today and it’s a broken valve spring and they are so far planning to fix it free of charge.

They won’t know if it’s damaged the engine until replacement done which should be next week.



I’ve had my VF SSV Redline loose compression on cylinder one and with no warranty (bought in 2016 and still under finance) Holden is not willing to help me.

Quotes so far have been 10K to 15K and am being told the cheapest and easiest option is a second hand engine.

I’m so annoyed as in my mind an LS3 engine should not fail in 7 years - and esp after all of the fuel injector issues I’ve already returned to Holden with in 2019 and 2021.

Should mention I don’t have the 15k just sitting around and am 28 weeks pregnant so now without a car for baby


Anyone else had this happen?

 

[Smitty]

compression loss is because...???

an LS3 engine 7 years old should have no issues unless its done silly kms
or been abused

ppl complain my Ls engine is crap... no power no compression
yeah and its done 400,000kms!

 

[Rockyz1904]

Unsure at this point - holden have it and aren’t giving me much info to date.

Was driving entering the M2 and it just lost power and sounded terrible like the engine was trying to escape lol - pulled over and called tow truck.

Not thrashed - lady owner - never even done a burn out nor driven harshly at all

Sitting on around 140000kms (highway kms mainly as was my daily drive years back as a sales rep between Newcastle and central coast)

 

[losh1971]

You likely have a snapped valve spring. It's quite common. I had the same problem.

 

[07GTS]

id probably get second opinion on the engine, might have had a sensor failure or coils on one bank fail which would sound bad and caused engine to reduce power or any number of things, i wouldnt trust holden anymore they prob just want to make money so will say engine is gone, did it make a hell of a racket tapping or ticking when it reduced power ? or just sounded bad/rough ?

 

[Rockyz1904]

You likely have a snapped valve spring. It's quite common. I had the same problem.

Was it a reasonable price to fix if that’s the case?

 

[Rockyz1904]

id probably get second opinion on the engine, might have had a sensor failure or coils on one bank fail which would sound bad and caused engine to reduce power or any number of things, i wouldnt trust holden anymore they prob just want to make money so will say engine is gone, did it make a hell of a racket tapping or ticking when it reduced power ? or just sounded bad/rough ?

Tapping noise for sure and ran rough

 

[07GTS]

Tapping noise for sure and ran rough

may be lucky if the valve spring has broken but not allowed it to smash into the pistons, removing the rocker covers is an easy way to check, if valve has contacted pistons then it depends if it has damaged/broken anything and how bad all that is, if it sounded like a bag of bolts rattling around thats not a good sign, if it was just tapping but still running bad then may not be too bad

 

[Rockyz1904]

Thanks it was tapping only so fingers crossed

 

[daves8]

Sounds like a valve spring has collapsed.