The Super Duper Timing Chain Thread!

[Pablito]

Thanks guys.
The car pretty much did an identical 100km of driving each week for it's whole life. Driven 20+ mins to work and then 20+ mins back twice a week and a similar trip for a weekly lunch with friends (elderly owner). Their other car got used for most of their driving.
They just had it serviced before I looked at it. So the oil filter would be new. They asked their mechanic to have a good look at the car as they new a relo would end up with it and he said it was all good. But I'm not sure if what I'm worried about is one of the things they would have checked.

Fuel economy isn't my reason for wanting a commuter car. I do 25000km a year just driving to and from work and would rather not put those kms on the SS and save her for the fun weekend drives.

 

[stick3]

its a gamble could be a good car or a money pit there is a lot of other things that can break but if the price is right i would take it

 

[rambunctious]

I have not seen any mention of price but if the price is right just buy it.
Check redbook for pricing.
Gees 40000 k's, what more do you want ?
And a Calais as well.

 

[shane_3800]

Hey guys,
Just a question..........
I have first dibs to buy a relos 2013 VE2 Calais V6 with 40,000 kms on it. The car is immaculate inside and out BUT the service history is not unfortunately.
For the first 3 years/10,000kms the servicing was done as per the correct schedule (9 months regardless of ks driven) but since the warranty was up they have only done 2 services in the last 6 years. Each one being after 15,000 kms and approx 3 years instead of 9 months.
Is this enough neglect to put this car in danger of sludging up and having timing chain issues?
There were no rattles or sounds when I cold started it and it drove really nice and smooth tbh. A real nice car.
I just want it as a highway commuter so the SS goes back to being a weekender.

Cheers

It should be fine. Just buy it and service it every 7,500km. Time based servicing is more of a BS manufacture money grab and gets them out of warranties.
Yes oil can degrade a little over two or three years but from what I've seen as a mechanic it will be fine.

Make sure you do 7,500km services and use full synthetic oil from Castrol or Penrite. I would use Penrite extra ten or even ten tenths for more zinc and nickel to help the chains live a little longer.
The full syn oil has better ability to capture contaminates over a semi syn and more detergents. This means if you have some tarnishing which is the start to slugging over time the oil will clean the engine.

At 40k you won't have slugging I can guarantee it, you might have a little tarnishing but I doubt it.

 

[shane_3800]

Also do a trans service then do one every 60k using full synthetic ATF specified for your trans.
Also the diff takes a expensive oil which should be done every 80k imo. Penrite now has a listing for the diff oil previously it was fuchs or liqimoly only.

 

[Skylarking]

@Pablito, if it is priced well, sounds good when cold and you trust the owner, just buy it... I would...

But if you have any concerns about internal sludge , get a cheap eBay endoscope, connect it to your phone and stick the endoscope into the oil filler hole. That way you can have a good look around under the valve cover where internal gunking should be evident. If all you see is shiny metal or if it’s just light tarnishing, you’ve got a winner

Having said that, any car can have a failure as some new car posts on these forums have shown us... but we still buy new cars. So don’t stress about a possible rare eventuality

As to known chain issues due to faulty manufacture, wasn’t there a VIN range of impacted vehicles, somewhere within these many chain threads you can reference, otherwise you can chat to the dealer for warranty and campaign work done to this car during the warranty period. You could also check DTC history for those dreaded fault codes... but it all sounds like overkill if the relo seller is genuine and trustworthy

 

[shane_3800]

@Pablito, if it is priced well, sounds good when cold and you trust the owner, just buy it... I would...

But if you have any concerns about internal sludge , get a cheap eBay endoscope, connect it to your phone and stick the endoscope into the oil filler hole. That way you can have a good look around under the valve cover where internal gunking should be evident. If all you see is shiny metal or if it’s just light tarnishing, you’ve got a winner

Having said that, any car can have a failure as some new car posts on these forums have shown us... but we still buy new cars. So don’t stress about a possible rare eventuality

As to known chain issues due to faulty manufacture, wasn’t there a VIN range of impacted vehicles, somewhere within these many chain threads you can reference, otherwise you can chat to the dealer for warranty and campaign work done to this car during the warranty period. You could also check DTC history for those dreaded fault codes... but it all sounds like overkill if the relo seller is genuine and trustworthy

All modern cars with chains suffer issues. It's because the oil grades used these days don't do a terrific job of keeping the chains lubed. They do enough to get out of the warranty period after that manufactures don't care.

 

[Pablito]

Thanks guys.
I appreciate all the input. I'm definitely going to buy it. I'm just one of those people that over thinks everything. I haven't bought a V6 since my VZ in 2005 so when doing some research the other night, all the timing chain threads on here made me a bit worried I guess. The main theme seemed to be stay away from these cars with a slack service history. That was my only concern. The car itself ran like new.

Thanks again

 

[shane_3800]

Thanks guys.
I appreciate all the input. I'm definitely going to buy it. I'm just one of those people that over thinks everything. I haven't bought a V6 since my VZ in 2005 so when doing some research the other night, all the timing chain threads on here made me a bit worried I guess. The main theme seemed to be stay away from these cars with a slack service history. That was my only concern. The car itself ran like new.

Thanks again

Like I said use a high zinc and nickel oil like Penrite ten tenths and the chain will last longer.

 

[Nukerat]

Braintrust I am in need of some advice and help.

Have a 2010 VE SV6 Sportswagon - LLT which I purchased second hand back in 2014 with 100k kms on the clock. Ran perfectly until the start of 2018 206k kms and the dreaded cam chain stretch hit. But after having the chains done it ran better than ever and served faultlessly until December. We had just done 1000km round trip with no problems. I check oil in the middle and was a little down but nothing to alarming and only needed topping up (maybe a litre?) A few days after returning from out of the blue she started throwing warning lights, loss of power, shuddering, shaking and sometimes would just conk after starting. Was able to get it to a mechanics who ran a scope and got a bunch of error codes off. Error code were P0016 P0300, P0305, and P0703 (Have attached the picture the mechanic sent me). This mechanic only really did servicing so needed to find someone else. This is where the first of the issues started.
I rang around and only found one service centre even willing to look at it. So a tow later and a weeks time they come back to me saying the timing chains have gone again but this doing damage to some of the engine. They have told me to even get to some of the problems they have to take the engine out, then it is the minimum expense of the timing chain and labour etc. They have told me that it would be cheaper to put a new engine in. Of course you need to be able to find a LLT engine that is suitable. All I can find are high Kms from wrecks that I could almost buy a new car for. Hell I can buy a new LFX crate for less than I have been quoted for a LLT with 149000 on it.
I guess what I am asking is just some advice.

I should also mention the reason the car has high average yearly Km's, is until recently it was based in the country and long trips were the norm.

Thanks to those who read the long post.