Ve commodore stretched timing chain repair cost??

[Skylarking]

It's like saying, I can walk down the street and get collected by a bus. Yes it CAN happen, does it happen every day? No. Most of these occurrences are to EXTREME abuse of the motor and lack of maintenance or both. Rare but can happen, I stress the word rare here.

Your analogy is a little floored but to continue with it, this chain issue is more like some drunk guy with crutches crossing a busy road (but not at a crossing). Yes it’s rare they’d be clobbered by a car but statistically they are at a much higher risk of getting clobbered than some sober healthy person...

IIRC, the issue here is a defective chain as Holden altered the design and/or got another supplier to provide the chains. The result was stretched chain and DTC’s resulting in a service bulletin and list of VINs impacted.

So this seems purely a design issue that Holden tried to blame on every one else... The astute got this mess fixed at Holden’s expense but others who didn’t know any better were stung by the repair cost... Now time has passed and if someone has a failure it’s always lack of maintenance which isn’t always the case as cam chains are a for life of vehicle component...

Really, back when this defect was discovered, it should have been handled as a recall where all impacted vehicles had the defect fixed on Holden’s dime... but nah, our regulators didn’t care...

Sadly Holden is fiercely secretive of their service bulletins and our Aussie government caputulated and pulled huge troves of technical information off the web many years ago in the FORS/DOTARS reshuffle. In the USA the car manufacturers are a little more appropriately regulated by NHTSA and such docs are more easily found... Here is one service bulletin for stretched chains impacting a number of US vehicles using high feature V6 from 2007 to 2012.

As is, the US service bulletin is not directly relevant to our Aussie V6’s and snapped chains aren’t mentioned nor is metallurgy... but it does make it clear that chains stretch and their intent to fix then where the problem manifested... but for those that were out of warranty it was less clear amd maybe good will was provided (if they were considered a sucker who always paid the dealer service premium on time a good customer they can fleece a little more in future...

In any case, metallurgy doesn’t lie... Metal can only stretch so much once it goes into it’s elastic range and then it will reach its yields point and snap... If the metallurgy is such that the elastic region is not large, it will snap with little or no stretch.. There is no two ways around metallurgy...

What type and composition of metal a V6 timing chain had as compared to those in the problem batch, I’ve got no idea. Unless you’re working for Holden OHC chain design looking at metallurgy and fatigue issues or looking at warranty issues, I doubt you’d know all failure modes... Holden won’t tell us anything...

Bottom line is Holden fcuked up and it’s MO is to alway try to blame everyone else as a first step... just like they tried with the VF EPS assistance failure, the VF LS3 injector failures and probably lots of others failures...

Regardless, if it was my car and I had a cam timing DTC error, I wouldn’t ignore it and I’d have had it fixed... And if my car was on the impacted VIN list, I’d have push to have Holden pay the tab even 15 years down the line... (as OHC chains are a for life vehicle component)...

But hey, that’s just me, some others will think it’s ok to ignore until the worst occurs...

I also think it’s better for us laypeople to list all possible failure modes (including a snapping chain being one mode) rather than be dismissive of some failure modes and as such leave some readers feeling that good oil and good servicing will protect them from design defects... it won’t...

 

[_R_J_K_]

Seems a chain snapped on at least one VY V6

Eh, don't think an aftermarket double row chain on an Ecotec with a massive turbo hanging off the side pushing 400kw+ at the wheels is really the same thing.

 

[losh1971]

Eh, don't think an aftermarket double row chain on an Ecotec with a massive turbo hanging off the side pushing 400kw+ at the wheels is really the same thing.

This ^^^^^^, I saw that post and thought the same thing.

 

[Skylarking]

Eh, don't think an aftermarket double row chain on an Ecotec with a massive turbo hanging off the side pushing 400kw+ at the wheels is really the same thing.

Hahaha, i missed that fact so ignore that example as heavily modified is a different kettle of fish to stock factory ...

And after looking at the facebook page, seems he was getting 903 RWKW as meaured on what looks like a hub dyno thats just crazy

 

[losh1971]

.And after looking at the facebook page, seems he was getting 903 RWKW as meaured on what looks like a hub dyno thats just crazy

I seriously doubt he had 1200hp, I think he is telling a furfee.....

 

[losh1971]

This one has around 1000hp but it looks a lot bigger turbo than that VY had and he is running 40psi.

 

[Skylarking]

^^^ thats also crazy ...

I'll let those two owners of those crazy cars fight it out as to who's telling porkies