VE Timing chain mis diagnosis?

[1_johnboy]

A mates S1 Ve Calais has good service record and no know previous faults. It was running fine saturday, but come monday morning it refuses to start. Its does crank (though it sounds like and and old distributor driven car with the leads on the wrong cylinders). It has been towed to a local mechanic who says "timing chains" after a very brief look.
He also made it clear he doesnt do timing chains and wasn't interested in the job.
The car while running had never thrown and codes, always serviced on time with synthetic oils, it had not shown and signs of rattles either. Car has 148kms.

Could a timing chain really go bad over night (I thought not). There are two codes stored p2544 and p0856 which indicate traction control and torque management issues which I think are incidental due to the battery nearly going flat.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Xplaya]

I wonder how he got the assumption it was the timing chains...
I know of 1 car locally that had no engine light at all, and was driven until it started to rattle liked crazy yet still has no engine light or code, but its the chains

So i guess, the engine chain issue can cause all sorts of wierd things without a CEL

 

[Smashfist]

Get a compression test done. I've never seen a BROKEN chain (which would cause a no start) but I have seen a number of them that have dropped valves.

 

[1_johnboy]

well its at Holden today as it seemed to hard for everyone else, was thinking maybe it could have skipped a tooth

 

[Benboy]

If you are a member of an Auto Club (RACV< RACQ< NRMA etc) get them to do a full mechanical check - this service is available to members for a nominal fee. One way to get an unbiased expert opinion. Good luck.

 

[zero_tolerance]

What kind of mechanic doesn't do timing chains? That would be like a dentist that doesn't pull out teeth.

 

[1_johnboy]

they were the first people called. They didn't know what was wrong with it.

But that been said its now running. Issue im told was it was flooded. Service manager tells me he is unsure why this happened but he has seen it before on a VE. Where the battery voltage drops off abit and the ecu decideds when cranking to inject fuel but not spark for awhile. Either way happy with the out come and only needed a new battery

 

[zero_tolerance]

Good outcome.
It makes you wonder how many people have been fooled into spending thousands of dollars on replacing timing chains when there was really nothing wrong with them.