VR Calais nightmare

[ben315vz]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share something with you. This week at work, a customer brought in a VR Calais V6. They had let it run out of oil and kept driving it and the engine ended up seizing up. The customer went to a wreckers and got a replacement engine and wanted us to fit it.

My boss asked me to do the job and I was more than happy to do the swap. Anyway, it was all pretty straight forward, it took longer because it was on LPG and had more things to disconnect. Also the engine was covered in oil so it was a dirty job. There was a few things that gave me a hard time, like the transmission lines for example.

So once the old engine was out, I put the replacement engine next to it so I could swap a few things. I noticed that there was alot of corrosion around the inlet manifold, exhaust manifolds and spark plugs. I swapped things like the engine mounts, injectors, injector rails, spark plugs, exhaust manifolds and anfew other little things.

After all that, I put the replacement engine in the car, bolted everything back up, connected all the hoses and wiring, put fresh engine oil in and changed the oil filter, fresh coolant, topped up the power steering and transmission oil, refitted the gas converter and all the gas lines and everything.

Got to the point where the car was ready to start.
So I turned over the engine and it fired up straight away and was running perfect, so I let the engine idle for about 5 minutes and was having a look over everything and checked for leaks, everything looked sweet. Then I decided to give the engine a small rev. It reved up really good but as it decelerated, the engine stalled. I went to restart it and it was turning over very tight and wouldn't start up again. So I let it sit for about a hour or so and tried to turn it over with a breaker bar and socket, but the engine has completely locked up and seized.

I went and told my boss and he came over to have a look, then he started having a go at me which was unfair because I was doing everything he told me to do.

I pulled out the dip stick and the oil has gone milky so water has definitely gone into the oil.

Anyway, my boss is going to call up the owner and tell them but now it's going to have to all be removed again.

The replacement engine looked like it wasn't very good to begin with but my boss didn't care, he wanted me to fit it still. I'm pretty annoyed myself because I finished and it was ready to road test but then that happened.

So anyway, I'm sick of getting blamed for things that are clearly not my fault so I plan on leaving that c*** of a place once I finish my apprenticeship.

I was supposed to finish on the 11-07-2011 but because a law got changed on the 1st of July, I can finish until January 2012.

Also, beware of dodgy second hand engines.

 

[Alf Stewart]

That does sound like a nightmare, for the most part do you enjoy being a mechanic? im thinking of getting into it

 

[Munz]

all wreckers offer warranty,they have to replace it and they cannot sell anything with out warranty

 

[ben315vz]

That does sound like a nightmare, for the most part do you enjoy being a mechanic? im thinking of getting into it

Yeah I do like being a mechanic, some of the guys at work piss me off sometimes but other then that, it's a good trade.

 

[ben315vz]

all wreckers offer warranty,they have to replace it and they cannot sell anything with out warranty

Yeah, the owner went back to the wreckers and they gave them another engine, this time they heard it running before they pulled it out of the car. I started pulling the seized engine out Friday afternoon, they dropped off the next engine Monday morning. I fitted the engine today, still have to fit the radiator, hoses, gas converter and a few other things and I should be able to start it up tomorrow. Then once I have checked everything, ill put the bonnet back on and go for a road test. Lets hope this engine is alright.

I drained the oil out of the seized engine and the oil came out almost white, didn't look like oil at all, so there must be a fair bit of water in the oil.

 

[jayperformance]

don't worry bout it, **** happens, i've had brand new parts fail so its not suprising a second hand motor had problems. as for your boss, smile do as he askes and the day your qualified hand in your resignation and watch his face as we all know good mechanics are hard to come by so replacing you is going to take some time and effort.

 

[ben315vz]

don't worry bout it, **** happens, i've had brand new parts fail so its not suprising a second hand motor had problems. as for your boss, smile do as he askes and the day your qualified hand in your resignation and watch his face as we all know good mechanics are hard to come by so replacing you is going to take some time and effort.

Yeah I know, it's not my fault the engine seized so I don't know what his problem is. He complains when I take 1 week holiday (4 times a year), I just think to myself, why do you book so much work in then if you know i'm going to be on holidays. But like you said, once i'm fully qualified, I can leave and go somewhere else.

 

[Krisp]

come to wa, easy as piss to get a good paying job. what checks did you do on the motor before you put it in? i was once asked about what to look for in a wreckers engine. i told the bloke to ask the wrecker if they could remove an engine cover for inspection since they were quoted as a low km engine. about 200 more than normal they wanted. he asked them and te wrecker told him to get stuffed. The side loader at work just blew a head gasket and my boss had the nerve to tell me its just condensation at the top of the rocker cover. Had a laugh when i showed him the green coolant in the oil.

 

[Hangman]

So basically the customer bought a 2nd hand engine with ####ed head gaskets(by the sound of it) and it's your fault somehow?

 

[ben315vz]

come to wa, easy as piss to get a good paying job. what checks did you do on the motor before you put it in? i was once asked about what to look for in a wreckers engine. i told the bloke to ask the wrecker if they could remove an engine cover for inspection since they were quoted as a low km engine. about 200 more than normal they wanted. he asked them and te wrecker told him to get stuffed. The side loader at work just blew a head gasket and my boss had the nerve to tell me its just condensation at the top of the rocker cover. Had a laugh when i showed him the green coolant in the oil.

I knew as soon as I seen the motor that it wasn't very good. I showed my boss the oil leaking out of the rear main seal, sump, valley cover gasket, rocker covers, etc and he said, "stuff it, just tighten the rocker cover bolts and that will do". That kind of pissed me off because if the owner complains about an oil leak, then its going to make my job harder to fix those problems with the engine in the car. I also noticed that the inlet manifold had corrosion in some places, and the outside of the spark plugs had corrosion. Once the engine was in the car and I pressure tested the cooling system, water was leaking from the timing cover gasket, I told my boss and he said "oh yeah, just put a bottle of stop leak in and that should be alright". So now, if the this engine has an oil leak and it comes back, the customer has to pay for extra labor because it didn't get done at the same time as the engine was out. By the way, this second replacement engine doesn't look very good either, front is covered in oil.

I want everyone to know, that I HATE doing dodgy things to customers cars (and my own) and if it was up to me, I would ring the customer and let them know straight away. If I took my car to a mechanic and found out they where doing **** like that to my car, they wouldn't hear the end of it from me.

Its a VR Calais, and it looks like the owner looks after it really good. He got the second hand engine probably because he can't afford a reconditioned motor.