Problem with newly bought car

Jamie_Carter

motorguy wrote: »

Errr, the engine light comes on sometimes?

And i'd strongly recommend anyone running an old car spend £60 on good breakdown insurance.

To be fair, that wasn't part of your recommendation was it?

Retrogamer

The only way to make an educated guess on what's wrong with the engine, is to perform a compression test (wet and dry).

I speak from experience both from working as a mechanic in the motor trade years ago, and i can vouch that not only are a lot of "expert mechanics" lazy, they're idiots. I got a hard time because i done jobs by the book and took longer to do them. This was at a main Renault & Nissan dealership in my area. Some were great, most were not. The ones that were good at their jobs were usually the most modest about their skills.

I'm often on Vauxhall forums myself and the Ecotec engines (which i assume this has) are famous for valve stem oil seals going hard and not sealing correctly and worn valve guides.

They are also known to kill the piston rings quickly as well if not serviced very well, or ran on low oil.

For the OP: What tests did the mechanic do to determine that the engine needed replaced, and what were the results of the tests?

You can do this as well to check if it's rings or valve stem seals
Accelerating hard up hills and check in the mirror for blue smoke. If it only does it under hard acceleration and more so up hills it's likely the rings.

If it only smokes a little first thing in the morning and clears when it heats up then it'll likely be the steam seals as the oil is weeping past them during the night and collecting in the cylinder.

GAZ237

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

A 53 plate car, with 77k on the clock isn't an old banger. And it may be worth looking for a second hand engine to replace it with.

You live in a dream world.

How much do you think it is going to cost to fit a second hand engine.

Cheap engine no guarantee £3-400.

Plus couple of days labour £3-400.

The car is 10 years old and bought for £1000. Its an old banger which is not worth repairing..

You make no sense.

motorguy

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Well they saw you coming then.

I've removed the engine, stripped it down, and done a complete rebuild, and refitted the it, on a cavalier engine, in one day. And that wasn't even in a workshop.

So at say, £30 an hour, a qualified mechanic could do this job for £210 + parts?? :rotfl:

motorguy

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

To be fair, that wasn't part of your recommendation was it?

???????????????????????

What planet are you on?

Its simple common sense to have breakdown insurance. Its not part of anyones 'recommendation'.

motorguy

Retrogamer wrote: »

If it only smokes a little first thing in the morning and clears when it heats up then it'll likely be the steam seals as the oil is weeping past them during the night and collecting in the cylinder.

Have you seen an engine only have wear on one valve stem oil seal, and it be enough to clog up a plug whilst driving the car to the point whereby the car throws on the engine management light, and that that specific plug needs cleaned or replaced?

Retrogamer

motorguy wrote: »

Have you seen an engine only have wear on one valve stem oil seal, and it be enough to clog up a plug whilst driving the car to the point whereby the car throws on the engine management light, and that that specific plug needs cleaned or replaced?

Yes, although it's more common for them all to fail at the same rate.

I prefer to verify my guesses though. The mechanic might have, like you guessed what was wrong. They often do. A lot of the time the guesses are right, but sometimes they're wrong.

skivenov

Wait til you're not planning on using the car for a day. Take the plug out, clean it, put it back. Let it stand about. for a day or so.

Drop the plug back out, see if it's got oil on. If it has, that's probably a leaky stem seal.

Disclaimer, I am not a qualified mechanic, millionaire car trader, or international !!!!!! star. I have, however, owned many old cars that have at various times, not worked for various reasons.

And a leaky stem seal can cause a misfire. If you don't think so, I can show you my car, which has a leaky stem seal, which causes a misfire if it's not been driven for a few days.

motorguy

Well the only person to have seen the car is the O/P's mechanic and they're saying that the problem is caused by a plug oiling up and to avoid an expensive rebuild or replacement engine, they'd recommend cleaning the plug periodically and seeing how bad the problem is.

This correlates to my experiences of this era of Vauxhall petrol engine and i would concur with the mechanics recommendation. Certainly the seller would have known about this and has quietly sold the car on, which is a fairly mean thing to do. Unfortunately as this was a private sale, the O/P has little hope of getting any money back or resolution from the seller, so is stuck with this lemon.

The O/P is getting a second opinion from vauxhall, so i guess we'll have to wait and see what the outcome of that is, if the O/P comes back to tell us.

Fingers crossed its a simple solution. For the O/P's sake, i'd really like to be proved wrong.

Jamie_Carter

GAZ237 wrote: »

You live in a dream world.

How much do you think it is going to cost to fit a second hand engine.

Cheap engine no guarantee £3-400.

Plus couple of days labour £3-400.

The car is 10 years old and bought for £1000. Its an old banger which is not worth repairing..

You make no sense.

Where do you get a couple of days labour from??