Hi all.

I've borrowed my car to a friend of dads for a few weeks while he's in transition. Whilst going home yesterday, the unthinkable happened; My magna gave up on him.

He says: Engine stopped dead. He pulled into a side street with the leftover momentum and opened the bonnet and moved the battery terminals, because he though that they may have had something to do with the engine stopping dead. They were loose. He started it up and it started, but he said it seemed very rough, as though running on three cylinders.

He decided to try his luck driving it home (about 2mins). He said as he got into the car the oil lamp was on. he then turned off the car, waited a couple of minutes and turned it back on, the oil lamp was still on. he tried his luck and drove it back to his house.

His mechanic said that he thinks one of the chains are broken and that a rod seems to have slipped from somewhere. (no exact details-dads' friend isnt mechanically minded)

anyone got any ideas as to what it could be?

P.S-Sorry for long post.

is it a v6? my tr runs a belt so if it was snapped it would not run at all.... Sorry to hijac, but can shorting or low voltage damage the comp?(from loose terminals)

Given that you have a four, I'll take a punt and say that your chain tensioner may have failed, causing the chain to slip either the crank or cam.

The oil light may be a bit more serious, does it rattle like mad when it's running?

Does anyone know if the Astrons are interference motors?

*EDIT* if the ECU is receiving bursts of current from loose terminals, it might be cooked.

well we knew that the chain guides were worn down to the metal base since before we gave him the car
we were planning on swapping them along with the chains and tensioners after we got the car back.


chain tensioner may have failed, causing the chain to slip either the crank or cam.
the thing is, would it be able to drive to his house if this was the case? he said that it felt and sounded like it was running on three cylinders, but was drivable

would it be able to drive to his house if this was the case? he said that it felt and sounded like it was running on three cylinders, but was drivable

If it's slipped a few notches, it'll run like it's got a stage 20 cam, but it'll still run, and have no guts. I'd say it's slipped just enough to begin to lose compression through incorrect valve timing, but not enough to ping the valves.

hmm...maybe...it's at his mechanics and he's just come past to pick up the timing chain kit so the mech can fit it.

with the oil thing though...could it be a blown relay or maybe oil pump? though if it was the oil pump, it would overheat wouldn't it?

It may have dropped the balance shaft chain.
The engine will still run but have no oil pressure...... not good
If u r real lucky putting in new chains and guides will fix the problem and there will be little or no damage to the engine. It just depends on how long it ran with no oil pressure. :)

The oil pump may have been damaged when the chain slipped, or it wasn't being driven fast enough to keep the pressure up. If you'd put a rod though the block you'd definetely know about it.

If it's been run without oil for long enough, I'd expect it to overheat. Engine oil cools the engine internals as well as lubricating them. You're quite lucky that it didn't seize...

I can personally say that the motors are interference.

They run without oil for a while, about 5 minutes and the cam will seize.

at the time it turned off, he told me everything was fine.temp and all. only when he started it back up did he see the oil lamp. he told me it only ran for about 5-6mins.

i'm leaning towards the counter-balance chain though, as the mechanic said it seems as though one of the chains is broken.

checking back.

mechanic did all the work;
New rocker cover gasket,
timing chain kit with oil pump etc,
complete new oil,
new coolant,
oil filter,
sump gasket
and a few other little things...

GET THIS:

$1000.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ANYONE ELSE ABSOLUTELY FLABBERGASTED?:shock:

checking back.

mechanic did all the work;
New rocker cover gasket,
timing chain kit with oil pump etc,
complete new oil,
new coolant,
oil filter,
sump gasket
and a few other little things...

GET THIS:

$1000.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ANYONE ELSE ABSOLUTELY FLABBERGASTED?:shock:

Ask him to prove it.

dad's asked for the repair sheet (what's been done etc)

still, payment's been made...dads' friend is still out of pocket, even though we're paying him back for it...

it's outrageous!

Before you all flame the mechanic, he supplied an oil pump worth over $240.00, he also supplied other parts and then the labour.

I would have charged less but I do not have staff, insurance, rent, rates, wages, super, equipment etc to constantly pay for.

It would have been an idea to get a quote first, if this has not been done he can charge what ever he wants.

The problem will have been the balance chain breaking, this may have also gone under the timing chain and slipped it but unlikely.

Your mate was an idiot for driving with the oil light on, be it 30 seconds or 2 hours, the light is there for a reason believe it or not and you are damn lucky you did not do bearing damage, that is if you have not done any and it may show up in months to come!

Oh if it did an oil pump that sounds about right.

we supplied a timing chain kit...a full timing chain kit...with counter balance shaft chain and all guides etc.

In that case the cost was excessive (you should have called me lol ) but that said, you should always get a quote, and a chain kit is worth under $200 bucks anyway. This will hopefully teach all a lesson, don't get quoted and you may pay for it at the end.

How much is a reasonable price to get chains done for anyway? I have all the parts, but no time to get it done myself (plus I don't have half the right equipment). Mine the manual adjustable tensioner is maxed out and the whole thing still rattles like crazy. Head gasket may be blown too, as I have almost no compression between second and third when cold (although that could be chains causing valve leaking too). I got the chain kit from bursons for $118, and have all the gaskets and such, although no new oil pump.

Chains will not cause compression loss between no2 and 3 cyl. It is either gasket or valves.

There is a way to check to see if it is gasket and not hard to check.

These can be done engine in but I prefer to do engine out as it is far easier to get to everything.

For labout, I would do these for $250.00 plus you will need oil, filter, coolant etc.

If head gasket needs doing this would be additional and also the car would be off the road while head is off and getting crack tested/machined etc.

Yeah I figured it might not actually be the chains causing the compression loss, as I would have figured bad chain timing would cause all the cylinders to lose compression. I am pretty sure the head gasket blew tonight, as going up hill and suddenly engine note changed and it lost heaps of power. It doesn't even have much engine braking going downhill now either. Idle also became really rough... and sounds almost like a diesel engine full of spanners now :P

I have all the oil and coolant and such, and will get the VRS kit soon too. How much you reckon it would be to get the head gasket fixed up too? Valve stems were done 2 years ago (same as gasket). The head was warped then too, and was re-machined. The car has only done 140,000 km too, so doesn't make sense that so much has stuffed up!


Sorry for hijacking thread too btw

nah that's alright dude...i think my head gasket cost me $80...dad and I did it ourselves. i think the machining of the head was $100...that's machined and acid-dipped. if you do it yourself you shouldn't be up for much...seeing as we both have the astron:)

I did my head gasket about 8 months after I first got the car. I had a severe oil leak and coolant leak into cylinder 4, which was rusting through spark plugs constantly. It was so severe to the point that I had to actually top up the coolant every day, as the overflow tank would be empty and would run out of coolant all the way down to the top of the radiator fins inside the radiator. Oil I had to top up twice a week at the time. By this stage I had only been working on the car for about 3 months! I'm pretty annoyed that it's failed again though, as it has only been 2 years. Although it seems to be a fairly cursed car, and there is very little that hasn't been replaced in it now. The guys down at Magnas r' us in Lilydale commented on how much work has been done to it lol

hahaha...
well me and my dad always say there's no better mechanic than yourself. if you're paying to get it done there's no real assurance that care was taken in doing it. i'd prefer to do it myself and learn whilst in the process...

as with mine, there was relly no aparent space in the gasket or anything to show why i was getting coolant in the oil. it's not there anymore, so i'm happy either way:)

hehe yeah it is the only way to go through and do it yourself. I would like to do the work for this myself, but working a full time job in the middle of the city, while I live way out in the suburbs mean my early mornings and late nights don't give me the luxury of free time to fix things like that... and on weekends all I want to do is relax! I had to take off a couple of days of work to replace the entire main and center crossmember on the car (both were bent and twisted), as the car was just too dangerous to drive. The handling was awful and I could see the tyres would start wearing abnormally if I wasn't careful. Overall took 3 days of absolute pain, and I guess I just don't want to have to go through all that again lol

With my original head gasket, I discovered a nice darkened patch where all the leaking had been occurring, and I have a feeling that the same thing may have happened again, although this time between cyl 2 and 3. With the chains, the manually adjustable guide I think is broken as the tension on it is maxed out, and still not tight... not fun!

Well mate if you need help from a person who has been playing with Astrons for longer than Magnas have existed :) let me know. With me you will know it will be done properly the first time

pm sent. I might just have to take you up on that offer! :cool:

checking back.

mechanic did all the work;
New rocker cover gasket,
timing chain kit with oil pump etc,
complete new oil,
new coolant,
oil filter,
sump gasket
and a few other little things...

GET THIS:

$1000.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ANYONE ELSE ABSOLUTELY FLABBERGASTED?:shock:
Cost me $1600 to get all that done plus a reco'd head.

1600 is extremely steep...when you think you could buy all the parts yourself and probably scrape through the $5-600 mark...

1600 is extremely steep...when you think you could buy all the parts yourself and probably scrape through the $5-600 mark...
PLUS A reco head
My heads were $700ish
So for one head that sounds about right for what he paid

yeah...forgoot bout that

but when you think about it, sayy 4-500 in other parts and 450 for a reco head for astron. you're still looking at 950-1100...1600 is steep man. you could get another TR for that....

yeah...forgoot bout that

but when you think about it, sayy 4-500 in other parts and 450 for a reco head for astron. you're still looking at 950-1100...1600 is steep man. you could get another TR for that....

lol yeah but he had to get it all put on etc, and time isn't free.

your own time is if you think about it.lolz...

your own time is if you think about it.lolz...

Remember hearing this a while ago when a member with a third gen thought the same thing and tried to do his own timing belt on his TF.

Long story short, his time was free but mine was not when I had to remove both his heads, get 8 valves replaced and re fit it all!!!!!