hi anyone seen this
customer complains of non start & flat battery prior to vacation. after two weeks holiday calls garage to attend car. attempt to start - engine turns over at 10000 rpm - sounds like cam belt snapped - towed back to workshop. check belt - no problem - check chains no problem - carry out compression check - best we get 125 and 100 others 50's and 30's. do leak down test - 90% leakdown. no sense being made. charge battery, fit new plugs and fill bores with oil. engine finally starts with lots of smoke. road test check for dtc (none found) car now fine with no problems. still not sure what i learnt this happy day - anyone with any ideas

hi
thanks to all

customer now happy
car starting with no problems
suspect customer was using wrong grade oil and over filling
plus cylinder washing - maybe

regards ken hudson

Hi, not sure I've had the same but it sounds like it (same car, year and engine). Looks like no compression is built up in any cylinder during start, thought the belt snapped too. Finally the garage found what went wrong. Because of the V-shape of the engine the oil will not always go down as it should be like an in-line straight up engine does. Therefore, when making lots of small trips the oil might not heat up enough causing to clogg the valves during cool down. They put in some cleaning fluid and changed oil. I'm pretty sure it depends on the grade of oil, using now 5W and check oil level more frequent.
rgds,
DD