I own a 57 Reg Captiva LT which has done 50,000. I drive about 500 miles a week consisting mainly of a 70 daily round tripto work on main roads at 55-60 mph.
Last year I took the car to a local Chevrolet dealer when I got an engine fault light and the car went into limp mode. They told me it was a low fuel pressure warning but they couldn't find anything wrong and cleared the code.
When the service manager handed the car back to me he asked me how long I'd had the "knocking". I said I wasn't aware of any and the car just sounded like a diesel to me. My last car was an Omega 2.5 litre V6 and I'd always had big petrol engined cars.
He made me listen and said if it got worse I should have it looked at. From then on I was listening for it all the time.
3000 miles later I had it serviced by my local garage. I asked them to listen out for the noise and tell me what they thought. They reported back that they thought an engine flush had sorted it.
After that service the change engine oil light started coming on every 500-600 miles. I took it back to the garage who showed me how to reset it. Knowing when the oil was changed I assumed it was a sensor fault and just kept resetting it.
The knocking never went away and I was convinced it might be getting worse. Just before Christmas I put my foot down to overtake something - big noise, lots of smoke and loss of power. It turned out one of the injectors had workedloose. My local garage tightened it down. Still had thenoise and the change oil light coming on every 500 miles or so.
After Christmas, convinced theknocking was getting worse, I took it to the Chevrolet dealer for them to have a look at. They had it the whole day, checked everything, found nothing wrong and charged me £300.
In March I started getting a lot of dark smoke from the exhaust. Mainly when I ut my foot down to overtake something but also when pulling away and even sometimes just idling. The car also kept going into limp mode and the engine waring light would come on.
My local garage said the fault code was down to the EGR valve and replaced it. It didn't help. They told me the EGR's were a pain in the arse and suggested blanking it off. Which they did - made no difference.
Then a different fault code suggested and air intake problem so they cleaned that all out. No change.
So I decided to take the car to a different Chevrolet dealer (a big one this time). Without seeing or hearing the car the service manager said "I bet you've got the wrong oil in it".
After they'd checked and run the Scan100 he said "Yep it's got 5w30 and it should be 5w40 that's why the change oil light is coming on. So they changed the oil.
They said although the EGR valve had been replaced the EGR solenoid was sticking and that was causing the smoking. They freed it but warned it might need replacing if it siezed up again.
They also advised me that the engine was excessively noisy and that was most likely due to using the wrong oil and that they may have to open her up to check camshafts etc. for wear.
That was last week. The smoking seemed better for a few days but then went back to how it was and yesterday the change oil light came back on - after just over 500 miles.
I rang them today and they said"well we did tell you the engine might be damaged because it had the wrong oil you'll need to book it in so we check for damage"
I've read the posts on here about change oil light problems relating to DPF's and regeneration. I don't think this is my issue because of te type of drivng I do.
I'm not a mechanic but I used to play with cars a bit when I was younger/cars were simpler and none of this rings true to me.
I find it incredible that the difference between 5w30 and 5w40 is so great it can damage my engine. Especially as the service book recommends the thicker oil in warmer countries anyway - isn't it just as likely to be a faulty sensor.
Surely to make a diesel go you only need air, fuel and compression. The little Chevrolet dealer tested the compression, my local garage checked the air intake so given the injector that popped out isn't it possible to be an injector or timing problem?
Sorry for such a long first post but any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. All the professional resources have not managed to solve the problem and I'm getting frustrated.
The sad thing is that although this is not the greatest car in the world it does exactly what I need it to do. It's the right size, power, cost etc. - just a shame nobody can fix it.
Andrew.
Last year I took the car to a local Chevrolet dealer when I got an engine fault light and the car went into limp mode. They told me it was a low fuel pressure warning but they couldn't find anything wrong and cleared the code.
When the service manager handed the car back to me he asked me how long I'd had the "knocking". I said I wasn't aware of any and the car just sounded like a diesel to me. My last car was an Omega 2.5 litre V6 and I'd always had big petrol engined cars.
He made me listen and said if it got worse I should have it looked at. From then on I was listening for it all the time.
3000 miles later I had it serviced by my local garage. I asked them to listen out for the noise and tell me what they thought. They reported back that they thought an engine flush had sorted it.
After that service the change engine oil light started coming on every 500-600 miles. I took it back to the garage who showed me how to reset it. Knowing when the oil was changed I assumed it was a sensor fault and just kept resetting it.
The knocking never went away and I was convinced it might be getting worse. Just before Christmas I put my foot down to overtake something - big noise, lots of smoke and loss of power. It turned out one of the injectors had workedloose. My local garage tightened it down. Still had thenoise and the change oil light coming on every 500 miles or so.
After Christmas, convinced theknocking was getting worse, I took it to the Chevrolet dealer for them to have a look at. They had it the whole day, checked everything, found nothing wrong and charged me £300.
In March I started getting a lot of dark smoke from the exhaust. Mainly when I ut my foot down to overtake something but also when pulling away and even sometimes just idling. The car also kept going into limp mode and the engine waring light would come on.
My local garage said the fault code was down to the EGR valve and replaced it. It didn't help. They told me the EGR's were a pain in the arse and suggested blanking it off. Which they did - made no difference.
Then a different fault code suggested and air intake problem so they cleaned that all out. No change.
So I decided to take the car to a different Chevrolet dealer (a big one this time). Without seeing or hearing the car the service manager said "I bet you've got the wrong oil in it".
After they'd checked and run the Scan100 he said "Yep it's got 5w30 and it should be 5w40 that's why the change oil light is coming on. So they changed the oil.
They said although the EGR valve had been replaced the EGR solenoid was sticking and that was causing the smoking. They freed it but warned it might need replacing if it siezed up again.
They also advised me that the engine was excessively noisy and that was most likely due to using the wrong oil and that they may have to open her up to check camshafts etc. for wear.
That was last week. The smoking seemed better for a few days but then went back to how it was and yesterday the change oil light came back on - after just over 500 miles.
I rang them today and they said"well we did tell you the engine might be damaged because it had the wrong oil you'll need to book it in so we check for damage"
I've read the posts on here about change oil light problems relating to DPF's and regeneration. I don't think this is my issue because of te type of drivng I do.
I'm not a mechanic but I used to play with cars a bit when I was younger/cars were simpler and none of this rings true to me.
I find it incredible that the difference between 5w30 and 5w40 is so great it can damage my engine. Especially as the service book recommends the thicker oil in warmer countries anyway - isn't it just as likely to be a faulty sensor.
Surely to make a diesel go you only need air, fuel and compression. The little Chevrolet dealer tested the compression, my local garage checked the air intake so given the injector that popped out isn't it possible to be an injector or timing problem?
Sorry for such a long first post but any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. All the professional resources have not managed to solve the problem and I'm getting frustrated.
The sad thing is that although this is not the greatest car in the world it does exactly what I need it to do. It's the right size, power, cost etc. - just a shame nobody can fix it.
Andrew.
