My humble 2007 VE Berlina

[BADTR1P]

Congratulations on your purchase?

Keep it top top best you can, and it will keep going.
As for questions, fire away, there is an abundance of knowledgeable members here that would help with answers.

Thanks and will do. Really enjoying it at the moment, especially on the freeway. Real test will be in August when I take it on a 4000km round trip to Gold Coast and back.

 

[Commo64]

Congratulations on the purchase... It's probably been said before but make sure to service the car every 7-10,000km and the transmission every 40-60,000km and it should give you years of happy motoring... Also I'd keep the LPG system if you can as it means you can switch from petrol to gas whenever you wish...

 

[krusing]

Congratulations on the purchase... It's probably been said before but make sure to service the car every 7-10,000km and the transmission every 40-60,000km and it should give you years of happy motoring... Also I'd keep the LPG system if you can as it means you can switch from petrol to gas whenever you wish...

And it will give you a longer range, possibly 1,000 k/m’s.

 

[krusing]

Yep that's the one.

Interestingly enough, the colour nickel was a new VE colour,
Where as I have a VZ Adventra (last of that VZ model) that is also the color Nickel, which I am told it is a rare car, especially to have a VZ in a VE color.

That’s how I was able to pick it,
As it’s not a Silver, and it’s not a Gold,
But in different sun light, or sun light shades, you will notice a gold fleck in the silver come out, and it looks great,
That’s my observation and its a nice colour.

 

[BADTR1P]

Interestingly enough, the colour nickel was a new VE colour,
Where as I have a VZ Adventra (last of that model) that is also the colour Nikel,, which I am told it is a rare car, especially to have it in a VE colour.

That’s how I was able to pick it,
As it’s not a Silver, and it’s not a Gold,
But in different sun light, or sun light shades, you will notice a gold fleck in the silver come out, and it looks great,
That’s my observation and its a nice colour.

It is a nice colour. Half the VEs in my town seem to be nickel too for some reason, must have been a popular choice when the car was released.

Today at cold start it did a weird rattle sound a second after turning over which lasted a couple seconds then the idle was funky for 5 seconds then went smooth. Any idea what this is? It might have been related to having it parked on a slope overnight. Found some other threads talking about.

Seems to have maybe been solved in this thread https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/ve-alloytec-start-up-noise-woes.262819/page-3
O rings or relating to oil pressure. Some people saying its serious and others saying its not.

This is the exact sound:

 

[Skylarking]

Could be anything and it could be a bugger to identify the root cause.

Supposedly there is a service bulletins that talks of an issue with some alternator funk going on that can cause a similar noises. IIRC it’s talked about in thread on starting on a slope after parking for some time.

Then it could be air being sucked by the oil pump due to some sump o-ring issue or such causing low oil pressure on start…

Or a rattling variable vale timing mechanism or worst case the dreaded stretched chain issue but maybe not…

I’ve put a few links to some of the relevant threads in my post within the thread you quoted, see below

https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/ve-alloytec-start-up-noise-woes.262819/post-3093715

and also note the last post by @J_D 2.0 provides a video that goes into the VVT mechanism issue…

Whatever you do, don’t just throw parts at it as that’s not fault finding and it’s expensive… Do a proper diagnosis is the best way but in this case I suspect no fault codes will present…

 

[krusing]

My LY7 does similar first start in the morning, approx 1 > 2sec, fairly normal for a Alloytec I have worked out it’s just all the oil has drained back down,
Since mine had a very sad ownership by 2 previous owners, it’s slowly getting cleaner inside the engine, since it was all gunked up,
I have been changing the oil and filter every 6,000,
And purchases a bulk supply of oil filters, and been swapping the filters ever 2,000 k’s,
And the amount of gunk the filters are collecting is unbelievable, so the oil filter swap is doing its job, and the diesel oil is cleaning it up.
The oil I am using at the moment, is the Repco GV Diesel Oil, I always purchase the 10L container for approx $46 > $49.
And save the rest for top up, or for the next service.

Some of the noises could be pulley bearings,
A mechanics stethoscope is the right tool to check for under bonnet noises.

 

[BADTR1P]

My LY7 does similar first start in the morning, approx 1 > 2sec, fairly normal for a Alloytec I have worked out it’s just all the oil has drained back down,
Since mine had a very sad ownership by 2 previous owners, it’s slowly getting cleaner inside the engine, since it was all gunned up,
I have been changing the oil and filter every 6,000,
And purchases a bulk supply of oil filters, and been swapping them ever 2,000 k’s,
And the amount of gunk the filters are collecting is unbelievable, so the oil filter swap is doing its job, and the diesel oil is cleaning it up.
The oil I am using at the moment, is the Repco GV Diesel Oil, I always purchase the 10L container for approx $46 > $49.
And save the rest for top up, or for the next service.

Some of the noises could be pulley bearings,
A mechanics stethoscope is the right tool to check for under bonnet noises.

Thanks guys. I think I'll just keep an eye on it and only worry if it gets worse. No CEL or oil pressure lights came up. In the meantime I'll just keep changing the oil and filter. Are you saying to do it every 6ks or 2ks? Also you are saying I should run diesel oil through it for a bit?

 

[Just Damo]

Thanks guys. I think I'll just keep an eye on it and only worry if it gets worse. No CEL or oil pressure lights came up. In the meantime I'll just keep changing the oil and filter. Are you saying to do it every 6ks or 2ks? Also you are saying I should run diesel oil through it for a bit?

just filter every 2k I think he was meaning. Oil & filter every 6k. Good intervals really if you do a lot of stop start driving. I do similar, every 6-8k and have only heard it runner smoother overtime.

 

[krusing]

I am doing the Oil at 6,000 k/s,
And just the filter to catch the gunk to stop it re-circulating,
And to stop it from blocking up the PCV system, which is a known common issue on Alloytec’s

In a nutshell, Oil and Oil filters are cheap enough to swap out regularly in my case,
It’s cheap insurance to keep it running smooth,
But if an engine has not been maintained (like mine wasnt), it’s a ideal way to try and get it, and keep it clean.

I run diesel oil in all my cars as it has a cleaning agent in it,
But I might add, it does say on the label it can be used Petrol engines,
So that is good enough for me to use it, (especially the state it was in when I purchased it)