No Compression, Won't Start

[Duffman]

Back in October I bought myself a Pulsar after doing plenty of research. I found one which fitted the bill; only 69000 miles, thousands of receipts including recent work done on the bottom end bearings and turbo. The car, importantly, was also rust free and as a bonus the interior was in very good condition. Almost perfect!

However 20 miles down the road on the motorway I lost power and had to pull onto the hard-shoulder. Smoke was billowing out of the engine and it was clear I bought a dog of a car. It's worth noting the car was not ragged in anyway during the journey home, the car actually broke down in the middle of 50mph zone on the motorway. The next day a local mechanic (who also owns a pulsar) had a look at the car for me to look at the extent of the damage. We couldn't get it started and the engine didn't register any compression at all! As you can imagine I'm extremely gutted.

In addition to this we also noticed there was an oil leak and the oil had a strange smell.

As I need a car for work my immediate reaction was to cut my losses and try and sell it but with it nearing to Christmas I got a lot of time wasters and I've decided to try and fix it.

 

[pulsarboby]

did you get my pm i sent a while back?
its bob from gti-r-us

 

[Duffman]

Yes Bob, I hope you're well. I've got the photos ready but didn't have the heart to send them, I'm on a mission now to get it fixed (blind hope I think it is).

 

[bob the builder]

shouldnt be too hard. hopefully it is just a new headgasket job.

 

[Duffman]

Thanks Bob the Builder, is there anyway to test this?

 

[bob the builder]

when you lost power did it go graduall or straight away?

was your water temp ok?
check your water. is it still there,any oil in it.
also check your oil and see if there is water in that. if there is no water or oil in water then it could point to head gasket.
if it overheated then it will cause the head to fail but the best way to asses the damage/see whats wrong is to tale the head off.

 

[Duffman]

I would say within 20 seconds of losing power I came to a stop on the hard shoulder. With the amount of smoke that was coming out as soon as I stopped I ran to the embankment and called the AA (and then the seller with a few not so carefully chosen words). In hindsight I should have noted the temps but I brokedown in a section of the motorway which was down to 1 lane and I didn't even know where the hazard light switch was.

I guess the water mixing with the oil could explain the strange smell? The smell was similar to when my old Fiat Punto's head gasket went but seeing as that cost me £250 and was my first car I just scrapped it.

Any idea how much it would cost to fix?

 

[skiddusmarkus]

If its just the headgasket then a few hundred pounds(fit a metal one while its off).

 

[pulsarboby]

if it was just a headgasket you would still have compression and car would still run even on 2 cylinders
i reckon its dropped some valves and caused some serious damage, but you wont know untill youve got that rockercover off

 

[red reading]

Or someone has'nt done the cam sprokets up! seen this a few times now.

 

[williams]

depends how bad the HG is, ive had a few cars in that wont start at all because of gasket. not worth guessing online though till you have a look at the engine.

as said above pull the head off and get some pics up, your not wasting any time by doing it as what ever is wrong the head needs to come off.

 

[Duffman]

Firstly, thanks to everyone for the advice and possible solutions. I wasn't able to make any progress over Christmas and I'm now looking into getting it booked into somewhere.

Does anyone know of a decent garage with possible experience with the R around Lancashire, Cumbria, Manchester, Liverpool?

 

[bob the builder]

hi mate, are you wanting some one to come and have a look to see whats wrong or you just looking for some one just to do the job,
as i might be able to come up for the day the weekend after next to give you a hand to find out whats up(and maybe fix it)
do you have a front mount or top mount with all the stupid brackets at the back on the inlet?

 

[Duffman]

Ideally I'd like to take it somewhere where they'll look at it, fix it and get me on the road.

That's very kind of you to offer. However the battery will no doubt be flat again and I wouldn't want you to waste a journey.

The car has a front mounted intercooler but I can't answer that question sorry.

 

[markwashington]

Mate, I appreciate you want to go local, but if I was you I'd take the car to someone who really knows what they're doing regardless of location. Ring around a few places and see what they say and how they seem on the phone, you'll soon be able to tell if they know what they're talking about, you could also check the back of a mag like Total Nissan, Banzai etc as they might feature ad's from Jap specialist garages local to you.

 

[Duffman]

Cheers Mark I'll try that. You say local but I am covering almost the entire North of England (100 miles in each direction but granted half the population are fish), any further than that I'd get into stupid money transporting the car.

 

[pulsarboby]

as per email callum.....you could always get car bought to us or where ever by the aa or rac.
gtir1000 on here did the same thing when he got car down to us, although it did arrive a day late he didnt have to travel with the car ; )
whether its us or anyone else you take it too thats got to be your best bet in order to save silly money in transporting costs on low loader

 

[Duffman]

I'm looking into it Bob but the only cover I see the AA do (who I'm with) is relay which will take you home or to a local garage.

 

[pulsarboby]

im not sure which coverage i have on mine but it allows the vehicle to be recovered to garage of choice anywhere in uk.
if i were you i would pm gtir1000 as he knows more about it.
the only downside is from my end, as i wont know when the cars gonna arrive. on a long trip they can get held in a changeover compound overnight (as in the case with gtir1000) and i obviously need the car to arrive in the day to get it in workshop.

can you not just remove the rocker cover from car and take a photo then either email it to me or put it on the site, its fairly simple to do and will only take you half hour or so.

 

[bob the builder]

no worries, if you change your mind just give us a pm, then me and the mobile workshop will come for a road trip.
oh and probally the misses aswell as she gets narky if i leave her at home.lol