Holden Captiva 2011 – P0011 & P0016 intake valve timing issues

Vehicle

Holden Captiva series 2, 2011, 2.4L 4 cylinder engine.

Symptom

Vehicle came in with check engine light on and complaint was, that the engine was shaking when idling after going for a drive, he left the vehicle sit over night at home drove the next day and no issues after leaving it over night.

Being that the engine light was on the instrument cluster we connected the scan tool and conducted a test drive.

P0011 & P0016 intake camshaft position system performance.

Normally the first thing you think of is the chains are worn out, but we have another story for you!

We digested the fault codes in and really thought about what is was trying to say, with both fault codes present there had to be a connection with the rough idle, as per the client complaint. If the oil pressure can’t get the the cam phasers they could stick or not move freely, so to start with the oil control valves were removed and checked to see what’s going on, knowing the service history was less than desirable,

Bingo,

Intake oil control valve solenoid removed to inspect P0011
Heavy metal Friday’s – oil supply port completely blocked oil to the valve

after seeing P0011 & metals in the filter for the valves, we knew what had to be done in order to put this back into service we had to further investigate the main oil filter and change engine oil as a minimum before we could asses the damaged caused from lack of oil changes.

Metal in oil filter, oil when drained was like glitter in oil

Carried out an extended oil drain, 1hour till metals not coming out, oil filter canister cleaned and new filter installed,

Some reading this here may laugh, I’m a funny guy but the engine comes out with 5w30 engine oil (don’t ever put it in there) we have gone up to 15w40 added in a wynns additive, started engine timing chain rattle gone, variable cam phaser rattle gone under load, so much for all your light weight oils that protect the engine.

Needs a test drive to check sound after engine oil temp is up and this will determine what we are going to do next, but there is only three options (forth added as I’m a funny guy)

  1. Wait to see what happens over the next 1000kms.
  2. remove timing cover and sump to carry it full inspection, report and possibly replace timing chains and guides,
  3. Replace the motor
  4. Sell the car and make it someone else’s problem.

Just trying to help out other guys in the industry, before calling for a new motor.