V6 Bottom Camshaft Contaminating Oil

[Jack]

Hi,

 

I've have a 2001 24 valve V6 Galaxy for my sins. Last week it started cutting out and sounded like it was only running on 5 cylinders. I have taken it to the main Ford dealer and have been told that the bottom cam (Which I think is the Intermediate Shaft sproket on the diagrams I have found) is failing and contaminating the oil, the contaminated oil was then blocking up the varilable valve timing control valves and making the engine run rough. They flushed the engine twice and replaced the oil filter but said the engine oil was still "Heavily contaminated/Darkened" even after the second flush. The engine now runs fine but they have advised me that I could need a new engine in the near future. Has anyone had a similar issue to this, I thought the VW VR6 engine was bullet proof. Maybe I am just unlucky!!!

 

Regards

Jack

[sepulchrave]

Sounds like outrageous obfuscation to me, if I still remember how to speak 'dealerese' correctly then I translate this to mean:

 

"We don't have a clue what was wrong but it seems OK now, but to cover our arses we recommend replacing everything which could have conceivably caused a problem, which is what we normally do since you're paying for it, not us."

 

Does that cheer you up any? :wacko:

 

Edit: This kind of thing used to make me laugh, but at todays dealer prices it's getting rather serious.

Edited January 21, 2008 by sepulchrave

[Beyond Help?]

Jack, that engine was used a lot in the V6 Golfs etc. Perhaps asking the question on a VW site may yeald the answer. If it does, don't forget to tell us what it was!

[Jack]

I've done around 500 miles since the dealer changed the oil and I have regularly checked the oil using the dipstick and looked down oil filler cap and it dosn't look contaminated to me, I'm going to do a filter and oil change once I've covered 1000 miles and see what it looks like then. Fords have always done servicing and I am now suspecting that it missed an oil change on the last service so ran for 20,000 miles on the same oil and this is why it was so black. Anyway I will give a further update once I've covered a few more miles.