Cracked piston ZD30 engine - 2004 Navara D22 STR 3.0 litre Diesel

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Good news. The mechanic that services our Mazda 6 is taking on the job. He's going to take the head off today and do a more in depth analysis before sending anything away to the engine rebuilder. One interesting matter came up yesterday when we were talking to the mechanic. My wife recalls a ticking noise after the 'piston went'. The mechanic suggesteded it could be a valve slapping the top of the piston? I watched a video on Youtube on this and it seems that could be at fault. Won't know until he head is off. I'll keep you posted.
 
Now the bad news. The mechanic took the engine out today and the head off and the head is stuffed. Piston one is melted. Cylinder one has a big groove in it. Three other pistons shows signs of melting. The bill for repairs jumped from $4400, to $6000, to $7000 to $11000. This included new head, valves, timing chain, water pump, oil pump, clutch, machining, and so on. For a 2004 vehicle, we will read it the last rights and look for another 4x4 with low kms that can do the work we need on the farm. Today was quite a blow. My wife and I were new to 4x4s and diesels and this has been one very expensive lesson in cars, mechanics, and engine rebuilders.
 
Diesel motors are not cheap.
The newer models even more expensive to fix, any major problems on something around 10 years old will pretty much be a throw away job.
Think $1000+ per injector vs i think it was $5-600 for all 4 when i had mine replaced.
 
Now the bad news. The mechanic took the engine out today and the head off and the head is stuffed. Piston one is melted. Cylinder one has a big groove in it. Three other pistons shows signs of melting. The bill for repairs jumped from $4400, to $6000, to $7000 to $11000. This included new head, valves, timing chain, water pump, oil pump, clutch, machining, and so on. For a 2004 vehicle, we will read it the last rights and look for another 4x4 with low kms that can do the work we need on the farm. Today was quite a blow. My wife and I were new to 4x4s and diesels and this has been one very expensive lesson in cars, mechanics, and engine rebuilders.
sorry to hear.
any chance you can get some pics and post them up. would be interesting to see what caused the failure.
thats a rather odd failure. typical failure is the rear two pistons as they run the hottest.
 
Now the bad news. The mechanic took the engine out today and the head off and the head is stuffed. Piston one is melted. Cylinder one has a big groove in it. Three other pistons shows signs of melting. The bill for repairs jumped from $4400, to $6000, to $7000 to $11000. This included new head, valves, timing chain, water pump, oil pump, clutch, machining, and so on. For a 2004 vehicle, we will read it the last rights and look for another 4x4 with low kms that can do the work we need on the farm. Today was quite a blow. My wife and I were new to 4x4s and diesels and this has been one very expensive lesson in cars, mechanics, and engine rebuilders.

Sorry to hear that. Sounds as though it was well and truly kaput. Hope you have better luck with your next one, whatever you decide to get.
 
Diesel motors are not cheap.
The newer models even more expensive to fix, any major problems on something around 10 years old will pretty much be a throw away job.
Think $1000+ per injector vs i think it was $5-600 for all 4 when i had mine replaced.

Got to make you wonder whether the later diesels are worth it, might be better off with petrol. The tech makes them go better, but they don't seem as reliable as they used to.

Had fuel injected cars back in the day that clocked up 400-600k kms without any problems or maintenance to the fuel system at all, apart from an occasional filter change. Still chugging along fine when I decided not to register them. They mightn't have gone as fast, they did it for a lot longer though.
 
Got to make you wonder whether the later diesels are worth it, might be better off with petrol. The tech makes them go better, but they don't seem as reliable as they used to.

Had fuel injected cars back in the day that clocked up 400-600k kms without any problems or maintenance to the fuel system at all, apart from an occasional filter change. Still chugging along fine when I decided not to register them. They mightn't have gone as fast, they did it for a lot longer though.

the problem is not so much the engines but rather the quality of fuel.
modern fuel has bare minimum lube in it compared to the old fuel which had tons and hence rather forgiving.
add that to the injection system being substantially more expensive to repair and if it fails it can blow holes through pistons very very quickly.

a LOT of the problems are mitigated IF you have a decent fuel supply.
 

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