5th Mar 2017, 05:37

I've just had the same thing happen to my 2011 Ssangyong Actyon Tradie Sports ute...

I bought this friggin lemon in 2015 (from a place where they won't allow test drives at all - that should be illegal!), not long past its 3 year 100,000 km warranty with only 27,000 km on the clock.

It had a full service history from a fleet maintenance company, and at around 60,000 km the auto seized and died.

That cost me $4,000 for a second hand unit from a wrecked car and had that fitted up. I've spoken to 6 or 7 other owners of these s**t boxes who all had their auto's die too, with anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 km on their clocks. The problem is the Aussie company who used to make the 6 speed gearboxes, went into liquidation and was bought out by Geely (a big Chinese car manufacturer who immediately took all our technology and knowledge off shore for cheaper manufacturing - their new Chinese built boxes were $7,500 ); all the while the Australian government were too busy chasing the American owned Holden down the street with an open cheque book.

I contacted Ssangyong Australia and they pretty much didn't want to know me. They wouldn't put anything in writing to me either, obviously worried for solicitors sake. They said that even though it had a full service history through the fleet company, it hadn't been touched by anyone holding a Ssangyong spanner so they wouldn't do anything about it. A call to fair trading confirmed they couldn't help me either.

Fast forward to just over 100,000 km, about 108,000, late 2016 and the motor died, black plumes of unburnt diesel smoke pouring out the exhaust pipe. Turned out, as confirmed by one of the high up Ssangyong technicians at a Sydney dealership who had 2 or 3 others come in around 100,000 km, that these pieces of s**t require the diesel injectors to be replaced every 100,000 km...

Yeah that's right, a $3,000 job every 100,000 km!

Geez, makes me want to rush out and buy another one... NOT!!!

No mention of that in their nice glossy brochures anywhere...

Had the vehicle towed to a so-called diesel specialist, and they slugged me $700 in labour to diagnose the issue being 2 or more injectors have failed.

While they were trying to remove them, the "specialist" snapped off 2 injectors deep down inside the head and the third snapped off above the head. They said they have a special tool to pull the injector up and out, however looking at the twisted shank of the last injector, clearly they tried to simply unscrew them, causing them to snap off.

Oh he saved me though by not touching the fourth injector - gee thanks so much!

Apparently some injectors can seize in a motor due to them being cast steel and often heads made of alloy, however these specialists with their specialist tools and specialist $100+ per hour labour skills should've been able to remove them without doing what they've done - I'm SO pee'd off right now!!!

They basically charged me $700 to f#@k up my car worse than when I towed it into their business. They quoted me around $3,5000 to fix it initially, including brand new Delphi injectors that I could buy cheaper myself elsewhere (even though they are an authorised Delphi agent) than what they quoted me, however after they stuffed them trying to remove them, the repair bill jumped to $8,000.

So I now own a car that will cost $8,000 to fix, which I would be lucky to sell for $8,000 or $9,000 even if it were already running 100% properly.

Anyway, four months later and now out of rego, it is sitting at my father's where every weekend we've spent pulling the car apart to get the head off. What a big job too!

Once it's off, we'll at least be able to punch the injectors back out and put some new ones in. Hopefully this will get it all up and running again, and then I will just have to drive it into the ground as I will lose WAY too much money selling it.

I was just starting to get it set up right for camping too with 2 auxiliary batteries, all 12v setup properly, touring awning etc... I'm so devastated to say the least.

I am going to check with Fair Trading to see where I stand on the 'specialist' totally stuffing my engine... will keep you all posted.

I wouldn't recommend buying one of these cars again. I used to love this car, however my faith and opinion of this vehicle has really dwindled somewhat.