Hello there,

To cut a long story short...

I used our 2001 vRS after it sitting around for a couple of days, it was a little more difficult than normal to start and started missfiring.

We called out the AA, he thought it was a Coil Pack, he tested it and Coil Packs all OK.

Missfire diagnosed on Cylinder 3

He did a compression test, Cylinders 1,2 & 4 all between 175-200 psi. Cylinder 3 has Zero Compression.

He removed the Spark Plug and it is wet with neat petrol.

He also put a Carbon Monoxide into the expansion tank to check for exhaust gas in the coolant. All is Good, Pressure is good too.

When it is running, you can smell petrol from the exhaust

Because there is no Fluid Contamination, no noises, no fluid loss, no smoke the car has been diagnosed with a dropped valve.

The car has only been running for around 10 mins with the missfire. But has not been driven (I hope this has limited any damage)

Has anyone had this problem? What was done to fix it?

I'm pretty competent with a spanner, I have changed cambelts/headgaskets etc

Has anyone replaced the valves themselves? Is it overly tricky? Are there any Step by Step guides to do this?

I am located in Bideford, Devon (Quite new to the area) so if anyone knows of any good garages I would really appreciate it.

I hope somebody can be of some assistance.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your replies.

David & Martin

Seems quiet common on these engines, heard of a few that have dropped valves,

Its all depends how much damage its done to what it will cost and how hard it is to fix

Well, just been to the garage where the car is being repaired. Its good and bad news.

The car hasn't dropped a valve, so there is no piston damage.

However, one of the valves is burnt out, and 3 others have crackes in them.

So all the exhaust valves are being replaced, which means the bill has gone up, but no further damage.

Result.

Thanks for your input Volvomeg, sorry for the lack of reply, was waiting for the result from the garage.

David & Martin