Holden Commodore Problems

VALVE recession rises on engines running LPG because it's a dry fuel with none of the lubricating properties of petrol to protect the valves. Your Territory will be no different and my contacts suggest the head will need a rebuild at about 100,000km. I have no experience with the Flashlube system so I can't offer an opinion.

THE Holden IRS is a bit of a compromise and tyre wear was a particular problem. The wear is caused by the toe-change that occurs as the wheel moves up and down as the suspension moves from bump to rebound. It's worse if the suspension is lowered for any reason, either by changing springs and shocks, being loaded or towing. Some suspension specialists have developed kits to fix the problem. Talk to Pedders, K-Mac or other specialist outlets.

I HAVE to agree. Buy good tyres, keep them inflated to the correct pressure, maybe a little higher, and drive with your head instead of your right foot and you will get better mileage from your tyres. But the Commodore is prone to higher wear of the rear tyres because of its design. The old independent rear suspension was a compromise design and not one you would use if not constrained by budgets.

The 3.8-litre engine is fine on LPG, but to ease your fears you could add upper cylinder lubricant to the petrol and that will help lubricate the valves when you run it on petrol. Other possible solutions include lubrication kits. I don't have experience with them, but have recently been given a kit to test so I may have an answer on that soon.

IT'S caused by a fault with either the electrics or the fuel, and neither should be ruled out. It could be dirty injectors. Even though you've tried a cleaner, it doesn't necessarily clear a blockage. It's better used to keep the injectors clean. Consider having the injectors cleaned. On the electrical front I'd have the ignition coil packs checked.

I REFERRED your problem to Mark Lynch of Carcool Airconditioning for his opinion, which is that the vapour can only be water vapour. It could be either a blocked drain tube not releasing condensation to the outside, so as the heater core sitting at the bottom ``steams'' the water, or a leaking heater core itself. Mark would normally discount airconditioning gas as it is odourless, colourless and tasteless, and besides it would have to have a huge leak to be visible and could only last for a maximum of about 30 minutes until the system was empty. VRs commonly block drain tubes and they need to be probed from underneath the car (they are on top of the transmission, roughly halfway) and should only be probed with a plastic cable tie. Mark says he has seen mechanics stick wire probes straight through the heater core.

It is not a good idea to leave a car sitting, so have a plan to take it out regularly. You'll warm up the engine, transmission and rear axle and circulate oil through vital components. Buy a battery conditioner and leave it hooked up to the battery. Change the oil and the coolant, say every year.

THERE'S no difference between the engine in the base Commodore and the S. Both have the same 3.8-litre ECOTEC V6, producing 152kW at 5200 revs and 30 Nm at 3600 revs. Holden recommends using 91 octane regular unleaded, but you could try using PULP or the higher 98 octane fuels. You might see a slight improvement in fuel economy and perhaps performance, though the cost of the fuel, in my view, would outweigh the benefits.

WHY don't you contact the trade schools directly. If that doesn't work, perhaps you could advertise for a friendly retired panelbeater in the local newspaper, but don't expect it to be done for nothing.

IT NEVER hurts to go over your car and check to see everything is in order. But if it's running well, I would be tempted to leave it.