Holden Commodore Problems

Without knowing what your criteria is, it's hard to recommend a car to you, George. By all means go for a V8 if you need to tow a trailer for work or pleasure, though there's no lack of grunt with the six-cylinder engines on that front either. I would choose a six, and probably a Commodore, based on its better resale than the AU III, and go for a VX rather than a VT simply because it is a newer model and will have fewer kilometres on it. They are both reliable, so there's no real difference between them in terms of reliability.

Your friend is basically correct, the Gen III V8 is calibrated to run on ULP, and running it on PULP would produce only a small improvement. Overfilling some engines with oil can lead to damage, but in the case of the Gen III it seems there is no danger. It should only be done as an added precaution on engines that do consume oil, and I wouldn't follow the practice if your engine isn't devouring oil. You sound like someone who keeps a close check on the oil level, so I would recommend you fill it to the correct mark and keep monitoring the level. The number of problem engines is quite small, Holden says it is less than 2 per cent of V8s, so I wouldn't be concerned unless your engine is actually using oil. The fix implemented by Holden from the start of VY has done the trick, according to engine rebuilders.

I HAVEN'T heard of the worry you have, Tim, but I'd doubt very much that it's a bearing problem at that mileage. I would be looking at the clutch rather than the gearbox, but I would recommend you seek the help of a Holden specialist. Happy to hear you aren't having any problem with your Gen III V8. Not all Gen IIIs exhibit the problem. It's really only a relatively small number of the total sold that have the piston rattle and excessive oil consumption.

WITH that, you're looking at either a Falcon or a Commodore. On the Ford side you could look at an AUIII Falcon or a BA six-cylinder which has a towing capacity of 2300kg in auto form. Across the divide there's the VXII or VY Commodore that will handle up to 2100kg. As for which is the more reliable, I would lean slightly towards the Commodore.

We checked with Peter Schweighofer of Swift Automotive in Melbourne who recommends the HM headers and exhaust system. If your car is an auto, he also recommends you have the shift pattern altered to make it sharper.

There's no reason the Avalon should be any thirstier than the Camry. They're about the same weight and they share the same V6 engine and drivetrain. The Avalon is locally produced, not imported, so the parts are the same price as the Camry's. On the current market the Magna is the best buy in that its used values have slumped, the Camry and Avalon are standing up well, while the Commodore remains popular and hence has good resale value. In terms of mechanical reliability, it's hard to go past Toyota and I would probably prefer the Camry or the Avalon, but all four have good reliability and will do the job well.

Sounds like you've got a nice FE there, Jason. I don't have any experience with devices like the fuel catalyst, but am sceptical of the claims made by their makers. You can modify your engine to run on unleaded fuel and that's what I would recommend. Any reputable engine builder can carry out the modifications, which involves fitting hardened valve seats to the cylinder head, and hardened valves. All that's doing is reducing the valve-seat wear which increases without the presence of lead, which acts like a lubricant on the valves and valve seats. It's also necessary to retard the spark on some engines so they run on ULP, although they might run quite happily on the higher octane PULP. I'd expect your engine, with its modest compression ratio of 6.8 to 1, to run quite happily on 91 octane ULP, but if it pings try PULP, or have the distributor modified.

Holden calibrated the Gen III to run on regular unleaded, so you are paying for a marginal increase in performance and fuel consumption, at best in the order of 2-3 per cent. The best way to check the value of running Pulp is to do a consumption test with both fuels. That way you will know the real benefits, or otherwise, in your own actual driving conditions.

I've put your concerns to Shell's technical people and requested an answer. Hope to be able to report back to you soon.

BOTH the Falcon and the Commodore convert well to LPG. The taxi industry runs both successfully on it, and they are the toughest when it comes to finding out a car's weakness. Ford has probably done more work with LPG on its Falcon, and has a dedicated LPG option, but there's no problem with converting the Commodore.