Holden Problems

By my reckoning it would take you around three years to recoup the cost. That's based on an installation cost of $4500 before the government grant of $1500, and regular unleaded petrol costing $1.40 and LPG 60 cents per litre.

A build-up of dirt on the sensors can affect the operation, but it would need to be a heavy build-up. I wouldn’t think dust would be enough to do it. Have them checked at the next service.

No, Holden can't void your warranty should you use another service agent; just make sure they are going to do the logbook service as they claim.

Everything has a statutory guarantee with it that covers the goods as sold. That you installed the engine yourself shouldn’t have any bearing on the guarantee, unless it can be shown that you have done something to cause the fault. In your case it would seem that is not the situation and the problem is with the engine as supplied by Holden.

The price range quoted by the trade is $6500-$8500, but that assumes normal use and many more kays than your car has done. Yours should be worth more than that, but it’s hard to say how much. In my view the VT II is not yet a valued classic, more an old used car, so there’s not yet the demand for it from the classic car market. But anyone wanting to get in on the ground floor and buy a classic to put aside until the market comes around would be well to pay a little over the odds now. Yours could be worth up to $12,000 to the right person.

It is not unusual for the battery to be placed in the boot; some carmakers have been doing that for many years. You might notice that it's often placed there in race cars for weight distribution reasons, to get more weight over the rear wheels, but in regular passenger cars it's mostly done for packaging reasons. One look at the engine bay of most cars today is enough to know that it's a pretty crowded place, and putting the battery in the boot alleviates that problem.

If it hasn’t been changed already I would change it now that it is going on six years old.

I would have the wheels and tyres balanced, then start looking at rear suspension bushes and drive shafts.

We haven't had any other reports of an issue with the seat bracket. One possible way of getting around the problem would be to slide then seat back before getting out, and sliding back into position when you get back into the car. That way you can possible avoid sitting on the bracket while getting in or out of the car.

I’m not a fan of these systems; I don’t believe they have been properly developed to a point where they are reliable. They work by substituting LPG for diesel and can damage engine if the amount of LPG is not properly controlled.