Holden Problems

I believe Orbital supplies the HSV system and I can't think of any reason that you couldn't fit an Orbital system to your car. It would have to be tuned differently, of course, because your engine is different to the HSV one. There are other liquid-injection systems available, as well as some very well developed vapour-injection systems. One you could check out is the Impco system. The beauty of injection systems is that you can tune them to produce the same performance on LPG and on petrol. Without being exact you could expect to recover the cost of installing a system in around 18 months.

I would expect that the issues relating to the air-conditioner and airbags would be covered by the warranty, if you are told that it isn't then kick up a stick. Contact Holden Customer Service on 1800 033 349.

The Colorado will run on Biodiesel, but the issue is that it cleans vanish and other deposits from the fuel system when you switch from regular mineral oil diesel. If you were to switch you should run a replace the filters after running a tank of biodiesel through it. If you do that you should be ok.

It doesn't sound as if the boot is actually leaking as you say the water gets in when you open the bootlid. That sounds more like the Cruze designers didn't check to see what happened to water on the bootlid when it is opened. Perhaps other owners could tell us if this is an issue that annoys them.

I would suggest that there was a misunderstanding on the part of the person who told you it could be done after delivery, but you should be able to have a dealer accessory, or an aftermarket system fitted.

There really isn’t much option, if you don’t spend the money to repair it you’re left with a car that is worthless and you are faced with spending more to buy another car. As you say it is in good condition otherwise I would recommend you went ahead and repaired it. If it does have a blown head gasket, as you have been told, there is no other way of repairing other than replacing the head gasket, and there’s no way of reducing the cost of the job. To minimize the chances of being ripped off use a reputable mechanic, perhaps one who is well known and respected in your local area, take a friend or relative with a knowledge of mechanics with you when talking to the mechanic, and get two or three quotes for the job.

I would expect your car to return around 11.0 L/100 km, so yours is very poor as you say. You would have to allow for slightly higher fuel consumption due to wear on the engine, loss of compression etc., but I would still expect that you should get around 12 L/100 km. I would be checking the basics, like spark plugs, spark plug leads, air filters, fuel-injectors, and throttle body to make sure they are all in tip-top shape; then look at sensors like the oxygen sensor to make sure they are conveying the correct signal to the engine computer.

You'd need to have an experienced mechanic listen to the noise to determine if it's piston slap or not. The LS1 certainly rattled on cold starts due to piston slap, and it used oil, they were the giveaways to a problem with the engine. Yours could have some piston slap, but your description suggests it's not serious, and certainly if the engine isn't oil to any degree I wouldn't be concerned. The noise could also be a worn lifter, that's why you need someone with experience to listen to it.

Many thousands of V6 Commodores have been successfully converted and there’s no reason to be afraid of converting your car. It would be fitted with an old style of system rather a new injection type, but there’s nothing wrong with that. A word of caution, however, is that you should make sure your engine is good and healthy before you convert it. It’s an old engine and I’m guessing it’s done lots of kays, so it’s worth having it thoroughly checked for tune and compression before you commit to the conversion.

If you feel it is a problem, and the presence of piston slap is not necessarily a problem in itself, you should keep meticulous records of your dealings with the dealer and Holden in case it does escalate into an issue that needs addressing. In that case you would be well armed with the information needed to support your case for Holden to act.