Holden Problems

The correct Holden Cruze oil type (grade) is a 5W30 fully synthetic. That’s for either the 1.8-litre, 1.4-litre turbo or the 1.6-litre turbo engine. The exception is the two-litre turbo-diesel Cruze engine which requires 5W40 grade oil.

There are no real trade secrets on how to change oil on a Holden Cruze and, provided you have the right equipment and basic skills, it amounts to warming the engine, draining the oil from the sump into a container, replacement of the oil filter, replacing the drain plug, refilling the sump and making sure the oil in the engine is at the correct level.

This is important maintenance because it ensures the engine always has a good supply of clean oil. Without this, the engine will die young. You can have a mechanic change your oil at a service centre, but with a drain pan, filter wrench, simple socket set and a work light, this is a DIY project.

Things you’ll need to know include the size of the drain plug, the specifications (part number) of the oil filter, and how often to change oil on this particular engine (the service interval).

The first thing to do is make sure your battery is earthed properly and all the relevant electrical contacts are tight and clean. Low voltage or a poor connection can easily cause the problems you're seeing, especially if they've all occurred more or less at the same time.

The next thing is to have the vehicle electronically scanned. That will tell you what faults the on-board computer has spotted, and you can then tackle them logically instead of replacing parts that don't fix the actual problem. The rough running could be anything from a dud oxygen sensor to a fuel-injection problem and lots in between.

I would suspect the heating and air-conditioning problems are separate to the engine's poor running, but anything's possible when a car's electronics start playing up.

I've personally seen a car just like this one with the same timing chain problem given away to a good home on the basis that fixing the engine problem was going to cost more than the car was worth. However, that was before the price-spike of a couple of years ago, and these cars are now worth more than they were back then.

Stretched timing chains in this engine are very common, and plenty of specialists have sprung up offering to change the timing chains for around the $2000 mark. If you have this work done, make sure the repairer uses the upgraded timing chain design which, hopefully, will stop the problem recurring.

In good running order, your Commodore wagon would be valued at somewhere between $5000 and $10,000 (depending on condition and mileage) but in its current state, the cost of repairs plus the hassle of buying a car needing lots of work is probably a deal breaker for a lot of buyers. Perhaps having the work done and then trying to sell it would make a better business case.

If you're looking for a dual-cab ute with an emphasis on comfort and performance, then a Holden Crewman suddenly comes into sharp focus. These are around for the money you're talking about and even though some of them are getting close to your age cut-off, they provide ride quality and dynamics that even modern dual-cab utes struggle to reproduce.

The Holden in question is not an off-roader by any means, but it can do all the sorts of things that ute owners love them for. By going down this route, you also side-step the potentially troublesome common-rail diesel problems that can include blocked DPFs and internal clogging from soot and oil. If you can find one, there was even a V8 version of the Crewman which, if you find a good example, will provide lots of reliability and even more performance.

I’m not sure how Holden can claim that the car is now subject to the extended warranty (which is an aftermarket one from the third-party supplier) when your car should, according to Holden itself, be covered by the brand’s factory seven-year/unlimited km warranty. Since your car is still within that time limit, I would have thought the factory warranty applies and would cover the differential. The catch was that this seven-year warranty was only offered up to a cut-off date (March 31, 2018) but even after that date, the cover reverted to five-years/unlimited km, so your car should still be covered.

Holden only applied this seven-year warranty to 2018 ZB Commodore and Equinox models, but since the former is what you own, I can’t see how the factory warranty doesn’t apply. Keep trying and if you don’t succeed, the ACCC might be fairly interested in your case.

The difference will be, of course, if the differential problem has been caused by external factors such as a lack of servicing or you using the car to tow excessively heavy loads. But otherwise, the car should be covered against failures of this sort.

As for extended, aftermarket warranties, they’re really a huge rip-off in most cases. They are carefully worded to avoid the insurer paying out on anything actually likely to go wrong with the car. They also tie you into dealership servicing and, often, over-servicing, all in the name of lightening your wallet further. Forget them.

Okay, first question: Did the sensor damage happen before or after the failure of the alert? If it’s the former, it’s a fair bet the crunch has broken the sensor in question and led to the whole inter-linked system failing.

If the problem happened before the bump (and caused the knock because it didn’t warn you of the looming barrier) then you need to investigate further. An auto electrician should be able to test the system and its circuits and tell you what the cause of the problem is. It could be anything from the wiring to a blown fuse to the sensors themselves having failed. Living on the very edge of the vehicle, these sensors have a pretty hard life with every tap and bump to the bumper potentially damaging them or their circuitry.

The 1.8-litre non-turbo and 1.4-litre turbocharged engines in the 2014 Cruze will run happily on 91-octane petrol. The more highly tuned 1.6-litre turbo engine in the SRi, SRi V and Z Series models required a minimum of 95-octane fuel. There's no problem using 95-octane fuel in the engines designed for 91 fuel, but you probably won't gain anything in terms of fuel consumption or performance. The only thing that will happen quicker will be the emptying of your wallet.

There's no problem mixing 91 and 95-octane fuel in the cars designed to run on 91-octane petrol, but the 1.6-litre engine can be damaged by using anything other than a fuel with a minimum octane rating of 95.

It won't be the sump itself disintegrating, but my guess is that somebody who has changed the oil in the past has over-tightened the drain plug when they've replaced it. That stretches the threads on what is often a relatively soft metal and, as a result, the threads have broken away from the rest of the oil pan as you've tightened the plug.

This is actually more common than you think and happens because people don't stop to think about how much force they use when they replace the plug. While it's true that you don't want the plug undoing itself while you're driving, it's also the case that all that sump plug has to do is keep the oil inside the engine. It serves no other purpose and simply doesn't need to be too tight. Sometimes, home mechanics ignore the need to replace the crush washer on this plug with the result that they then notice an oil a leak a few days later. That's when they'll reach for the big spanner and try to tighten the sump plug some more to stop the leak. And that's when the threads break away and they're in the position you now find yourself.

The solution is to get the vehicle to a workshop (you may have to tow it as it can't be driven with no oil in the engine) which should be able to drill the hole in the sump to the next over-size and fit a slightly larger, new sump plug. It's tricky though, as you don't want to allow swarf (little metal filings from the drilling process) into the engine where they'll damage those expensive internal parts.

You can replace the head unit in your car to a more modern one that features Bluetooth. Make sure it gets installed properly to ensure that the full functionality is retained.

The alternative these days (provided you’re happy with the rest of the stereo’s performance) is to install a small transceiver that fits (usually) into the 12-volt power socket and accepts the bluetooth signal from your phone. From there, the unit transmits that signal via an FM frequency which you tune the existing stereo to. Some of these units work better than others, so paying a bit extra is probably worth it.

This is probably a case of either the key being worn to the point where it doesn’t engage with the ignition barrel properly any longer, or the barrel itself (in the steering column) is likewise worn to the point where the two components no longer mesh properly. Failing that, it could be that the ignition barrel has collapsed internally, locking itself in place and refusing to turn. If either of those things happen, you won’t get any dashboard lights, and the steering column will remain locked meaning the car can’t be steered.

A locksmith should be able to sort this pretty easily, but at a cost. The alternative would be to find an ignition barrel in a Frontera at a wrecking yard and swap it for the one in your car. Don’t forget to the get the key from the wrecked car, though, as the new barrel won’t work with your old key. You’ll also need to have the replacement key’s remote locking function recoded to talk to your car.