Holden Problems

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.

Even if the two cars were from the same production month and year, you’ve got some serious mis-matches there; enough to make the job far more time, effort and money than it’s worth. For a start, the two-wheel-drive Colorado won’t have the extra differential and drive-shafts to mate with the twin drive-shafts that the all-wheel-drive gearbox will have. So you’d have to somehow blank that front driveshaft off. Or, add the front differential and axle which will also probably require different front suspension. Prop-shaft lengths are likely to be different between a manual and an automatic version of the same car, too.

Then there’s all the other things that can suddenly catch you out. In many cases, the manual and automatic versions of a particular car will have different transmission tunnels and different holes in the floor for the shifter to poke through. Even the centre consoles can be non-interchangeable. The dashboard of an automatic car with its PRNDL display will also be different to the manual one. Then there’s the question of wiring looms which can also be vastly different to suit the specific requirements of each driveline layout (a modern automatic needs lots of electrical inputs). In fact, the on-board computer is very likely to be different between the two transmissions on that basis as well.

Following on from that, what about the sensors to control the all-wheel-drive system? Or even the rotary dial inside the car to select the different four-wheel-drive modes? A two-wheel-drive car just won’t have them nor even possibly the access points to add them. And what about the real basics? Things like the automatic car not having a clutch pedal. That requires a full pedal change inside the car. None of this stuff is simple, easy or cheap.

To be honest, the engines themselves are very possibly interchangeable, but even if that’s all you swapped (and not the transmission) you’d still need to change the flywheel and plenty of little details.

By far the best advice is to simply buy the version of the Colorado you want.

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.

It would be worth talking tom Consumer Affairs over this one, as well as asking the auto specialist who made the diagnosis whether they thought the problem was a pre-existing condition or not. I know that in most states and territories, second-hand commercial vehicles don't carry a statutory warranty even when bought from a licensed dealer. But the reality is not as simple as no-warranty-bad-luck.

If the vehicle was not fit for purpose (as the legislation quaintly puts it) and the gearbox fault was not disclosed when the purchase was made (if indeed it existed back then) then you may have some recourse in terms of getting the problem fixed or some compensation.

These disputes are looked at strictly on a case-by-case basis, but if the car was already damaged and you were not told about it, nor the price-tag reflected it, then you may have a leg to stand on.

This is something that confounds a lot of car owners. For whatever reason, many cars seem determined to blow their headlight globes at fairly regular intervals. This can be caused by voltage spikes (via a faulty regulator) cheap globes, vibration or moisture in the headlight unit. It's also important when changing globes that you don't touch any part of the glass bulb with your fingers. This can leave dirt or oil on the glass which can then cause a hot spot and lead to early failure.

But sometimes there just seems to be no explanation for the early demise of headlight globes. A more permanent fix is to switch to an LED replacement globe which is expensive (at something like $200 for the globes) but seems to eradicate the problem. Make sure you buy an LED kit that complies with the law on such matters (brightness and colour range) and fit it correctly, but in most cases, it's a simple one-for-one replacement deal.

As an aside, I've seen plenty of headlight globes that have died young and it's always been the low-beam filament that has failed. I'm yet to see a high-beam filament blow first.

From what I can gather, the engine in your Barina is an interference design. That is, if the timing belt breaks, the pistons and valves (in the cylinder head) will, indeed, meet head on at speed, turning the engine to junk in a slip-second. So make sure the timing belt is changed every 100,000km to reduce the risk of this happening.

Some engines with timing belts are non-interference designs, meaning that a broken belt will simply allow the pistons and crankshaft to continue to rotate without hitting (or damaging) the valves. Replacing the belt and retiming the engine will return it to full health. You'll still be stranded by the roadside if it happens, of course.

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.