Holden Problems

The turbocharged petrol-engined Cruze was the pick of the bunch; smoother and sweeter than the turbo-diesel and packing a lot more punch than the non-turbo petrol version. But they’re not without their potential traps.

The good news is that the car you’re considering is a 2015 model, so it got the bigger 1.6-litre turbocharged engine and a build date that should have put it beyond the earlier transmission failures of some Cruzes. The earlier, 1.4-litre engine was known for coolant leaks from the water pump, although the later 1.6-litre also seems susceptible to overheating. Some Cruzes with this engine required new thermostat housings to be fitted to correct this, so make sure this has been done by a previous owner.

The 1.6 turbo also showed problems with the cooling system for the turbocharger unit (as distinct from the above cooling problems). It seems as though the coolant hoses for the turbocharger were underdone when it came to Australian underbonnet heat levels, and a leak could ensue.

To be completely honest, these cars were a Daewoo design (even though they were built by Holden in Adelaide after 2011) and they seemed a bit short on engineering in some areas. They’re also a car that will become more problematic – relative to some of the competition - as they age. It wouldn’t be my pick for a long-term purchase.
 

If the engine is still revving up but the car isn’t moving, logic says you have a transmission (gearbox) problem. Transmission problems are very well known in the Holden Cruze, and must surely be classified as an inherent fault. Fundamentally, the automatic transmission in your car was a dud from day one, and Holden even announced an extended warranty for it as part of a special service program to replace consumer confidence in the unit. It didn’t work.

Many Cruzes exhibited the precise behaviour you experienced, and the loss of all drive as well as the check-engine light illuminating are classic indicators of a transmission that either needs new components such as sensors, a valve body or torque converter, or is totally done and needs to be completely replaced. An inspection will be able to determine this. Error code P0776 is what I’m tipping the car will offer up when it’s electronically scanned (which should be your next step).

Once Holden had fixed these transmissions, it was extending the warranty to five years from when the car first entered service or 150,000km, whichever came first. Obviously, your car is older than that, but it has covered low kilometres and since you’ve had it from new and can verify its service history with a Holden dealer, I reckon it would be worth your while to contact Holden’s customer service division and state your case. Let’s face it, less than 120,000km on a modern car before the transmission blows up is not really good enough, is it?

You may not get anywhere, but even if you can convince Holden to help with the cost of parts (labour would be nice, too) the financial picture changes dramatically. Without a bit of help from Holden, it may just be that the cost of repairs will be higher than the actual value of the car itself.

The jerk when you select reverse sometimes is definitely worth having diagnosed properly as it shouldn’t be that way. Scanning the car (which I’ll presume the dealership did to arrive at its answer) doesn’t always show up all faults, so just because the computer says there’s nothing wrong, doesn’t mean there isn’t. There are plenty of reasons for a car to jerk into a particular gear, but the good news is that the Astra uses a conventional, torque-converter automatic, not one of the vastly more troublesome double-clutch units.

Your second problem, however, may not be a problem at all. In fact, the gearbox in the Astra is smart enough to know that you’re coasting down a hill and will actually shift down a gear or two to take the strain off the brakes while still maintaining your speed. As it shifts down gears, the engine revs will rise; that’s absolutely normal and part of the way the car is designed to operate.

Assuming your car is a V6, I’d recommend a quality brand of oil with a viscosity of either 5W30 or 10W40. Provided you buy a quality, known brand, it will have all the additives that make modern multi-grade oils so much better than the oils that went before them. If your car runs on LPG (as many Commodores do) then you need to buy an oil that’s designed for use with this fuel. Fundamentally, though, the same rules apply: Stick to the correct grade and weight of oil and only use a quality brand, not the generic-branded supermarket stuff.

The actual oil capacity for a V6 Commodore of that vintage is 5.3 litres, so if you buy a six-litre pack, you’ll have enough for tops-ups between oil changes. Don’t forget to change the oil filter, too. While some mechanics reckon changing the filter every second oil change is enough, the wisdom of putting nice, clean oil through a dirty filter is beyond me, especially considering an oil filter costs only a few dollars.

Changing your engine’s oil is probably the best engine insurance you can buy. But you need to do it properly, so a workshop manual is probably a good thing to have as well as it should walk your through the process (important the first time). You also need to be able to dispose of the old oil and filter in an environmentally responsible way, too. But this is a great first maintenance job for the budding home mechanic and can really save you some money over the years. Good luck with it.

Symptoms like this one are often traceable to a faulty stepper-motor which is a small electric motor that controls the position of the car’s throttle and, therefore, the speed at which it idles. If this little electric motor goes awry, the idle speed can stay too high, which is precisely the symptom you’re reporting.

The other likely culprit is a vacuum leak from somewhere on the inlet side of the engine which is allowing too much air into the engine and causing the idle speed to increase. Check for split hoses around the engine bay and don’t forget to check the plumbing associated with the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) valve which can also crack and allow excess air into the intake manifold.

There are three classic causes of a sinking brake pedal. The first is a worn out brake master cylinder that is allowing brake fluid back past the actuating piston. The second is a leak somewhere in the braking system, either a caliper itself or a brake line or union and, the third is an ABS system fault where the ABS pump isn’t working properly, usually due to a low brake-fluid level.

Regardless of the cause, there’s no `acceptable tolerance’ for a brake pedal that slowly sinks towards the floor. A braking system in good working order should be able to hold the brake pedal at the same level more or less indefinitely. Any sinking is bad news and is a serious safety issue. I wouldn’t even have the car towed to a workshop; it’s simply not safe to drive.

A build up of carbon deposits (a by-product of burning petrol) is, indeed, a known fault with this engine. If it occurs, it can create the precise symptom you’re seeing (the check-engine light) but can also lead to an erratic idle and misfiring. There have also been cases where this engine has developed wear in the exhaust valve and valve-seat region, with similar end results. Unfortunately, the only fix is to remove the cylinder head and replace both the exhaust valves and their seats.

I agree that 52,000km is a depressingly low mileage for problems like these to occur, so you need to make absolutely sure it really is the cause before you start to tear into the engine. A leak-down and compression test may throw some light on things, as can an electronic scan of the car. A fault-code of P0300 is a big clue that the exhaust valves are at the centre of the problem. This model Barina was another Holden that was simply a re-badged South Korean-built Daewoo with all that implies.

My first thought is that your car’s battery is on the way out. Are there any other symptoms of this (slow cranking etc)? Essentially, a battery that isn’t fully charged or is a bit wonky can start to shed its responsibilities one by one as it wears out. In this case, you might find that maintaining the clock’s memory/time isn’t programmed into the car as a major priority, so it switches that circuit off as a means of saving every available volt and ampere for actually starting the car (which is the point at which the maximum strain is placed on a battery).

Beyond that, you could have a dodgy ignition barrel that isn’t making all the necessary contacts when you insert and turn the key each time. I’ve heard of applying a liberal coating of acetone (or a solvent such as carby cleaner or WD40 should also work) and inserting the key a few times in succession. This is sometimes enough to clean the contacts and restore full functionality.

The short answer to your question Rhonda is that the 2009 Captiva was far from a good car. It has experienced lots of reliability and durability problems and, although some will disagree, there are much better choices out there.

The Captiva has been recalled for all manner of problems including (but not limited to) steering issues, braking dramas and electrical gremlins. About the best thing about the 2009 four-cylinder petrol Captiva was that the engine didn’t have the timing chain problems of the V6 model, and the transmission wasn’t as problematic as the later Captiva. But that’s surely damning with faint praise.

The Captiva wasn’t actually a Holden at all; it was built in South Korea by Daewoo, a brand considered to be way behind the quality and engineering of its South Korean counterparts Kia and Hyundai. And it showed.

There are many, many things that can make a car overheat. A faulty radiator, collapsed radiator hose, jammed thermostat, blown head gasket, low coolant level, incorrect ignition or camshaft timing, faulty fuel injectors, the list goes on and on. So you need to have the car scanned electronically to see if a fault code is offered up that could be the cause or part of the problem. First, though, I’d have a close look at the obvious stuff like a leaking radiator or blown radiator hose to make sure that it’s not a really simple fix. Even a faulty radiator cap – as simple as that sounds – can lead a car to overheat.

To be honest, a 34-dgree ambient day should never be enough to make a modern car overheat, especially not one like a Holden Commodore which was designed here to easily cope with our weather and temperature extremes.

It’s interesting to note that you bought the car from a dealer, so it would be worth going back and checking the paperwork to see if the car was sold with any warranty. It’s doubtful, however, as a 2005 model car falls outside the boundaries of Victoria’s statutory warranty legislation (generally a used car must be less than 10 years old and have travelled less than 160,000km before a statutory warranty applies from a licensed car dealer). A good mechanic who knows this type of car should be able to sort it, but have it checked soon; continuing to drive it with an overheating problem is a sure way to make small problems bigger ones.