Holden Problems

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 with you, Allan; I much prefer a hardcopy book I can lay out in the engine bay with me while I'm working on a car, rather than an e-book that requires an electronic device to access it.

A quick online search revealed that while the official Holden manual is, indeed, most commonly available as an electronic document, there are plenty of hardcopy workshop manuals from other companies available to buy. Another possibility would be to try a Holden service centre to see if it still sells workshop manuals for its cars. Some public libraries also keep a selection of workshop manual to borrow.

The best place to find workshop manual is a swap meet where some vendors have literally hundreds of titles to choose from. A second-hand workshop manual is not only a great form of recycling, the pages with the most greasy fingerprints will give you a good hint on the major problem areas of the vehicle.

When an engine (petrol or diesel) inhales water through its air-intake system, it's never usually a good outcome. Because water is – as is any liquid – non-compressible, the engine's pistons will try to achieve that but, in the process, the engine will lock up and all sorts of internal carnage can ensue.

If you're lucky, the damage will be fixable but can still involve bent con-rods, broken pistons and bent valves. If the lock up was more severe, there's a chance that the engine block could be cracked or a con-rod has broken and punched a hole through the crankcase. Sometimes the force of the lock up is sufficient to smash the main bearing caps and throw the crankshaft out of place. In any of those latter cases, the whole engine would be considered a total loss.

But even if you've gotten away with a bent con-rod or two, you'd still need to rebuild the entire engine and, in the context of a 2004 Rodeo ute, you might find you're spending more money than the vehicle is actually worth.

A potentially better idea would be to find a good, tested second-hand engine from a wrecking yard or any other sort of damaged Rodeo and do a relatively simple heart transplant.