Holden Problems

Going back to first principles, anywhere that a power wire that should be insulated is allowed to touch an earthed part of the car is a potential source of a short circuit. As such, there are about a million places where a wire or cable carrying 12 volts from the battery could be shorting out by touching an earthed part of the car.

Typical sites of a short-circuit include anywhere where a wire runs through a metal bulkhead (say, from the car’s interior to its engine bay) anywhere a wire is continually flexing (the wiring inside a door jamb where it passes through the body) a switch of any sort or anywhere else where friction could have worn away the wire’s insulation. Sometimes the insulation just gets old and falls off the wire (Mercedes-Benz cars from the mid-90s were notorious for this).

The clue will be in what components have suddenly stopped working. Checking the fuse box to see what fuses have blown in response to the short circuit is also a good indicator or where to start looking. If you suspect the short-circuit is at the battery itself, there will be no need for forensic investigation; a short at the battery will produce a violent spark and lots of smoke. Unless, of course, the car is fitted with a great safety feature called a circuit breaker on or near the positive battery terminal. If you’ve suddenly lost all power to the car, that’s where to start looking.

Finally, don’t assume that a loss of power to the car or some of its components is due to a short circuit. Sometimes a fuse can simply fail for no good reason and call a halt to play. If you’re unsure, an auto electrician can work miracles that the rest of us cannot generally fully comprehend.

If you look at the market for Holden’s long-wheelbase Statesman and Caprice models historically, it seems they do experience an uptick in value as they become older and rarer. But, then, that goes for a lot of makes and models, too.

The really collectible modern Holden models are more likely to be anything with a HSV badge or a Commodore SS with the V8 engine. The very last SS Commodores with the SS-V option (with better brakes) have already proved collectible, as has the super-rare HSV W427. That said, even these models have suffered the same value drop as many other cars post-Covid.

So will a late Caprice ever be collectible and valuable? Possibly, but you’ll be waiting a while. In reality, values of them could have a way to fall yet, before prices start heading upwards as collectability calls.

This generation of Holden engines was prone to failure of the crankcase ventilation valve (PCV). When it failed, it caused a vacuum leak in the engine that could easily cause rough running and hard starting. It would also possibly trigger a check-engine light.

Depending on the model and year of the car, you might be able to fit a replacement PCV, but sometimes the solution was to replace the entire rocker cover assembly, which included the valve in question. In many cases, the valve failure was accompanied by a failed rocker cover gasket that leaked oil on to the spark plugs, making the car run even more erratically. Don’t be tempted to try a second-hand PCV from a wrecked Barina. The chances are every high that it’s PCV will be trashed, too.

You might find you have two separate problems here. The plastic clip is one thing, but there’s no way a passenger seat would be locked into place with a plastic component. It will almost certainly involve a metal ring or clasp mounted to the floor around which the locking mechanism on the seat locks.

Here’s a possibility, though: perhaps the broken piece of plastic from the broken clip has somehow managed to work its way into the seat locking mechanism and is not allowing the seat to fully clamp into position. Fold the seat up and have a good look around at the clamps or locking rings in the floor. Even if it’s not the errant piece of plastic, you might find a build up of dust or mud is not allowing the seat to find its locked position.

The other chance is that the locking mechanism has somehow closed onto itself before it has found the locking ring. If that’s the case, you may be able to take a screwdriver and pry the lock open before trying to lock the seat back into place. Be careful, however, as these locking mechanisms are often spring loaded and will crush a finger placed in the wrong spot.

You may have a collection of problems rather than just a single one. The vibration through the steering wheel could simply be the vibrations from the diesel engine travelling up the steering column and into your hands. Does the vibration go away when you rev the engine to just off idle? If so, perhaps an adjustment to the idle speed is all that is required there to move the engine out of its resonant patch.

A vibration in the cabin could be a worn wheel bearing, out-of-balance driveline, a worn torque converter, broken or worn engine mount, broken exhaust mount, damaged tyre, a wheel out of balance and plenty more. But the play in the front driveshaft coupling would be a smart place to start looking. Again, the problem comes and goes because of the harmonic periods inherent in things that spin very quickly. Any out of balance problems can easily show up as transient vibrations inside the car.

You could have a fault with the car’s wiring. The starter-motor takes its power from the fat, red and black leads that attach to the battery, but it also needs a low-voltage signal from the ignition key that tells it to do its thing. If there’s any sort of loose or missing wire, you might not be making the necessary electrical connections. You could also find that there’s an on-board security system that is blocking the starter-motor from turning. You could even find that the ignition key has a flat battery and is not unlocking the car’s on-board computer.

You say that the battery has voltage, but I wonder how you checked this. You can often put a multimeter across the battery terminals and see 12 volts, but this can be what’s called a surface charge that’s strong enough to light up the dashboard, but then disappears when you put the battery under load (by trying to start the car). Attach the multimeter and check the voltage while actually trying to start the engine. You may find you have a dead battery after all.

Many cars will give a beep if they think the car has been locked with a door, bonnet, boot or window open, even slightly. But if you’re checked all that and everything is secure, the first thing to try is to reset the car’s body computer. The first way to try is to hold the lock button down on the remote for about 30 seconds. Sometimes this will force a reset.

If that doesn’t work, disconnect the car’s battery overnight and reconnect it next morning. You will have to rest your clock and radio station presets, but this will sometimes restore the computer to its factory settings. If none of that works, you may have a dud micro switch that’s giving the computer bad information, or the body computer itself may be on the way out.

When you look at how the Park setting works in an automatic transmission, you can see how this could happen. Basically, Park is engaged by a small pin that (typically) slides into the transmission’s output shaft and locks it, preventing the shaft from turning and effectively locking the drive wheels.

The problem is that the Park pin (also called a pawl) is almost comically small for the job it has to do. The point being that Park pawls have been known to fail, at which point, the car will be free to move if the park brake isn’t applied.

Best practice when parking an automatic car is to stop where you want to park, but leave the transmission in Drive and apply the foot brake. Then apply the park-brake, take your foot off the brake and let the park brake take the weight of the car. Then select Park. You’ll still have the security of being in Park, but you won’t have the car’s weight resting on that little park pawl.

You need to go back to basics here. Check that the battery is connected firmly and that all the connections and low-voltage leads that power and trigger the starter motor are in their correct places and receiving power. Don’t forget to check for earth straps and cables that might have been left off in the reassembly process, too.

If the car is getting power (and the dashboard lights suggest it is) then there’s a problem between the ignition key and the starter motor. Tackle it methodically, checking for power (a test lead or multimeter will be invaluable for this) as you work your way towards the starter motor and you’ll probably find it’s something really simple and basic. Make sure the fuse or relay for the starter motor hasn’t been fried during the gearbox swap, too.

You might be lucky and simply have a low transmission fluid level thanks to a leak, or perhaps even a selector that is not properly connected to the transmission.

But the fact that the transmission works in Reverse but not Drive suggests something internally wrong. You could be looking at a broken torque converter, failed clutch or band, a faulty pump, blocked valve body or even a broken gear set. A transmission specialist is going to be your best bet here.