Weird sluggishness.

[Bourbonated]

Yeah.. Was doing some testing in the Commodore and noticed something strange. My mate has a 3.8 VT and my car smashes his from 0-80 but as soon as it shifts to second (both automatics), my car just goes to crap.

It's the same if I am just idling along at 40, if I plant the foot - I get thrown back. At 50-60, it seems to take forever to pick up. It doesn't seem to drop down a gear from this speed but at 40 it does..

Anybody got any ideas on why it's being so temperamental? Or is this pretty much standard?

[Brett_jjj]

It could be any number of things,they are pretty much the same engine,and the VS is around 100 kg lighter,so it should be slightly quicker than the VT everywhere.Your car might just need some new parts, or it might not have been serviced as much as it should have been when it was newer.Id start by doing a compression test on the engine to get an idea of the condition of the engine.Then start with a complete service.Renew the plugs and plug leads,change the oil and oil filter,the air filter and the fuel filter.Change the auto trans filter and fluid as well.If the 3 ignition coils are a few years old,its worth replacing them as well as they seem to slowly loose their performance over time.And the genuine coils from holden are more expensive,but run better than the cheapo aftermarket coils.The fuel injectors could also need replacing.Check the link out below for brand new cheap injectors,Ive fitted these instead of getting my old ones cleaned and reconditioned etc,and even though these new ones are cheapies,they have been excellent so far and have improved how the car starts and runs etc.

---COMMODORE NEW FUEL INJECTORS VN VP VR VS VT VX VY SAVE | eBay---

[hako]

My guess is that your auto is slipping slightly in 2nd gear which will tend to wash a bit of acceleration away....whereas you mates VT may have a tighter 2nd gear and no slip. I'd also figure that mechanically and electrically your engine is OK otherwise it would not accelerate so strongly 0-80kph....then it shifts into 2nd and goes a bit flat. Could also be a fuel filter but that's a long shot.
I don't like spending money on 'possible causes' so I'd invest $15 on a can of "No Slip" for the auto and see if that improves things. No two cars will accelerate and change gears etc the same way....if you check the change gear figures in the manual you will see that gear changes can occur maybe 20kph either way so really it's like comparing chalk and cheese.
Good Luck

[Bourbonated]

Sweet as. I was planning on doing an Auto service anyway. I will go down and grab the stuff later on and see if it gets any better after chucking some no slip in, too. The fuel filter is only 400km or so old, so it's probably not that.