Common Faults

[death-from-above]

Gday,
Well i currently have a VL and looking to upgrade to a VR or VS (dual fuel - im in the army and sometimes need to travel long distances). I would just like advice on things to look for that quite often go wrong in either a VR or VS. I am quite experienced with VL's however not having much contact with VR's or VS's it will take a little while to suss out what is what. Thanks in advance
dale

[jules]

leaky engine main seal, mind you they did that from new i think

[death-from-above]

Any suggestions on the best way to check this? Im not a huge fan of RACV checks and dont have a regular mechanic to look it over for me.

The reason I ask is I found a nice 1997 VS for 10k in a delaership, yeah i know they will rip me off but its been sitting there for a while so ill bargain him down a fair bit. It looks clean but has a few km's on the clock and i dont fancy a rebuild in the near future.

[holdenlover]

Another thing to check is power steering rack - they leak too.

Don't forget you can run the self-diagnostics test, to pick up sensor faults etc.

[jules]

if you're serious about the car i'd have it checked, in victoria you've got the VACC or RACV. these guys have seen 100s of your type of car and know what to look for.

[OSL-060]

I agree, RACQ up here in Queensland do brilliant inspections. If you sell a car privately and the buyer wants to get an RACQ inspection, try and find another buyer Seriously it isn't that bad but they really pick the car to shreads, I wouldn't hesitate in getting them to check out a vehicle I wanted to purchase. As soon as you get into buying car's over 10k, you should go over them with a fine toothed comb, as there are so many more out there in the same price range. Be patient and dont buy something just because your sick of looking.

Jake.

[death-from-above]

I had an RACV check on the VL i currently have and used it as a serious bargaining tool and saved myself about 1500 from the advertised price. That was through private sale so all in all i got a pretty cheap clean car. Although i just want things that i can check because as you guys would know it costs about 70 to get an inspection done.

A lot of the cars i have been looking at have worn out buttons for example the air con push button, are they cheap and easy to replace??, as i like everything to look new.

[jules]

buttons are easy