Bad experiance at Holden.

[torana355]

Long story short my car has been having some erratic throttle problems. I always thought the problem may be the ETC. Anyway i took it to Holden today and after 3 hours and $300 they tell me my gearbox is faulty and it will cost 6k for a new box. btw the car had no fault codes so it was passed on to the head mechanic. I took the car for a second opinion to an auto trans specialist that i know and he told me the problem could not be the gearbox. He played around with the ETC blew out any dust and the car is now perfect. I feel sorry for people that go in there and actually fork out the money for new gearboxes due to Holden's incompetence.

[VjamesY]

mmm they will get ya,

they would rather replace it then fix it now, happens all the time, more expensive and sometimes less of a job for them

[84dez]

where is this ETC as i might clean mine out see if it goes any better,

[Calaber]

Long story short my car has been having some erratic throttle problems. I always thought the problem may be the ETC. Anyway i took it to Holden today and after 3 hours and $300 they tell me my gearbox is faulty and it will cost 6k for a new box. btw the car had no fault codes so it was passed on to the head mechanic. I took the car for a second opinion to an auto trans specialist that i know and he told me the problem could not be the gearbox. He played around with the ETC blew out any dust and the car is now perfect. I feel sorry for people that go in there and actually fork out the money for new gearboxes due to Holden's incompetence.

Any company that incompetent (or dishonest) needs to be brought to the attention of Holden. I would be letting the principal of the firm know what had happened and the zone manager (get the address from your owner's handbook).

I'd also let the principal (ie the boss of Heartless, er Heartland) that you had
circulated their poor diagnosis to your friends and colleagues and advised them to stay away from the place.

[TrEnNaVY]

my old lady is a keen believer in writing angry letters.
she can actually write a menacing letter haha

[torana355]

Well now i feel like an idiot, now that it has cooled down i have been able to repeat the problem. I will have to take the car back to the auto specialist tomorrow morning when its cool to see what he thinks. If it does come down to the Gearbox i will be sure to post it in this thread and even have the thread deleted. It could still be the ETC playing up so i will have to wait and see....

[Scooter79]

Can you explain to us what these 'erratic throttle problems' are?

[torana355]

If i select 2nd gear with active select and take off from 20kph it will rev to about 3k then drop back down to 2.5k then rev normally till i select 3rd gear. The same thing is happening when i drive the car in "drive" it will rev in 1st fine change to 2nd rev to like 3k drop to 2.5 rev back up to about 3k again then change to 3rd gear (it like it try's to change to 3rd twice but it doesn't do it right the first time).

[danja]

Sounds like a transmission issue, but not enough to warrant a whole new transmission. A rebuild would probably solve it.

[Torquative]

can they be rebuilt though? I know alot of later boxes (Im not talking anything specific or any specific car brand here) dont have seperate parts available for them, ZF comes to mind - the only ones who can reco newer ZF boxes are ZF themselves, or a contracted company But these are also the "sealed for life" boxes so that may play part of it

Ah stuff it Im too tired, Im going to bed

[Troy711]

Wasn't Heartland the dealership who wrecked some guys Monaro on a joyride?

[andyman]

Wasn't Heartland the dealership who wrecked some guys Monaro on a joyride?

i think there is a few heartland dealerships around the shop

[wetwork65]

.............and I had my thread title changed (and got a rap on the knuckles) because I mentioned a dealer by name for giving rotten service...........

[danja]

can they be rebuilt though? I know alot of later boxes (Im not talking anything specific or any specific car brand here) dont have seperate parts available for them, ZF comes to mind - the only ones who can reco newer ZF boxes are ZF themselves, or a contracted company But these are also the "sealed for life" boxes so that may play part of it

Ah stuff it Im too tired, Im going to bed

My neighbour has a SV6, just got his 5spd auto rebuilt because his 5th gear stopped working. Cost him $4,500, but I think he got taken for a bit of a ride there.

Sealed for life is a load of crap, trans fluid breaks down over time from friction and heat, not much you can do to stop that. Suggest all the 5psd owners out there get your fluid changed every 40-50,000kms and save yourself the grief later. There are still drain/filler plugs, so it's no harder than the average auto.

[jonwilliams76]

I also have experienced the Holden way.... had my statesman serviced at motoroma springwood in Brisbane ... always seemed to come back running the same after a service after the third service ... the car had a large miss in the engine... so the next time I took it to be serviced I mark all the components that where to be changed like spark plugs, air filter and so on... you know what they didn't even change the oil yet they charged me for it... I was ropeable ... grabbed the bloke on the counter by the shirt and asked for the manager ... gutless b&^^ard wouldn't even come past the door... lucky he didn't I recon... they serviced my car 4 times and didn't change a thing ... moral of the story is don’t get you car serviced at Holden ....

[torana355]

My neighbour has a SV6, just got his 5spd auto rebuilt because his 5th gear stopped working. Cost him $4,500, but I think he got taken for a bit of a ride there.

Sealed for life is a load of crap, trans fluid breaks down over time from friction and heat, not much you can do to stop that. Suggest all the 5psd owners out there get your fluid changed every 40-50,000kms and save yourself the grief later. There are still drain/filler plugs, so it's no harder than the average auto.

Yeah they can be rebuilt but basically the guy at Holden said it costs about 4k to rebuild it so the best option is to get a whole new box for 6k with the 50k two year warranty. I asked why they couldn't just replace the part that is broken and he said they could but there are no guarantees it would work lol.

When i asked if i could just convert it to a manual the wanker tried to tell me the crankshaft is different in the manual. From what i can see these Holden mechanics rely to much on plugging in the computer and looking for fault codes then actually learning about the cars and how to diagnose the old fashioned way.

I actually had my oil changed in the gearbox at 80k when i first bought the car. The mechanic at Holden tried to tell me its sealed for life and that it should not be changed till i showed him the VZ service manual that says the oil and filter should be changed at 150k.

Anyway i will get the car looked at again on Monday by my local Mech and if it is the Gearbox ill keep driving it till it dies then replace it. Its so minor that it may be fine for years, its more annoying then anything.

[Scooter79]

Find a couple more auto transmission specialists. Get their opinion and quote.

[Torquative]

i still dont think Holden boxes are proper sealed for life, the ones Im thinking of in newer prestige cars literally dont have any plugs whatsoever. Load of BS coz oil is oil its designed to work at a peak for a certain time then break down

BTE the mentioned dealer has 3 Holden centers throughout Sydney

[Sash182]

I also have experienced the Holden way.... had my statesman serviced at motoroma springwood in Brisbane ... always seemed to come back running the same after a service after the third service ... the car had a large miss in the engine... so the next time I took it to be serviced I mark all the components that where to be changed like spark plugs, air filter and so on... you know what they didn't even change the oil yet they charged me for it... I was ropeable ... grabbed the bloke on the counter by the shirt and asked for the manager ... gutless b&^^ard wouldn't even come past the door... lucky he didn't I recon... they serviced my car 4 times and didn't change a thing ... moral of the story is don’t get you car serviced at Holden ....

I hear that! i'm banned from 2 melbourne holden dealerships for almost putting the service bloke through the window after they charged me $480 for a "pretend" service. The second dealership copt a hurl of abuse for using "magic" to fix my trans instead of actual work and tools.

[satos]

Long story short my car has been having some erratic throttle problems. I always thought the problem may be the ETC. Anyway i took it to Holden today and after 3 hours and $300 they tell me my gearbox is faulty and it will cost 6k for a new box. btw the car had no fault codes so it was passed on to the head mechanic. I took the car for a second opinion to an auto trans specialist that i know and he told me the problem could not be the gearbox. He played around with the ETC blew out any dust and the car is now perfect. I feel sorry for people that go in there and actually fork out the money for new gearboxes due to Holden's incompetence.

If i go out and rob a bank or a servo I go to jail.These dealerships are ripping people off and they get away with it.

[alien]

LOL, my car has got a "Maintained by Heartland Holden" sticker on it! Yet it hasn't been with them for AGES! Judging by the service history it was all good too when they worked on it!

Maybe you just got some bad guys, but it does sound like me to be a transmission issue! I would look into getting quotes to making it a manual from private places and see what they say!

[PaulSV6]

Thank god, ive gotta Manual, phew
& service the car myself.

[andyman]

the 5sps do have a drain and fill plug on the gearbox, actually alot easier than the 4sp

[danny1987]

apartently my holden dealer and my old work (auto one) there is a service kit got quoted from holden 150 auto one 86 same sorta thing as the old vt box filter seal etc

[Sabbath']

the 5sps do have a drain and fill plug on the gearbox, actually alot easier than the 4sp

I'd rather do a 4spd box anyday than mess around with the filling procedure on the 5spd. Especially where the filler hole is, it's so close to the cat and exhaust when the car is running it's burn city under there. 4spd is just drop the pan, clean it, whack it on and chuck in 4.2 litres, run and check. No need to run it, wait for it to drain, then while the car is running open the filler again and fill up to full.