Just bought VR need some advice

[toki]

Hey everyone!

I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to cars and so I have a few questions about the VR commodore I bought today. Didn't even know where to put oil in the engine till my man showed me :hmmm:

It drives fine, I noticed it needs a wheel alignment or balance (don't know the difference, all I know is it veers slightly to the left haha) but that's about all. Oh and the guy said it's due for a service.

I got it on the cheap so I don't mind and most of these things aren't absolutely essential, but will be getting them fixed and just would like half a clue about what I'm talking about. I would hate to walk into the mechanic and call parts "thingys" and "doo-dads" Plus I figure if I sound like I have a clue I'm less likely to get rorted, being female and all.

Ok so heres the minor problems...

Fuel gauge only shows halfway when full. I put 35 litres in it when it had just under 1/4 tank and the fuel gauge only moved to just under 1/2.

Odometer doesn't work, doesn't bother me at all just mentioning it in case it has something to do with fuel gauge. Speedo and Tacho work fine as far as I know.

The heater doesn't work!! Air Con works perfectly, but it's winter, that's no good to me yet. I haven't checked coolant levels as yet as I only got it a few hours ago and its midnight now... waiting till it's light to check levels.

Steering makes a noise when turning. As I said will check power steering fluid levels in the morning and get back to you on the heater and steering possibly, but any other suggestions would be good.


So yes other than that it is an awesome car to drive. Drove it home from Wollongong to Parra with no problems at all. Temp stayed cool to normal the whole drive and it seems to have good acceleration and idles smoothly.

So any ideas about what sort of things cause these problems would be awesome. Thanks You!

 

[c0rboVR]

hey, i used to own a vr but i crashed it .
it was manual too.
anyway, ur car needs an alignment by the sounds of it which isnt much.
about ur heater not working. it could be that your heater tap need replacing? im not sure. never worked on the aircon part of a vr.
the gauge problem might have something to do with the sender wires?... possibly haha.
and the power steering, my car did that too regaurdless of how full the fluid was. and all vr/vs commos ive been in do it even slightly so thats no biggie

hope that helped
enjoy

 

[stocky]

Check the heater tap to fix the heater. Fuel gauge's are never that accurate in these cars.

 

[slayer208]

the noise may even be the steering column bearing. I've had this happen to me and got into the column bearings with a heap of WD40. Problem hasn't come back yet! As for the fuel gague, I can fill my VS-II totally to the brimm and it'll only show around 3/4. It's always been like that, and it's never bothered me. I just know when she's showing empty it's got around 1/4 of a tank left and she's time to fill up!

Regards!

 

[slayer208]

the noise may even be the steering column bearing. I've had this happen to me and got into the column bearings with a heap of WD40. Problem hasn't come back yet! As for the fuel gague, I can fill my VS-II totally to the brimm and it'll only show around 3/4. It's always been like that, and it's never bothered me. I just know when she's showing empty it's got around 1/4 of a tank left and she's time to fill up!

Regards!

The noise in the steering i'm talking about

 

[toki]

Ok so I went and checked the power steering, coolant and oil levels. Oil is black but I already knew it needed an oil change. Power steering fluid is a bit low so I'm about to head up the road and get some, and there's no coolant only water in the reservoir. I didn't check in the radiator because he cap said to check the reservoir. Though I've just been told to check the radiator too lol.

Might see if I can get a quote for this heater job. It shouldn't cost too much right?

 

[toki]

Oh yeah with the fuel gauge issue...

I didn't think it was normal as my bf has a VR ute and when he fills that to the brim it shows over full. But maybe it is a common issue and he just got lucky? Well it's a little scary coz I haven't run it empty yet and I don't know if it will actually show me when I'm empty. Do you think it's fix-able?

 

[James39]

Normal no... My fuel gauge works fine... it might be getting stuck, give the dash a bit of a thump to see if it changes it... Does the gauge go back to empty when you turn the ignition off?

Check out this thread to help fix your Odometer https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/broken-odometer.12428

 

[toki]

Fuel gauge sits on empty when car is off. It didn't even go back up to it's halfway spot this morning when I started it so I gave it a thump and it went back to halfway lol.

Oh well might run around and get some quotes. I have a bit of time on my hands. Though wouldn't mind learning to fix stuff myself if it isn't too hard.

Gotta get that fuel gauge fixed.. I do a lot of highway driving and I don't wanna run out in the middle of no where