My VS III Maloo

[Gilly91]

Thought I'd put my recently purchased Maloo up here for you guys to see.
I bought it from Adelaide and drove it back home to NSW because it was a bargain! Fell in love with it on the way home too! My first car which I still have is a V6 VS ute and I have loved it from the word go, but it was always missing those 2 cylinders so now that I'm off my P's I decided to upgrade. I love the look of the VS commodores so I am stoked with what I've got.

Description:
1999 series III Maloo and is in ok condition apart from a few cosmetic blemishes at the moment. The main ones being a cracked grille (of which he gave me a new HSV replacement), damaged bonnet and imperfect paint. Has a hard cover and a factory HSV tub liner.

Modifications:
Nothing major; fairly new twin exhaust system by the looks of it including extractors and an awesome note. Also has been lowered further than factory and has an ok sound system.

Short term plans:
I got a mechanic to inspect it before I flew down and have been going through his list of problems and fixing them to get it ready for a NSW blue slip. The main ones were:

Valley gasket coolant leak
Driver's side engine mount missing bolts and engine dropped on one side (how does this happen!?)
Horn relay needs replacing or something?
Exhaust mounts need re welding
Air bag warning light stays on
Bonnet latch not working properly

I also want to get a new bonnet and get the grille painted and put in as well as fix the other little cosmetic imperfections.

So here is the ute:

Got it home and it was on my mate's hoist in a couple of days getting the mounts welded and sussing out the underside which turned out to be fairly clean and oil free. Could see evidence of the coolant leak though.

Then I went on to attack the valley gasket and did the intake manifold gaskets too. First big job I've done on a car and I am learning a lot quickly haha

Gave it all a clean up, whacked the gaskets in with some silicone gasket maker and let it cure....drove it the next day and it was still leaking coolant!!

But I was relieved when I looked and it was coming from the water pump! So I decided to replace the whole pump as well as gaskets, and the thermostat too.

Now I think I've got it to the point where it doesn't leak oil or coolant! We shall see though...

I've also jacked the engine up and replaced the missing bolts so I'm not simply relying on gravity to hold the engine in the car anymore haha. Now I've just got the horn and the air bag to fix. Problem is I can't find the horn! Where is it exactly?? There is no relay for it in the fuse box but there isn't one in my other ute either and its horn works. Any ideas?

Long term plans:
New rims, possibly late model HSV ones
Full respray in the same colour including the hard cover.
Tossing up about a custom rear bumper and some side skirts like my current ute but am still unsure on this.
Dual exhaust tips on each side.
No performance upgrades planned yet.

Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

 

[JTR007]

Nice pick up dude, i'd love to get one once im off mine. as i a vs v6 ute. lol

Your horn is usually on the drivers side behind the bumper.

Has heaps of potential, look forward to seeing the happenings!

 

[VS_Pete]

Great pickup mate...............

 

[Deuce]

Nice Ute, quite uncommon isn't it??

I wouldn't change the wheels, They look really good.

 

[Gilly91]

Thanks guys! Yeah it was a lucky pick up and I know the feeling of wanting to add those extra 2 cylinders when you get off your P's!
I thought the horn was around there but I haven't found mine yet haha although I haven't looked too hard yet, just been fixing up the more major problems.
I don't mind the wheels either and they've got good tread on them so they'll stay for a while at least!

 

[dobesz]

Nice ute mate got to love the vs utes

 

[Gilly91]

Ok so I've found the horn and attempted to find out why it isn't working. Replaced the relay with one that I know works, checked the fuse, tested the horns on another car battery, checked the wiring everywhere that I can see and taken apart the steering column shroud etc.
When tested with a multimeter, there isn't 12V at the contacts of the relay in the engine bay where there should be. I can't find anything obvious which might be causing this. Does anyone have any ideas??

Also I think this plastic contact ring thing was loose when I took the shroud off my steering column. I put the copper rod in a hole which looks like where it is meant to go but it doesn't seem to be electrically connected to anything. Does this have anything to do with my horn/air bag light problem?

 

[Gilly91]

Well I put the horns back under the bumper (with much cursing and struggling), earthed out the copper pin to the steering column and what do you know, the horn works! So I figured it was the horn/air bag ring/collar/whatever the thing is in the picture above.

So I took the steering wheel horn pad off and the horn wire wasn't even connected! So I connected that and hoped it would be the problem but it wasn't. There were also two connection points on this wire, is that normal? Anyway, I got the ring off and opened it up to find that the ribbon had snapped! So I assume this is what's giving me my air bag warning and also the reason the horn doesn't work. Off to the wreckers today to get a replacement and hopefully I'll be able to sound my disapproval of other people's driving whenever I feel the need.

 

[Gilly91]

So I took all your advice and figured it out for myself haha. Ended up replacing the clock spring and I now have a normal functioning horn! Now to get the air bag light cleared and I should be getting close to a blue slip!

 

[Gilly91]

Got the ute registered in NSW yesterday and it has begun its life as my daily! Got a bit of a scare when it almost died due to an uncharged battery. Thought it was an alternator fault, but when I put a good battery in, the voltage was reading 14.4V or something so I guess the old battery was cactus. We shall see how it goes!