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[Safety Recall] Electric Power Steering — MY2014 to MY2016 Holden & HSV, VF Commodore & WN Caprice

Skylarking

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I've got mine booked in at Hunter next wednesday. What work did they do?
This post references the campaign number and indicates it’s a “motor kit p/s assist”. So obviously Holden took the non serviceable rack and designed a kit to fix the underlying issue in the most cost effective way.

But what I haven’t seen is any picture of the rack/wiring connector pins or any confirmation from someone that Holden has indeed used gold plated pins. Note this was the solution within the USA back in 2017 and helped the police pursuit vehicles avoid fretting corrosion which has been the culprit all along. Down under it was grease, and other naff attempts before the recall decision was finally made/forced.

Sadly, getting a copy of the campaign document itself via www has proven fruitless.
 

stooge

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I had to ring my local dealer and ask wtf is up with this recall and got booked in on monday 4th.

I wonder how long they were going to leave it before contacting me:eek:

It might pay to call your local dealers and ask them about it if your vehicle is in the recall run.
 

Z31na

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I had to ring my local dealer and ask wtf is up with this recall and got booked in on monday 4th.

I wonder how long they were going to leave it before contacting me:eek:

It might pay to call your local dealers and ask them about it if your vehicle is in the recall run.

I rang the dealer I want to get this done with in September because I haven’t gotten anything at all yet but others on here were getting it done. Got told they’re doing this in batches and I have to wait.
Frustrating because its a whole day trip for me and I’d like to forward book and
have it sorted at the end of the year when I already have time off.
 

Anthony121

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This post references the campaign number and indicates it’s a “motor kit p/s assist”. So obviously Holden took the non serviceable rack and designed a kit to fix the underlying issue in the most cost effective way.

But what I haven’t seen is any picture of the rack/wiring connector pins or any confirmation from someone that Holden has indeed used gold plated pins. Note this was the solution within the USA back in 2017 and helped the police pursuit vehicles avoid fretting corrosion which has been the culprit all along. Down under it was grease, and other naff attempts before the recall decision was finally made/forced.

Sadly, getting a copy of the campaign document itself via www has proven fruitless.

I'm pretty sure they would be gold pins now.
 

Skylarking

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I'm pretty sure they would be gold pins now.
Yeah, I suspect that’s the case but “suspect” or “pretty sure” are not certainties.

So the best outcome as I see it is for someone to get hold of the TSB / Campaign bulletin / or what ever it’s called, post it here and we can all be certain of what the fix actually entails.

Sadly Holdens stupid mindset has gotten in the way of owners getting real technical information to the point where previous stuff we could see via GM sites seems no longer be available for us down under.... And quite some years ago our government authorities aided them when migrating recall information from FORS to ACCC by stripping all technical info from the recall info... Yet we have ACCC market studies and investigations into lack of manufacturers providing technical information to 3rd parties and nothing really changes.

Me, I just want to be certain and I shouldn’t have to get under my vehicle and start pulling things apart just to find out.
 

Smashfist

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Yet we have ACCC market studies and investigations into lack of manufacturers providing technical information to 3rd parties and nothing really changes.

A lot of tech information is more available than you'd think. Any muppet off the street can buy a 3 day subscription to AC Delco TDS which includes service manuals for not a lot of money. I'm at an independent these days and while the resources we have aren't quite as good as a dealer, they're not far off for those willing to buy some subscriptions. We can do factory equivalent programming/software updates for 4 or 5 brands (more if we had the volume of those brands but we don't).

I'm not sure if recall info is up on the user accessible AC Delco/Holden stuff but it wouldn't cost much to check (I think it's $40 or $50USD for 3 days).
 

Skylarking

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^ Yeah, I’m aware of such.

I’m really not a fan of information being obtained via subscription when it can be simply
and freely provided via hyperlinked web pages (for those who like to be glued to a computer screen) or printable PDF documents or even bound books (the old school stuff that has been known to survive 100’s of years).

And I’m definitely not a fan of removing technical information from recall notices as occured when ACCC took things over from FORS. Why should we now need a subscription when such info was freely available on a government web site (and no one lost sleep over info being available but now it’s so proprietary that the world will crumble if it is seen without payment).

I think ACCC needs to take their previous investigations much further, and along with DOTSRS, look to amend ADR’s so that such information must be freely available before vehicles can be certified for sale.

But that’s only half the story as, sadly, the manufacturers design choices were that replaced hardware may need VIN coding, calibration coding, and other software fiddles via their subscription based system just to allow the new black boxes to do its thing. It could have been done in a different way but they wouldn’t have owners by the short and curly’s and a perpetual income stream from the 3rd party workshops.

Things could have been different but I guess captured regulators pander to the greed.

So I think we have a different view and maybe we should just leave it at that.
 

VS 5.0

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^ Yeah, I’m aware of such.

I’m really not a fan of information being obtained via subscription when it can be simply
and freely provided via hyperlinked web pages (for those who like to be glued to a computer screen) or printable PDF documents or even bound books (the old school stuff that has been known to survive 100’s of years).

And I’m definitely not a fan of removing technical information from recall notices as occured when ACCC took things over from FORS. Why should we now need a subscription when such info was freely available on a government web site (and no one lost sleep over info being available but now it’s so proprietary that the world will crumble if it is seen without payment).

I think ACCC needs to take their previous investigations much further, and along with DOTSRS, look to amend ADR’s so that such information must be freely available before vehicles can be certified for sale.

But that’s only half the story as, sadly, the manufacturers design choices were that replaced hardware may need VIN coding, calibration coding, and other software fiddles via their subscription based system just to allow the new black boxes to do its thing. It could have been done in a different way but they wouldn’t have owners by the short and curly’s and a perpetual income stream from the 3rd party workshops.

Things could have been different but I guess captured regulators pander to the greed.

So I think we have a different view and maybe we should just leave it at that.

While I understand what you're saying, we need to remember that IP has value and these businesses aren't charities.
 

Skylarking

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While I understand what you're saying, we need to remember that IP has value and these businesses aren't charities.
We need to remember any product you buy has value, usually less that’s what you paid for it but you own it, it’s yours. As such, you should be able to make the most use from your property. You shouldn’t be forced to obsolete a product, your property because a manufacturer has locked up technical information that could allow you to make further use of what you have already paid for.

This goes for all products these days but as they all use computers and their programs are covered by copyright for, what is it these days, 170 years after the death of the author, you are effectively locked out. Oddly, the USA’s constitution allows congress to assign copyright for a limited period, yet somehow people still defend current copyright as good and more than see 2 lifetimes to be an acceptable interpretation of ‘limited’. Just imagine restoring any ‘60s muscle car if it was full of ECU/BCM, etc, from a manufacturer that was a business and not a charity.

Yes, IP should have a minor place in a businesses thinking but justifying 170 years of legal protection because a business is not a charity is ludicrous. UK research suggested a more appropriate market protection period (focus was on books) was of the order of 7 years. Unsurprisingly nothing came of that other than (I think) they made the protection longer to align with USA. And now the USA is about to pass more draconian laws that define a copyright court making it easy peasy for ‘rights holders’ to take one and all to the cleaners (for sharing a few photos as is normal today).

Today’s IP protections are ludicrous and only getting worse, so be careful what you wish for. Yes, IP, especially patents are important but not for what many think. Their greatest use is as legal threat to their competitors, as a hammer if you will, all to stop competition.

In the context of Holden, they got paid rather well when I bought my Motorsport, yet they won’t allow me to do anything via their locked down system and with no documentation. I can’t even change the oil safely (as I don’t know drain plug torque value), let alone do anything like bleed brakes and ABS module, replace MyLink, etc.

The vehicle and it’s technical information is locked down for a reason, to force more sales, not to gather a three day $40 subscription from a vehicle owner every so often.

Oddly, Kia had a Korean technical portal with free access to maintenance and repair information for vehicles sold in Australia. Access disappeared soon after ACCC gave exemptions to Holden and others so they no longer needed to provide workshop manuals in lieu of fixed price service. And now ACCC is allowing subscription services for tech info as a solution (bangs head on wall).

The business world worked rather well before, with freely available technical information, so it will again if such is forced via legislation. And it’s nothing to do with business being a charity.
 
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