VF Holden Commodore Issues and Faults

[vl_nick]

Well my battery died on 11/1

Drove it on the 19th and all was fine, opened the car at 6:30am on the 11th via remote to throw my laptop bag in and all was well. Went to remote start the car at 7am and it wouldn't start - it had 8Volts.
Tried to jump start the car and even with 5 mins charge the VF did not have enough power to start.

Grabbed a new bosch battery from IBD (Gave me a VE v6 wagon battery thinking they were the same, turns out VF calais uses the same as a VE V8 which is slightly larger). Tried to open the boot not enough power, the car was dead with 4 Volts. Hooked the jump start car back up hoping it would give enough power for me to open teh tailgate and get to the battery. After 20 mins it still was only at 4Volts.
The battery had suffered a major failure, and being a wagon there is no emergency tailgate release like in the sedans.

So i had to open the car manually, reach in and open the rear door, fold rear seats down, crawl into cargo compartment and disconnect the dead battery that wouldn't even charge, hook up a new battery via jumper leads to give the car power so i could open the tailgate, and then replace the battery.

Bit of a bitch, but if you had a major cell failure on a battery like i did and you have a solid cargo barrier installed you would be in serious trouble as you couldn't get to the battery.

There is a positive connection for a jumper pack under the bonnet

 

[Snicko1]

There is a positive connection for a jumper pack under the bonnet

Correct - As i said hooked the wifes car up to that as i reverse into the garage, but the battery was that stuffed it would not charge

 

[Snicko1]

Also mine has been coming up with Service steering colum lock - Spoke to the dealer ta my service last week and said they thought it was teh trailer module wasnt programmed. However it has happened twice now after the service so goes back in on Tuesday

 

[POB]

Hey all. New to this forum.

Had my 2013 VF SS for a 10 months now.

Chasing to see if anyone has had these same issues, as my car went into a dealer today (thurs 4pm they called) and I won't be getting it back for a few days apparently (maybe has to do with parts ordering as they said Monday or Tuesday at the earliest) and Holden said the vehicle was NOT SAFE TO CONTINUE DRIVING. So I thought I'd put this out there and see what comes back as I've searched the forums and can't find anything that quite matches up. The main issue has been going on for a week or two so far, I initially thought it was just me being picky about the feeling and responsiveness after I hadn't driven it for a few weeks (working away on FIFO).

1- can't get car to find, or to go into auto park mode.

2- squeaks in the drivers seat (simple lube fix).
And the big one's

3-A. steering has a groan noise coming from up top just behind the steering wheel when turning especially when moving the wheel in like a parking lot.

3-B. Steering goes from hard to turn to very easy to turn and vice versa, or steering can "jump" (imagine hand on wheel at 2 o'clock position rounding a roundabout, then it jumping so very quickly to about the 6 o'clock position) this even happens on slight sweeping bends and can be made worse and give you a fright if you go over a join in the road surface, or clip an "in road" cats eye reflector (the ones in the middle of the road); I always drive to anticipate other road users I shouldn't have to drive like I'm having to anticipate an error like this!

I cannot think of any reason why it would be doing these things; apart from a major issue with the electric steering motors or rack?

Anyone have any thoughts? I will post a detailed report from Holden once I get it back from them; because I'm going to grill the service department over this one for anyone else out there with an issue like this.

Thanks

OK, Well I got the car back on Tuesday afternoon. After speaking with the service manager and the technicians that did the work I now know something of the problem.

It appears that the module, motor and rack were faulty/failing and were engaging intermittently. The fix was under warranty to replace the entire assembly (steering rack, modules, electric motor; basically the lot) it now drives like new. Hint for anyone out there that may need this done, make sure you remind them to give it an alignment as they strip everything off the front end to do with steering to fix it. It also resolved the groaning noise I was hearing up near the dash (which must have been transmitted through the steering column). While it was similar to the other steering issue mentioned in the forums; (that Holden has a service campaign for) which is resolved by putting special grease in the connections, it went far above that.

On the park assist issue. The notes from the tech's said "resolved -refer to issue #1". Well I took it out and went to go do some auto parking now that i know how to do it P) The car will only find parks both parallel & 90degree on the drivers side, nothing out the passenger side; so now it's going back in tomorrow for another full day so they can double check/update the software (they don't think its the sensors as it would have been throwing up service codes/warning lights) but they'll check them too. Whats this mean? Well instead of saying "hey we replaced the parts; it's got to be ok now" test the frigging thing against the complaints made that it was brought in for!!!!

Anyhow hope this helps anyone else out there with similar issues. Still it's very disappointing and a major safety concern for a 2 year old car to have those parts fail!

 

[Sir Les]

Phew! Glad you got the problem (almost) sorted, but as you say, it's concerning that such major components would fail so early.

Re the auto-park issue, you can look for a park on the driver's side by holding down the right turn indicator as you search for a spot; yours seems to work the opposite way! It'll be interesting to see what they say about that little problem. Did they install software for left-hand drive cars perhaps? :rofl2:

 

[POB]

Hey Sir Les; Pretty much what you said. I do have to engage the right indicator to look for spots on that side; the left however wont find a spot with or without indicator. Lets hope they get it fixed. At least the car feels like a new one again. Oh and i fitted a Harrop OTR this morning to it too Who would have thought that just an OTR would change the engine note so much; it's definitely more throaty now

 

[lyfguard]

Yeh I noticed that too whilst at a dealership before taking it for a test drive (SSV auto sedan). Ive currently got a VE2 SS wagon and have to agree it feels more solid externally. But how good is the VF interior and quietness of the cabin

 

[tlinnell86]

Take it to a car audio place and they should be able to run a 12v constant to the DVD power feed. Not sure about he warranty implications, but if you get a good installer, you should be able to do it with disruting too much. I have in my patrol, just remember to make the kids don't turn it on and leave it on over night......

2hours shouldn't kill your battery, but regularly doing it over time will. A crank battery is not designed to flattened and recharged all the time.

 

[Snicko1]

Mine went in for soem warranty work today - Had been coming up with Service Steering Column lock, they said it was because teh trailer module wasnt programmed. Happened another 5 times with the week, so went back in and they replaced the steering lock module - was in for 2 days because they didnt have the part.

Working fine now

 

[POB]

OK got the auto park sorted, the are ordering a new sensor; as it was faulty. A few days to get the part and have it painted the right colour and she's all good!