VZ Fuel Gauge Problem

[steane]

I was having a chat with a Holden dealer mechanic and asked about the fuel gauge isssue.
Apparantly I will have to book the ute in for an all day session and there is every chance that the fuel tank will be removed to fix the problem. There is a sender unit in the tank that measures the level of fuel and they are having the following problems with it;

1/. The float is "possibly" being bent during installation.
2/. The unit is being affected by sulphur in the fuel ( I wasnt too sure about this explanation...) but apparantly Toyota are having a similar issue.

The dealership that he works at is fixing about 10 fuel guage issues a week almost all of them involve removal of the fuel tank. Most cant be solved by recalibration.

I've just booked my car in for Wednesday this week so I'll see what the outcome is and post it on this thread. Maybe an "urban myth"...maybe not?

 

[old mans ute]

Sorry. The hammer we used to install your fuel gauge was oversized

How wild it must be in the Holden manufacturing plant,

Seems that they are bending the float on at least every second fuel tank as it is installed.

Sulphur in the fuel sounds like a bit of a myth. Also have a trusty Toyota with an accurate fuel gauge)

From my experience Holden dealers are probably "fiddling" with about 10 fuel gauge problems a month.

"Fixing" seems to be a process or procedure that they are not too familar with.

Advice like "Just fill up every 500k and you shouldn't have any problems" is a little too flippant for me.

No on expects a fuel gauge to be accurate to 0.1% but somewhere around 40% inaccurate is not acceptable by any standards.

Come on Holden. Fuel gauge technology is not rocket science. The gauge on my 1954 FE35 tractor is accurate.

Simply not acceptable and the bullshit that comes from dealers service departments is even worse. VY computer programs, bent floats, sulphur senders. Next it will be "Did you park anywhere near a Brock polariser?" :ranting:

I don't like paying like paying around $40k for a vehicle and then having it spend day(s) - who knows how many - until when or if the situation is rectified. Maybe if we all DEMAND courtesy cars for free while vehicles are in for WARRANTY service GM the dealers my try and put some pressure back on GM and something might happen.

My last Toyota has a 5 year, 130k warranty and never saw a day in sick bay with a warranty issue.

I wonder what the fuel gauge in the new Hilux is like.

Maybe the fuel gauge is a small issue. But that is just it. GMH has known about this problem since Sept 04 at least and what have they done to rectify it. Do they really care once they have your money.

On current performance I wouldn't touch the first twelve months production of the VE with a ten foot (sorry 3 metre) pole.

Computer software is usually flagged as "beta -testing" when consumers are asked to participate in field tests.

GM charge you for the right to be part of their field test progam.

One wonders how much field testing we are doing with the Alloytec V6 and what gremlins are likely to arise there.

Do I sound pissed off. Probably because I am. My customers wouldn't put up with this crap and neither should we.

Thirty years ago I was working for the Minister for Transport . One of our constituents had a Cortina with a gearbox that spasmodically stuck in reverse. Hairy when you back out into the traffic on a main road. After 11 months under warranty trying to fix the problem, Ford replaced the gearbox in the last week of warranty.

Oh well, with enough complaining my fuel gauge may work by next February.

 

[RKZ234]

Maybe if we all DEMAND courtesy cars for free while vehicles are in for WARRANTY service GM the dealers my try and put some pressure back on GM and something might happen.

You have every reason to be ticked off. I'd be furious!

Unfortunately Holden's new vehicle warranty doesn't include a loan car when warranty work is being carried out. So if you are lucky enough to get a vehicle when you put your car in for warranty "work," it is provided at the expense of the dealership, meaning the dealership cops the expense of providing the customer service Holden should be paying for.

It costs the dealershiop to perform your warranty work. It's a pretty screwed up system!!

 

[craigwf]

I don't think this problem is limited to just the ute. I just bought a brand new VZ Lumina. I drove it out of the dealership and the tank was reading just under 1/2 the computer told me i had 250k/s till empty. I thought great brand new car i would take it for a drive to show it off to a few friends. When i picked it up it had 22k/s on the clock by the time i had 50k/s on the clock the bloody thing was beeping at me telling me that it was empty and fuel gauge was flat on the red. I strait away stopped in and filled it up with premium it took $60 worth at $1.10 per litre . If i am correct i should have had about 15L left in the tank which i dont think should read empty.

 

[old mans ute]

Holden Technical Assistance

Thought I might ask Holden direct for some information so I cheched their website,

Wow, What do you find under Contact Us/Customer Service/Technical Assistance. The following is copied straight from Holden's website

We regret that we are unable to provide any detailed technical guidance on do-it-yourself repairs due to legal implications/engine constraints.

However, all of our Dealers are staffed with experienced and fully factory-trained technicians who will be able to undertake any repairs for you. Our Dealers will also be pleased to assist you with the purchase of genuine Holden parts.

I don't want to fix the bloody thing myself. I just want to tell somebody ABOVE the dealer level that I am pissed off.

We are told trhat Holden Experimental Engineering is testing a fix that should be available shortly.

A motor site road tested a VZ in September 2004 and bagged the fuel gauge.. That was seven months ago. Obviously not a very high priority.

If I was in GM's PR department I would have someone monitoring websites like this one so I knew what was going on out there with my customers and what they thought of my products.

Something like a preventative maintenance program or regular service for your car. However it looks like they subscribe to the drive it till you can't stand the funny noise any more" policy.

Well I am retired and have lots of time to make funny noises,

So guys, if you are not happy with your car on this issue just PM me and I will build a dossier of complaints which we will amalgamate and hit GM with a BIG funny noise.... through the media if we can't get to them with a direct approach :b: .

I feel sorry for the dealers and their service departments who are the meat in the sandwich here but I would rather the dealer tell me the truth that its a "factory" fault for which we don't have a fix rather than ask me to leave the car with them for another day while they investigate the problem.

We know they can't fix it. Surely they know they can't fix it and we just do without our cars for another day.

I now do some part time work. If its not raining doing without the car is not to bad, Gives me a chance to put on some leather and blow the cobwebs out of the Honda. If its wet its a 50 k round trip in a taxi because the public transport here is not the best either.

Come on Holden. I like my cars and I desperately want to love my black ute but as we all know, its the little things that spoil the perfect affair

 

[steane]

I agree with everything you have said "Old mans ute". I've already had a whinge on this thread but I'll have another, it might help me to feel better. In all of my experience with Holdens that I have owned I've found them to be a great car spoiled by things that they should know how to get right.
The VT had poorly fitted door seals, a dud clutch (the throwout fork would actually hit against the g/box casing when changing gears), and eventually had a complete body control computer malfunction that took a dealer 2wks to diagnose and fix... At 40k the shocks went off and the back doors started to creak and groan over bumps.
After my experience with this car and dealers I have never gone to a dealer again. I have all of my servicing done by my regular mechanic who seems to be able to fix things that the dealer doesnt have or doesnt want to have a clue about.
The VX Clubsport was a great car, all of the VT problems fixed (except the rear end and tyre wear issues) but I had virtually no trouble with this one.
The VZ again has silly problems that you just dont expect to get with a new car ie fuel gauge, noisy front suspension etc. It has meant that I've had to return to a dealer again after 5 years of avoiding them as the fix may involve the removal of the fuel tank... I booked the car in on Monday and turned up at 8am today as agreed. They had no record of my booking! I will be very suprised if the problems are actually fixed as to-date I have not come across a dealer that can fix much at all.
If as I suspect, the problems are not fixed I'll send you a pm with my issues as you suggest.
In my opinion (and it is just an opinion) the alloytec 175kw is a strangled, underpowered and very uninspiring engine. I cant imagine that the 190kw version is much better. They feel like very small kilowatts to me. I wouldnt be suprised if a cat back exhaust upgrade worked wonders.

 

[Doctor Bob]

ok for the record
The VT innacurate fuel guage was / is caused by sulphur in the fuel.
The VZ problem is due to the engine controller tolerances, all the development cars had "perfect" controllers & when the production units appeared they started showing errors.
the fix should be available now,

if you have any problems you shoild be contacting Customer Assistance, the number is in your owners book

Cheers Rob

 

[steane]

Well thats not what the dealer told me yesterday...
They had the car all day and removed the sender unit from the fuel tank and reset the float then recalibrated the whole thing again.

One of the service guys made the comment that this has been an issue since the VT. Holden really dont seem to know what is causing it and some things fix one car ie recalibration but not others. He shrugged his shoulders and suggested that Holden might one day come out with a fix but dont hold your breath.
I was told to monitor it and if its still not right then I need to bring it back again.

The same chap also told me that they determine the "likely" cause of the problem via the cars build number. If it falls in a certain range it generally requires a recalibration. Alternatively, falling within another range means its a fuel tank out job and a recalibration.

Would be nice if they were bringing out a fix but if they are then this dealer didnt know about it and their instructions from Holden are to reset float arms and recalibrate.

 

[old mans ute]

Grimm Bros and Hans Christian Andersen have nothing on GM

Saw some mechanics sitting on boxes about 4.30 pm at the back of a dealers in Sydney yesterday. So I walked into the rear of the workshop (dealer remains anonymous to protect the mechanics) and asked them if anyone could tell me about the VZ fuel gauge problem. Helpful guys showed me a February 2005 Holden Service bulletin with an item stating "known problem with VZ S Ute fuel tank reading incorrectly". Software fix was available and that reprogrammed the ECU and the fuel gauge. Didn't have a pen so I couldn't get the reference number and old age memory is fading.

Mechanic concerned said he has done a couple and they "haven't come back". He was honest enough to admit that they could have either been fixed or, like me just too pissed off to hand my car over for another day after it had been "fixed".

Rang my dealer and spoke to the new car sales manager and the service manager on a speakerphone (didn't work very well.. probably too hitech electronically for GM) who assured me that they had reprogrammed my car in accordance with the service bulletin. So much for this fix. Told them that I would not bother bringing the car in again till they could satisfy me that they could solve the problem.

Moaned direct to Holden Customer Service in Melbourne who told me they had not heard of the problem but would contact the dealer and then come back to me.

Brilliant. GM ring me back at 6 at night tonight and tell me that they suggest that I drive the ute till 8000 kms and then take it back to the dealer for inspection. The advice was that by that time the fuel gauge and the petrol tank should be "run in" by then and they would inspect it again at that stage.

You can imagine my discussion with the customer service lady from GM about running in fuel gauges and fuel tanks... very polite but less than complimentary.

At least I would appreciate being fed some intelligent bullshit. The fairy tale continues.

PS. My daughter just asked "Who has upset you dad? The only time you ever type that fast or that long is when someone has really annoyed you".

As I said before, its not really the fuel gauge but the manner in which my gripe is being handled that gets to me.

Won't be too long before I get the "customer from hell" tag and the GM customer service people refer me to their latest service bulletin that suggests the only cure is to buy a new Hilux

 

[Utester]

It seems a bit strange that the bulletin referred only to the VZ S Ute, wouldn't this problem also be on the base model utes and even the SS utes? (aren't they the smae fuel tanks etc?)