1991 Holden Commodore Executive from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

Has got a water leak in the boot, not managed to get around to finding where this is coming from, anyone help with this?

Developed a vibration at the rear (like running over cats eyes), when travelling at 80+ KPH. This is intermittent but also takes hold when turning too. Difficult to locate due to the intermittent nature of this fault.

Heater/Air Con doesn't work well on speeds 1 + 2 (known problem with the VN Commodore).

Gets an overwhelming smell of fuel int he car sometimes when the heater/fan is on.

Nothing else yet.

Fuel economy has been good when not thrashed.

Plenty of room for a family.

Parts readily available for the car.

Great fun in the wet :-)

The lockup in the torque convertor (transmission) is the cat eye feeling. I work for bat automatic transmission.

I would have to agree with the bad smell when driving with the heater on.

I'm also curious; when you give your car a bit of a thrashing, does the car reak? Mine tends to smell like a rotten egg.

Not noticed anything too bad when thrashing it.

The water leak in the boot can come from a bad seal around the tail light, it's a slow leak, but can cause some damage. I suggest you take the tail light out and clean all the old sealant off and use clear silicon, it really works. Also if it isn't that it could be the side rear windows, they can leak due to movement over the years, and they too need to be pulled out and cleaned and sealed. Not a hard job, trust me.

Another suggestion regarding boot leak. The rear light assemblies themselves might be leaking. Not just around the edges, but the gaps between individual sections that make up the assembly.

I had a boot leak that puzzled the Holden garages I took my car to. One finally noticed the light assemblies were leaking like sieves. They sealed the leaks with silicon.

You may already have remedied this problem, but the fan not working on lower speeds is due to a blown resistor located underneath the plastic cover that your wipers are on. Once you get the cover off there is a plastic dome on passenger side toward the center. Take that off. Undo the wire connector and unscrew the two screws. You should be able to remove a bird cage like cube. You'll probably see that one or more of the coils are blown. Get a new one and install it. Fairly simple task that takes about 30 min even for the most amateur car enthusiast. Good luck.

In regards to the Leak in the boot, I have a 92 Lexcen (vp) and have had major leaking in the boot even after changing the rear lights (I figgured... get new lenses and all will be sweet!)... BUT I WAS WRONG, even the non-genuine lights have the leaking around the segments, the only solution I came up with was to get a small drill bit (I used 3.5mm) and after taking the lights out drill 2 or 3 holes in the bottom of the light (the bit facing the ground when assembled in the car) then do the silicone trick, make sure all mating surfaces are CLEAN (I used Acetone) and silicone the suckers up... best results were when I put silicone on the glass side of the seal then pressed it against the body, then took the window back out and smoothed the silicone that was left on the car body to make sure it was a good seal... all done!! Put the window back in and bob's your uncle! A few notes, I broke the clips on the Roof liner retainer that runs parallel across the top of the rear window, just pull down gently and it comes out... and lastly there are 3 bolts that hold the diagonal part of the rear quarter window in place against the body (as well as the 3 screws that can easily be seen), to remove this unplug the rear window heater (gently so as not to rip the connector off the window) and remove the cover that is just inside the window cavity by pulling sideways (remember to remove the seatbelt bolt first)...easy as!

When I had my VN, water used to leak in through the actual key lock of the boot. The only way I found this out is I got in the boot and got a friend to simulate rain with a hose :)

The rotten egg smell would be the cat getting too hot from possibly running lean, or maybe being broken and partially blocked.