Car Mechanics Advice

[grapes_collector]

Our poor old 1996 Holden HSV Senator has just about had its life me thinks.

For a while it has been doing strange things. Engine management light comes on, and either engine cuts out or it has trouble engaging gears..no guts.  However when the engine is turned off for a couple of minutes and then turned on again everything is fine.

Today we went to pick some ebay purchases and on the way home we get on to the M4 (Sydney) the car starts shaking. Hubby says its the road, but it gets so bad we think we have a flat tyre. Pull over, get out and there is a strong smell of rubber.. but no flat tyres.  We managed to get home but the old problem of no guts again.

Pulled in to driveway, but then after we stopped... nothing. Started engine again after a couple of minutes & everything was fine...no engine light and no probs.

We will be taking it for a good check next week, but does anyone have any ideas as to what the problem might be?

Ta

[chuk_77]

a mechanic friend here just said suspect automatic trasmission issues 

How clean is your fluid?

shuddering could be trans shudder

[the_hawk*]

It sounds like it has a fault some where and is going into limp home mode and needs to have a disgnostic check done to retrieve the error codes from the computer.

Why have you ignored the check engine light, its there for a reason

[grapes_collector]

We get the car serviced every 6mths.

Would transmission probs cause the engine light to come on?

[chuk_77]

he said it probably would cause engine management systems issues. He said get your mechanic to hook it up like hawk said and read the code. That should tell you exactly.

Servicng doent generally inclue a trans service - my words not my mechanic mates words

[chuk_77]

hawk the engine light use to come on in the pug. 

had it checked and it was a fault in the light not the engine, so I use to ignore it

[grapes_collector]

Thanks guys. Will suggest those things to hubby.

[topsidesoul]

Problem?

You bought a Holden....you bought a modern holden.

Be warey of the people at Holden because getting it serviced at the place you bought it could end up with you being talked into buying a new one.

if it is something pricey i would suggest a second inspection of it.

Are you an RAA member?

[viewmont1071]

Some bush mechanics Golden Holden diagnostics techniques ( I am a mechanic and have worked for the NRMA previously on breakdowns)

when the car konks out listen to the fuel tank when you turn the key from the off to the on position for the fuel pp to

activate (if it goeswhirr click clcick then it is operating) .... no noise in the tank then the pp is not operating  a good

bang on the bottom of the tank with the key in the on position generally restores the earth circuit

to the pp or jerks the impeller into gear and you can hear it clicking/whirring. (replace the pump or repair the earth)

If you hear the pp operating when the car konks out then it is prolly spark or lack of it that is stopping you

all the commodores around that period have trouble with the crank angle sensor overheating. It is situated at the frt

 of the motor near the Harmonic Balancer (the big pulley at the bottom that the serpentine belt goes around. When the

car stops try pouring water on and around the balancer immediately. If it starts immedaitely upon "watering" then

replace the crank angle sensor

.... If it still does not start.....

the 5l v8s also have trouble with the hall sensor in the dizzy.... time and patience is required to wait out the sensor

cooling.

If somebody you know is a little dextrous you can (when the car konks out) carry a spare spark plug. By removing a

lead and earthing the body of the plug to the block then winding you can check for spark. no spark probaly means that

the hall sensor is stooooofed.

Although the VS's have the diagnosis plug most generic fault diagnosis computers will not read on them. You can use

an analogue muti meter or a led test light and by following a procedure you can extract the codes  counting the "long"

and "short' sweeps of the needle

Vibration could be tailshaft centre bearing or a "wonky" harmonic balancer.

I lean towards the hall sensor rather than the crank angle sensor beacuse of your erratic poor power symptom ... best I

can do long distance

[carls*world]

Viewy, would they suffer the same problem EF Fords did, balancer slipping, giving ECU dicky readings which it then compensates for on next startup?