More VL Commie Woes
Over the years I have had about 30 company cars. Most of these were base models until I got promoted in later years. I have logged more than 2.5 million kilometres in some of t he most ordinary cars grown in Oz. Drum-bra ked, three on t he tree, cheap t y res, Holdens and Falcons, and we kept them for 150,000 km
or more. Any way ever y one of t hese early 60s to mid 80s cars had their idiosyncrasies but none more puzzling than my V L Commie auto. It developed a habit of just stopping for no reason at a ll, or overheating and t he fuel consumption would go nuts. This problem mystified ever y mechanic in a lmost ever y tow n that I was v isit ing.
Then, one day I left Peak Hill to drive to Nyngan. The car used a f ull tank of juice to do about 200km and was close to boiling. And as I crossed t he railway line it died again. The loca l NRMA agent who also had a mechanical business in town and by now was familiar with my car towed it to his workshop and puzzled over the problem again. In the workshop the car started again and ever y thing checked out as normal so he took it for a drive. But fortunately it was a dark, cloudy day because when the V L started coughing again he opened the bonnet and spotted a single spark in the wiring loom where it runs across t he back of t he engine bay. A single wire was worn through and shorting on t he f irewall. This wire was of course connected to the computer and ever y time it shorted it did something to the programme. Run rich or lean, hot or cold and go or stop.
GMH, in its never ending quest for economy, had deleted t he insulation from the wiring loom bet ween the t wo clips t hat supported it. This would have been a cost sav ing of less t han a cent. The problem was notified in an NRMA bulletin to a ll t heir ser v ice people and to GMH. David Hughes Parkes, NSW.
Morley says...
HEY, ISN’T IT nice when you actually get a result like that? Hopefully, the reader in a previous issue who was having nightmares with his own VL might be able to use this info for a fix. Fundamentally, the VL Commodore was a decent bit of gear. The Nissan-sourced six suddenly made the old blue and black motors seem a bit old hat, and the four-speed automatic was a revelation.
But, as you point out, they were definitely cars that were built down to a price, not up to a quality level, and that caused problems for owners like you. Since you’ve owned and driven the wheels off pretty much every Aussie car from the 60s to the 80s (or so it seems) I’d be interested in knowing what you thought the golden era was in that period. What was the best model from each manufacturer from the point of view of a bloke who really used them up? Anybody else out there got an opinion?
For mine, I’d be inclined to nominate early Commodores as a bit of a watershed time. Sure, the drivelines were fished out of a tar-pit somewhere, but the engineering was rugged and the cars were strong. And
“THE CENTURA SHOOK SO VIOLENTLY IT WAS LIKE BEING ON THE GRAVITRON”
they took local-car dynamics to a whole new level. But I can also see how the march of technology made each generation better than the last… In some respects.