Farewell Excel, hello VS Commodore

[HoonBoy]

"D" on flats and down hill, "3" on uphills.

[Shunty]

I've got a 97 wagon, only issues so far have been a leak from the power steering reservoir and chewed out bottom rear shock bushes. Have towed the Torana on a braked trailer over short (50km) distances and it was fine, no external trans cooler or anything. Towbar was fitted by holden NZ, spec that came with the car rated it to tow 1600 (1500? can't remember but was one of the two) with that towbar and no trans cooler. Then again, 20 degrees is a hot day over here, might be why our ratings are a bit higher

[Dave]

should you also get a set of poly-airs installed for when you tow?

[takai]

Poly Airs for VS is cheap, and probably a bit worth it.
Cooper Auto Electrics do LPG conversions for like $400 post rebate.
Get the biggest towbar you can get, its worth it.
Get the biggest trans cooler you can, its worth it.

FWIW: Transcooler designed for Pajero on my Cressida.

[Sirius18T]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your help so far. Here's an update. Towbar got fitted Friday afternoon - defintely glad I went the heave duty one now. I'll hopefully be getting a trans cooler fitted this week. Other thing I was concerned about was how low it is. I went to U pull it on the weekend and got a pair of standard springs as I reckon I'll need them for the back. This morning I thought I'd test the new towbar though so I hitched up the boat and went for a 45 minute drive along some of the hills near my place. It actually towed pretty well! The car and boat were empty though so add more people and gear and I might have a problem. Here are pics of how she sits with just the boat on - what do you guys think? Should I put standard springs in the back? One last thing, While cruising around with the aircon on every now and then a "click" noise comes from near the glove box. Sounds kinda like solenoid or something switching on and off. Any ideas?

[Euroboost]

Heavy duty springs or airbags. My VS Acclaim wagon would scrape the mudflaps with a full load in the back, never towed with it although it did have the factory, NOT dealer fit, 2100kg tow package. Mine blew a head gasket at 205,000 and the auto was rooted when we sold it a little while later. Fit the biggest tranny cooler you can find, I was going to replace the factory one with a truck one and use the old one for the power steer.

[GT-R LM]

Also thermostats are common,
Get a new bigger radiator, the original one would be not to good.Overheating is very common, it fries the head gaskets fast.When flushing the radiator make sure you do the heater hose too and when refilling it jack the rear of the car up other wise you could be there for ages trying to get the air out,
coil packs tend to die as well,
tranny cooler is a must,
steering racks have been mentioned and they are common problem aswell, gett very light and no reaction over 100kmh
Take it easy on the single leg burnouts diffs are common to

In the space of 3 years with my VR commo,had copped a really bad cainiing from me and anyone that drove it, i had blown 3 autos and 2 engines and then not to mention all the other crap things like windows and door handles playing up ,coil packs radiators, crank sensors everything that could break basically did, when the 3rd box decided to say no more i sold the thing to a wrecker.

Oh and itll tow that no problems 3.8L torque traffic light monster