99 jackaroo engine failure
Submitted: Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 19:12
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Aaron
Hello my question is also a bad story almost a saga but PLEASE read it. i've been looking through the archives about jackaroo's. My mother's roo failed last week whilst on her way to
sydney on the highway.She loves the vechile despite a few warranty issues and also dealer issues.
She bought it with 42,316km's on the clock and
bathurst holden did a 40'000 km service as part of the sale.the dealer had no air filter on the day and got one o-night.The spare parts person droped the new one in the next day,and unfortunetely dislodged the air intake, i found the problem 3 day's later after mum had taken it touring on dirt roads over the weekend.On the return trip the rear diff plug came adrift and she had to be tilt trayed over the mountain's back to
bathurst.they fixed the diff no worries but told her the engine was fine.Ha.
At it's 60'000km service having the wheel bearings repacked the mechanic left the circlip off the rhfront drive shaft allowing the shaft to retract towards the diff and "clunk"around the wishbone.
The 80000km service was done at 79.730km and at approx 81000 i checked the oil and there was no trace on the dipstick.Amechanic came outand put approx 2and a half litres in.I'm not sure wheather it wasn't in there to start with or it was burnt?.it's now near the 90'000 mark and failed without warning with lots of white smoke and vibrations. The dealer has been rather vague with as but after reading about the injector seals failing and spliting pistons causing melted injectors I think it's a very good possibility.The new car warranty has expired and they gave as 50'000 on the engine and turbo after the dusting which seems to be useless and the Network Q at $1000 limit is also useless they won't even cover cost's to date if work isn't done at the dealer. We can't help but feel the dealer owes us a little having a few other worries as
well. I am a plant mechanic and at this stage am looking at fixing her myself the dealer has quoted $13,941.75 to fix it which is basically everthing except block,crank and conrods replaced. Any guidance, information ,suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Anything even Moral support. Thank you for reading!!!!
Reply By: Member - Gary - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 20:00
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 20:00
Aaron, Don't know if it will do any goood but I would get your mum to go the NSW Department of Consumer Affairs. If you have got receipts etc for the work done by the dealer you may be able to take them on. Also a letter to GMH may stir them up. If both of these fail send them a letter of demand threatening legal action. You may not get any response but may get a bit of personal satisfaction by stirring them up. Also I hope that you are not still customers. There must be better mechanics in
Bathurst than this mob. Goood luck Gary
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Follow Up By: Aaron - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:08
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:08
G'day Gary thanks for the reply. The thought has crossed my mind of taking them on of course but i'd like to have more amunition and know where i stand. As for being costumers we did get jack of them then Network Q sent a nice letter saying that there warranty would be void if work not done at the dealer so we kept using them ,The other reason i thought would be that they would have to have everything documented. So i'llc what pans out thanks.
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Reply By: Member - NOBBY - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 20:02
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 20:02
Aaron.. I feel sorry for you and mum. Seems that your mechanics have a bit to answer for. Go for the throat, although from experience from the car industry (in general) they will duck and dive. Hope you get it sorted out to your satisfaction.
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Follow Up By: Aaron - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:11
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:11
Hello
nobby hows things? yeah these service managers must have crooked beds.One thing i feel is they have to many apprentices that aren't trained properly and they push to hard to make a buck .
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Reply By: Truckster - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 21:40
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 21:40
Is it insured???
got a match?!!!
Thats sad, I hate car dealers.
letters to Holdens head office, and as many mags, and forums as you can would help you out.
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Follow Up By: Aaron - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:13
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:13
Thanks truckster i'd say i'll be sick of typing the story by the end
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Reply By: GaryInOz - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 21:48
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 21:48
Another avenue is a webite called www.notgoodenough.org They work as a sort of public advocate. You have to register your details and give a description of the sequence of events (cut and paste what you have written here) abnd they will persue it if they think it is worthy (certainly sounds like it would be!). Give it a go, nothing hurts a company more than a bit of bad publicity. If the dealer will not handle the problem then GMH probably will.
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Follow Up By: Aaron - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:17
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:17
Thanks gary i'll get on to it. Any ideas on how to talk to the right person at GMH would be appreciated. If any one knows of similar events i'd love to know.!!
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Reply By: Brian - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 21:49
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 21:49
Aaron, Could you E-Mail (bigfella@lisp.com.au) me direct as I live in
Bathurst and the local Holden dealer has been a thorn in my side for some time. I have had 3 Commodores (and still have one as they are great cars) and can I fill you in with some stories. I have had continual problems with this dealer and I would like to see something done about it but I don't know
where to start. I have had countless meetings with the Service Manager but am getting nowhere. I have even thought of going to the media such as "A Current Affair" but it is difficult on your own. Maybe now there is a chance to get them exposed and get them and other large dealers to wake up to themselves and gives us all a FAIR GO. That is all I want and I am sure that the rest of you out there are the same. I don't expect something for nothing, all I want is to be treated fairly and not get ripped off and treated as if all they want is your money and stuff anything else. Just recently I got charged $7.28 for a hacksaw blade they used to do a job on my exhaust. They have since credited this to my account after a couple of phone calls but I have enough stories about them to write a book. Hope you will contact me as I would like to see this go further. Cheers from a very happy Commodore owner but a really urinated off dealer customer.
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Follow Up By: Aaron - Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:22
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2003 at 22:22
Good to hear from you Brian! I will certainly contact you and send you the lengthened version.I still really like the roo and also have no problem with the brand but dealers, this one in particular, is a different story.
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Reply By: brian - Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 at 07:25
Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 at 07:25
Aaron,sorry to hear of your problems,the dept of fair trading is the way to go low cost no solicitors and they have enormous powers to make the dealer pay if he looses.also that letter from network q could be of assistance,i believe that you can have the car serviced by any licenesed mechanic without effecting warrenty.otherwise ultratune etc couldnt survive, the tribunal member hearing the case might take a dim view of the letter.dont give up many others have been successful.
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Follow Up By: Aaron - Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 at 15:16
Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 at 15:16
Thanks brian we've got a good manila folder full of papers.
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Reply By: Savvas - Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 at 12:21
Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 at 12:21
Like everyone here has indicated, go for the jugular on this. The Department of Fair Trading is your starting point. Get all your documentation together in the mean time.
Get together with Brian on this too. The more of a case you can build, the better for both of you.
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Follow Up By: Aaron - Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 at 15:18
Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003 at 15:18
Thanks Savvas.
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Reply By: Savvas - Friday, Apr 04, 2003 at 09:55
Friday, Apr 04, 2003 at 09:55
Hi Aaron,
How are you going with this problem?
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Follow Up By: Aaron - Monday, Apr 07, 2003 at 15:54
Monday, Apr 07, 2003 at 15:54
G'day Savvas how's things? The big roo is alive again!!!! after resigning ourselves to a costly rebuild it turns out a distant connection that we wern't aware of in Gmh was working in our favour and gmh came to the party with a brand new engine straight out of the box . Well i was blown away that we fell on our feet. To then remind me of how rude
Bathurst motors are they reckon they could not get in contact with us and replaced the rear universal joints for $296. Iwas told the old ones weren't good enough to put back in. Thanks for asking Savvas.
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Follow Up By: Savvas - Monday, Apr 07, 2003 at 16:31
Monday, Apr 07, 2003 at 16:31
That's good that Holden came to the party. It's the second case that I've now heard of for these engines. From the post that CB put up about her issue, it seems that some injector seals deteriorate at about 80000km and should be replaced at that time. This leads to a chain of
events that eventually ends up blowing the engine.
Holden is aware of the problem and it should be gratifying to know they did the right thing by you. If I were you, I'd send a letter to Holden's Customer Relations thanking them, but in the same note put in your concerns about the service at
Bathurst Motors.
It's
places like that which give the brand a bad name and the manufacturer needs to be made aware of that.
Check on the
forum for a post by CB in the last couple of weeks. You should compare notes. If you do keep the vehicle for another 80000kms, make a note of getting the injector seals replaced at around the 70000km mark.
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