Heartland holden castle hill

[loopyASTRA]

IS USELESS!

Had my astra fixed there over the last 2 days as the main Y shape engine coolant pipe blew, got my front fan fixed and my left hand side wheel bearing.

took it for a drive tonite to check that everything is running mine

and BOOM

the emissions lights comes on with the traction light, got home and done a google search about it, found it to be a EGR valve for the emissions light.....

FFS since i got my timing belt done at heartland Holden castle hill ive had problems after problems!!

last straw is tomorrow morn before the cruise, if they cannot get it fixed i will ask there valualer to value the car in a fully working state and get a commodore!

as my wife has a commodore from there and its under warrenty and it has NEVER had any issue with servicing!

i think as i pay out of my pocket for the services they want to send me broke by getting me to come in and get it fixed each day!

my car is my job, when im without it i dont earn money = i cannot pay more and more for service and keep being off the road more and more!!!!

what does the forum say about this?
could i take legal action against heartland holden castle hill for continuious issues comming up and up?!

[poita]

you got it done at holden, nuff said

[loopyASTRA]

you got it done at holden, nuff said
your great help aye!

maybe i should ask a tree and i may get a more intelligent response

[poita]

sorry i will try my best to care.

take the loss, sell the car, get something else.
your not happy with it now and never will be.
takin em to court will acheive nothing, they will tell you where to go.
heres a free service or two.

good luck with it

[mek]

take it to a local mechanic. sometimes they're more reliable :) ask Holden for a refund say their servicing isn't up to your standard and you want to take ur business elsewhere.

your car as i gather is at 75,000 kms. it should be running fine, however it may have been treated bad previously hence the issues, You can go down two paths,
replace engine/rebuild engine (up to 3grand im guessing) or go a different car

(this may be not related)

ive heard Honda drivers taking to Honda mechanics having same issues.. interns working on their sports car... don't replace lsd fluid or oilfilter etc. they check it right after , get angry take back, interns ****up again, etc. just take it to local mechanic -_- stuff like this makes me sick btw.

but yeah

if you go another car with long engine life I'd recommend Mazda, Toyota, commodores, EL+ falcons generally those cars mostly have engines that pass 175,000 kms,

i've seen AU /BA falcons hit over 900,000 kms, with a gearbox replacement or two... :P



if you really wana do something about heartland Holden mistreating you, go see the department of fair trading.

[DaveM]

I had a run-in with them.. didnt buy my VXR through them but took it there for a small warranty job as it was near my office.

Was told on pickup that the work was not classed as warranty (door handle broken) and as such I owed them $160. Told them I was not going to pay, at which point they told me they were confiscating my vehicle until the bill was paid.

So I kindly asked them to please call the police down to their office and we can discuss who owns my car and who has the right to drive my car away. Interesting look on the guys face!

While they were stewing over that, I called the service manager from the dealer where I bought the car (and who had done the other warranty work) and he could not believe the stunt they were pulling as it was clearly a warranty item... so he called up heartland, gave them a serve and I had my car back 5 mins later no charge.

And the stupid thing was, they refitted the door trim incorrectly as part of their repair, you could fit 4 fingers down the gap between trim and glass. So no clue and bodgy workmanship to boot.

Nobody much I have spoken to has had anything positive to say about heartland. I certainly wouldnt go there for anything... when I was buying the VXR and was shopping around, I was told by the sales guy in no uncertain terms "looking at you, I wouldnt let you test drive a VXR, HSV are an exclusive brand". To which I told him they must be super exclusive since bogans from mt druitt seem to drive plenty of them... he didn't like that.... obviously deadbeats like me who live on the north shore arent good enough! :)

[J]

Very sad to say this, loopyASTRA, but it seems that most Holden (apprentice) mechanics hardly know anything about servicing non-Oz made (read Commodore) models, and they hardly seem to care. Of course, this does not only apply to Holden...

I wouldn't be surprised if they, deliberately or otherwise, didn't put your car back together properly after the timing belt service, especially if your car was running perfect before! As usual, it's a business: they'd rather try to service more cars in a day, than to get a, say, second mechanic to check the jobs are properly done, before they let the cars go. And since most people trust their cars have been serviced properly, and there's usually no means for them to check that this is so, dealers can afford to take the risk. I mean, either you keep servicing your Astra, problems or not, with them, or trade up to a newer car through them...they win either way. There was an article on Drive a few months ago about shonky repair jobs by dealers. I am sure someone can pull up the link...

As mentioned countless times: you'd be WAY better off servicing your car at a reputable independent mechanic, especially if it's a one-man business: they'd lose their livelihood if they don't do their jobs well! I've been using one for my G ever since I've bought it second hand. More than 12,000kms and a timing belt + major service later (127,000km?), it's still going strong (thank God!).

[Jerram]

well said J

besides, not only does a local mechanic typically care more (because he needs a strong returning customer base), he typically costs less.

Recently I had

-A major service (no timing belt or plugs or air filter though)
-Throttle body installed and Idle adjusted
-Air-con repaired and regassed
-engine mount changed
-other engine mount checked

all for the very good price of $420. If I'd had that done at Holden, I'm sure it'd cost me at least double.

So yeah any Brisbane people looking for a good Euro mechanic check out BP Workshop Wellington Point. They're pretty busy though, partly because they service a heap of ambulances.

[mek]

the downside is i hear the resell value of the car drops with a local mechanic.

but my last service apparently changed my oil .. it didn't... it changed my air filter.. It didn't. i replaced with a K&n.. and apparently fixed my handbrake nope.
had to get them fixed manually .. and im going for my next service soon. if they dont replace that and my radiator fluid and charge me for it. Say hello to department of fair trading.

[J]

the downside is i hear the resell value of the car drops with a local mechanic.

but my last service apparently changed my oil .. it didn't... it changed my air filter.. It didn't. i replaced with a K&n.. and apparently fixed my handbrake nope.
had to get them fixed manually .. and im going for my next service soon. if they dont replace that and my radiator fluid and charge me for it. Say hello to department of fair trading.

You might be spot on there, mek! However, as the car is probably worth not much more than 12K right now, I'd like to think that the hundreds of dollars I am saving at each service past and present, will more than offset the 1K or so I might lose come selling time. I usually drive my cars into the ground, so this strategy seems to work well for me :)

Your mechanic sounds dodge! Mine's not the cheapest around, but he's still cheaper than with Holden, and he sure does a good job! PM me if you wanna give him a try :)

Back on topic: loopyASTRA, I pray that it will all get sorted for you soon.

[loopyASTRA]

cheers for your feedback all!

if anyone has a good mechanic that i could goto could they pm me with the details. :)

as if holden say its going to be a another grand of so ill be cutting someones fingers off

[USC]

the downside is i hear the resell value of the car drops with a local mechanic.

but my last service apparently changed my oil .. it didn't... it changed my air filter.. It didn't. i replaced with a K&n.. and apparently fixed my handbrake nope.
had to get them fixed manually .. and im going for my next service soon. if they dont replace that and my radiator fluid and charge me for it. Say hello to department of fair trading.

what do you keep going there?:confused:

[mek]

first time i serviced with them it was fine, 2nd time they messed up.. 3rd time i went back for them to fix the messed up. i drove off thinking they did everything right.. psht its so stereotypical of them to charge for doing almost nothing -_-

another thing with ba handbrakes is that they need proper calibration otherwise they clamp on or they're too loose ..
its freaking ridiculous because the noob apretices under-tighten them u come back and complain cuz ur hadnbrake doesnt hold ur car.. all u get is an overtight handbrake that squeels all the time... you go back and they tell you they dont know whats wrong, you go to a brake place and they fix it perfectly and explain to you exactly whats wrong, ( it was sooo lose that a pin came out they slid it back in and it was fine untill now where i suspect the pin came out again (this is over 10 months later btw)

[lithium]

sorry to hear of the problems loopy

i wonder how a timing belt change causes an emissions/TC light to come on - they don't sound like they are related faults to me. it might be a bad coincidence. at any rate i hope you get it sorted

[lithium]

and if you want to cut their fingers off i hear astra doors come with an in-built feature for that (sorry mek ;))

[loopyASTRA]

got it all sorted guys, they put a new ecu in for free (its all nice and silver so its new)
car runs better then it ever has!

[USC]

see Holden is not so bad...astras are just shit....:p

[lithium]

good to hear its fixed under warranty mate :)

/begin rant

why am i not surprised...i'm starting to think the ECUs often fail on these cars around the 120k mark/5 years

on this forum i've counted 6 people recently who have had an ECU failure. not including me who got a car that eventually only fired on three cylinders. or my neighbour (Astra 1.8) who had the TC stuck on like you did. or my cousin (Astra 1.8) who had the car alternately cut out, or jam on the TC and the dash light up like a christmas tree!

makes you wonder :confused: you would hope the lesson GM has learnt from this is not to mount the ECU on a 90 degree+, vibrating engine block. however, guess where they have mounted the ECU on the new LS3?

that said some Astras seem to run fine so maybe we are the unlucky ones. unless the plastic gear linkages get you (on the Barina SRi). or the dodgy coil packs that start missing after 70k and can eventually destroy your cat. hmmm

/end rant ;)

[poita]

see Holden is not so bad...astras are just shit....:p

quote of the year lol

[SKM_87]

good to hear its fixed under warranty mate :)

/begin rant

why am i not surprised...i'm starting to think the ECUs often fail on these cars around the 120k mark/5 years

on this forum i've counted 6 people recently who have had an ECU failure. not including me who got a car that eventually only fired on three cylinders. or my neighbour (Astra 1.8) who had the TC stuck on like you did. or my cousin (Astra 1.8) who had the car alternately cut out, or jam on the TC and the dash light up like a christmas tree!

makes you wonder :confused: you would hope the lesson GM has learnt from this is not to mount the ECU on a 90 degree+, vibrating engine block. however, guess where they have mounted the ECU on the new LS3?

that said some Astras seem to run fine so maybe we are the unlucky ones. unless the plastic gear linkages get you (on the Barina SRi). or the dodgy coil packs that start missing after 70k and can eventually destroy your cat. hmmm

/end rant ;)

its all a bit luck of the draw. 120k, same ecu, same coil pack original plastic linkages anfd they all work ok. btw if going to a independent mech find one who is a bit of a *insert car name* specialist. all cars have their litte quirks and a mechanic cant remember every one for every car, they are human

[USC]

quote of the year lol

What`s my prize?

[poita]

you get shaun for a night

[Red AH SRI T]

you get shaun for a night

Now that's quote of the year!

[Shaun]

you get shaun for a night
Now thats the booby prize i thought.... hahaha.


Now that's quote of the year!

Pretty funny stuff.

Good to hear you have the car sorted. Good to hear that its not actually a dealerships fault like so many people claim.

[SSS_Hoon]

you get shaun for a night


He is not man enough to have shaun for a entire night..:D

But from what i hear he may be just enough of a bitch to handle shaun for a few hours at least.


SSS_Hoon

[USC]

He is not man enough to have shaun for a entire night..:D

But from what i hear he may be just enough of a bitch to handle shaun for a few hours at least.


SSS_Hoon


:lame:

:p

[loopyASTRA]

cheers guys cars is running excellent now, hopefully it will stay good for some time!