Holden strikes V8 trouble

Holden will repair the 6.2-litre LS3 engine in the final 2000 or so V8 Commodores built this year following reports of engine noise and even failure in cars with as little as 50km on the clock.

The problem has been traced to a faulty batch of inlet rocker arms produced by a new supplier for the North American-made General Motors V8 since early this year.

Motoring.com.au understands that only Commodore SS, Sportwagon SS, Ute SS, Calais V8 and Caprice vehicles produced between about July and the end of VFII Commodore production in October are affected.

Holden says it has advised “a small number” of affected owners of the service campaign, which is not a safety recall, directly by mail, adding that the majority of vehicles involved are still at Holden dealers or with Holden itself.

According to LS1.com.au forum member Micks, stocks of replacement rocker arms is not due to become available to dealers for retro-fitting until December 18.

“GM Holden this week is directly contacting a small number of customers to advise them their new cars will require some minor after-sales rework at a Holden dealer of their choice,” said Holden in a letter owners.

“Holden has been recently alerted by GM to a quality issue with the LS3 V8 engines in some of its recently built Australian made cars that could result in rough running or misfiring of the engine.

“As a precaution, Holden is advising a select group of customers with 2017 V8 Commodore or Caprice vehicles that it would like to replace all eight inlet rocker arm components in their engines.

“Holden has been able to determine exactly which vehicles and customers are impacted.

“This is a minor rework to the engines amounting to about two hours work by a Holden service technician, which will be done free of charge.

“Holden has apologized to our customers for the inconvenience and affected customers will also receive their next scheduled servicing free of charge.”

Also seen in the Chevrolet Corvette and Camaro, GM’s Gen IV 6.2-litre LS3 V8 was first employed in Australia by HSV in 2008.

The aluminium small-block bent eight became Holden’s standard V8 for MY16 Commodore and Caprice models released in September 2015, replacing the 6.0-litre L77.

Up to about half of the 25,840 Commodore/Caprice sedans, wagons and utes sold so far this year have been powered by the LS3 V8.