An easy fix puts the spark back in the performance of Glenn Torrens' daily driver
Last Summer, my boring white daily-driver 2011 Commodore began to show a very mild hesitation. To a passenger, it would have been almost indiscernible, but to my sensitive arse – honed by some good car magazine vehicle assessment training/experience plus a decade of motorsport where any ‘Hmm… what’s that?’ sensation from the car might have resulted in a big crash or big cash – it was a definite message of the car being not quite happy.
I began to think of possible, complex and maybe expensive causes of the hesitation such as the car’s computer software, the operation of the variable camshaft actuators, or a glitch with the oxygen sensors operations…
So I ignored it.
Yes, for almost a year, I switched-off to the occasional idle stutter and niggling hesitation when cruising around town. I could also feel the problem on the freeway with the cruise control on, especially as the car was just beginning to climb a gentle incline; just enough for the car to give itself a little more throttle to maintain speed but not so steep as to cause the auto gearbox to kick back a gear.
Thankfully, ignoring these little vibes from my unhappy car didn’t cost me thousands in engine repairs. It cost me just $120 for new spark plugs! With hindsight, it was obvious: I should have been onto the problem sooner as, over the years, I’ve had four other cars with problems from old plugs.
Years ago, I bought a 1972 HQ Holden Premier with a 4.2-litre V8. My mate Mossy and I found the Q-ey under coloured flags and $1990 on the window at a little back-street car yard in the southern NSW town of Wagga. Cruised typically one day a week, after a year or two it began to run roughly. One day – BOOM – it blew its muffler apart. New plugs fixed the problem (no – not the muffler!) and because I owned the car for a while and cruised it around 25,000 miles, when the same symptoms started again a decade later, new plugs fixed it.
More recently, my 2002 VX2 Holden Berlina V8 wagon also suffered from dud plugs. I bought this car as a non-runner from a Melbourne front yard in 2017. After I reassembled half the engine, the Berlina drove fine… until about 4000rpm when its acceleration went ‘flat’ as if the fuel supply was restricted or someone was pulling on the handbrake. New plugs fixed it.
My ‘Coomadore’ project car – my saved-from-the-wreckers 3.3-litre six-cylinder 1981 Commodore – showed symptoms of old plugs the day we got it running again after its 20-plus years of sitting. During its resurrection, new plugs fixed its blurty and inconsistent idle. My now-sold brown 3.3-litre VB Commodore wagon… Same deal. New plugs fixed it.
So, I was really dumb for putting up with the gentle but annoying hesitation of my daily driver Commodore…
From Unique Cars #474, January 2023