Holden forum help

[Uncle_Ken]

Hi all
My daughter is a proud (ahhh) owner of a holden (ahhh again).
Don't ask how, its a long story with a sad ending (a.k.a she bought one
Anyway I know there are several members how are members of other forums, so whats a good holden forum? I'm in NSW hoping to get one as good as ford forums.
Uncle Ken :

[Rob]

To the best of my knowledge, and I've searched quite a few, there really isnt any Holden based forum of the calibre of FFAU. Street commodores is a wealth of information, but you've got to sift through the rubbish/sms speak to find it.

[fiery]

The only Holden forum I have had anything to do with is the LS1 forum...
Not sure if it is suited, but there seem to be a few decent people on there that are quite helpful to others...

[Uncle_Ken]

I'm looking for one that has a good wreaking section/ spare parts etc. I don't have to much experience with looking for Holden spares (The daughter got an 98 Astra (yes the opel one)
Uncle Ken

[OLDFORDNUT]

my experience is with old Holdens so sorry cant advise,but try typing in Astra in Google search

[Sledgehammer]

Whats a Holden?.....

[colossus]

Try Opel Aus Forums

[Uncle_Ken]

Its an 1998 Astra TR, 4 speed auto, hatch, 1598cc. All th belts have been replaced (especially timing belt) new rotors as Astra's tend to eat up there brakes.
Uncle Ken

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Ken

Hi all
so whats a good holden forum? Uncle Ken :

Try www.ls1.com.au

[JD86]

try www.justcommodores.com.au, not sure if its any good, havnt really looked at it, just know a few mates of mine use that

[schmidty]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Ken

Its an 1998 Astra TR, 4 speed auto, hatch, 1598cc. All th belts have been replaced (especially timing belt) new rotors as Astra's tend to eat up there brakes.
Uncle Ken

Hey ken, my missus drives a 2000 TS Astra CD 1.8L.
Economy is brilliant, does about 700ks + on around 48L of PULP.

1 piece of advise i can give you is do not get it serviced by a dealer, find a mechanic you trust. Also question everything they tell you. The most common problem i have encountered is people charging twice the price for anything that needs doing on it and trying to justify it by saying "it's european."

Eg, dealer tried to charge $500 to replace the oxygen sensor. I picked up the part from their spare parts dept the next day for trade price, $168, took me 5 mins to fit. Know other astra owners that seem to alway encounter the same problem. Also took it in for a minor service because i had been too busy to do it, and was charged $300 for basically an oil change and an air filter!

Be meticulous with the preventative maintainence as most parts that suffer if neglected are expensive. The factory set service interval for the timing belt replacement was originally 120,000km, but a massive number of astras were snapping the belt and destroying the engines well before that, so the interval was shortened to 100,000km, but it is strongly recommended that you replace it at 80,000km for piece of mind. We do ours every 60,000.

My mrs does a 260km round trip to work and back each day. The chick who she takes it in turns of driving with has an astra as well, TR. Hers has done over 300,000km without too many dramas.

Is it a manual or an auto? Know a mechanic that replaced an auto in an astra the other day, cost just under $4000. So i hope its not an auto!

How many k's?

I also have found a good place to pick up parts, common and some not so common was on ebay. just search for Astra.

Best of luck with the daughters car. Even though it's a holden, its still 20x better than her driving a festiva!!!

[macca_779]

forum.streetcommodores.com.au
Very good knowledge base. Alot of very biased one eyed Holden lovers though.

[kyro_02]

www.boostcruising.com.au is like rice cars(hehe)/holden/ford ....etcetc

www.calaisturbo.com.au

[Ryan]

As said already, there really isn't a Holden forum, that's the calibre of AFF.

Only Commodore related forums or old Holden related ones.

However CalaisTurbo is a pretty good place and they welcome a large range of cars.

[SSBUB]

ls1.com.au are good guys and girls, even though its not an 8, many of them own astras and other holdens and they will help you out. My misses has an 02 astra and we have got alot of info from there about the car. Especially the stupid brake pads that dust like no other.

[Dilan]

A great bunch of guys/girls on here;
http://www.eurocca.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=26 :Reverend: