Hey, My name's Conrad, im 17 on my red P's and i own a EFII Falcon. I'm have limited Holden knowledge so bare with me. Decided the falcon is not a good example of a falcon and i want a new car. Long story short, im going to have a look at a 1987 Commo VL SL. Its just a standard 6cyl, 3litre nissan engine, 5 speed manual. Where in the range is the SL model? Is it the base model? What features does it have? What are the common problems with VL's? I know windscreen rust and my brother told me they have a cooling issue. The motor is higher than the radiator so the head doesn't get sufficient cooling and blows headgaskets and ****s the head. Any other good general knowledge about VL's would be great too. Thanks, Conrad.

Rust in the front windscreen, rust in the rear windscreen, rust under the boot strip rust in the boot etc. yes the engine is higher than the radiator but its not a problem and if you maintain your car it wont blow head gaskets check for oil leaks and the usual stuff you look at when you buy a car. well theres heaps of different types of vls, walkys, directors, formula, executive, berlina and the calais. a majority of standerd vls dont come with extras im not 100% but it will not have elec windows, aircon and powersteering cruise control and when you see the car you will see its options. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

basically an SL is just like the standard base model in the range BASICALLY then you get youe executives, berlinas, calais and then your HDT and HSV style ones but an SL 5 speed is a good find and a good P plater car good luck with the buy mate

Car Security * The VL was always a high theft risk and a good one is now even higher as expensive parts fail. When buying try and ensure that you get all keys for the car from the Previous owner as well as alarm remotes. There is no way to guarantee this but do try. After purchase change locks to Solex and possibly change alarm/immobiliser Engine * Check the colour of the Coolant in the Radiator and the overflow bottle. If it is milky, stay away, as this could mean a cracked/split head gasket or head, which can turn expensive. Some people only use water for their radiator most use Coolant. If something is amiss you should see it pretty quickly *Check the colour of the oil, it should be a consistent golden color. If the owner tells you it’s changed every 5000Km’s then it should look like new. You can tell a lot by a car by looking at the oil and coolant. * A Clean engine bay does not mean a Bay clean of oil leaks. They could have easily cleaned the car just before you arrived. Take it for a good test drive and see if there is any drips from beneath the car. Mechanical * Electric fuel pumps as fitted to the VL depend on plenty of fuel in the tank to keep them cool and free of dirt. Owners who run on empty or run out of fuel will quickly destroy them with many already noisy and on the way out. * The fuel injection system's expensive air-mass meter is now failing, causing rough idle and plenty of black exhaust smoke. A failed O2 sensor can also cause excessive fuel consumption. Cold start injection components and distributor electronics are now common failure points. * The VL auto is long lived but lack of servicing will cause failure, starting usually with a slipping overdrive clutch that breaks up and destroys the rest of the transmission. A rumble that shows up at 60-80km/h during a slight incline or any other hint of auto malfunction requires immediate attention before it turns into a $2500 repair. Non-genuine auto parts can save costs but are not always successful so check on warranty terms if the auto has been overhauled. * When at a complete stop, changing through the gears you should hear the auto engage them in less than 2 second intervals. If moving from P to R or R to D takes longer than 2 seconds to engage between gears there could be a problem. Get it checked further by a proffesional. * The live rear axle depended on voided rubber bushes inside the locating arms to allow the suspension to move up and down but they can soon tear under the VL's power. Some aftermarket bushes that resist the grunt will also lock up the rear suspension and cause the wheels to leave the ground for lethal handling in the wet. Stiff rear dampers can also generate bump steer in the light rear end. Worn Panhard rod bushes are also common and generate unpredictable rear steering. A worn center tail shaft bearing and broken suspension bushes can generate vibration under power. * Each Commodore has certain front suspension and steering parts specific to engine and model. Some aftermarket items that don't differentiate between these can generate serious handling and steering deterioration. Rattly steering racks, sloppy rack ends and worn front upper strut pads can cause the car to steer on its own. * Quality tyres are vital with the power and light rear end. Make sure the Tyres are not re-treads. If the car comes with a RWC make sure the tyres used in the RWC Check are the ones coming with the car * The VL's rear drum brakes are often filled with brake fluid from failed wheel cylinders caused by neglected fluid changes. Front disc rotors are often undersized and a soggy brake pedal usually means a master cylinder is ready to fail. Exterior * Superficially-repaired insurance write-offs and recycled stolen cars are a real trap. Some of the worst VL examples are so bent that the bonnet has been kinked up to clear a strut tower that sits 50mm higher than it should. A vehicle security check won't be enough to uncover a stolen car that is wearing the identity of a wreck so look for any inconsistencies in specification and history. * Holden's old single-stage acrylic paint process may still be holding up in the solid colours but neglected metallics are now dull and porous, and ready for a respray. Watch out for repairers who have used modern two-pack paints generating a huge difference in shine between original and repaired panels. Replaced plastic bumper sections and side strips will not match in colour. * The VL Commodore's boot section, despite the big plastic bumpers, will collapse with surprisingly little impact and generate rust in the rear section around the boot opening and near the pillars. Unless a tow bar is reinforced up to the rear axle, even moderate towing can distort the rear bodywork. Look for a poorly-fitting bootlid or tailgate ready to generate lethal exhaust leaks and water leaks generating rust under the luggage mat. * Non-genuine lights and panels are rife. The genuine headlights and tail lights vital to the VL's appearance might be expensive but faded and water-logged replicas are no substitute especially if they fall apart internally and catch fire. * Basic places to check for Rust: Around Windscreen and rear window, behind spare wheel, under Boot Carpet and under front passenger carpet. Interior * The VL Commodore had bonded front and rear screens with poorly prepared metal underneath, a problem worsened by sloppy windscreen replacement. Breaches in the screen bonding can generate serious water leaks and rust which may require the metal supporting the screens to be cut out and replaced at substantial cost. Watch out for missing screen metal that has been bogged up for sale. The really bad ones will have rotted parcel shelves and floors. * Some cabin plastics and switch gear verged on the shoddy so check all interior fittings. Earlier square backed front seats were replaced by the VN's rounded seat backs late in 1987 as a running change. Odometers almost without exception failed between 70,000km and 110,000km so any assurances about a speedo reading need to be backed up by genuine records. Quote: Originally Posted by 5spdvl Check that those damn heater controls work! Chances if someone has "removed" it (and I use that term loosely; my Calais had the centre of the dash all cracked and ruined because of someone practically ripping out the heater controls. Needless to say, they were retarded), they haven't put it back in properly. Check the heater works on ALL positions through ALL vents (a vent with no air on any setting is a sign of it being dissconnected from the fan, or it being crushed), and check that the air con gets cold. If it doesn't, it may need a re-gassing, or theres a problem with the compressor (check to see that the clutch actually starts to spin). Also check bonnet release operation. Theres nothing worse than buying a VL with a bonnet thats a bit hard to open (by the lever). Especially once you get it home and the first thing to break is the cable. Its a sign the bonnet needs to be re-aligned, or the catch oiled/adjusted. Oh, and super stiff rear manual windows. Means the backseat has probably had little use (yay!), but those bad boys need some serious lubrication. Before they get stuck down in the city on a Satuday night. Thats all for now. Quote: Originally Posted by tdoyle88 Check the engine and chassis number and that they match the papers. Use a fridge magnet and use it ontop of the popular rust spots, if the magnet sticks then its got no rust, if it doesnt stick then its bog. Take a whiff of the exhust, if it smells like petrol then its running rich, if it smells oily then its burning oil and might have faild rings etc. if it smells kind od like corn then it might be coolent or water getting into the exhaust and this could be a crack in the head or somthin. check for play in the steering wheel, to much slop could indicate a faulty rack r pump. go through all the electricals ie: lights, indicaors, heaters, horn, interior lights, wipers etc checking for earth problems. check the connections in the engine bay like teh cas plug, afm plug etc. check for bauldging in the radiator hoses inspect the gaskits (head, thermostat, exhasust manifold etc checking for leaks and corrosion. thats all i cant think of ALL from past expeience LOL Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

your going from an ef to a vl?

DO NOT put Solex locks on your VL. They are terrible. They stick out too far from the door, and are easily ripped/popped off.

solex locks are easy to break into it was done infront of me in about 10 seconds at a car at a wreckers!

with all that said i bought a VL SL 5spd with some mild work as my first car (touch wood) it has been great, mine has been very reliable and this site is awesome for finding info parts and tips quickly your best idea is to do alot of research before buyin one, i bougt the second car i looked at (only cos dad didnt let me buy the first) and i realise now tati probably paid too much just shop around and get a mechnics check and youll be right

the RB30 is a great engine if its been maintained and hasnt done a hole lot of kays, they run really smooth and can take lots of punishment. the borg warner diffs are pretty strong, manual boxes are good. overall they are a great car for the age, i see so many around compared to the VN's or fords of that day. I guess with any 20 year old car you just have to make sure to listen and look for obvious things when you take if for a drive (whines, squeals, clunks, leaks, smoke etc etc etc) and go from there

The car was a bucket. Has dampened my look on VL's. Noisiest car i've ever been in. Exhaust rattled on body, clutch pedal squeeked, engine would not stay alive without foot on the throttle. Rust around windscreens and lots of chips, scratches, dents. Indicators wouldn't turn off by themselves, i think it had powersteering but no belt because it was heavy as ****. Alot harder than any normal steering car. (There was a missing belt on the engine). Panels didn't line up, paint faded. Thrust bearing ****ed - he claims. Discusting engine bay, oil on rocker cover, fuel/oil mix on block. There's much more to list but i think i'll stop here. I might be going to see another VL tomorrow but its auto so i probably won't. It looked like a very good example of one but im so bored of auto's. Yeah mad_wog, im going from ef to vl. Or EF to something. My heart isn't set on a VL. I'm thinking about checking out this XF that has a few nice goodies. Thanks

get an eb 5 liter Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

that particular one sounds like a real bomb, and as for auto vl's well iv'e never driven one so i dunno i like my manual's i was lucky when i got mine, freind has an ef and i aint a fan of any fords but it drives allright and has plenty of power. why don't u look at something newer instead of downgrading from 94- 96 or watever to 86 - 88 which i think was build period on both vl's and xf's

Yeah , just basic things like rust around the front & rear windows , also check for water leaks & rust holes in the boot & tyre well areas. I've found on the standard 3 litre VL's that due to their age & the amount of kms their EFI components (such as fuel pressure regs & injectors) can leak / fail , their cam angle sensors have a reputation for failing though I've never had one go on me when my car had a single cam engine, I've also found the airflow meters are fragile and around my area, bad roads caused them to fail. For injectors , etc ,I think there are now some aftermarket units available , buy those , don't muck around with rebuilt injectors , go aftermarket for the FPR as well (the parts are a lot cheaper aftermarket as well) I no longer have that problem because my engine has an R33 RB25 head & electrics which are better , a VL makes a good donor car for the import Skyline (RB20,25,26) motors. They can also have a problem with blowing up high pressure fuel pumps, I'm told this has to do with the hose for the return line to the internal swirl pot breaking off inside the petrol tank ,this causes aeration of the high pressure pump when the fuel tank gets low due to the fact it can't maintain a head of fuel in the swirl pot. Due to VL's having high kms and being 20 years old , check the suspension bushes for wear and their strut hats (look under the bonnet at the strut towers) to see that the hats haven't collapsed / pushed up , this leads to excess neg camber , poor handling and excessive tyre wear. On takeoff , look out for tailshaft vibration , this is an indicator that the tailshaft centre bearing & / or uni joints are flogged out. Look out for a milky colour in the oil / water , this means you may have a cracked head / blown head gasket, the Nissan engine is renowned for cracking heads in the VL but I've never had one go on me , poor maintenance & an inproperly bled cooling system causes this. If the car has the original auto or manual it may be up for a rebuild , I've heard of manuals needing a rebuild every 200,000 kms and I've found the autos in them are pretty weak , we got 300,000 kms out of an auto before it needed a rebuild , we were told to leave the power button out around town. we got pissed off with the rebuilt auto because we kept having to go back and getting it fixed due to the o/drive slipping (had 2 rebuilt torque converters fitted to it), after that we did a manual conversion and it was the best thing we ever did to the car (and cost less too). Overall , the VL is a very good car , depending on how much you drive it and what's already been replaced on it , you'll get a lot of kms out of it, my VL has done nearly 500,000 kms and I bought it as a bomb at 300,000 kms (nearly 6 years ago now) but overall I've spent a little over $5000 on the car (including buying it) and I haven't had to worry about depreciation , etc as you would on a $30,000 car. But now I'm looking at getting a newer car (VY-VZ V8) for an everyday car due to the fact Holden don't supply a lot of parts for a VL.

crank angle sensors! grrrr when you take it for a test drive, dont drive it like a girl, you HAVE to drive it hard...

or you just dont buy a vl lol