Travelling through the Port Pirie in South Australia area recently we experienced a mechanical issue with out Holden Rodeo. Unannounced, we dropped into Spencer Holden Port Pirie, they dropped what they were doing to assist....initially it appeared that the Rodeo would need to stay in their workshop until parts arrived from Adelaide. Our caravan was at Crystal brook some 26 kms away.
Fortuantly we had upgraded our automobile club membership with the RACQ sometime ago, a call to the RACQ kicked into action a plan to get us back to our caravan and to communicate with the repairshop to ensure we could get going again as soon as possible.
In the meantime Spencer Holden arranged to refrigerate some groceries that we had just brought before the mechanical issue was noticed, they were also aware that there are no rental car companies in Port Pirie so they looked at alternatives, a taxi was arranged for us to go back Crystal Brook with the RACQ picking up the tab.
The story has a happy ending, we returned to Crystal Brook and after being there a short time we got a call from Spencer Holden, the mechanical issue was determined to be not as bad as thought and the Rodeo was ready to go...the caretakers of the Crystal Brook Caravan Park offered to take us back to Port Pirie.
The RACQ rang us later to ensure everything was ok.
Some comments;, if you have a Holden and you must break down, do so in Port Pirie South Australia, if you would like to stay in a lovely little caravan park, pick Crystal Brook on the Goyder Highway and ensure you upgrade your auto club membership to 'UltraCare' with the RACQ before leaving Queensland.
Thanks go in particular to Karma from Spencer Holden, Pt Pirie
Good to hear a good word for my beloved S.A. I had a similar experience a few years back. After sailing a yacht from North Haven to Port Vincent we discovered a throttle bracket on the engine had broken. It needed a brazing weld so we found the nearest garage. For $10 cash they stopped what they were doing and did the job there and then.
You know we get heaps of ''bad stories; about people and service, and some probaly justified ????? However I am of the belief that the ;;good stories;; of good people and good service, are much more Abundant, So it is great to read your positive story, Thank You,
PS, Being a Colarado owner [ 2011 factory duel/fuel '] do you mind saying what the problem was ??? dazren
Wow, Paul and Pam that was great all round service. A tad different to my RACV experience earlier this year. I have made a note of the CV Park, I have also made a note of the Holden dealer although no good to me now it might in the future as I do like the new Colarado so who knows there might be one in my driveway one day.
Dazren, I heard they found a wombat stuck in the exhaust pipe.
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Welcome Paul and Pam. We also had a good news story while in South Australia with our car. Another person we spioke to didn't but after talking to him for a while we soon agreed it was probably the way he spoke to the car service people! We have always found that being 'nice' gets you much further than being 'nasty'. Good to hear you had such a good experience. We were glad we had NRMA cover too.
Hi all...no, the problem was not a wombat stuck up the tailpipe..lol.
Ok, here is what happened; On Friday we decided we would all go in our Rodeo to Port Pirie, 26 km away, to get supplies and look aroundPt Pirie is quite a big town, has a deep water port and handles a lot of the states wheat via monster silos.
Anyway, we were just leaving the shopping centre when I could hear a ticking noise coming from under the bonnet..the noise was not dissimilar to a high tension plug lead short circuitingwe lifted the bonnet and by touching the top of one of the rocker covers I could actually feel a faint tapping! Fortunately Pt Pirie, like many rural towns has a Holden Dealership, in we went, very friendly staff there and they dropped everything to assist, the workshop foreman stuck his head under the bonnet and said something that few car owners ever want to hear a workshop foreman say: That cant be good..lol.the nice Service Advisor took the frozen foods that we had just purchased and placed them in their freezer while we took a walk around Pt Pirie and the Rodeo disappeared into the workshop.
We found the SA version of the RACQ, the RAA, and using their equipment I rang the RACQ as we have UltraCare road side cover for both the Rodeo and caravan, yes, we are entitled to a rental car and they would stand by ready to help.
A short time later the Holden place rang, not good news, it appears that a spark plug had come loose, the tapping we could feel was actually the top of No 6 plug that had worked itself almost all the way out and was in contact with the cover, still operating normally howeverthat didnt sound too bad, tighten it up and away we go, right?.not so..as the spark plug worked its way loose, over a period of time, the thread in the alloy cylinder head became damaged!...it could not be tightened properly lest it would tear out the small amount of thread that remained. Two options available, they could rethread the head and insert a helicoil (a thread replacement device), although they have done this previously they have not always been successful given the restrictive access under the bonnet. Option two, remove the head repair and replace, an expensive job.
Incidentally the workshop foreman told me that it appeared that the spark plug had not been properly tightened when installed, odd as this engine uses platinum sparkplugs that are good for 100,000km, they have been in there almost 50,000km so that remains a mystery, they checked the other five and found one other loose also. Spark plug re-tensioning is not normally a service book item, perhaps it should be.
Obviously we went for option one but accepted that we would be probably be without the car over the weekend, in the meantime the RACQ had been in contact with the Holden Dealership and agreed that it would probably require them to have the car for in excess of 24hrs, hence the RACQ would arrange a rental car and we could return to the caravan park and come back when the car Rodeo was repaired. Port Pirie used to have two car rental companies but both had closed up shop and left town!..the closet rental car was in Pt Augusta, some 140 km away!!..while the RACQ would pick up the tab for the car rental, getting the car to Pt Pirie and back to Pt Augusta would be our problem, $150 each way!!! Our only alternative was to get a taxi!...$65 to Crystal Brook, wait for the repairs to be done and get a taxi back again, the RACQ said they would pick up the tab. So, home we went, by taxi, had only been there 20 minutes and ring, ring the Holden Dealer service manager rings and tells me that option one was successful and the car has been road tested and is ready to collect!!...we chatted to the Crystal Brook caravan park caretakers and they told us that they would take us into Pt Pirie in the morning. This story is almost all over, collected car on Saturday morning and everything is ok, except that while it ran perfectly on petrol it would not run on autogas!!..got it home and a quick check under the bonnet found that a gas hose had not been replaced!!.all is well now and this story concludes. Note that this issue relates to the 3.5L Isuzu petrol engine, later models may be different. Note also that the Crystal Brook caravan park has recently been taken over by new caretakers, Lyn and Steve, they assisted with the issue above and we wish them well in running this nice little caravan park.
Paul and Pam, currently in Berri tourist caravan park, Berri South Australia.
Good for you. The Crystal Brook Caravan Park is a lovely little spot and, as you found, the managers are very friendly and helpful. Several nomads had a gathering there earlier this year, and they couldn't do enough to make our stay happy, with the SES doing the catering. I haven't been in to Pirie for a while, but the Mobil Roadhouse known as The Tin Man is a friendly little stop on the highway, for fuel and a feed. I had an issue with a low beam headlight a couple of weeks ago, which was brought to my attention by the Police Lady who pulled me over, south of Pt. Augusta. So I pulled into the roadhouse, and with the assistance of the girls, well one of them, I found the globe I needed. The other girl drives a high performance sedan, but doesn't have a clue what colour it is. It's the cause of many laughs between the 3 of us whenever I pull in. The other girl is right into cars, and I'm a bit of a diesel-head myself. Broooom, brooooom! A helpful customer, with really long, strong fingers helped to remove and replace the blown globe. So I pull in there every trip now, for fuel and/or a feed. The meals are nice, and the lasagne is highly recommended, and the atmosphere is always happy. The BP just south of there is also a good place for a feed and fuel. I've had good experiences with both.
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20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
Cruising Granny, totally agree that the Crystal Brook, Port Pirie area of South Australia is a lovely place to visit, tho next time we will pick a better time of the year to be there. Just one thing, the Crystal Brook caravan park was a council park but it was taken over just recently by the Crystal Brook community, the caretakers, Steve and Lyn, have only been there since June of this year. This small park, straddling the Crystal brook, has no fancy facilities, no swimming pool, not even a playground. it is an easy stroll to the town, a town of just 1200 that seems to have decided to stay back in the sixties, it is the type of caravan park that many Grey Nomads search for.
Even the Crystal Brook 'Boot hill' deserves a mention, this little cemetery, with graves dating back to the 1870's, has a noticeboard at the gates, every grave, named with a map showing its location and date is listed. Crystal Brook is on the Goyder Highway which roughly follows Goyders Line, from our school days we will all remember Goyders Line right?....if not Mr. Google is your friend..:)
if you would like to stay in a lovely little caravan park, pick Crystal Brook on the Goyder Highway and ensure you upgrade your auto club membership to 'UltraCare' with the RACQ before leaving Queensland.
You know we get heaps of ''bad stories; about people and service, and some probaly justified ????? However I am of the belief that the ;;good stories;; of good people and good service, are much more Abundant, So it is great to read your positive story, Thank You,
