If the fluid in question was fuel, you have a petrol leak and a big opportunity for the engine to catch fire. If it was water, it could be condensation from the atmosphere or perhaps even residual water from when you last washed the car. If not, the water could have come from the car’s cooling system, at which point you have a coolant leak and that needs to be fixed before the engine overheats. If the fluid was oil, suspicions would be a leaking rocker cover gasket.

Fundamentally, there shouldn’t be any unexplained fluids in the engine bay or on the engine, and if there are, something is probably leaking. By the way, the fluid you notice could have actually been the cause of the misfire; spark plugs can misfire if they’re in contact with water or, especially, oil.

My money’s on the fluid, indeed, being oil. The park plugs on this engine are located deep inside the rocker cover. Any leak from the gasket on that cover allows the oil to pool in the spark plug tube, which means it’s a fair chance this is the cause of your misfire, too.

Let me guess: Your car is white, yes? This has been a real problem, not just for Holden, but also Toyota, Kia, Hyundai and even Honda (and possibly others) around the world. The problem is a chemical one in the white paint being used and it leads to delamination of the paint layers, with the white top coat either flaking, chipping or peeling off in great swathes.

Even some other colours have been noted succumbing to this process, but white seems to be the worst offender. Whether the problem is with the car’s preparation at the factory a function of a poor batch of paint from the supplier isn’t really known, but the finger is being pointed at the latter. Either way, it effectively destroys the resale value of your car as well as laying the car’s structure open to the elements.

The best advice is to contact Holden’s customer service department and perhaps even have the car professionally inspected (your state motoring club is a good place to start here). In the past, carmakers have been known to repaint affected cars at their own cost which, given your car’s garage history, shouldn’t be out of the question.

There are literally hundreds of reasons for a modern car to simply refuse to start. However, there’s one way to perhaps tell if the starter motor is the problem or not: When you turn the key, does the engine crank over? If it does, regardless of whether it starts or not, then the starter motor would appear to be fine.

If the engine doesn’t crank, the starter motor might still be okay, but you might have a flat battery or an electrical problem. Even a problem with the automatic gear selector (in the switch that that prevents the engine being started in gear) can cause a no-crank situation even though the starter motor itself is fine.

A good mechanic should be able to run a few tests and figure out pretty quickly what’s going on and what’s wrong. They will check the fuel system, ignition system and, of course, the starting system, and work it out from there.