LDV Reviews

You should take this vehicle straight back to the dealership you bought it from. But be careful, because a car with a throttle that doesn’t want to return to idle is a very dangerous thing to drive. Trailering it might be a better idea, since a sixth random throttle-jam might not end so harmlessly.

At the very least, you’ll be placing terrible strain on the engine by allowing it to rev up when you’re trying to stop, but the greater danger is that the engine might overcome the force of the brakes, making your stopping distances much greater. It’s easy to see how this could be a problem in an emergency stop situation.

The problem itself is likely to be within the throttle-by-wire system, and could be caused by a wiring fault, bad or dirty sensor or a hardware problem.

It sounds as though your first step should be to try another LDV dealership. It seems a pretty long stretch to assume that a coolant leak on to a fuel pump is causing a limp-home mode situation. Of course, if enough coolant escaped, it could conceivably allow the engine to run hot and cause a limp-home situation, but that still wouldn’t explain the fuel leak problem. And regardless, if there’s a coolant leak then it also needs to be fixed.

Another option is to have the car independently inspected (which you have already done) and get the mechanic’s diagnosis in writing. Your state motoring club is also potentially able to offer a professional opinion on where the fuel leak is coming from. From there, you can contact LDV Australia’s customer service department and ask for the problem to be sorted out.

If you don’t do any good at that stage, the ACCC is your next step.

Meantime, you haven’t told me what model LDV you have, but if it’s a Deliver 9, this vehicle was subject to a safety recall to check for a fuel line that may have been incorrectly manufactured and could lead to a fuel leak. Has this possibility been followed up?

It’s very possible that the continuous clicking noise you can hear is the central locking trying to lock the vehicle but, for some reason, not achieving the desired result. That could be because there’s a misalignment between the bits that actually physically do the locking. If these aren’t aligned correctly, they can’t physically interlock and lock the vehicle. And when that happens, they keep trying which causes the continuous noise you’re hearing.

But the cause could also be a problem with the car’s body computer. This computer is responsible for all sorts of tasks including the stereo, air-conditioning, wipers, lights and, of course, the central locking. If the computer loses the plot it can easily convince itself that the car is unlocked and needs to be locked. Over and over again.

However, the body computer also takes its cues from a variety of sensors around the car, including little switches in the central locking to tell it that the car is locked or unlocked. If one of these fails you could get similar symptoms.

But before any of that – and it sounds pretty basic – walk around the car and make sure all the doors, windows and engine cover are closed properly, as a slightly open window or ajar door will often confuse a central locking system.