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Oil consumption problem with a 2017 Hyundai i30

Hyundai has had a few problems over the years with some of its engines developing piston slap, scoring cylinder bores and consuming excess oil. The later engine fitted to your car should be better, but it seems perhaps the problem is still occurring in some cars.

The reality is that two litres of engine consumed over just 1200km is way beyond the pale. I would be contacting Hyundai Australia's customer service division to see what can be done. The company's response will have a lot to do with how many kilometres the car has covered and whether its service history is complete. But in my experience, Hyundai takes its responsibilities in this area very seriously.

How long should an oil pump for a 2013 Ford Ranger PX last?

The original vane-type oil pump fitted to the 2.2 and 3.2-litre PX Ranger engines was a source of great misery for some owners with failures and a peculiar oil-changing regime forced upon owners. If the gear-driven style pump you've replaced it with is a good quality item, it should last the remainder of the vehicle's service life.

Servicing issues with a 2019 Subaru XV

It's true that suspension bushes, like brake pads, batteries and tyres are subject to normal wear and tear and, therefore, are generally not covered by a new-car warranty. And, to be honest, I don't think almost 50,000km is an outrageous interval for replacing front suspension bushes on a front-wheel-drive car. It's not brilliant, but not terrible.

But it would be worth going over the dealership's head and speaking directly to Subaru Australia's customer service department to see if it would be interested in helping out with the cost of repairs. You should point out that the car has always been serviced by Subaru and that the problem occurred within the warranty period. Meantime, driving style can affect the life of components like these and (just like tyres) if you corner fast and drive on rough roads, anything will wear out faster.

Headlight problems with a 2018 Mitsubishi Triton

Diagnosing electrical problems remotely is a hiding to nowhere, but conventional wisdom says the wiring, earths and related switches are the first place to start. But modern vehicles also rely on body computers to control some of these functions, so that's worth a check, too.

I can only hope you raised and logged this issue with Mitsubishi when it first started happening. If you did, you have what's called a pre-existing condition under the factory warranty terms. If the problem first surfaced five years ago, that would place the flickering occurring from about 2019. Which means, as a 2018 vehicle, it would have been covered by the Mitsubishi warranty. Even if the car subsequently runs out of warranty, a pre-existing condition is still legally required to be fixed by the car's manufacturer.

Towing capacity differences between automatic and manual Holden Crewman

No, the manual and automatic versions of the Crewman are rated to tow up to 1600kg and 2500kg respectively with a braked trailer. This is to protect the clutch of the manual versions which could easily be damaged trying to tow the automatic's 2500kg.

It's generally accepted that the more progressive take-up from rest of an automatic transmission makes it the better solution for a tow-car in the first place. And that extends beyond any single make or model.

I am losing power when accelerating in my 2020 LDV T60 Trailrider

Any time the engine revs up but the car doesn't go any faster, you're a fair chance to have an issue with either the automatic transmission or the clutch in a manual car.

If an automatic doesn't accelerate when you give it some throttle, our suspicions would be with either the torque converter, something inside the transmission itself or the unit is low on transmission fluid. If a manual car does the same thing, it's usually a poorly adjusted or worn out clutch that is slipping, allowing the engine to rev up, but not transfer that power to the wheels.

Your car would have come with a five-year/130,000km warranty, so if it hasn't exceeded that kilometre limit, it should still be under factory cover. So make sure LDV fixes it as per the warranty terms and conditions.

Knocking noise in 2015 Nissan X-Trail diesel engine

There's often a disparity between what a car is insured for and what it might be worth on the second-hand market. In any case, with a worn out engine, its market value would be next to nothing anyway. And with 290,000km on its odometer, you might have trouble finding a buyer willing to take a punt.

That said, even if you put a low-kilometre second-hand engine in it, the fact remains that everything else from the transmission to the wheel bearings, brakes and suspension have also done 290,000km and can be pretty much guaranteed to be fairly worn themselves. You could then find yourself shelling out more money every year to keep the car running on the basis that you'd already spent $10,0000 on a replacement engine. Sometimes it's better to cut your losses and buy something newer.

Losing power in my 2016 Ford Everest

It sounds like your diagnosis that the vehicle went into Safe or limp-home mode is spot on. Being fully loaded and travelling at speed up a long hill on a super-hot day could certainly be enough to make the car enter limp-home mode for its own preservation. This is confirmed by the fact that after a break and downhill run, the temperature stabilised and the car came back to full functionality.

Modern turbo-diesel engines make lots of power and torque these days, but they do that by burning fuel and that creates heat. You might also find that the limp-home mode initiation was at the behest of the transmission which would also be damaged if it got too hot.

Car-makers have designed these limp-home modes to protect the vehicle from permanent damage in severe operating conditions, and in your car, it seems to have done its job perfectly. The only unknown is whether the limp-home mode was initiated by the conditions or something actually wrong with the vehicle. It would be wise to have it checked over to make sure the cooling, fuel-injection and transmission systems don’t have a separate problem that is causing the Everest to enter Safe mode.

The speed alarm in my 2023 Kia Cerato GT keens sounding

This is a really common type of question here at CarsGuide. It seems a lot of car-makers are using these speed warning systems and, in many cases, they’re more of an annoyance than a help.

In your Kia, speed sign recognition which is part of the adaptive cruise-control feature is the culprit. When the car’s cameras spot a speed sign, they compare that info with how fast the car is actually going (sometimes using co-ordinate information from the sat-nav as well). Sometimes, however, the sign detected relates to a side-street or roadworks on a side street, giving you a false alarm. Either way, not everybody likes this warning system.

There’s good news and bad news in the case of your car, Steve. The good news is that you can go into the menu system, select Driver Assistance, then Vehicle Settings, then Speed Alert, and you should find an Off setting that should disable the warning. The bad news is, you have to do this every time you start the car, because the default setting is On.

Perhaps the dealer can suggest a way of turning it off permanently since it appears as though a software update at your first service has enabled the system since you bought the car.

Unknown alarm ringing in my 2005 Jaguar S

You’ve probably hit the nail on the head, and it is a seat-belt warning you’re hearing. Even though you may have the belt properly fastened, if the sensor that is supposed to detect the seat-belt being latched is not working, then the car will think you’re driving around unrestrained.

Jaguars of this era were not universally known for the quality of their electronics, so it’s very possible that this is precisely the problem. The catch then is that you need to check each seat-belt for a dud sensor, and there are five of them in the S Type. Other things that could trigger the same sort of alarm could be that the park-brake is not fully released or that there’s a door or bootlid ajar. Check it all and rule things out one by one.

Disclaimer: You acknowledge and agree that all answers are provided as a general guide only and should not be relied upon as bespoke advice. Carsguide is not liable for the accuracy of any information provided in the answers.
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