Ask The Guide

The law in Queensland suggests (because it’s not totally clear from the website) that you can fit larger wheels, although I couldn’t find a definitive limit to how much bigger you could go. But, the rules also state that the overall diameter of a replacement tyre on a car like the GLC 220d can be no more than 15mm more than the tyres fitted as standard to that car. So, while that suggest you could go up to 22-inch wheels (from the standard 20-inch wheels) the tyres fitted to them would have to be a much lower profile to keep within that 15mm diameter increase requirement.

This would have a fairly big impact on the cost of the tyres when you need to replace them, but also on ride quality as you’d be sacrificing a lot of sidewall flex with the lower-profile rubber. And there are other considerations: The replacement tyres can not be more than 1.3 times as wide as the standard tyres, must not protrude from the wheel arch at the straight-ahead and must maintain speedometer accuracy.

The best advice is to buy the new wheels and tyres through a proper tyre specialist who will be able to give you the full story on what’s legal, what’s not and what’s advisable. Plenty of car owners have discovered the hard way that the wrong replacement wheels and tyres can ruin the driving experience.

A cracked turbocharger intake pipe is a pretty common problem as this tubing has to withstand high temperatures and the force of the turbo’s boost. You really wouldn’t bother trying to fix this, and a replacement piece of tubing is the proper fix.

Just make sure you get the right piece of tubing as there are different pipes of different shapes that run between the turbocharger and intercooler, and the intercooler and the engine. It’s quite possible to change these yourself, but modern engine bays can be pretty tight and you might find it’s a fiddlier job than you imagined.

While you’re in there, check the condition of the clamps that secure the tubing, too. You may wish to replace them at the same time. I’ve seen replacement pipe kits for anywhere from $200 to $300 for this make and model. Online sellers are plentiful, but conventional parts stores should also be able to help you out.

A lot of people think that a car that is switched off and locked won’t be draining its battery at all. But that’s not the case. Electronic equipment often imposes a constant drain on the car’s battery, and things like the stereo (for keeping stored radio frequencies) and any alarm system can create a constant draw on the battery. And when you think about it, even the remote central locking needs to be 'alive' all the time so that it can identify and act on your command to open the doors and prepare the car to be started.

However, I wouldn’t expect a nearly new car battery to be unable to survive a single week of not being driven. So maybe there’s something else going on. It could even be that the battery itself is faulty and not holding a charge as it should.

I’d be talking to the dealership as a fault with, say, a luggage area light staying on or any other piece of equipment not switching off when it should, is potentially a warranty claim. Just don’t expect Isuzu to cover the cost of a new battery. Like tyres and brake pads, batteries are considered consumables and are generally not covered by a new-car warranty. Although if it’s an electrical fault on the car that has caused the death of the battery, I reckon it’s an arguable case.

That’s quite a broad range of abilities you’ve listed there. Both the Jeep and the Land Rover are pretty serious off-roaders while, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio is an SUV that really has no pretenses to working on a bush track.

None of this trio would be cheap to service, and modern turbo-diesel engines really do need their maintenance to remain reliable. In terms of industry reputation, the Jeep has a background of electrical and build-quality problems, while the Land Rover and Alfa Romeo also have their share of quality glitches. Many owners put up with this stuff, but if you’re going to head seriously outback, there are probably better choices.

The other part of the equation is what happens when you wish to sell the vehicle in a few years. Frankly, all three of these cars will be a reasonable bet to suffer plenty of depreciation although, to be fair, a 2021 version of each will already have done some of that.

The last decade of dual-cab four-wheel-drive utes have emerged as the tow-vehicles of choice, and you see them everywhere filling roles exactly like the one you have planned. Popular models include the Ford Ranger you’ve nominated, Toyota HiLux, Mazda BT-50, VW Amarok, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Isuzu D-Max. But there are also cheaper alternatives including makes like the South-Korean made Ssangyong and various Chinese brands like LDV and Great Wall.

Just make sure you know exactly how much you need to tow before making a decision as some of the cheaper models don’t have the same outright towing capacity and even if they do, some of them don’t have the engine performance to make towing as easy as it should be. For parts availability, the Toyota would be king in really remote areas, but any of the major brands are pretty well covered in Australia.

Meantime, don’t rule out ute-based wagons such as the Ford Everest, Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Toyota Fortuna. These offer better ride comfort when unladen thanks to more sophisticated rear suspensions and most have as much or almost as much towing capacity as their ute brethren.

You’ve paid for a car with a factory warranty, so make the most of it. The first step is to have Kia look at the car, listen to the noise it’s making and come up with a plan from there. Convincing the dealership mechanic that there’s a noise that shouldn’t be there might be difficult, but you could also have the car independently inspected (try your state motoring club) the noise noted in writing, and present that to Kia as a way of proving there’s a problem.

In our experience, Kia has been pretty good at getting this stuff right and keeping its customers happy. So start with the dealership and if that doesn’t work, you can contact Kia’s Australian customer service department. After that, it’s a job for the ACCC, but it shouldn’t come to that.

The bottom line, however, is that this car is (or should be) still under factory warranty, so it’s Kia’s problem to sort out; a process that should not cost you anything.

A noise or vibration that is engine speed dependent is usually associated with the driveline, while a similar problem that occurs at a particular road speed is more often a problem with a wheel or suspension component. The main exception to that is the differential which is part of the driveline but determines the vehicle’s speed, so can contribute a speed-dependent noise or vibration, too.

Beyond that, you could be looking at a fault with a wheel bearing, a deformed tyre, bent rim, worn suspension bush, bent axle or suspension arm or pretty much anything else. A rolling-road dynamometer (kind of like a treadmill for cars) might be one way of achieving the problem speed while a mechanic looks and listens on.

Anything is possible… provided you’re prepared to pay for it. It would certainly be technically possible to convert a Sprinter van to dual rear wheels, but you’d need to source a rear axle that both mounted the dual wheels as well as being compatible with the van’s existing suspension and braking systems. Perhaps there’s a version of the Sprinter (perhaps sold overseas) that would be a donor for such a thing, but you might need to look further afield to find the bits and pieces necessary for the conversion.

But even if you can physically make it all work, there’d be a significant cost in getting the modified vehicle re-engineered (and tested) to ensure that it was still safe to drive on public roads. Until then, the van would not legally be roadworthy. You might also find that your insurance company would take a fairly conservative view of such a conversion, too.

I think you’d need to budget several thousand dollars for such a project. Assuming the conversion was to increase the van’s payload, you might find that simply buying a different vehicle with the payload you require might be the simpler, cheaper route. Also, a Sprinter converted to dual wheels might be more difficult to unload when it’s time to trade up to a new vehicle.

For a start, don’t drive the vehicle any farther or even start the engine. The car is trying to tell you that it has insufficient oil pressure to properly protect the engine, and continuing to run it will quickly destroy it (if it hasn’t already).

There are many reasons for a car to suffer from low oil pressure, including a too-low oil level, the wrong grade or type of oil, a failed oil pump or a blocked oil filter. Even an overheated engine can cause the oil to become too thin for the oil pump to be able to supply the required oil pressure.

It’s also important not to confuse oil pressure with oil level. The amount of oil in the sump can be perfectly correct, but the engine may still lack oil pressure. Have the car towed to a workshop and have the problem properly diagnosed.

The good thing about modern stereo systems is that they’re (mostly) a universal size so that you can literally take your pick of the unit you decide to fit. So it will come down to your budget and your requirements.

A good upgrade is a unit with Bluetooth connectivity so you can wirelessly connect your phone to access navigation, music and other apps. But don’t forget that the head unit is just part of the stereo system, and you may need to upgrade the car’s speakers to take full advantage of the new stereo.