Ask The Guide

First things first: You new-car warranty is set down in Australian law, and the ACCC has pretty firm views of how warranties should work when conflicts arise between owners and car companies. So that’s one less thing to worry about.

But I would definitely recommend finding some way to ensure the service handbook is filled out correctly as this will directly affect the resale value of the car when you decide to trade-up. As a rule of thumb, the new-car warranty (and whatever roadside assistance is offered) should start on the day the car is registered. Usually, that’s the day the car is delivered to its new owner or, in the case of your car being an ex-demo, the first day it was registered as the dealership demonstrator.

I can understand why LDV is staying a bit quiet on this one. The fact is, you’ve modified the vehicle from standard, and LDV has absolutely no idea of the exact changes you’ve made. That makes it very difficult for LDV to comment. You’re probably going to get a more informed opinion by talking to the company that carried out the camper conversion. They may have seen this happen before and have a solution ready made.

As for the actual problem, even though you’re still within the Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) limits, you might find that the weight of your conversion is not evenly spread across the front and rear axles. Placing heavy stuff at the rear of the van will inevitably compress the rear springs. It’s just a question of how much. Don’t forget to weigh the vehicle with all your camping and gear on board and the fuel and water tanks full, too, as this is how you’ll be travelling. Which means loaded up like that represents your real GVM.

Possible solutions include a firmer set of rear springs that will cope with the load better, or even a set of helper springs (possibly air bags) to assist the standard springs. Either way, these modifications need to be carried out by a specialist and may even need engineering approval to remain legal on the road.

The problem here could literally be a thousand different things. You may have a different fuel problem than simply a blocked filter (injectors, pumps etc) or you might even be looking at an electrical or electronic problem with a sensor or computer module. What you need to do is have the vehicle electronically scanned to see if the on-bord computer has logged any problems that will guide the mechanic to the cause.

The other thing you could try would be to run the car on LPG and see what happens. If it runs perfectly on LPG but still struggles on petrol, you’d be very tempted to think the problem is indeed in the petrol fuel system.

A VW dealership can carry out a test that will reveal whether there’s wear in the transmission’s clutch packs. Based on the result of this test, the question of whether the transmission is within tolerance or not should be pretty black and white. If you’re still not happy, have the vehicle independently inspected (your state motoring club is a good place to start) for a second opinion.

While you should not be fobbed off by the dealership, it’s true this type of transmission can take some acclimatisation on the part of the driver. We’re not saying you should have to learn how to drive again, but these dual-clutch transmissions can take a little technique if you’re to get the best from them. However, when a characteristic transitions into an actual problem, you need to be on top of it.

This problem is more common than you might imagine and applies to a lot of different makes and models. It’s a simple cases of physics, in the end: The petrol is being pumped into the filler neck at a decent rate, sometimes enough for some splash-back to occur as the fuel hits the side of the filler neck and bounces around.

The problem will be much worse if the filler neck can’t 'breathe' (air has to leave the tank for fuel to get in - physics again) so make sure there are no blocked breather lines or holes inside the top of the filler neck.

Beyond that, the best advice is to try turning the fuel nozzle, say, 45 degrees each way from vertical to see if that lands the fuel in a more agreeable place in the filler neck. Either that or you’re stuck with trickling the fuel into the car at a slower rate (the rate of flow of the nozzle is adjustable according to how far you pull it).

This vehicle is one of the few (thanks to the age of the basic design) to have stuck with conventional hydraulic power steering versus the newer, more efficient electric power steering systems now available. As such, the power steering in the T60 is driven by a belt turned by the engine.

When you apply full lock to the steering, this loads the pump sufficiently to actually slow the engine down. When that happens, the engine’s vibration frequency changes and your ears hear that as a rumble or vibration.

This could be because the pump or something else inside the system is worn and contributing a greater load to the engine, or the belt is out of adjustment or alignment. Perhaps you simply have too little air pressure in the front tyres which is loading the system up when you turn the wheel. Beyond that, a small adjustment to the engine’s idle speed should stop this occurring.

Toyota (and other car-makers, including Hyundai) have had a dreadful run with some batches of cars, particularly those painted white. It seems there was a batch of paint that had a problem with its actual chemistry that meant the various layers of primer, undercoat and top coat did not bond properly, allowing the white top-coat to peel or flake off.

If that’s the case, you could have a paint expert (perhaps at an independent panel beating shop, or your state motoring club) examine the car to determine if that’s the cause of the rust problem (possible if the paint is not protecting the metal as it should). If you can prove that the rust is a result of this common paint problem, it’s fair to suggest that Toyota should fix it, particularly if the car is still under warranty.

If your Toyota dealer won’t play ball, talk to Toyota Australia’s customer service division. Beyond that, the ACCC may take an interest in the case if the factory paint quality can be proved to be the problem.

If yours is a vehicle with the rotary knob that selects four-wheel-drive (rather than the old fashioned gear-stick method) then you might have a faulty or poorly adjusted switch. While these electronic switching systems were deemed to be an improvement for the driver, many find that the switches sometimes refuse to effect the desired gear or drive-mode selection which, if you suddenly find yourself needing to engage four-wheel-drive in a hurry, can be frustrating to say the least.

You may find some contact-cleaning spray might clean the switch up, but you may also need to remove the rotary switch to either clean it or replace it.

If the problem is not with the switch itself, you may have some other kind of electrical glitch or maybe even a mechanical engagement problem with the transfer-case.

Any commercial vehicle as old as this one must be checked carefully for condition as there’s a fair chance that one or more previous owners has used it as its maker intended. If that’s the case, it might have had a pretty hard life.

Check the maintenance handbook and make sure the vehicle hasn’t suffered skipped servicing or other routine maintenance. An overall check can tell you lots, too. Is the tray battered and scratched? Is there a huge tow-bar assembly hanging off the back? Is the vehicle fitted with a winch and rock sliders? All these things point to plenty of hardcore use and may affect the amount of life left in the thing. Which is another way of saying that any commercial vehicle of a certain age must be assessed on its individual merits rather than any rules of thumb.

This could be a rattle or vibration caused by any number of things, and very possibly to do with general wear and tear. That fact that the vibration goes away when you accelerate or take the strain off the driveline, it’s possibly down to some movement in an engine mount, transmission mount, exhaust or heat shield. But since such harmonics can travel right through the whole car, it could even be a piece of interior trim or fitting that’s rattling and vibrating.

Selecting fourth gear (overdrive in the Micra) at just 60km/h means the engine would be turning very slowly, and this is when the harmonics created would be the most noticeable. Also, the Micra’s engine is a three cylinder which is inherently a bit more vibey than some other layouts. It’s probably just a characteristic of the car rather than an actual problem. The solution is probably to use the overdrive lock-out and hold the car in third gear until you’re travelling fast enough for the vibration not to appear.