Ask The Guide

This sounds a lot like a faulty ignition barrel or an electronic key that has a semi-flat battery. A worn barrel can often prevent the necessary contacts meeting to complete the ignition circuit and, likewise, an electronic key without sufficient power can also give these symptoms as it struggles to enable the ignition. This can be a very hit and miss thing, which is just how you've described it.

So check the condition of the battery inside the key and perhaps the condition of the car's battery as well. If the situation gets worse, a trip to the auto electrician is probably in order. At least your STS model has a relatively conventional ignition key set-up, rather than the push-button, proximity key of the SSS model which brings another layer of complexity to this function.

Assuming there's nothing wrong with the engine causing it to lose power under load, this sounds like a case of the conditions causing the engine to struggle. Soft sand has a lot of friction and this literally grabs the tyres, causing the engine to load up and revs to fall. It's like a big, invisible hand grabbing the wheel and stopping it from turning freely. As you apply more power to counter this, the engine revs up, the wheels spin and the vehicle sinks even further into the sand and the cycle starts over again. Some cars with sensitive throttles are more prone this.

Experienced sand drivers know that the solution to this is to make the vehicle 'float' over the sand, rather than bulldoze through it. The best way to do that is to lower your tyre pressures. This allows the tread to 'bag out' and produce a larger footprint. And a bigger tread surface means more chance of staying on top of the sand rather than buried in it. It sounds simple but it really does work. Think of it as the difference between standing on thin ice in a pair of flat shoes versus stilettos.

How much pressure should you drop. We'd go from the usual on-road tyre pressures to about 18psi as a first step and then 15psi if the conditions are still causing problems. In extreme cases, you can go right down to 12 or even 10psi provided you're careful and keep your speed down. Don't forget to re-inflate the tyres once you're back on the bitumen.

Beyond that, if the problem is engine related, then a scan at your dealership should throw up a code to guide the mechanic on what's wrong. The vehicle is under warranty, so don't be backward in coming forward.

Unfortunately, because your car was delivered before May 1 2018, it's only covered by Ford's three-year warranty, which, of course, has expired. New Fords delivered after that 2018 cut-off were covered by an longer, five-year warranty, but that's not much use to you.

The best thing you can do is tackle Ford Australia's customer service department to see if they're open to covering part of the cost of repairs on a pro-rata basis. This is a sometimes a possibility if the vehicle is only just out of warranty or has covered very low kilometres with a full service history. But in your case, I wouldn't be holding my breath.

Problems like these are hard to diagnose remotely, as there's a lot going on in a modern gearbox. But, conventional wisdom suggests that a noise followed by a series of failures of the same component (the oil seal) means something inside is bent or damaged.

The noise is potentially being caused by something misaligned and rubbing or a damaged bearing, and the blown oil seal is the eventual result of the damage/swarf/heat/friction that results. The other possibility is that the rear gearbox seal is being destroyed from the other end of things, as in the tailshaft. A bent tailshaft could set up harmonics, friction or vibrations that could kill the seal, but you'd imagine there'd be a vibration through the whole vehicle at speed if this was the case.

Your vehicle is under warranty (six years of it from new) so make sure the dealer is aware of the problem and their obligation to fix it.

After being hauled over the coals for its handling of this transmission-failure fiasco (and fined millions of dollars by the ACCC) Ford Australia is taking subsequent cases of Powershift transmission failure on a case-by-case basis. Consideration will be given to the kilometres the vehicle has travelled and whether there was an extended warranty with it, among other things.

The best advice in your case is to sidestep the dealer and go straight to Ford's customer service department and spell out the situation. You might find there's some redress after all. There are no guarantees, of course, but Ford Australia is painfully aware of its responsibilities in this area, so it's definitely worth a shot.

I'm curious to know what happened when the hill-start assistance kicked in on the flat. Since this system holds the car on a hill so you can move off easily, it should deactivate as soon as you press the throttle to move. Which means, on a flat surface, you shouldn't be able to feel the system at all. Are you sure this is what's happening. Could the problem instead be a brake caliper that is sticking on, or a hand-brake that is dragging?

In any case, the hill-start system is controlled by sensors that detect that you're parked on a slope and then apply the brakes to stop you rolling back. If any of these sensors is kaput or not sending the correct signal back to the computer, the set-up won't work properly. Conceivably it could engage on the flat but, again, I don't know how you would know.

But the solution is a simple one; take the vehicle to a Holden dealer who will be able to figure out what's wrong and then fix the problem under warranty. Your car is covered by a five-year warranty, so make the most of it.

By the way, disconnecting safety gear is not the best way to go as it can (obviously) make the car less inherently safe and, in some, cases even render the vehicle technically unroadworthy.

You could well be on the right track here. Many cars with transmission coolers place them in the car's radiator so that the liquid that cools the engine, also cools the transmission. But if the transmission cooler fails, that can allow transmission fluid into the car's coolant system which might account for the oil you're seeing in your coolant bottle. Many mis-diagnose this as a blown head gasket because the outward symptoms are very similar.

If this is the case, the bad news is that coolant has probably also entered the transmission potentially wrecking the mechanical parts and frying the electronic bits.

Your owner's manual should give you a bit of insight here, but often, functions such as these can be turned on and off via menus within the car's infotainment system or its switchgear.

What's probably happened is that the car's battery has been disconnected at some point during the servicing procedure and the car has reverted to what's known as factory settings. If there's no provision for turning the warning buzzer back on, I'd take it back to the servicing workshop, as something has been altered to disable the buzzer.

It's less common than it once was, but still not unknown for a particular car to be more problematic than the ones that came off the production line either side of it. Presumably, you've just been unlucky and got lumped with the car that had dud components from the start. Hopefully, though, replacing those parts will be a permanent fix.

LDV vehicles are definitely built to a price, and overall quality, materials and fit and finish are not as good as some better-known brands. But, like any of the Chinese manufacturers, LDV's quality is on the up and the later the build-date, the better. Perhaps that's why your partner's newer LDV has been more reliable.

The best advice is to keep a very close eye on the vehicle and make a note of anything that seems amiss. Then, take these potential faults up with the dealership you use as a way of alerting them to any pre-existing conditions. That way, even once the five-year,/130,000km warranty has expired, those faults will still be fixed under the LDV warranty terms and conditions as they occurred while the warranty was still current.

There's certainly a class action under way in the USA and Canada regarding this issue. It appears to be centred around Ecoboost engines ranging from 1.5 to 2.0 litres in size, and manufactured between 2013 and 2019. But until there's a ruling from the courts, there's no way to know whether it will be successful or not.

We checked with Ford Australia and it seems no such class action has not been initiated here. Given the differences in consumer law in other countries, it's often the case that a class action in one jurisdiction doesn't make it to some others.

For the record, a Ford Australia spokesman told us: “No Australian sold vehicles are involved in the class action referred to and we otherwise do not comment on ongoing litigation.”.

Don't forget, too, that the Fords we see in Australia are often built in completely different plants to the North-American version of the same car. For example, the North American Focus ST was manufactured in Michigan in the US, while Australian-delivered Focus STs were made in Ford's plant in Germany.

If this problem was to result in an adverse (for Ford) class action decision or a recall, then Ford would be bound to take the appropriate steps to rectify the situation, regardless of whether the model in question was still for sale in new-car showrooms. For the record, Ford in Australia switched to a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty from May 1, 2018. So, many of the cars we're talking about here would still be covered by that warranty in this country.