Ask The Guide

If we’re talking about the current model D-Max and BT-50, then yes, the entire driveline should be interchangeable. Under the skin, both the Mazda and Isuzu utes are the same vehicle. Car makers enter into joint ventures like the development of this pair of vehicles to keep costs down by sharing the expense of developing, engineering and testing parts like engines, transmissions and, of course, drive-shafts and CV joints.

While most joint ventures like this one will arrive at two vehicles with some visual differences and usually some details differences inside, when it comes to the oily bits, making specific driveline or suspension parts for one vehicle over the other is defeating the purpose of the joint venture in the first place.

Mitsubishi’s L300 Express was available as a four-wheel-drive model way back in the 1980s (83 to 86) and was a very popular van to convert for camping thanks to that all-wheel-drive grip that allowed it to tackle rough roads with little problem. After 1986, a few of the later model Express 4WD vans (often badged Delica) made it into Australia as private imports, and there are a few of them around now to choose from.

The requirement to be able to stand up inside the vehicle will limit your choices a little, but popular vans like the Toyota HiAce, Ford Transit and Mercedes-Benz Vito were available in a high-roof configuration. Even though they lacked all-wheel-drive, generally rugged construction means they should cope with dirt roads pretty well. They just won’t have the grip for off-road work.

As with any second-hand commercial vehicle, try to find out what it did in its previous life. A van that has been used for hard labour might well be worn out. And don’t forget, nobody bought these things new for anything other than a working life.

If, on the other hand, you’re shipping for a brand-new van, there are plenty of options from Ford, Mercedes, Peugeot, Fiat, Toyota and more. The vast majority of them use a turbo-diesel engine so will be quite economical and many also offer an automatic transmission for ease of driving. Choose the one that suits your intended layout best in terms of side and rear doors and the ability to climb from the front seat into the van area without leaving the vehicle (some have cargo barriers that will prevent this).

If the engine is revving but the car is not moving, you probably have a transmission or gearbox fault. If the problem was a broken driveshaft or CV joint, the car would just roll to a stop and not move again. But since it gradually lost drive before finally refusing to move, it’s more likely to be the gearbox that is the cause of this.

Sometimes, this sort of problem can be as simple as a leak from the transmission which has led to a low fluid level. And since it’s the fluid in an automatic transmission that actually provides the drive (by transferring the torque) this can bring on the symptoms you’re seeing.

At the other end of the catastrophe scale, you could be looking at a gearbox that has failed internally and comprehensively. And I’m afraid to say that this model Cruze did have a reputation for just that occurring. Sometimes the problem could be traced back to a torque-converter, valve body or sensor error, but other times complete transmission failure was the diagnosis.

Holden actually acknowledged this problem by extending the transmission warranty to 150,000km or five years after the date the car first went into service. Unfortunately, that ended in 2018 for your car. It would still be worth contacting Holden’s customer service department, however, but don’t be surprised if financial help is not forthcoming.

The best guess is that the noise is being generated by the electric motor integrated into the steering column that acts as the power-steering in the Kona. If it’s s faint noise that is heard more often with the windows closed and the stereo off, then it’s the same noise that other Kona owners have noted.

Another possibility is a noisy clock-spring. This is a flexible electrical contact inside the top of the steering column that allows the steering wheel to turn while still maintaining all the electrical contacts that power the air-bags and steering wheel-mounted controls. These clock springs often become noisy just before they fail.

Your car is still under warranty, and since you’ve already logged the fault with your Hyundai dealer, it’s now a pre-existing problem and must be fixed by Hyundai, even if the car itself runs out of warranty in the meantime.

Engines and transmissions need to operate across a wide range of temperatures, from zero (or lower) on a cold morning, to extremely hot (when towing a trailer across the Nullarbor in mid-summer). Sometimes these differing operating temperatures bring out different behaviours.

The problem of selecting gears is often caused by wear or a fault in the transmission’s valve body, or it could be something else within the gearbox such as a worn clutch-pack or band. On a simpler level, you could be looking at something as easy to fix as a mis-aligned or mal-adjusted selector cable. Another possibility is a low transmission fluid level. If this is the case, you need to find the source of the leak, not just top up the level, as a transmission is a sealed unit that shouldn’t need topping up.

The cost can vary depending on what state or territory you live in and in what post-code (regional areas often have lower registration fees than metropolitan areas). That said, according to the QLD Transport Department’s website, that doesn’t apply in the sunshine state.

As such, for a full 12 months of registration, including compulsory third-party insurance on a 2022 GWM Ute, you’re looking at $816.55.

Tow ball weight or tow ball mass or towing ball weight is, in the simplest terms, the amount of downward weight your trailer or caravan applies to the tow-ball of the vehicle towing it.

Different makes and models of vehicle will have different limits to how much this weight can be, but in all cases, the limit can not be legally exceeded. Nor should it be on a practical basis, as too much weight on the tow ball is asking for a combination that is dangerous to drive and could easily cause an accident.

The tow ball weight limit will have been calculated by the car's manufacturer but, as a rule of thumb in Australia, it's generally 10 per cent of the Aggregate Trailer Mass (ATM weight; with all the gear you plan to carry already loaded on the trailer) being towed (not to be confused with the trailer's GTM which is the load on its own axle when it's hitched up, or tare weight which is the weight of the trailer empty, not in its as-towed, loaded state).

Where tow ball weight differs from other rules is that the limit is a double-edged sword: Even if your towing vehicle is rated to tow 3000kg, you might imagine you have a 300kg tow ball weight limit. Not necessarily. See, if the trailer being towed weighs 2000kg, then the tow-ball limit (using that 10 per cent rule again) will only be 200kg. The rule also states that you must use the lower of the two figures if the trailer and tow vehicle have different individual tow ball weight limits.

So, even if you have a popular brand of tow vehicle such as a Toyota Prado or Mitsubishi Pajero with a 3000kg towing limit (or even a Ford Ranger with its huge 3500kg towing limit) but one of the modern camper-trailer caravans with low tow ball weight (weighing, say, 1000kg) your effective tow ball weight limit is 100kg. Which is exactly the same as for vehicles with lower outright towing limits such as the Toyota Kluger (2000kg) or the Mitsubishi Outlander SUV (1600kg). In the case of towing caravans with 100kg tow ball weight, you sometimes don't need as much tow vehicle as you might have imagined.

Vehicles will have their theoretical tow ball mass limit listed in the owner's manual, while trailers generally have the tow ball limit on their build plate, usually somewhere near the hitch.

The importance of getting this right is in terms of stability at speed. Too much tow ball weight and the tow vehicle can easily have its nose pointed at the sky, compromising braking and steering. Too little tow ball weight also suggests a trailer that is tail-heavy, and that can lead to a jack-knife or trailer-sway situation.

Sometimes, a raised tow ball is enough to drop the rear of the trailer, so don't assume it's incorrectly loaded, because it might be incorrectly hitched instead.

So, how to measure tow ball weight? The best way is to use tow ball weight scales which can be purchased from most camping and four-wheel-drive stores. They're also available at towing equipment specialists such as Hayman Reese, but general hardware retailers like Bunnings are less likely to have anything as specialised as these scales.

By placing this under the trailer's hitch and allowing the scales to take the weight, you'll be given a quick, accurate idea of how much weight you're dealing with. The other common tow ball weight calculator is a set of home bathroom scales, but this method is more involved than you might think and isn't as accurate as scales designed for the job.

In some cases, you'll find that you simply need a bigger, heavier tow car to make this all work, but there's also the opportunity to distribute the load around the trailer to increase or decrease the tow ball weight. In fact, repacking a caravan is the first trick on how to reduce tow ball weight.

Believe it or not, there are multiple ways to measure the weight of a caravan or trailer. And each one will give you a different answer. But it's important to know exactly what you're measuring, because there are some serious legal and insurance ramifications to getting this wrong and trying to tow a too-heavy or poorly arranged load.

So let's tackle the ATM abbreviation, or Aggregate Trailer Mass. And what is ATM weight? It's the maximum ATM weight allowable for your fully loaded, as-towed caravan or camper or trailer or boat, unhitched and sitting on its wheels (and jockey wheel).

The ATM can be found on the manufacturer's plate (often on or near the hitch or in the manufacturer's handbook for the van). Go beyond this mass and you're in trouble. Even aside from the legal; problems, a caravan that is over its ATM may behave strangely and be dangerous to tow.

So how do you work out the actual ATM mass of your van, so you can compare it with the maximum allowable mass? Basically, you need a weighbridge (many councils have a weighbridge at their local tip) and the method involves weighing just the caravan (unhitched from the towing vehicle) with the van resting on its wheels and the jockey wheel. The van or camper-trailer also needs to be fully loaded to measure ATM weight meaning that the water tanks, gas tanks and all of the gear normally carried in the van are on board at the time. Then you take that mass and compare it with the maximum allowable caravan or trailer ATM for that particular make and model.

If your weighbridge ticket is lower than the maximum ATM specified by the manufacturer, you're good to go. If the caravan or camper trailer weight is greater than the maximum allowed, you need to lose some of the gear you were going to carry in it to stay safe and legal.

The ATM of a towed load is distinct from the GCM which is the total mass of the trailer and the car towing it, and the tare mass of the trailer which is the weight of the empty caravan or other trailer. That's distinct from kerb mass which is the same trailer, but will all manufacturer-fitted water and gas tanks full.

Neither should ATM be confused with GTM which is the Gross Trailer Mass and is the weight of the trailer once it's hitched up to the tow-vehicle. Payload is another term you'll hear and this equates to the mass of all the gear you carry in the trailer that isn't part of the trailer itself.

ATM vs GTM can be confusing, but they're really quite different measurements. Tare vs GTM is another source of confusion, but if you remember that tare weight is the mass of the empty trailer, unhitched, then you're on the right track.

The GTM is also related to Tow Ball Download (or tow ball weight) which is the amount of downward force your trailer places on the car's tow-bar. Again, there are strict manufacturer's limits for this.

If you get online, you'll find sites that offer topics such as boat weights and caravan weights explained, as well as subjects like towing weights explained. But be aware that some are better than others and they all have their basis back at the fundamentals we've just discussed. And trust us, this is not a subject on which you can be vague in your calculations.

The major difference between diesel fuel and premium diesel is, depending on the brand, a few additives designed to keep the inside of the engine clean. Is premium diesel a guarantee or promise that your diesel-powered vehicle will run better, emit fewer tailpipe emissions or use less fuel? No.

Fuel companies are notoriously tight-lipped about what additives go into their 'premium' diesel products. But the best guess is that it's a range of detergents designed to clean soot and other deposits off the inside of the engine. Which means the diesel vs premium diesel comparison is one that you don't really need to think about day-to-day. The best diesel fuel in Australia is the stuff that meets all Australian Standards and is pumped from a clean underground tank.

The real measure of a diesel fuel's quality is in its cetane number (similar to petrol's octane rating) which evaluates how ignitable the fuel is when compressed (which is how a diesel engine burns its fuel; there are no spark plugs, ignition relies on compressing the diesel-air mixture).

Beyond that, quality is judged by the amount of sulphur and other contaminants in the fuel. So does premium diesel have a better cetane rating than normal diesel? No. So is premium fuel worth it? Not if it's diesel we're talking about.

Premium diesel (or super diesel as it's also mistakenly known) is marketed under various brands, all of which suggest a major advantage (like Diesel Plus) while other brands go down the corporate brand route (Caltex Vortex, for instance, tying the product to its higher-octane petrol variant).

So, if all this is the case, you can actually make your own premium diesel brew by adding a bottle of detergent additive to your car every few tank fulls. In terms of diesel performance, you won't be missing out, and even though some of these additives aren't cheap, given the average premium diesel price of a few cents more a litre, you might even wind up in front.

So, which diesel fuel is best? The one that comes from a clean tank at the lowest possible price.

We've all heard the term, but what is a VIN number? Just for starters, VIN number is like ATM machine. VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number (so you don't need the second `number'). Fundamentally, the VIN is a vehicle's own individual, one-off identity. No two cars in the world have the same VIN. The VIN allows authorities to accurately identify a car, usually for registration purposes, but the VIN is also frequently used by police chasing stolen cars or attempting to accurately identify a particular vehicle.

It's illegal to modify or in any other way alter a car's VIN, and it's also illegal to attempt to apply one car's VIN to another car. Cars, trucks and motorcycles all have VINs these days, and the process of issuing a distinct number to every car in the world began in the 1980s and became a law in Australia in 1989 for all new vehicles.

Distinct from an engine or chassis number (actually, replacing the traditional chassis number) the VIN on most cars is stamped into a metal part of the car's structure and is also attached to the car on a small, metal plate that is often located under the edge of the front windscreen.

Your owner's manual will have direction on how to find the VIN on your particular car.

A 17-digit number, the first three letters or numbers can be decoded to tell you where the car was built, and by whom. The next eight give a rundown of the model and trim level as well as what engine was fitted at the factory. The last six numbers will be the actual car's individual serial number (usually it's numerical place in the entire build of that make and model).

You can use online VIN decoders such as Vincoderz to do a VIN check to learn the original specification of your car. You simply type your VIN into the website and it will offer up the relevant information. Best of all, many of these VIN lookup or VIN decoder sites offer a free VIN number check.

Once you've tackled such a database, you can then break down the info to learn the specs of your car. That way, you can tackle questions such as what model is my car, really; a common question once a car is a certain age and has been modified.

The other really handy use for a VIN is that it's a great reference when you're ordering replacement or service parts. By quoting the VIN, the parts retailer will be able to cross-check the part numbers you're ordered with that number to make sure they're the right ones.