Ask The Guide

This make and model has a reputation for leaking transmission fluid either through breather outlets or plugs that should seal but don't. And one of the first signs that a transmission has lost fluid is a refusal to select a gear. Everything an automatic transmission does is through hydraulic pressure. Lose enough fluid over time, and there's insufficient pressure to make the vehicle move.

The good news is your vehicle should still be under factory warranty, so take it to an LDV dealership to be assessed. But don’t try to top up the fluid and drive it there, as this could cause more damage if the problem is something more complex.

The first piece of advice here is to not drive the car at all until this problem is fixed. A car with faulty brakes is one of the most dangerous situations you can find yourself in, and it’s just not safe to even attempt to move it, even to relocate it on the driveway. The problem could get a lot worse very quickly, leaving you with no brakes at all. And even if it doesn’t get any worse, your limited braking capacity could make an emergency situation much, much worse.

The noise is probably not brake-line pressure escaping, since you don’t have falling brake fluid levels. At which point, my suspicion becomes that the brake master cylinder is at fault. This is a device that uses vacuum from the engine to assist you to push the brake pedal. If the diaphragm inside the booster fails, you will might hear the vacuum escaping, with a hissing noise. Even if the booster is intact internally, a simple hose that connects the booster to the engine could have split and caused the leak. Until it’s fixed, though, you won’t have full braking power and that’s, obviously, very dangerous.

It seems pretty clear from these symptoms that the engine is massively overheating. That explains the boiling water in the overflow tank which will be dirty mainly form rusty deposits within the engine’s cooling system. The question then becomes what’s causing the overheating.

There are lots of reasons for an engine to overheat, including low coolant level, a blocked radiator, collapsed radiator hose, failed head gasket, incorrect ignition timing, poor fuel mixture, a damaged or missing fan shroud, slipping fan belt, worn water pump and many, many more. But a good mechanic should be able to assess the situation, do a few quick tests and determine the root cause of the overheating, then you can move forward on a fix, knowing that you’re tackling the correct issue.

The other piece of advice is to not drive the car until it’s fixed. Continuing to drive with an overheating engine is a great way to destroy the engine completely. At that point you need a new engine or a new car.

There’s probably a very simple solution to this involving a wire that has been disconnected during the transmission replacement, and not reconnected afterwards. You might find it’s a wire to a sensor that has been bumped or disconnected, and without this, the engine doesn’t know it is below operating temperature and, therefore, doesn’t richen the air-fuel mixture to compensate.

This compensation is how modern, electronically controlled vehicles make do without an old fashioned choke lever. But if the wiring isn’t connected and the sensors all working, the car doesn’t have the information it needs to run properly under all circumstances.

It sounds very much like the vehicle thinks it has an issue with the key. Modern ignition keys send a coded, electronic message to the car’s computer telling it’s okay to start the engine. Without this communication, it’s possible the car won’t start. The background to this is to prevent the car being hotwired and stolen without the key.

The problem could be as simple as a flat battery on the ignition key. Again, a flat battery means no message to the computer and no start. If the battery is not the problem, then you need to dig deeper to see if the car’s body computer is controlling the security system correctly.

Running on after the ignition is switched off is more of a problem in petrol engines than diesels. But you haven’t told me which engine your Triton has, so maybe it’s the 2.4-litre petrol we’re dealing with here. If so, you may find that the running-on is being caused by poorly timed ignition which could suggest a problem with the physical bits that make up the ignition system, or even a problem with the computer that controls it all. Worn or leaking fuel injectors could also cause this problem.

If your engine is the turbo-diesel, then another potential cause of running on is a worn or stretched timing chain (the petrol engine uses a toothed timing belt which shouldn’t stretch) that has allowed the camshaft to get slightly out of phase with the crankshaft. In both these cases, the fault could easily be enough to trigger the check-engine light and keep it on to alert you to the problem. Have the vehicle scanned to see if there’s an ignition fault or what’s called a camshaft deviation, indicating a worn timing chain.

This is a pretty well-known problem with this model. The problem seems to be caused by a gear selector problem which gets worse over time as wear occurs. Jumping out of gear is also linked to a second problem of noisy engagement (grinding) of the first three gears.

Mitsubishi has developed a transmission repair kit which includes reinforced gear selectors and synchronisers. But it’s a pretty big job to fit and requires the transmission to be removed and disassembled. You could try Mitsubishi Australia’s customer service division to see if there’s any financial assistance in either obtaining or fitting this kit.

GWM lists a canopy for the Ultra version of its Cannon Ute. And while it also lists a bullbar for the Cannon Ute, it doesn’t specifically mention whether it’s suitable for the Ultra. There may be some body or trim differences that make it unsuitable for the Ultra, so a check with your GWM dealer would be the next step.

The aftermarket also has lots of suppliers who offer both canopies and bull-bars for a huge range of makes and models, so there’s almost certainly something available there, too.

Your LDV has a seven-year/200,000km warranty so, in theory, any failure of the transmission within this period would potentially be covered by the warranty. The exception would be if the vehicle has not been serviced correctly. If you or a previous owner has skipped servicing and maintenance, you may find the warranty is void. The other exception would be if the vehicle has been abused or used to tow heavier loads than it’s designed for.

If your diagnosis is correct, the problem will be with the either sensor that detects the temperature of the coolant, the computer that creates the signal to open, the wiring that carries the message or the thermostat itself. An auto electrician should be able to sort this out by testing the components one by one until the dud one reveals itself.

But there’s another possibility in cars like this one with a thermostat that lives in a plastic housing. Over time and repeated heat cycles, the plastic can degrade and fail internally. At that point, the actual thermostat mechanism can move sideways and jam against the housing, effectively preventing it from opening., At that point the engine can overheat. Don’t rule that out until the condition of the housing has been checked.