Ask The Guide

It all depends on what parts of the suspension the workshop is telling you is worn out. If the strut tops or suspension-arm bushes are worn out, or there’s a problem with the ball-joints or tie-rod ends being too worn, then there’s certainly the chance that there’s insufficient adjustment within the system to return your wheel alignment settings to their correct spec. Even a worn out wheel bearing can cause all sorts of wheel-alignment issues.

Just because you haven’t felt the problem, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. These issues develop gradually and we don’t always notice the small changes week to week until they become a bigger problem.

If, however, you genuinely think the tyre shop is trying to rip you off, you can have the car independently inspected to see if you’re being told the truth. Your state motoring club should be able to help here. Sadly, some of the bigger car-repair retailers have been caught loading up a customer’s repair quote in the past, and consumers need to be on the lookout for these bogus `faults’ that will be added to the bill. We’re definitely not tarring all big chain retailers with the same brush, but it’s something to be aware of.

Since the safest seat in any vehicle is the centre position in the rear seat, any vehicle that will be regularly carrying around kids in child restraints really should have a proper rear seat. If you can afford it, a dual-cab ute with side-curtain air-bags that protect rear-seat occupants is also a good idea.

In Victoria, for instance, children under four years of age must travel in the rear seat. Between four and seven years, they can travel in the front seat of a single-cab ute with the appropriate restraint, but it’s not recommended. In utes without an anchor point, that child can only be seated in a restraint designed to work with no top tether strap.

The letter of the law might be different in your state, but these are common sense guidelines.

There are lots of really good choices in tyres for popular models such as the Mazda 3. You can shop online and find cheap tyres, but a much better idea is to actually contact (or visit) a tyre shop who will be able to guide you according to what you want from the tyres.

Some tyres have better life, some offer more grip, some are aimed at fuel efficiency, others are designed to run quietly and some are sold entirely on price. Some tyres will combine some of these traits, while others will be quite focussed on their priorities (performance tyres, for instance, often trade off lifespan and quiet operation for ultimate grip).

So talking to a person who sells and fits tyres every day, is a good place to start. Listen to the advice and proceed from there. There’s no need to ignore some of the Chinese brands these days, either; some of them are quite good and offer a good balance of performance and price. Most tyres are made in China today anyway, even if they’re a familiar brand. Speaking of price, expect to pay around $100 to $150 for a good quality tyre and don’t forget to have them balanced and the car’s wheel alignment checked at the same time. A good tyre shop can do all of this in the time it takes you to do your shopping and can offer advice that an online retailer simply can’t.

And don’t forget that car tyres remain a great example of the notion that you’ll only get what you pay for.

You’re talking about two distinct models of the Ford Focus, so if there’s any interchangeability it won’t be much. Perhaps there would be some mechanical parts in terms of the engine, but the 2007 model was a physically larger can than the original (2003) so even things like the suspension units and brakes are unlikely to be interchangeable.

As for body panels and interior fittings, I doubt there’d be any interchangeability at all. The later car had different panels and the interiors were also completely different. Changes to styling also mean that headlights, tail-lights, glass and even detail things like door handles would not be interchangeable.

This model Holden Cruze is well known for transmission failures. Symptoms include the inability to select gears, a complete loss of drive or, as you have noticed, flaring in the gears. Unfortunately, this often mean the entire transmission is unserviceable.

Holden did extend the transmission warranty on these cars to five years or 150,000km, but even at that rate, your car would still be well and truly out of warranty. The first step, however, is to have the car scanned to see if the computer throws up any transmission-fault codes which could tell more of the story.

In some cases, these cars also experienced failed transmission coolers which allowed the transmission fluid and engine coolant to mix. If that’s the case, you might be able to get away with replacing the radiator, but historically, many of these cases also caused the transmission to fail.

From what I can see in the owners’ manual, the X-Trail has the ability to display the vehicle’s current speed as part of the trip computer’s read-out. By scrolling through the various pages offered by the computer, you should be able to find one that gives a readout of current and average speed.

Later model X-Trails had a proper digital speedometer, but the trip computer version is the best you’ll get in this model.

The CVT transmission has haunted many a car-maker over the years and just when another car-makers thinks they’ve got the tech nailed, along comes another series of failures that makes consumers think again.

Late last year in the USA, Nissan paid out a US$277 million settlement for a class action brought by owners of its CVT-equipped cars, so there’s certainly a precedent for this. However, don’t assume that US and Australian consumer law are the same – they’re not. The lawsuit, meantime, accused Nissan of knowing about the fault for years and doing nothing. Nissan, while admitting no wrongdoing, agreed to pay the claims.

The viability or otherwise of a class action legal case is not the sort of advice Carsguide dispenses. You would need to talk with a law firm specialising in this type of litigation and then weigh up the costs and potential benefits, bearing in mind a win is no certainty in these cases.

These engines definitely did have a reputation for piston slap and ticking noises and this could easily have led to the cylinder scoring you’re complaining of. But you haven’t told me how many kilometres the engine has covered. If it’s a lot, then Hyundai’s stance is a bit easier to understand, since the engine may have been suffering normal wear and tear (which can include the same symptoms).

Carsguide’s normal advice would be to contact Hyundai’s customer service department, followed by the ACCC. But since you appear to have tried this, I’m not sure where to go next. Certainly, a $9000 repair bill is likely to be as much, or more, than the car is worth, so maybe a second-hand, tested engine from a parts recycler will be a cheaper option than rebuilding what you have.

Premium diesel fuel seems to be one of those things that marketing departments, rather than engineering departments, have invented. It enables the fuel companies to charge you more for a product that is allegedly better, but nobody really knows why Premium diesel is an advantage.

At best, Premium diesel will have a few extra additives to help keep the engine clean inside, so maybe running a tank of Premium every now and then isn’t a bad idea. It won’t hurt. But don’t be fooled into thinking that your car will perform better in any meaningful way by switching exclusively to the more expensive Premium brew.

This is, of course, the opposite of Premium unleaded petrol which, depending on the car, can be a difference between happy motoring and expansive engine damage.

Probably the most common cause of difficult hot-starting in a diesel engine is wear in the fuel pump. If the pump can’t generate the correct pressure due to wear, which is exacerbated by heat, then it may not generate the pressures required to operate the fuel injectors.

This particular engine has a fuel pump which has been known to wear and allow the fuel inside it to overheat, causing the vehicle to go into limp-home mode. But the engine (and many others like it from other brands which use common-rail injection technology) are also notorious for wearing out their fuel injectors over relatively low kilometres. Worn injectors could also be a cause of difficult hot starting.