Ask The Guide

A modern automatic transmission is an incredibly complex piece of equipment and failure to select gears can be anything from low fluid level to broken clutches or bands, right through to a problem with the valve body.

A trip to a transmission specialist will probably be worth the investment, if only to rule out the cheap fixes from the potentially expensive ones. As you’ve already discovered, changing random parts in the hope that the problem will disappear is a fast way to empty your wallet and still have a faulty car.

The first thing to do, however, is to check the fluid level in the transmission. This is often overlooked, but can produce the symptoms you’re seeing.

Mid or medium-sized SUV buyers are absolutely spoiled for choice right now. Pretty much eery car-maker form the budget brands to the high-end marques has a range of SUVs in a size to suit anybody.

Many have very frugal turbo-diesel engines but, for many owners out there, the petrol variant is the one that makes most sense. And even if you’re not worried about fuel consumption, the planet will be pleased to know that most modern SUVs are actually very frugal at the pump compared with their counterparts of just a few years ago, your Captiva included.

If your priorities are reliability and running costs, then maybe a visit to a Hyundai or Kia dealership might be in order. Both brands have plenty of SUVs to choose from, including diesel, petrol, hybrid and even electric versions thereof. They both also offer an industry-leading factory warranty, and capped-price servicing is another big selling point.

I’m not sure what your experience has been with your Captiva, but if you’ve had a similar run with that of many, many owners, just about any new SUV will be more reliable than the Holden.

I presume your MU-X is a first-generation model, not the second-generation that launched in mid-2021? The latter is engineered for a WDH, but the former is not.

Many people think a Weight Distribution Hitch (and also known as load levelling bars) will alter a caravan’s level or otherwise. But the truth is that these are really only designed to transfer some of the tow-ball loading to the tow vehicle’s front axle. `Level riders’ as they are known are more of the same. Many car-makers do not recommend or even permit the use of these hitches, so Isuzu is hardly alone there.

The problem you face in using them in direct contravention of Isuzu’s own advice is that, if there is a problem on the road, you might find your insurance company will attempt to disown you on the basis of having ignored that official advice.

The extra purchase price of a diesel engine over a petrol one is only the start of the cost comparison. Generally speaking, diesels will cost a bit more to service (it depends on the make and model) and that’s if you don’t have problems with the diesel particulate filter (DPF) or soot build-up in the engine’s intake system that needs to be manually cleaned out.

You also need to consider your driving habits to decide whether a diesel is right for you. As a rule of thumb, if you don’t go for a decent drive at highway speeds for about an hour or so at least once or twice a month, then a diesel is not for you. Using a diesel engine exclusively for short trips at suburban speed can often see the DPF requiring more attention than it should, and that equals cost.

Also, modern petrol engines have really closed the fuel-economy gap that the diesel once enjoyed. The fuel consumption difference between the diesel Tucson and the petrol version is likely to be about a litre per 100km (based on the official combined figure for each). That means that even at $2 per litre (and based on the $6000 difference in price you’ve quoted) you’d need to drive 300,000km before the diesel began to pay for itself in terms of fuel saved. I’m not sure there’s a full $6000 separating the two versions of the Tucson, but even so, you get the idea.

A check-engine light in a car like a Captiva can mean all sorts of things. Everything from a stretched timing chain (quite likely in this vehicle) to a dud oxygen sensor in the exhaust system (and about a million things in between) can cause the engine light to flicker on ominously.

The best advice is to have the car scanned electronically. That way, the scanning computer will 'talk’ to the car’s computer and the car should offer up any faults it has logged in the process of being driven.

You’re better off not driving the car until it can be scanned and fixed, as the problem causing the engine light to come on could easily get worse and may eventually damage other components. If it is something like a stretched timing chain that is causing the warning light, it could eventually break and reduce the whole engine to scrap.

In a nutshell, these were pretty reliable cars mechanically speaking. Simple and fairly rugged, they were not known to have any major, endemic problems.

The caveat is that they’re now nearly 25 years old, so the reliability of one today has a lot more to do with how it’s been serviced and maintained than its reputation back in the day. And because they were always a pretty cheap car, they were also a very cheap second-hand car and were bought by a lot of people who couldn’t afford to maintain them properly. So a lot of them are totally worn out now.

But if you can find one with some kind of service history and one that hasn’t had too many previous owners or has operated as a company fleet car, then you might be looking at a reliable little car that will cost peanuts to own and run.

Keep in mind, though, that the one area that budget cars of this era consistently fall down is in safety. This car lacks every modern driver aid we’ve come to rely upon, including ABS brakes and ESP. Even the driver’s air-bag was optional back in 1998. So if the car being bought for a young or inexperienced driver, you might want to think again.

This is an issue that continues the haunt Ford even after it paid millions of dollars in fines levied by the ACCC for way it conducted itself in the face of the dual-clutch transmission fiasco. Fundamentally, about half the Fords delivered in Australia with the Powershift transmission, experienced either problems or outright transmission failures. Some of them on multiple occasions.

Ford’s response of initially ignoring the problem and then blaming its customers stands as a 24-carat example of how not to do things. And the ACCC agreed, fining and condemning the company’s behaviour. Eventually, Ford was forced to offer customers a good deal on the next model Focus which featured a conventional automatic gearbox. Even then, the ACCC’s view was that Ford should have offered a full refund, not a sweetened deal to trade up to the newer model. Simply replacing the problem gearboxes wasn’t a widespread permanent fix as the replacement units would have given precisely the same problems.

If you bought your car second-hand, that’s another problem because, really, the affected cars should have been scrapped, not resold to unsuspecting buyers (another beef the ACCC had with Ford at the time).

I think your first port of call should be to the ACCC who will be able to give you an idea of the current situation as far as the problem goes, and what Ford is currently doing about it. Bear in mind, though, the original problem surfaced many years ago, so you’re a late member of the Powershift club.

What you might find is that the loss of power and the squealing noise could be completely unrelated. In any case, a loss of power can be caused by any number of problems, so an electronic scan of the car would be the first move in diagnosing that problem.

You might be on the right track, meanwhile, in thinking that the squealing noise has something to do with the rubber drive-belts in the engine bay. These will often emit a high-pitched squeal if they get moisture on them. Typically, this will be coolant from a leaking water pump or a leaking radiator (both of which are located handily near the belts). Even though the belts may be perfectly tensioned, coolant leaking on to them is definitely capable of producing the noise you’re hearing.

In many cases like this, the clutch is the culprit. The problem appears as though it’s the gearbox at fault, but the reality is that it’s the clutch not releasing properly that is preventing you shifting gears cleanly and easily. When the clutch is either worn or out of adjustment, it can remain partly engaged even when your foot is fully on the clutch pedal. When that happens, the gears can be very difficult to select.

Try this: The next time a gear becomes hard to select, turn the engine off and try it again. If the gear suddenly slips into place easily, then you’re probably looking at a worn clutch or one that is out of adjustment. Poor adjustment can be the result of low clutch fluid levels (in a vehicle with a hydraulic clutch) or a cable or linkage that is poorly adjusted. Your vehicle has a hydraulic clutch, so a leak from either the master cylinder, slave cylinder or any of the plumbing could have allowed the fluid level to drop to the point where the clutch is no longer disengaging fully. This is precisely where I’d start looking in your case.

Remember, however, that while a worn clutch might be the most likely cause, that doesn’t rule out a problem with the transmission internally or a problem in the gear selector mechanism.

Although both these cars are similar in many ways, there’s one area where they take difference philosophies. And that’s in the way their hybrid systems are configured and prioritised.

While the Lexus is more of a conventional hybrid with the electric motor doing a lot of the heavy lifting, the Volvo is what’s called a mild hybrid., As the name suggests, that means the electric power is limited to a 10kW boost when taking off or when the driver requires maximum acceleration.

A mild hybrid layout does still operate the stop-start function and can harvest energy when slowing down, so it’s still a worthwhile slice of tech, but it won’t affect fuel consumption as much as the Lexus’ full hybrid system.

Reliability is a bit of an unknown with any new car, but it’s fair to say that the Lexus’ reputation will count for something come trade-in time. Not to mention that, as the more hybrid-focussed of the pair, the Lexus might also be a little more future-proof.