Ask The Guide

A clutch pedal that won’t return is either sticking (due to friction) has a broken or weak return spring or is throwing out beyond the point it should (like an athlete hyper-extending their knee). How that’s related to the gear-lever locking up is anybody’s guess, but it’s true that if the clutch isn’t disengaging properly (which could be the case if the clutch pedal isn’t doing its thing properly) then the car will refuse to select gears and that can feel like the lever is jammed. Switch the engine off and see if the gears will then select. If so, I’d say the clutch is not disengaging and you may have to pull it all apart again to find out why.

Noises and vibrations are sometimes very hard to diagnose, particularly by remote control. A metallic noise from underneath the car is often a heat shield rattling against another component and this will can vary according to the load the engine is under at the time. Another common source of rattles is a collapsed catalytic-converter in the exhaust system which can sound like a tin can full or nuts and bolts when you rev the engine or place it under load.

Also, you might find that the vibration and the noise you’re feeling and hearing are from the same source. But you really need to have the car inspected to find out the source of the white noise.

This is still a very new model, so there’s not a whole lot of reliability intelligence available yet. Even so, I’m surprised that such a new vehicle has such a glaring problem just a couple of weeks or so out from its delivery as a brand-new car.

The reason the car won’t start when you open the door with the manual key is that the remote should not only unlock the car, but also deactivate the immobiliser and switch on the main electrical circuits that power the Kona. If the remote isn’t unlocking the doors, then it probably isn’t turning on the main systems either, and that’s why you need to reset the battery each time. Hyundai tells me that this car actually has a conventional 12-volt battery, mounted in the conventional place (under the bonnet, just behind the headlight) that powers the functions you’re missing. If this battery has a dud cell or isn’t charging (and it’s just spent several weeks on a ship getting to Australia, remember) then the car will exhibit the symptoms you’re seeing. A trip to the dealer is in order, but your problem is definitely a warranty issue.

By the way, your car is actually not a hybrid at all. It’s a plug-in electric vehicle. A hybrid uses a combination of a petrol engine and electric motor, your car is purely electric.

It sounds as though the vibration you’re experiencing is coming from the driveline. Perhaps it’s the engine but more likely it’s something in the transmission since the problem is worse when the car changes gear. That the problem occurs when climbing a grade suggests that it’s related to the engine being under load at which point the whole driveline – gearbox and driveshafts – are also loaded up.

It could be something within the transmission itself, a bent driveshaft or even something relatively simple like a worn CV joint. Carefully, and when it’s safe to do so, find a big, open area like a deserted car-park, turn the steering wheel all the way to the left and drive slowly in a tight circle. Now do the same on full right-hand lock. Can you hear any clinking or clunking noises? If you can, you have worn CV joints. If not, you need to dig deeper into the cause and that will require getting the car on a hoist and inspecting the driveline.

It sounds like you’ve had a rough trot with your Captiva, Danielle. Let me ask you this: When did the problems first occur and were discussed with the dealer? If you’ve been putting up with this stuff over a period of years, there’s a chance these dramas first cropped up while the vehicle was under warranty. If that’s the case, you’re dealing with what’s called a pre-existing condition and, if the dealer was made aware of the situation before the warranty had expired, then Holden is still duty-bound to fix the faults even if the car itself is now out of warranty. I’m asking because you said the problems go back at least as far as one month out from the warranty expiring, which is when you had new fuel-injectors fitted.

Starter-motor problems are not unknown with the Captiva and DPF problems are likewise a well-documented source of grief with these cars. Sometimes, the only fix for the DPF is a full replacement but that’s not cheap. Not to mention the new filter will possibly become blocked sometime down the track. The only way to keep a modern turbo-diesel happy is to drive it for about half an hour at freeway speeds every three or four weeks. That will regenerate the DPF and help prevent these problems. Then again, in the case of a Holden Captiva, I wouldn’t be too certain of that.

This is a bit of a weird one because the only difference between using manual mode and fully-automatic mode is that you tell the gearbox what gear to be in in the former, and the gearbox decides for itself in the latter. Beyond that, the exact same process is going on inside the transmission. Which means, I’d expect the same problems to be apparent regardless of what mode you were driving in.

Your gearbox is doing what’s known as `slipping’ or `flaring’ and that can be caused by a number of things. Those include low transmission-fluid level, low fluid-pressure caused by a worn pump or accumulators, a damaged torque converter or worn out bands and clutches inside the gearbox. The low fluid level is easy to check and address, but anything else probably points to either a new gearbox of a rebuild of the current one.

The wild card is the difference behaviour between auto and manual mode, so perhaps it’s a problem with the electronic solenoids that control the shifts. It could be that the gearbox is not shifting properly in automatic and will only behave when you prod it via the manual-shift mode. A scan at a workshop might give a few clues in this regard.

Short of an utter mechanical failure such as a broken driveshaft or snapped gearbox input shaft, I’d say your automatic transmission is at fault. If you can feel the gears being selected (which you say you can) that’s a good start, but if there’s no movement form the car when you apply the throttle, then you could be dealing with anything from a broken gearbox or differential to a simple case of low transmission-fluid level.

Check the owner’s manual for the correct procedure for checking the fluid level and give it a try. If the level’s low, drive can certainly be affected and a top-up might put things right. Beyond that, you need to let a mechanic look at the car.

I’m not sure if you mean pick-up as in acceleration or pick-up as in a sensor that should `pick up’ electronic signals and send them to the computer to control the car’s functions. And even if I assume you mean the car has a problem with accelerating, I have no idea what could be causing the issue with no list of symptoms or observations. It could be dragging brakes, a worn out engine, poor tuning, a dodgy fuel pump, tired park plugs and about a million other possibilities. Sorry, but you’ve stumped me.

Let’s start with the black exhaust pipe. All cars that run on unleaded petrol have a sooty black exhaust. The soot will be thicker if the car isn’t tuned properly, but really, the blackness is just a by-product of burning ULP.

Your oil use of about a litre every 1500km is getting towards the top of what is acceptable. Even then, it’s more than this engine should consume. The fact is that all engines use some oil, but it’s usually not enough to require topping up between oil changes. But with your usage rate, you’d need to keep a close eye on the dipstick.

The oil is clearly going somewhere, so check on the ground under where the car is parked each night and look for a pool of oil that suggests the problem is an external leak rather than internal engine wear. From there, have a workshop conduct a compression and leak-down test. The results of this will tell you if the engine’s internal parts are worn and leading to the oil being consumed.

The Suzuki J24B engine in your vehicle has a timing chain and not a timing belt. The chain should be good for the life of the engine provided the engine is serviced correctly.