Ask The Guide

The DSG gearbox in your car has given Skoda and other members of the Volkswagen family all sorts of grief over the years. The problem you’ve described suggests a build-up of metallic particles (from wear and tear inside the transmission) which are being attracted to the magnetic sensors inside the gearbox and leading to bogus commends being sent to the car’s on-board computer. I’ve also heard of these symptoms being the result of faulty mechatronics and even a software glitch. The mechatronic unit, by the way, is the module that acts as middle-man between the computer and the gear selectors and clutch packs contained within the gearbox itself.

So there are three (among many) possibilities. And the VW (and Skoda) DSG transmission is no stranger to any of them. Either way, a loss of drive at any stage – whether it’s Drive or Reverse – is a potentially dangerous situation and needs to be fixed. Unfortunately, Skoda Australia only extended its factory warranty to five years on vehicles sold after January 1, 2017; after your car was sold. That said, I’d certainly be talking to the brand’s customer relations department with a view to at least finding out what’s wrong and then negotiating on whatever repairs are required.

As the vast majority of Holden Cruzes sold were automatics, finding out information on the manual version is not so easy. But I have heard of a few cases of this model suffering transmission faults where the gearbox becomes jammed in gear (and won’t come out) or jammed in neutral (and won’t select a gear).

If that’s the case, then it could be a case of a broken or faulty gear-selector cable or mechanism and may not mean the entire gearbox is toast. Either way, I’d expect more than 120,000km of service in a modern car before the gearbox died. But you haven’t told me the symptoms, so it’s hard to know what’s going on. Is the clutch okay? Is it a case of the driveshaft (rather than the gearbox itself) having failed?

As for replacing the gearbox with a brand-new one, I think that finding a good used unit from a wrecking yard would be a much more wallet-friendly exercise. The exception would be if the problem affected all manual Cruzes, at which point, a second-hand replacement would only be postponing the inevitable for a second time. But since the value of the car wouldn’t be more than the cost of a brand-new transmission, the equation comes down to whether you like the car enough to keep it. Is the rest of the car in good condition? If not, you might be better cutting your losses and finding something newer and with plenty of life left in it.

There’s more factors than distance covered when it comes to diesel fuel-injector lifespan. That said, modern, common-rail diesels do seem to work their injectors pretty hard, so it’s possible that yours will be ready for replacement at 165,000km on the odometer.

Other elements that will contribute to injector wear are fuel quality, dirty fuel filters, the overall condition of the system including the fuel pump and simply how well the vehicle has been maintained generally. How it’s been driven will also have a bearing on injector life, including whether it’s been used for highway travel, urban running and whether it’s been used to tow relatively heavy loads.

Fuel-injectors can be rebuilt or reconditioned, but the trade reckons that a reconditioned injector will have about half the useable lifespan of a brand-new replacement injector. As for injector servicing intervals, I’d be guided by what Volkswagen says in its factory service schedule.

There are literally dozens of things that can make a check-engine light illuminate, Kathleen. A faulty sensor, dud component, bad or dirty fuel, a vacuum leak, you name it, even the smallest glitch can cause the dreaded check-engine light to ruin your day.

The best advice is to take the car back to the workshop that serviced it and ask if, perhaps, the mechanic forgot to tighten or reset something properly. An interrogation by the workshop’s computer should throw up any fault codes present and from there, the workshop should be able to figure out the actual problem. It could be a coincidence, but, equally, it could be a simple thing the workshop has overlooked or forgotten to reset during the service.

The US market Honda Pilot dimensions reflect the fact that this is, in some configurations, an eight-seater vehicle. The Pilot has a length of 4991mm, a height of 1793mm, width of 1996mm and a wheelbase of 2819mm.

The Ford Galaxy dimensions stamp the vehicle as a full-sized people-mover, bigger than many of its peers. The dimensions are: Length 4848mm; width 1916mm; height 1747mm; wheelbase 2850mm.

The basic Fuso Canter dimensions are the same across the range, but variations to all the following dimensions will occur depending on what rear axle and cargo-body is fitted. So, the basic dimensions are: Height (at cabin) 2110mm; width 1869mm; length 4985mm; wheelbase 2800mm.

The 2020 Dodge Durango towing capacity varies according to which engine is fitted. The 3.6-litre V6 can legally tow 2912kg, the 5.7-litre V8 can handle 3356kg and the biggest engine, the 6.4-litre V8 has a towing limit of 3946kg.

In standard form the 2020 Ford Expedition towing capacity is 2993kg (apart from the base-model 4X4 version which can tow slightly less 2948kg). But if you option up the factory heavy-duty towing package consisting of an electronic limited-slip differential, larger capacity radiator and an integrated brake-controller, the towing limit jumps to anything from 4082 to 4218kg (depending on driveline and specification level).

Are you sitting comfortably? Good, because this gets complex, with the manufacturer listing a huge range of variations of its 2020 Nissan Frontier towing capacity, depending on the body style, engine and transmission fitted. It breaks down like this:

Frontier S: King Cab manual – 1724kg; King Cab auto – 1719kg; Crew Cab 4X2 manual – 3012kg; Crew Cab 4X2 auto – 3003kg; Crew Cab 4X4 – 2889kg.

Frontier SV: King Cab 4-cyl manual – 1728kg; King Cab 4-cyl auto – 1719kg; King Cab V6 2WD – 3048kg; King Cab V6 4X4 – 2952kg; Crew Cab 4X2 – 3012kg; Crew Cab long-bed 4X2 – 2948kg; Crew Cab long-bed 4X4 – 2835kg.

Frontier Desert Runner: King Cab – 3035kg; Crew Cab – 3003kg.

Frontier Pro-4X: Crew Cab manual – 2867kg; Crew Cab auto – 2853; King Cab – 2926kg.

Frontier SL: Crew Cab 4X2 – 2939kg; Crew Cab 4X4 – 2830kg.