Ask The Guide

The modern automatic transmission is a wonderful thing with efficiency that is now as good as a conventional manual, but with all the refinement and convenience that automatics have traditionally provided. Reliability is generally good and the newer automatics are also able to save lots of fuel compared with older versions of the same technology.

Of course, that’s if we’re talking conventional torque-converter automatics. If you’re referring to CVT transmissions or dual-clutch transmissions (which are essentially a manual with a robot to shift gears and operate the clutch for you) then some of these have shown up problems over time. Many car buyers are a bit wary of CVTs and dual-clutches, but when it comes to a torque converter automatic, unless you’re very unlucky, reliability and durability should generally be good.

It sounds as though the material the dashboard structure or skin is made from has started to collapse or degrade in some other way. If the structure beneath the vinyl skin of the dashboard fails, you could conceivably wind up with a mis-shapen dash.

While that might sound trivial, it’s important that this gets fixed as this part of the dashboard houses the airbag. And if the opening for the airbag is not the right shape or is compromised somehow, it could affect the correct deployment of the airbag in a crash. And the consequences of that aren’t hard to imagine.

You’re right that error code P0171 on this car equals an engine that is running too lean. That is, There’s either not enough fuel or too much air in the cylinders. On this engine, many owners have found that the PCV valve can fail, but also that the rocker cover itself can contribute to vacuum leaks. If you can hear air hissing anywhere, then a vacuum leak somewhere around the engine is a pretty good bet.

But let’s not forget that a lean mixture can be caused by not enough fuel, as well as too much air. In which case a check of the fuel filter, fuel pump delivery volume and pressure are warranted. You can also get a lean error code from a faulty or dirty MAF sensor in the engine’s intake system.

I’ll assume it’s a Hyundai dealership that wants to charge you to assess the car. And I hear what you’re saying about the car’s service history and the fact that some of these engines have been fixed by Hyundai because they were faulty from new. So, the best advice is to forget about the dealership and go straight to Hyundai’s customer service department at head office.

That cuts out the middle man at the dealership and should get you in touch with somebody who knows whether your car was one of the affected ones or whether you’ve just been unlucky in this instance. My experience has been that Hyundai takes this stuff very seriously and has helped other owners in the past. However, your case will still be assessed according to the service history and how many kilometres the car has covered.

That’s an odd one, to be sure. I’ve never heard of an engine that used different sized spark plugs in different cylinders, so you’d have to assume it’s the result of somebody only doing half a job when the car was serviced.

There’s at least one possible explanation for this, though. You might find that one of the spark plugs is difficult to reach or access. In that case, a lot of amateur mechanics will leave that one plug and replace the others with new plugs that have a different sized insulator (the white, ceramic bit you can see poking out of the cylinder head). It’s always best practice to replace spark plugs as a complete set, but lazy mechanics will cut sometimes corners.

There’s also a very slim chance that a previous mechanic has used a different sized spark plug during a routine replacement because they didn’t have four new ones that matched.

Spark plug size is critical in many respects. As well as having the correct threaded section to fit the cylinder head, a spark plug’s internal dimensions are crucial to ensure it doesn’t poke too far into the combustion chamber and make contact with the piston. It also needs to be located correctly in the combustion chamber to ensure proper ignition of the fuel.

Coolant from the radiator and engine oil are supposed to be separate and never mixed. If they are mixing, you probably have a problem with either the engine’s cylinder head gasket or perhaps an oil cooler that uses the radiator coolant to do its thing.

If the oil has water in it (or vice versa) don’t drive the car any farther as the diluted engine oil can destroy the engine. Similarly, if the coolant is escaping into the oil, you might find there’s no longer enough coolant left in the radiator to prevent the car overheating., That can destroy an engine, too.

As for a warranty claim, a blown head gasket is a bit of a grey area. You may have to prove that the gasket blew of its own accord, rather than through you continuing to drive the car with an overheated engine or some other form of abuse.

I can see why you’d want to make this change as a lap-sash seat belt is a much safer alternative to a lap-only belt. Provided the seat belt you’re fitting conforms to all Australian Standards, it shouldn’t be a problem, but you might find it’s not as simple as it sounds. That’s because the lap-sash belt is a three-point design. That is, it attaches to the car in three (rather than two) places. That means it requires a shoulder-height mounting point.

The thing about that is that the car itself may not have a proper seat-belt attachment point in that area. If that’s the case, you’d need to have a mounting point added to the car and this would probably have to be inspected by an engineer before it would be legal to use. The mount itself would have to comply with all relevant Standards, and so would the method of its attachment to the car.

But it would be worth checking if there’s a mounting point already there. We’d also suggest you contact your state registration authorities to make sure they don’t have a problem with this change as the car may need a modification plate to remain legal. It would also be wise to let your insurance company know that the car has been modified in this way.

This is something you can command the car to do via the menus. From the touchscreen, find the menu for the car’s functions, scroll through until you find the relevant section for the mirrors and enable the self-folding function on locking. That should do the trick.

The 330e is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), so it has a petrol engine and a smaller battery pack than a full EV (which runs exclusively on battery power). That means the BMW’s battery should be less expensive to replace if it ever needed to be.

At the moment, the world is waiting to find out how long EV batteries last, but it’s looking like between 10 and 20 years is going to be the magic number. A lithium-ion battery like this one will last longer if it’s never over-charged and is cycled regularly rather than left sitting for long periods.

If it’s only the low beam light not working and we’re not talking about crash damage here, then you can change the globe at home. You’ll need a H7 replacement globe for the Astra, and the blown left-hand side globe can be removed by undoing a small, plastic access hatch inside the engine bay at the back of the light, squeezing the spring clip that holds the globe in its mount, and then removing the wiring plug. Then, you take the new globe and reverse the process, being careful not to touch the glass part of the globe as that can damage the new globe.

That all sounds pretty simple and it is if you’ve done it before, but it’s also a bit fiddly if you’re a first-timer. But before spending money at a workshop to have the globe changed, check out some of the bigger chain auto parts stores. Many of these have a free fitting service for things like wiper blades and globes.