Ask The Guide

You either have a problem with the temperature sensor or the gauge in the dashboard itself. Suspicions would be that it’s the sensor at fault which is not sending the correct signal to the gauge to make it read the actual temperature of the engine. If that’s the case, the sensor would also be sending false information to the car’s engine-management computer, and that’s why you have the check-engine light illuminating. The computer is getting confused at the discrepancy it’s seeing, and firing the engine light to warn you that something’s not right.

Either way, this is a warranty issue, so make it Haval’s problem.

The Ecoboost petrol engine fitted to these cars has been known to give problems, usually in the form of cylinder head faults and oil leaks as a result. The open-deck cylinder block design is often quoted as the cause of these failures, and it’s not inconceivable that such a failure could cause problems with the cylinders or pistons over time.

However, no modern car can be considered acceptable if the engine fails at such a low mileage. Ford is unlikely to consider this a warranty job given the age of the vehicle, but it would be worth talking to Ford’s customer service division to see if there’s any help on offer.

For the record, the cars most affected by the cylinder head failure problem were built between 2012 and 2014, but even if you bought your car in 2015, it could have been made in 2014 and might be one of the affected ones.

Even though your car has no clutch pedal, its transmission is what’s called a DSG, or dual-clutch, which means it’s actually a conventional manual gearbox where a computer controls the clutch operation. That’s why it drives like an automatic yet still has a clutch assembly, part of which is the clutch pressure plate, or multiple plates in the VW’s case.

Replacing this will require the transmission to be removed, so it’s not a small or simple job. Which also means it won’t be cheap, either. The problem is that digging into a DSG transmission often reveals wear in other areas, and you might find it needs more than just a clutch late at the mileage you’ve covered.

A VW or transmission specialist should be able to do an electronic analysis of the transmission and its general health to help you make an informed decision on which way to go.

In conventional automatic transmissions, a delay when selecting gears (often reverse) indicates worn internals and the need for a rebuild. Your Nissan is fitted with a CVT transmission rather than a conventional auto, but it still operates on the basis of hydraulic control. Which means that the problem could still be one of internal wear. A transmission specialist is likely to be your best point of contact for this problem.

The first thing to do, though, is check the level of fluid in the transmission. A level that is low can mean delays when selecting gears and even slipping of the transmission under load. However, if the level is low, there must be a leak somewhere as these are sealed systems and should not require regular topping up.

When a bunch of electrical functions all go out at once (or within a short space of time of each other) suspicions are always drawn to the car’s body computer. This computer controls all the functions you mentioned as well as dozens of others from the heating and cooling, central locking, lights, wipers, dashboard and much, much more. When the computer starts to die (as most computers eventually do) these functions will start dropping one by one and sometimes in simultaneous batches of failures. Eventually, pretty much nothing will work and the car will not even respond to the key’s inputs.

An auto electrician is the best place to take the car, and as well as the computer, they will also check the car’s battery and charging system and the quality (or otherwise) of the car’s earthing points. Bad earths can cause similar problems to this, but the body computer remains a likely culprit.

These modern active cruise control system rely on lots and lots of information from around the car to function properly. And unless all those camera, steering, braking and throttle position (and more) sensors are playing as a team, the car’s computer - acting as the onboard relationship manager - has no option but to disable some functions, as they become potentially flawed without the correct inputs.

That’s why the connection between the power steering and the cameras on your car is so critical, and also why the systems have shut down. The actual failure could be with either the steering or camera system, but it will need a deep dive at the dealership to figure out what element has caused the shutdown of the other.

In any case, this is pretty clearly a warranty job (unless the camera has been damaged by hitting something) but you need to be fair about it and give Hyundai every chance to make it right.

Blow-by is a normal part of engine operation, particularly turbocharged engines where the combustion chamber pressures can be extremely high, forcing gasses past the piston rings and into the crankcase. Excess blow-by, however, suggests that there’s perhaps an overboost problem, wear in the engine or that the ventilation system designed into the emissions controls of the engine is not working properly.

The crankcase ventilation valve would be a good place to start checking as these can become very dirty and even clogged over time in a diesel engine, and a compression test of the engine might tell you more as well. The first thing to do is find another vehicle of the exact same make and model and see if it, too, has a similar level of blow-by in evidence. From there, you can decide which way to go, but either way, a good diesel mechanic should be able to identify the problem accurately.

This is very likely to be an electronic problem based on the fact that if the transmission works properly in manual mode, there’s nothing internally wrong with it. But when you shift it back to automatic mode, there’s a stray or incorrect signal being sent to the on-board computer. In turn, that’s possibly throwing the operation into limp-home mode which is why you suddenly have a loss of power.

Limp-home mode is, as the name suggests, designed to get you home without doing further damage to the vehicle. As such, it can limit power, limit top speed and even lock you out of certain gears to ensure this happens. Have the vehicle scanned to see if any error codes are being thrown up by the computer.

The thing with problems like these is that you could be looking at a single fault or a group of problems that are each giving you a different symptom. Something could be getting hot in the engine management system that is causing the vehicle to shut down, and a good place to start looking would be the crank-angle sensor. When these get hot, they stop sending a critical signal to the engine’s computer and it just shuts down. After a short cool-down period, the sensor can often come back to life and away you go again.

Meantime, a stuttering idle and inconsistent engine speed on start-up would make a lot of mechanics check out the stepper motor which is part of the throttle mechanism and is responsible for setting the idle speed and allowing the engine to start.

Has your mechanic scanned the car or simply done a few basic checks? An electronic scan should be your next step if it hasn’t already been done.

There’s a fair bit going on in a Ranger’s all-wheel-drive driveline, so you can expect a bit more noise than that generated by a conventional car. It’s not uncommon, either, for one example of a car to be a bit noisier than another of the same make and model and this is all down to what’s called production tolerances where there might be slight differences in two otherwise identical components.

In the case of driveline noises, it’s often said that a noise is more of a concern when it’s heard all the time, not just at a particular speed or frequency. If the noise goes away below 80km/h and is gone by 90km/h, then it could easily be one of these transient noises that doesn’t signify much to worry about. Concern should set it, however, if these noises, their volume and/or their duration start to change or become more frequent. At that point, you can be pretty sure things are changing inside the driveline and that’s usually an early sign of components starting to wear. Keep and ear on things and if the noises change, have them checked out. If you’re still concerned, have a mechanic who knows these vehicles well take a ride in it at the problem speed and have them compare it with other Rangers.