Ask The Guide

It’s not a problem we’ve heard of occurring in huge numbers, but like any component, a canopy is subject to wear and tear just like any other. Canopies on tradie-trucks can cop an awful hammering at the hands of their owners and damage is inevitable in such cases. Even a few years exposure to Australian levels of UV radiation can cause a canopy to start to break down structurally, so they generally have a finite lifespan.

But instead of replacing the whole canopy (assuming it’s a fibreglass one) it might be worth asking a fibreglass specialist (say, a boat repairer) if the crack can be repaired. That would certainly be cheaper than replacing the whole canopy

This might be a tricky one because crash damage is not usually covered by a car’s factory warranty. But if you believe the crash was caused by brake failure, then the manufacturer is potentially responsible for that. Whether that translates to paying for the crash damage is a very grey area, however.

CarsGuide is not able to offer legal advice, but this sounds like a case where you might consider engaging a solicitor to help sort it all out and determine who’s going to pay for what. The first step would be to have the car independently tested to see if the brakes are, indeed, faulty, and tackle it from there. Your state motoring club should have a legal advice department that can help guide you and might be a good starting point.

This is an annoying but relatively common problem in many cars, not just the Isuzu. Because a car’s air-conditioning system dehumidifies the air (as well as cooling it) the water that was suspended in the air has to go somewhere. When everything’s working properly, there’s a small drain-hose from the air-con unit, through the floor to under the car where the water can be dumped with no problems.

But what often happens is that the little tube or drain-hose becomes blocked. At which point, the air from the atmosphere has nowhere to go other than inside the cabin where it causes the mayhem you’re experiencing. By locating the drain-tube and cleaning it out, the problem should go away. If not, you need to look more closely at the car’s heater matrix which also lives under the dashboard and can leak coolant into the cabin for a similar range of problems.

The smart money here suggests that there’s something your car’s electrical system and body computer don’t like about replacement LED lights. That’s assuming you’ve installed them correctly, of course. The first thing you should do is replace the standard globes and see if that restores the lights’ operation. If it does, you can be reasonably sure there’s a problem with the way the car reacts to the LED replacements.

Not all cars appreciate the conversion to LEDs. These newer lights draw a lot less current than conventional globes and, while that sounds like a good thing, the lack of current-draw detected by the body computer can cause problems. Another common problem with LEDs is that the low current-draw makes the car’s computer think that there’s a blown globe at which point it can trigger a warning light on the dashboard.

This is not an unknown problem with the diesel Captiva. The root of the problem is probably within the fuel system which is over-fuelling the engine. You need to check the fuel-pump pressure as well as make sure all the relevant filters and clean and there are no leaks anywhere in the system. Even then, the actual cause is most often worn out fuel injectors which need to be either reconditioned or replaced. Conventional wisdom suggests that reconditioned injectors will last about half as long as brand new ones before needing attention again. That said, reconditioned injectors are cheaper to buy.

Worn out or dirty injectors have been by far the most common cause of diesel over-fuelling, and the problem is not confined to the Holden Captiva.

According to the official government test, the 2002 C240 should return fuel consumption of 10.8 litres per 100km in city driving and 6.8 litres per 100km on the highway. In reality, of course, most drivers never get anywhere near these figures as they’re not based on real-world driving, rather a laboratory test. They do, however, serve as a comparison between makes and models given the test is identical for each vehicle.

Most owners of these cars seem to report using between eight and nine litres per 100km on a country drive and considerably more than that around the city and suburbs.

Hyundai actually issued a recall for some Konas with the dual-clutch transmission on precisely this basis. At the time, the reason given was that electrical gremlins within the computer-control of the driveline could cause the transmission to lose drive. Obviously, if you’re merging into fast moving traffic or crossing an uncontrolled intersection at the time, a sudden loss of drive could be very dangerous.

To find out if a particular car was affected and whether or not it’s been fixed, you can quote the VIN to a Hyundai dealer who should be able to give you the good or bad news.

The reason you can’t find much information on a Calais ute is because it never existed. Holden did all sorts of limited edition utes (including things like an Olympic Edition in 2000) but never built a ute with Calais trim or a Calais badge. Which is not to say a keen owner hasn’t modified a ute to live up to the Calais name, but it certainly never came from the Holden factory.

As a modern, conventional design, your Holden is negatively earthed (or, grounded). That is, the negative terminal of the battery is connected to the car’s body and engine to complete the circuit for the electrics to function.

But it wasn’t always this way, and in the USA and particularly Britain, many makes and models were positively earthed. Farm machinery and motorcycles were also often positively earthed. I’ve even heard that Dodge cars from the 1920s and 1930 were positively earthed in Canada, and negatively earthed in the US.

There’s a theory that negative earthing is better for preventing corrosion due to electrolysis, but it seems not all engineers agree on this. Ultimately, negative earth is the conventional setup today. Just make sure you don’t get it wrong as hooking up a battery the wrong way around in a modern car is a fair chance to blow the computers and other electronics to smithereens.

It’s probably trying to tell you that there’s a fault with the Lane Change Assist function which keeps an electronic eye on vehicles that are too close to you for you to change lanes safely. This system can be damaged if the cameras or sensors around the car are damaged or have been bumped or coated in mud or even dunked briefly in water.

While the LCA warning message is showing, you need to be extra careful when changing lanes as the car may not be able to give you all the information it once did when the system was working properly. By scanning the car electronically, the onboard computer should be able to pinpoint what’s wrong with the system. It may just need a recalibration, but this is usually a job for the dealership.