Ask The Guide

Many engines lose rpm when they are sitting at a hot idle. The problem could be with the fuel or ignition systems, but could also be a stepper motor that either needs to be replaced or reset (to re-establish the correct idle speed).

The oil light will be flickering because the sensor is telling the computer that there’s not enough oil pressure being generated to lubricate the engine properly. In turn, that’s because hot oil is thinner than thick oil (which means less oil pressure) and the amount of oil pressure generated is directly linked to how fast the engine is running. Hot (thin) oil plus a slow idle, means a dangerous fall in oil pressure.

If the oil pressure light goes out when you rev the engine a little, it will probably be okay, but don’t drive it like that for too long. Once the idle speed is reset, the oil light should not flicker on again. If it does, change the engine oil to a thicker (higher viscosity) specification.

Isuzu lifted the warranty on its vehicles to six years/150,000km for all utes sold after May 1, 2019. Unfortunately, it sounds like your car was on the road in 2018, which means it was covered by a five-year/130,000km warranty. Although you haven’t yet covered 130,000km, the vehicle is more than those five years old so, technically, the problem is not covered by warranty.

However, I think it would be worthwhile contacting Isuzu Australia’s customer service division and pointing out the car’s service history and its mileage. Isuzu may then decide to help with the cost of repairs on a pro-rata basis given the circumstances. It is not obliged to, of course, but it’s definitely worth asking.

The most common way to do this is to lower the window completely via the button, and hold the button down for an extra five seconds. Then, close the window fully with the up button, and hold that for another five seconds. Usually, this will reset the windows so that the body computer knowns where they are and can operate the automatic up and down functions correctly.

In some cars, you can achieve the same by standing next to the car and holding the locking button down on the key fob for 30 seconds. If that doesn’t work, try the unlock button for the same 30 seconds.

The fact that the engine starts with starter fluid suggests that there’s something wrong with the fuel pump system that is not getting fuel to the injectors in sufficient quantity to start the engine. Air in the fuel rail can cause this problem, so the first step is to bleed the injection system to remove any air.

Does the problem only happen when the engine is cold? If so, you might have a problem with the engine’s glow plugs. These are designed to pre-heat the combustion chambers to allow the diesel to ignite in a cold engine. But starter fluid can be a lot more volatile than diesel and doesn’t need glow plugs to set it off. Which could be why it will start on the fluid, but not normally.

From there, you need to look at things like the injectors themselves, fuel filters and leaks anywhere in the system that could be allowing the fuel pressure to bleed off between starts.

You were on a pretty good bet that the problem was a case of warped brake rotors, but it seems new rotors have not fixed the problem. In which case, you need to start looking deeper into the suspension and front end of the car. There could be a worn bush or ball-joint, or perhaps something in the steering needs tightening or replacing. A slightly bent stub axle could also cause this. Make a note of whether it happens in corners (left or right) under light or heavy braking or even when accelerating. This information will help a mechanic diagnose the problem accurately.

But don’t ignore this as the problem will only get worse as whatever is worn becomes more worn. Eventually, you’ll have a car that shudders all the time and is unsafe to drive.

Some owners have had a great run with this transmission, others not so much. Highway driving will be kinder to the unit, and a lot of city driving will be harder on it (although the DSG gearbox is by no means alone there).

The main wear issues are with the clutch-packs that control the transmission. These can wear prematurely and require costly replacement. Any shuddering when taking off from rest is the first sign that this process has already started.

It’s possible to read too much into it, but it remains that VW itself dumped the DSG for a conventional torque converter for some of its Australian models, including the Polo, in 2021.

Rather than the new battery causing the headlights and wipers to come on, this sounds more like the lights and wipers were already playing up, coming on randomly for no reason, and killing the original battery when your back was turned.

This is a relatively common problem and can usually be traced back to the car’s body computer. If the computer starts to act up, it can switch on various things including lights and wipers, even though the car is locked in the driveway and the key is in your kitchen.

Try an auto electrician who is a bit more familiar with modern body computer set-ups, but in the meantime, there’s a quick trick you can try that might stop the car misbehaving. Disconnect the car’s battery and leave it overnight before reconnecting it. This can sometimes be enough to reset the body computer and the problem will go away. Beware, though, this fix might be temporary and may return some weeks or months later.

In most cases, engine life has far more to do with long-term service and maintenance than anything else. A new vehicle with the correct preventative maintenance and servicing can easily cover 200,000, 300,000 or even 400,000km before major work is needed. But the same car with patchy maintenance might last only a fraction of that distance before it needs major engine work. So the service record is where to look first when considering a particular vehicle.

The type of driving the vehicle has done is also important. A car that has spent all its life in stop-start, gridlocked traffic will rarely cover the same distance as a car that has been used for highway driving where it’s in a high gear and just idling along. So try to find out about the car’s ownership history, too.

The price of the car you’re looking at seems to be at the high end of things for this year and mileage, but not by a whole lot. Certainly, most sellers post a price higher than they will take to allow for some haggling room during negotiations.

You’ve kind of already answered your own question by saying that you’ve already waited a year for delivery. Saying no to this one and ordering another might see a similar delay and you’d be back to square one. And a year older. Like many brands, Isuzu deliveries were adversely affected by global supply-chain problems and the world shortage of silicon-chips needed to make on-board computers work.

There are two issues with a car with last year’s build date. The first of these is that the motor trade uses the year of manufacture when calculating retained (trade-in) value. So, if you don’t plan to keep the car long before trading it in, then maybe that’s a concern. If you plan to keep it for 10 years or so, then an extra birthday will have very little affect on its trade-in value by then. This is something you might be able to negotiate on with the dealership you’ve purchased from

As for warranty, Australian Consumer Law states that motor vehicle warranties start form the date of first registration, not the build date. So even though the car might technically be six months old when you get it, the factory six-year/150,000km warranty will start from the day it’s delivered to you as a brand-new vehicle. The exception to this is if the car was originally a dealer demonstrator, when the warranty would start form the time it was registered by the dealership. If that’s the case, this should be reflected in the purchase price as it’s no longer a brand-new car you’re buying.

A modern car like the Ranger has a heap of sensors that warn the on-board computer of something that’s getting too hot, causing the car to enter limp home mode to avoid further damaging itself. That means you could be looking at a problem as varied as the condition of the radiator and its plumbing, the intercooler, coolant pump, the EGR valve and more. Perhaps it’s a simple case of low coolant triggering the limp home. Certainly, these engines can lose coolant if the EGR valve is damaged or leaking.

But then you can also move along to the driveline, because a too-hot transmission will also trigger a limp-home situation. Is the transmission cooler working properly? Does the transmission have the correct quantity of fluid in it?

Start with the basics and don’t be afraid to give the car an electronic scan as the fault codes it has logged could be a big clue in what component is causing the grief.