Great Wall Problems

HAVAL cars are made in China. The brand falls under the banner of Great Wall Motors whose headquarters are in Baoding in the Hebei province. Outside of China there are factories that have imported Great Wall Motors' parts and assembled the cars on site.

HAVAL is owned by Great Wall Motors. Great Wall Motors are based in Baoding, China, and specialise in SUV and ute production. The HAVAL brand focuses solely on the SUV market, and advertises their vehicles as high-end prestige vehicles.

P0513 is indicating a problem with the car’s ignition key, which should have the car’s VIN and skim PIN code to deactivate the immobiliser. If you have a spare key, try that. P0 430 indicates a problem with the catalytic converter. There are a number of possible causes for this, it could be fuel system problem, a clogged converter, or a damaged oxygen sensor. Take the car to a dealer and have it investigated.

A car that is reluctant to start first thing in the morning but then starts fine after that initial start-up could be a victim of worn engine internals. Specifically, if the valve guides or piston rings are worn enough, the engine may not have sufficient compression to fire up from dead cold. That fact that the engine got very hot at some stage is also a good way to damage things like piston rings and lead to the symptoms you’re describing. Pull-starting with, I presume, another vehicle can spin the engine faster than a starter-motor will, and for longer, and this could be enough to give the engine the encouragement it needs to fire up for the first time. Is the engine burning oil? Or blowing blue smoke? Both are signs of a worn out engine.

Other possible causes are many and varied and include incorrect ignition timing, out-of-phase valve timing, poor fuel pressure, the cold-start enrichment mechanism not working or a range of sensors not playing the game. And plenty more.

If your car was a V200, then I’d suggest that the diesel engine’s glow-plugs had failed, but the V240 was petrol only. But that in itself is interesting because the engine was more or less an older-design Mitsubishi built under license by Great Wall. As such, it’s a fairly simple old thing with not too much to go wrong.

Perhaps there’s a clue in the fact that the doors lock themselves as soon as you’re on board. Maybe this has something to do with the body computer (that controls functions such as the central locking and immobiliser) which should perhaps be talking to the engine computer, but isn’t first thing in the morning. Do changes in the ambient temperature change the car’s habits? Is it harder to start on wet days? Is the tank full of very old fuel? All these things can have an effect on a motor that is a bit cantankerous to begin with.

It could be that the engine is getting hot, and leaving it for a period gives it time to cool down. Have the cooling system, thermostat, electric fan all checked. It might be worthwhile having a compression test done to see if it’s leaking head gasket.

Yes, it is.

HAVAL cars are manufactured by Great Wall Motors who operate out of China. Their headquarters are based in Baoding, a city in the Hebei province. 

Has any work been done that might have involved disconnecting the electrics? I would suspect that there could be a problem with the wiring connections. Best take it to an auto elec.

The most likely answer is that the body computer on your car has a problem. This computer is the one that links all the various functions (and the driveline) to each other, including cruise-control, the instrumentation, lighting, power-windows and, of course, the central-locking.

If the problem is deep within the computer’s circuit-board, you may need to swap it for a new one. But before you spend any money, try this: Close all the doors and then hold the lock button down on the remote. Hold it for at least 30 seconds and then see if the central-locking is behaving. If that fails, try disconnecting the battery and leaving the car for at least an hour. What you’re trying to do is manually force the body computer to re-set itself. This process doesn’t work with all cars, but it does on some and who knows, you might just be lucky.

It could be that the clutch is worn-out and needs to be replaced.