Great Wall Ute Range

You need to take the car to a mechanic who will be able to scan the vehicle to see if the on-board computer has noticed anything amiss and logged it for future reference. This should be a quick process and shouldn’t cost much, but without talking to the computer you won’t have all the information you need to make an informed diagnosis and subsequently tackle the problem.

For the record, the cause could be within the fuel system, the ignition system or something mechanical with the way the throttle body is set-up or adjusted. This model was also pretty well known for crank-angle sensor failure which, in its early phases, could be part of the problem here.

There are a couple of issues here. The first is that your mechanic may not have the correct scanning tool to be able to interrogate the car’s on-board computer to check for fault codes. And without the correct one, you won’t get far down that track. However, it’s worth following that route as it’s the best, most efficient way to find out what’s really going on inside the car.

Ironically, the same scanning tool required will probably also be able to turn the transmission warning light off. But turning the light off is not the solution; you need to know what triggered the warning in the first place and attend to that. Otherwise the light will keep cropping up, regardless of how often you turn it off.

Continuing to drive with a warning light illuminated risks doing more damage to the vehicle in the long run. Something is not right in your car’s driveline and the car knows it. But you’ll need the right mechanic with the right tools to be able to know what the fault is and how to fix it.

Sometimes the DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) can become so blocked up that it’s impossible for the vehicle’s onboard systems to clean it. If that’s the case, either manual cleaning or a completely new DPF unit might be required.

A diesel specialist should be able to figure this one out. Until then, you’re stuck with limp-home mode as the vehicle should not be operated without a functioning emissions system, of which the DPF is a crucial part.