GWM SUV Range

I checked with Haval about this and discovered that the 12-volt battery is covered only by a 12-month/20,000km warranty. To be fair, that’s pretty normal, and the advice is to start any car at least every three to four weeks to keep some charge in the 12-volt system.

But the hybrid battery should not be subject to the same conditions, and is designed to be discharged and charged frequently as part of its normal use. Your Haval’s hybrid battery is covered by an eight-year/150,000km warranty, so there should be no problem with it being covered by the factory warranty if, in fact, it’s the cause of your problem.

You need to contact Haval Australia’s customer service department and take this further as a failed hybrid battery on a 2023 car should be Haval’s problem, not yours.

This is a relatively common annoyance for many owners of different makes and models, not just Havals. It’s caused by the automatic shut-off mechanism on the bowser’s nozzle thinking that the tank is full and it need to shut off to avoid overfilling and a spill.

It’s not actually a fault with your car (although some makes and models do seem worse than other) and is actually more to do with the bowser.

To get around it, you can either fill very slowly (as you’ve discovered) but you can also try inserting the nozzle by a different amount until you find the sweet spot where the fuel flows freely into the tank. The other trick picked up over the years is to insert the nozzle and then give it a quarter of a turn so that the fuel is hitting a different part of the car’s filler neck (which may not cause the same problem). You could also try a different service station to see if its nozzles alleviate the problem to some degree.

A lot of car owners would be horrified at the thought of having to top up their engine oil between services. But the reality is, all car engines use at least a tiny amount of oil. It’s just part of how an engine works.

There are other factors, too, including the extended oil change intervals we’re seeing these days as car-makers try to drive down servicing costs and down-time. But some modern engines also use what are referred to as low-friction piston rings. These don’t exert so much force against the cylinder walls during the engine’s operation to reduce internal friction and, as a result, can contribute to noticeably lower fuel consumption. The flipside is that these low-tension rings can also contribute to an engine using a bit more oil.

Haval specifies an engine oil change every 12 months or 15,000km whichever comes first, and that’s a pretty decent length of time (and distance) to go without servicing. So full marks to you for keeping your eye on the dipstick and knowing when the level is dropping.

The general view in the trade is that the oil you use to top up should be a fully synthetic 5W30, but you really need to find out what oil Haval put in it at the last service. That’s because you don’t really want to mix oils as different brands have different additive packages that may not necessarily be compatible with other brands.