Haval Problems

This is something you can command the car to do via the menus. From the touchscreen, find the menu for the car’s functions, scroll through until you find the relevant section for the mirrors and enable the self-folding function on locking. That should do the trick.

Logic says it should be, since it’s part of the car as it was sold brand new. However, some manufacturers place conditions on this, mainly in terms of parts that are subject to general wear and tear. For that reason, tyres, brake pads and batteries are usually not covered by a new-car warranty.

Exceptions are also sometimes made for accessories fitted to the vehicle. But even if your TPMS was fitted as a genuine Haval factory accessory, GWM's (Haval's parent company's) warranty terms spell it all out pretty clearly:

“GWM Genuine Accessories purchased and fitted to a vehicle by a GWM Authorised Dealer are warranted for the remainder of the New Vehicle Warranty or 12 months from the date of purchase, whichever is greater. “

Put simply, even if the TPMS was considered an accessory rather than standard equipment, if it was a genuine Haval system, it should still be covered by the car’s factory warranty

It’s definitely not normal and the reason it feels dangerous when it loses grip and traction is because it is, indeed, very dangerous. Your car is fitted with stability control and anti-lock brakes, two safety features that help prevent the wheels skidding even on a wet road. Obviously, these features don’t make the car uncrashable, because they can’t do anything about the laws of physics, but they should help reduce the chances of the tyres losing grip.

If you’re experiencing skidding during normal driving and braking, then I’d suggest the car has a fault with either or both of these technologies and it’s really not safe – or legal – to drive in its current state. It needs to be checked out by a specialist who should also check the condition and inflation of the tyres, as worn tyres are a major contributor to a loss of grip in the wet.

You either have a problem with the temperature sensor or the gauge in the dashboard itself. Suspicions would be that it’s the sensor at fault which is not sending the correct signal to the gauge to make it read the actual temperature of the engine. If that’s the case, the sensor would also be sending false information to the car’s engine-management computer, and that’s why you have the check-engine light illuminating. The computer is getting confused at the discrepancy it’s seeing, and firing the engine light to warn you that something’s not right.

Either way, this is a warranty issue, so make it Haval’s problem.

Any time an engine starts to lose engine oil, it’s either going to be because of a leak somewhere or because there’s wear or damage inside the engine. A mechanical workshop should be able to carry out some fairly simple checks to rule out either possibility. In the meantime, use the vehicle sparingly and keep an eagle eye on the level of oil on the dipstick. Running the engine oil too low is a sure way to destroy the engine, when the fix might have been a simple leak.

A faulty transmission oil cooler, which uses the engine’s radiator and coolant, could definitely mix oil with coolant. And while that could lead to overheating as the coolant fills the transmission, you’d also probably notice the transmission dying a not-so-slow death due to coolant polluting the lubricating transmission fluid. But it’s less likely to pressurise the cooling system to the point where the oil-and-water mix exits through the expansion bottle.

Much more likely is that the coolant system is being pressurised by the combustion of the engine. If the cylinder head has been checked and the gasket replaced (assuming it was all done properly) then the pressurisation is probably coming from somewhere deeper in the engine’s crankcase. You need to check the cylinder bore for splits or cracks and take it from there.

Before doing anything, though, check the date of first registration of your car. If it was first registered after October 1, 2018, then it is covered by Haval’s seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. If it was prior to that, then it would have come with a five-year/100,000km warranty which, technically, will have expired. Even so, it would be worth contacting Haval’s local customer service division to see if the company is open to helping with repair costs given the vehicle is only just out of warranty. This presumes, of course, that the vehicle has been serviced correctly and at the appropriate intervals.

Good news; Haval extended its factory warranty to seven years back in 2018, meaning that your car is still under factory warranty. So make it Haval's problem. Assuming you haven't damaged the screen (and the car hasn't been under water or anything similarly drastic) and the failure has been caused by an electronic or hardware fault or flaw, Haval's warranty dictates it needs to fix it.

This automatic stop-start is an increasingly common feature on new cars and it's designed to save fuel by switching off the engine when you're, say, waiting at a red light. A lot of people find this function annoying and wish to turn it off permanently.

Depending on what version of the H9 you have, there should be a small switch down low on the centre console (near the hazard flasher switch) This will be marked with the same A-in-a-circle and, once you press it once, will disable the stop-start function. The catch is that you have to press this button every time you restart the car to disable the function.

But if you go into the Settings menu on the info-screen, you should also be able to find a listing for the stop-start function which, if you disable it this way, should keep it switched off.

This message flashes up when the car is due for a service or other maintenance. The problem is that just because the work gets carried out, the message continues to flash up every time you start the car, unless the reminder has been reset.

While some makes and models have simple methods of resetting the reminder (and making the message go away) usually through the menus on the info-screen, the Haval range is not among them. In the Haval's case, it appears the only way to reset the reminder is via the diagnostic port that gives you access to the car's on-board computer. Not all workshops have the equipment to tap into this port and while a Haval dealer will have the gear, such dealerships can be pretty scarce in remote and regional parts of Australia.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with having a non-Haval workshop service your vehicle and, provided the workshop is qualified, there will be no problems with any warranty claims down the track. In fact, the relative scarcity of Haval dealers in Australia means that many owners living in regional or remote areas have very little choice but to use a non-Haval service centre.

As far as the service reminder message goes, the solution is not so simple. While many makes and models have a simple method of cancelling this reminder (usually via the infotainment system and a series of menus) it appears the Haval H2 requires the Haval factory computer to achieve this. The message cancellation appears to be performed via the car's diagnostic port, rather than any simple method you could do at home. So, next time you're near a Haval dealer, drop in and have the message erased.