Haval Problems

Any time a mechanic sees an illogical pattern of faults like these all at once, their suspicions are always drawn to the body computer. This computer controls all the functions you’ve mentioned as well as hundred more, and when it goes on the fritz (as computers are wont to do) you can suddenly get all sorts of weird behaviour, just like you’re reporting.

Take the car to an auto electrician who might be able to make sense of what could be a complex wiring issue. But the smart money says body computer every time. These can be replaced by a new computer, second-hand ones from a wreck and sometimes even fixed by very clever people. If the auto electrician can’t offer any advice, get online and see what help is out there.

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.

Whether this is a problem or not all depends on how much oil you consider to be too much. There’s an old school of thought that says an internal combustion engine shouldn’t use any engine oil. That’s not actually accurate. A small amount of oil is scraped past the engine’s piston rings and burned every time the engine turns over (which it typically does at anything up to 7000 times a minute). So some reduction in the level of oil in the sump is pretty much inevitable.

Some modern engines also use low friction internal components to make them more fuel efficient and, in some makes and models, this has had the effect of increasing oil consumption. Again, this is perfectly normal and the pay-off is you use less fuel.

Rather than just a drop in oil level, you should be looking at the drop compared with the kilometres you’ve covered. A car that consumes, say, a litre of oil (or even two litres) between its 10,000km oil changes is not a problem at all. Some manufacturers even say a greater level of oil consumption than this is still within acceptable tolerances. Anything up to 1.5 litres per 1000km can still be within a car-maker’s specification.

What you’re really looking for when checking your oil level is any change in the engine’s oil sipping habits. A sudden increase in the amount it normally consumes is when you need to start looking more closely.

That said, if the car is using too much oil, then it’s either being burned in the engine (suggesting worn engine parts) or it’s escaping the engine somehow (otherwise known as a good old-fashioned oil leak). A big patch of oil on the ground where the car is normally parked means you need to go hunting for a leak.

The HDC refers to the Hill Descent Control feature that allows the vehicle to crawl down a steep slope off-road without the driver applying the brakes. This function uses the car’s braking and ABS systems to operate, so any fault with it has serious implications for the vehicle’s overall safety.

You may have a dud sensor or something wrong with the wiring, electronics or even the hardware. Either way, an electronic scan should give you a few clues as to what’s causing this fault message to show up. Sometimes something as simple as a battery with low voltage can cause error messages like this to appear. But don’t ignore it; these are important safety systems and you need to know they’re working properly.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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