Haval SUV Range

There are a couple of possibilities here. The first is that you have a genuine problem with the transmission and if so, that needs to be electronically scanned (as a first step) to see what’s going on inside the gearbox. Since this seems like new behaviour, this is probably the case, but until the transmission has been interrogated, you won’t know what’s causing the vehicle to limit access to some of its gears.

However, if it’s a vehicle you’ve only just bought and the idea of skipping gears seems odd, bear in mind that this is perfectly normal for modern cars with lots of different ratios. It’s pretty common, for instance, for a modern automatic to jump from first to third, or third to fifth if it doesn’t actually need the extra performance that selecting each gear in turn offers.

Another check you can perform to perhaps confirm this is to manually select each gear as you accelerate up to highway speeds. If all the gears engage one after the other manually, then the problem is possibly not a mechanical one within the transmission and maybe a selection issue instead.

The two warnings are probably linked. 'Inadequate clamping force' on this model generally indicates a problem with the parking brake system. The car is trying to tell you that the electric motors that operate the parking brake can’t generate enough force to be sure that the vehicle won’t roll away on a hill.

This could be because your brake pads are very worn, the hydraulic lines are blocked or crimped, the brake calipers have seized or are sticky, or even that there’s low voltage in the car’s battery. Since you recently had a flat battery, there’s a decent chance the car still isn’t happy with the level of charge on board and is triggering this safety warning. Modern cars and their electronic systems hate insufficient battery voltage.

Whatever the cause you need to get it fixed, because a faulty parking brake has the potential to be a big problem. A decent workshop should be able to check the battery’s condition as well as test the parking brake system. You may need to consult a Haval dealer, however, to figure out how to cancel the warning on the dashboard once it’s been established that everything is working properly.

There’s about a million possible causes of this, but most mechanics would probably make a check of the electric fuel pump one of their first moves. Modern electric pumps have a finite lifespan and when they die, it can be very sudden. You can try a quick test for yourself at home, too. When it’s nice and quiet, turn the ignition until the dashboard lights come on. At that point, you should be able to hear a faint hum or buzz. That’s the electric fuel pump switching on to supply fuel to the engine. If you can’t hear it humming away, chances are it’s either dead or a fuse or other electrical problem has stopped it in its tracks.

There’s also the chance that the failure to start is related to the car’s ignition system which, again, could have any number of causes. Old spark plugs, blown coil-packs, a dud sensor or even a broken wire could be the problem.