Holden Captiva Problems

There could be a thousand reasons for this to occur, but there’s one common problem that affects the turbo-diesel version of the Captiva which can create this very symptom. The trunking that takes the compressed air from the turbocharger to the engine’s intake system can split or crack, leading to a leak. When this happens, the engine doesn’t receive the turbo-boost it needs to make power and you wind up with a very sluggish vehicle.

Accompanying symptoms can include a hissing noise under load and lots of black smoke from the exhaust. It’s definitely worth a check as it should be pretty easy for a mechanic to spot and is a simple, cheap fix before you go looking for more complex causes.

Noises are impossible to diagnose without actually hearing them. So you need to take the vehicle to a mechanic and get the car to produce the noise you’re reporting. That may involve leaving it overnight or otherwise reproducing the circumstances under which it misbehaves. Experienced mechanics can often tell whether a noise is important or just wear and tear, and act accordingly.

For the record, your mystery noise could be anything from a worn turbocharger, a sticking hydraulic lifter, piston slap, bearing knock or even something as weird as a loose baffle in the exhaust system. All these things can manifest as random and metallic noises, and they range from simple to catastrophic in magnitude.

Start with the basics: Is there enough oil in the engine? Check the actual dipstick rather than any on-dash gauge or indicator, as the dipstick never lies. If the level is low, replenish it and you should be okay provided you haven’t already damaged the engine by running it almost out of oil.

The other thing to do is check the owner’s handbook to see if the light in question suggests low oil level or low oil pressure. These are two very different things, but they will both cause catastrophic engine failure if ignored.

If there’s oil showing on the dipstick, you really need a mechanic to look at the vehicle to determine whether it’s a faulty sender unit (that is making the light think the oil level or oil pressure is low) or whether there’s something more mechanical at fault. Low oil pressure can be caused by worn engine bearings, a blocked oil pick-up tube in the sump or even oil that has been contaminated by fuel or moisture and is no longer doing the job of protecting the engine. Diesel engines, in particular, are capable of producing sludge that can block internal oil passages and stop the flow of oil to where it’s needed.

Technically, the Captiva operates in all-wheel-drive all the time. But there’s a centre differential that apportions the drive between the front and rear axles to allow individual wheels to rotate at different speeds. If that centre coupling isn’t working properly it could cause the noise you’re hearing, possibly from the tyres that are skidding or skipping as they turn, or mechanical noises caused by what’s known as 'axle wind up'.

The Captiva normally operates much as a front-wheel drive vehicle and only engages the rear axle when the computer detects any wheel slip or loss of traction.

You haven’t told me which engine is fitted to your car, but if it’s the turbo-diesel engine, then the cause may be a pretty simple one. This engine has a habit of splitting the plastic trunking that takes the pressurised intake air from the turbocharger to the engine’s inlet manifold. If that happens, the air is free to escape to the atmosphere, and doesn’t make it’s way into the engine.

That’s why you’ll hear a noise like air escaping (because that’s precisely what it is) as well as a lack of power, because the engine is not receiving all the boost from the turbo. You’ll probably also notice that the car is blowing more black smoke than it should.

The fix is a new piece of plastic pipe that should be well within the abilities of any workshop to fit.

Regardless of whether you use an additive, a car’s Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) will still need to be cleaned (or regenerated) periodically as soot builds up in it. Short trips where the engine doesn’t get a chance to warm up properly, as well as extended periods of idling in traffic and stop-start running will all hasten this requirement.

In the case of the Captiva diesel, the best way to manually force a regeneration is to put aside an hour and go for a decent drive. The advice from Holden in the day was to travel at more than 50km/h and at more than 2000rpm (which may mean locking the car out of overdrive) for a minimum of 25 minutes. During this process, you should not allow the speed or revs to fall below those two figures which suggests finding a decent strip of freeway to carry out this process. You should also not turn off the engine at any point in this procedure.

The broad idea is to get the engine and exhaust hot enough for the filter to regenerate and clean itself. Experience suggests a couple of attempts may be needed to get this to happen as it should, and in fact, the car’s computer will give you several chances to produce the desired effect before the workshop beckons.

If, after 100km of this type of treatment, the DPF light on the dashboard hasn’t disappeared, the solution is a trip to a workshop to have the filter investigated and, potentially, hand-cleaned. Also, a mechanic can initiate a DPF regeneration via a scanning tool.

This looks like a classic case of a body computer that is in the process of dying. Any time you see random lights coming on, or the stereo switching itself on, suspicions are always that the body computer as the culprit.

This computer controls literally hundreds of functions from the wipers, climate control, lights, entertainment system, even stuff like the rear window demister and central locking. And when the computer starts to fail many of these functions can go haywire, which is pretty much what you’re seeing.

The tail-lights staying on and the stereo witching itself on are what’s draining your battery, but the body computer is very likely the root cause and probably needs to be replaced. But before you do that, try this: Disconnect the battery overnight and then reconnect it next morning. Sometimes (but not always) this swill reset the body computer and might stop it playing tricks. The fix might be temporary, but it’s definitely worth a shot.

It’s certainly strange behaviour and your theory that because it works perfectly some of the time, it’s probably not terminal is a decent one. If something internal was broken or worn out, the transmission wouldn’t work at all. Which leads any mechanic to suspect you have either a gear selection problem or an electrical glitch.

Scan the car electronically to see if any fault codes are thrown up. But also check for things like bad earths or blown fuses and relays. You can’t rule out a major internal failure until you get inside the gearbox itself, but starting with these simple things can help eliminate other possibilities. You may find the ECU (the computer than controls the driveline) is the culprit, and is having random melt-downs.

You have a few choices here, but all of them involve replacing the broken handles rather than trying to fix them. Your first option is to find one of the remaining Holden dealers out there and order genuine replacements. The second is to find a parts recycler (a wrecking yard as they were once known) and harvest a set of door handles from a wrecked Captiva.

The other option is to find an online seller with brand-new or second-hand replacements (lots of parts recyclers also have online stores). You can order them and have them delivered, usually within a few days if it’s an Australian-based seller. Just remember to specify the handles that incorporate the keyless-entry button.

For a start, you might find it’s neither of those things causing the noise. You may have a worn tyre, poor wheel alignment or a faulty brake, to name just a few possibilities. That said, both your suspects are likely contributors to this type of noise.

In any case, there’s a simple way to tell whether a noise is coming from the driveline (engine and transmission) or from one of the wheel bearings. Drive the car at whatever speed is necessary to make the noise appear. If it gets louder as you apply throttle, there’s a good chance it’s driveline related.

But now, with the car still making the offending noise, drop the transmission into neutral (where it’s safe to do so, of course) and let the vehicle coast. This takes all the stress off the driveline and the engine should return to idle. If the noise is still present, then you have a wheel bearing or other problem linked to the wheels, brakes or axles, but not the engine or gearbox.