Holden Captiva Engine Problems

Check the fuel pump and the turbocharger.

It is worth fixing, you will only have more trouble if you don’t. Cost depends on the engine. If it’s a V6 it could cost as much as $3000, a 4-cylinder less.

If you’re referring to the little light in the shape of an engine, or a `check-engine’ light, then you have at least one problem that the computer is identifying and warning you about. It’s the vehicle’s way of letting you know that something needs to be attended to.

But what exactly? Well, the best way to find out what’s wrong is to have the vehicle scanned electronically, at which point the computer should give up all the car’s dirty little secrets. Sometimes the fix will be very simple, at other times it can be a result of a major system failures. Either way, it needs to be checked before the damage becomes more extensive and/or the car becomes unroadworthy.

It needs to be fixed, it’s worth very little if you don’t repair it. There’s no reason to believe that you won’t get many more years out of it if you do have it repaired.

It sounds like the entire car is shutting down. And if that happens at speed, or just as you’re preparing to pull out into moving traffic, that’s an incredibly dangerous thing to be happening. The best advice is to have the car scanned electronically, at which point the real problem might raise its head.

Beyond that, you’re clutching at straws, because whatever is going on is a fairly serious problem. Scanning the on-board computer doesn’t take long, and diagnosing the problem this way will save you time and money in the long run. It might even save you from a crash.

It sounds like you’ve had a rough trot with your Captiva, Danielle. Let me ask you this: When did the problems first occur and were discussed with the dealer? If you’ve been putting up with this stuff over a period of years, there’s a chance these dramas first cropped up while the vehicle was under warranty. If that’s the case, you’re dealing with what’s called a pre-existing condition and, if the dealer was made aware of the situation before the warranty had expired, then Holden is still duty-bound to fix the faults even if the car itself is now out of warranty. I’m asking because you said the problems go back at least as far as one month out from the warranty expiring, which is when you had new fuel-injectors fitted.

Starter-motor problems are not unknown with the Captiva and DPF problems are likewise a well-documented source of grief with these cars. Sometimes, the only fix for the DPF is a full replacement but that’s not cheap. Not to mention the new filter will possibly become blocked sometime down the track. The only way to keep a modern turbo-diesel happy is to drive it for about half an hour at freeway speeds every three or four weeks. That will regenerate the DPF and help prevent these problems. Then again, in the case of a Holden Captiva, I wouldn’t be too certain of that.

Believe it or not, Matthew, a check-engine light illuminated on the dashboard is actually a roadworthy item. Did you buy the car through a used-car dealer? If so, it would have come with a roadworthy certificate, but I fear the car yard has simply cancelled the engine-light warning without actually fixing the cause in order to get the RWC and sell you the car. And some time down the track, the car has detected the same fault and switched on the light again.

That said, a change of alternator can also sometimes throw up a fault code (which would illuminate the engine light) but a proper auto electrician should know how to either avoid this, or cancel the light if it did occur. There are many reasons for a check-engine light to appear including a problem with the car’s emission controls or various things to do with its electronic functions. However, the Captiva model you have was especially prone to a stretched timing chain in the engine. When the chain had stretched far enough, the on-board sensor that detects the camshaft position got so confused, it told the computer that something was wrong and the check-engine light would appear.

With the mileage your car has covered, I reckon that a stretched timing chain is a distinct possibility. That would also explain why the car feels like it’s not making enough power and why it runs roughly. Have the car scanned and if either codes P0008, P0009, P0016, P0017, P0018 or P0019 show up, then you do, indeed, have a stretched timing chain.

My friend, if I could find somebody to give me $5000 for a 2009 Captiva with a dodgy turbocharger, I’d be taking that deal in a heartbeat. The reality is that your car is worth about $5000 in decent working order, and nowhere near the $8000 you’ve calculated. That’s because you never really get back the money you spend in repairs; even if you spend $3000 on fixing a $5000 car, it will still only be worth about $5000. That’s the cruel reality of the used-car industry.

A cheaper, second-hand turbocharger is one way to go, but then you open yourself up to the risk of having bought, and paid to have installed, a turbo that is almost as worn out as the one that has failed on you. There’s no nice way to put this, but I’d be getting rid of that Captiva for the best price I could and not looking back.

Never let things slide if you feel your car has a problem. Pursue a solution until you are satisfied you have the answer. It’s not a good idea to miss services, particularly on cars with turbochargers. Keeping a fresh supply of oil is the key to trouble-free motoring with turbos. There’s every chance the turbo was faulty when you first noticed it, and having missed a service you probably contributed to the failure. There’s probably not a lot you can do, except to pay for the repairs.

As a rule of thumb, white smoke from a diesel engine suggests the fuel is not burning properly. If your engine only blew smoke when you first started it up each morning, I’d suggest the glow-plugs weren’t working properly and heating up the combustion chambers to gain a complete burn of the fuel.

But since it’s blowing smoke all the time, I think you could be looking at a fuel-injection problem. The injectors themselves could be bad (and it only takes one dud to make gales of smoke) or the system is mis-timed and not injecting the fuel precisely when it should be. These engines self-analyse themselves as you drive and it seems the car knows it has a problem, because it has turned on the check-engine light as a warning to you that something is amiss. Your first move should be to have the injectors checked as well as the injection timing