Holden Problems

This is a very contentious issue and occurs when the car decides it’s in mortal danger if it’s driven any farther. In many cases a car will go into limp-home mode with reduced power to get you home without further damage, but in the Captiva’s case, it can go one step beyond limp-home mode and simply shut itself down, lock the driver out of the equation and refuse all attempts at being moved. This has severe ramifications if it does so on a level crossing, for instance.

In any case, this condition is usually triggered by a serious fault to do with the engine and can include a lack of oil or a severe overheating condition. When things cool down after a while, the car will sometimes restart, but in the meantime, it’s not going anywhere. The suspicion is that you have a major mechanical problem on your hands, and continuing to drive the car (when it decides to co-operate) puts you in danger of a catastrophic driveline failure.

Diagnosing starting faults often requires a mechanic familiar with a particular make and model who will know where to start looking, as there are literally hundreds of causes for behaviour like this. An auto electrician can also be your best friend at a time like this.

However, as a very rough guide, the problem could be to do with something in the engine bay getting hot and not allowing the engine to restart. The symptoms bear this out; no hot start, but play resumes once things have been allowed to cool over time. Suspicions would be drawn to the ignition system, and a dodgy spark plug, distributor, ignition lead or coil-pack can easily create this sort of problem. In fact, the coil-packs on your car would be a very good place to start looking, as they have a reputation for cracking and putting a stop to things, especially when they’re hot.

The engine in your Combo has a code-name C14NZ (for future reference). This 1.4-litre four-cylinder unit has an engine oil capacity of 3.5 litres which includes the little extra oil required when you’re changing the oil filter as well as the engine oil.

For the record, changing the filter every time you change the oil is best practice. While some mechanics reckon a filter change is only required every second oil change, the vast majority of tradespeople recommend a filter change with every oil change. Why put clean oil through a dirty filter, is the basic argument.

If you’re planning to do an oil change yourself, make sure you buy a four or even five-litre container of oil as this will allow you to carry out the oil change as well as having some oil left over for top-ups between services.

This sounds like a problem with the rear or centre differential not working properly. When a car turns a corner, the various wheels must turn at different speeds (because they travel through different arcs). The differentials use a complex series of gears allow this to happen, but if they’re not all working properly, there’s a chance that the individual wheels are not able to turn at the correct speed. When that happens, the tyres have to skip and spin. Either that, or something like an axle or drive-shaft will snap.

The rear differential allows the two rear wheels to turn at different speeds, while the centre differential (which an all-wheel-drive car has) allows the front and rear wheels to turn at different speeds and maintain harmony. Being all-wheel-drive, your Captiva also has a front differential, but since you’re feeling the rear wheels skipping and skating, the front differential is probably not the cause. Which leaves the rear or centre differential.

Differentials can fail for a variety of reasons, including excess heat build-up or a lack of the correct type of lubricating oil. It’s entirely possible a seal has failed, allowing the oil out and letting the differential run dry to the point where it’s now damaged. But don’t ignore the simple things like a biding rear brake or poorly adjusted park-brake.

There’s no hard and fast rule on this stuff, and the lifespan of a car will depend heavily on how it’s been serviced. Any car that has been ignored and abused will have a shorter run than the same make and model that has been meticulously maintained and serviced. And this difference can literally be hundreds of thousands of kilometres.

However, it’s also worth keeping in mind that this model Barina was a Daewoo by any other name (and not a particularly good one, at that) and was designed and engineered as such. Even a well maintained example is probably going to be getting pretty long in the tooth by the time 200,000km have been clocked up. Common faults include dramas with the engine and transmission and many owners simply find that the cost of repairs is more than the value of the vehicle itself. At which point they get scrapped and recycled.

The first thing to do is find the owner’s manual and any paperwork that came with the car when it was brand new. Many dealerships wrote the security code on a business card that was slipped into the owner’s folder, others sometimes write the code somewhere on one of the manual’s pages. Either of which kind of defeats the purpose of a secret code, but it was common practice.

If that doesn’t pay off, you may have to remove the radio from the dashboard, record the unit’s serial number and contact either Holden or the stereo’s manufacturer (I think Blaupunkt, in this case) to see if it has records of what security code went with what radio.

Finally, there’s another long-shot that might pay off. Your car has an individual VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) which should be recorded on a metal plate at the edge of the windscreen, under the glass. The last four digits of this VIN are often the security code for the radio fitted at the factory. It doesn’t work on every make and model, but it’s free and worth a shot.

Definitely, and what you’re doing is exercising what’s called mechanical sympathy, and it’s a dying art, I’m afraid.

When you consider the forces involved in shifting a car from Neutral to Drive or Reverse, it’s easy to understand that doing so while the engine is revving higher than idle is asking for trouble. Extra revs mean extra forces on all those hydraulic and mechanical bits that make up an automatic transmission. It’s a bit like the difference between taking off normally in a manual car versus revving the engine up and dumping the clutch to make a fast getaway. Yes, it will leave the green light faster, but you’ve just multiplied all the forces trying to tear the transmission apart.

A slightly higher idle shouldn’t make much difference, but the golden rule is to only ever select a gear when the engine is idling at its normal rpm. The good news is that modern engine management means a cold-started engine should only idle higher for handful of seconds, meaning you don’t have to wait long before selecting your gear and taking off.

By the way, a healthy transmission shouldn’t clunk into gear either; the gear-selection process should be swift and all but silent.

As part of a car’s exhaust system, a catalytic converter contains some pretty exotic metals that help convert the engine’s exhaust gasses to less harmful chemicals. It’s pretty high-end chemistry, but the converter’s job is to make the overall exhaust emissions less harmful to people and the environment.

Several things can go wrong with a catalytic converter that can stop it doing this job, and that’s when the dashboard light will flash on, alerting you to the fact that the converter needs attention.

Sometimes, the converter’s internal structure (the matrix) will collapse, at which point the only solution is to replace the unit. But sometimes, the matrix simply gets clogged by soot and other contaminants from the engine’s combustion process. In the case of the latter, you can remove the converter and manually clean it or, add a chemical to the car’s fuel tank that will be burnt in the engine, pass through the converter and hopefully clean it.

However, the jury is still out on whether using either method to clean a catalytic converter is worth the time and effort. Many cleaning attempts have led to the dashboard light flickering back on within minutes of the cleaning taking place. Perhaps the additive method is worth a try, but in a high percentage of cases, converter replacement is the only fix. So why not just remove the converter? Because it’s illegal to tamper with a car’s emissions control devices and there are big fines for those who do so. Also, a catalytic-converter warning light on the dashboard is actually a roadworthy item.

I’ll assume by 'in' you mean the fan that blows climate-controlled air into the cabin and not the fan that cools the radiator under the bonnet. Like anything else powered by an electric motor, these should be almost silent, although the sound of the actual air rushing through the trunking (heater plumbing) and out through the vents can usually be heard when the fan is running full blast.

The most common causes for this noise to change are a failed bearing in the motor which will also potentially affect its running speed, or something foreign caught in the fan’s blades (leaves and dross from parking under trees is a common cause of this).

Cleaning out the fan’s trunking and/or replacing the fan is the solution, but in some cases, this involves fairly major disassembly of the car’s dashboard and a huge labour bill.

I’m not sure about other markets around the world, but the Barina Spark sold in Australia between 2010 and 2015 was a five-door hatchback. That is; it had four doors and a lift-up tailgate (hatchback) that is considered the fifth door.

At first glance, you might be forgiven for thinking that the Spark is, in fact, a three-door car, but that’s because the South Korean designers (the car is actually a Daewoo with Holden badges) styled it to look that way by hiding the rear door handles high up in the car’s C-pillar. So until you look carefully and spot the rear handles, it could pass as a three-door. The idea is that it looks like a sporty three-door but has the practicality of a five-door.