LDV Reviews

For a start, your vehicle at just over five years of age is only just out of its five-year warranty. So it would be worth contacting LDV Australia’s customer service department to see if there’s any help available for a fix, or to cover some of the costs of a fix.

Meanwhile, a lot of these plastic add-ons are attached via small plastic clips and it’s these that fail, allowing the part in question to fall off. In the old days, such a trim piece would probably have been made of metal and been secured by metal tabs or pins or even a nut and bolt. But there are some really good adhesives on the market now that would probably have the strength to effectively glue the trim piece back on. That will make getting it off again (if you ever have to) a bit messy and could damage the paint underneath, but it’s probably better than having to replace a strip of tape every few weeks.

From what I can gather, some newer cars (and the LDV may be one of them) play the indicator and reverse buzzer wounds through the car’s stereo. If, then, you have accidentally muted the sound system, those noises will also be muted.

Find your car’s owner’s manual which should have a section on muting and unmuting the stereo system. That’s the first thing to try. You could also dive into the menus on the touch-screen to see if there’s a function there for muting the indicator and other sounds. The other function to look for is a 'restore factory settings' button which should take the vehicle back to how it was delivered brand-new.

If none of that works, you could always try an LDV dealership which has probably seen this a hundred times before and will be able to quickly reinstate these functions for you. If you’re a regular servicing customer, they may not even charge you for the five minutes it will take. And if they can’t fix it, it then becomes a warranty issue anyway.

What the dealer is saying (most likely) is that the fuel pump will be fixed under warranty but there’s a question mark over the condition of the intercooler. They’re probably separate issues. If the intercooler has failed because of faulty materials or manufacture, then it would be covered by the warranty. If it’s been damaged (a flying rock, perhaps) then it won’t be covered by warranty. At which point, you’re liable for the cost of repairs and diagnosis.

The question you need to be asking is why the dealer thinks the intercooler needs to be tested. Is there anything leaking from it? Are there any performance problems pointing to the intercooler being damaged? If not, it’s hard to imagine why the intercooler would need to be tested in the first place, apart from the manufacturer warning dealers of potential failures. Which, again, would point to a warranty issue.

Don’t be afraid to ask the tough question before any work has commenced, and don’t forget that your state motoring club is a good source of legal advice on this stuff.

But you should also know that this model was involved in a safety recall to address a problem with the cooling system where a failure of the plumbing could allow coolant to escape. If this is part of your problem, it would very likely be considered a warranty job.