LDV Problems

It’s probably trying to tell you that there’s a fault with the Lane Change Assist function which keeps an electronic eye on vehicles that are too close to you for you to change lanes safely. This system can be damaged if the cameras or sensors around the car are damaged or have been bumped or coated in mud or even dunked briefly in water.

While the LCA warning message is showing, you need to be extra careful when changing lanes as the car may not be able to give you all the information it once did when the system was working properly. By scanning the car electronically, the onboard computer should be able to pinpoint what’s wrong with the system. It may just need a recalibration, but this is usually a job for the dealership.

This might sound like a long shot, but are you sure the fuse was okay? Sometimes, these delicate little fuses might look fine, but can still be blown. To make certain, change it for a new fuse anyway and see if that returns things to normal.

However, modern car components like display screens are no different to any other modern electronics (except they live in a much more hostile environment than the TV in your loungeroom). Which means, of course, they can simply die for no apparent reason. At which point, this becomes LDV’s problem as it’s a pretty straight-forward warranty issue. Take the car back to the dealership, tell them the problem and it’s their responsibility to fix as per Australian Consumer Law. LDV can choose to fix the screen or replace it, but it must be returned to fully working condition at no cost to you.

You’re (possibly) looking for a driveline problem here. It’s probably not the engine itself as the vibration occurs when you’re slowing down (and the engine is no longer under load) but beyond that, it could be anything from a driveshaft, axle, transmission, braking system, wheel bearing, suspension or even an engine or transmission mount problem.

But the bottom line is that your vehicle should still be covered by the factory warranty, so make use of it. If you don’t get any satisfaction at dealership level, tackle LDV’s Australian customer service department. Our laws regarding vehicle warranties are plain and simple and are designed to protect consumers.

It’s often the case that the spot you see water entering the car is not where the actual leak is located. Water can take all sorts of interesting routes on the way to where you can see it, being driven by both the air passing over the car and following the odd shapes and profiles that make up the bits of a car’s body you can’t see.

But believe it or not, one of the best ways to find the source of a leak is to sit in the car while somebody on the outside trains a garden hose in specific places. As the aim of the hose moves, you might find the leak increases and decreases, helping you pin-point the source.

This cause of a water leak can sometimes be as simple as a small twig or leaf stuck in a door rubber, but it can also be the result of a damaged seal, body damage and even a replacement windscreen that has not been sealed properly.

The last decade of dual-cab four-wheel-drive utes have emerged as the tow-vehicles of choice, and you see them everywhere filling roles exactly like the one you have planned. Popular models include the Ford Ranger you’ve nominated, Toyota HiLux, Mazda BT-50, VW Amarok, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Isuzu D-Max. But there are also cheaper alternatives including makes like the South-Korean made Ssangyong and various Chinese brands like LDV and Great Wall.

Just make sure you know exactly how much you need to tow before making a decision as some of the cheaper models don’t have the same outright towing capacity and even if they do, some of them don’t have the engine performance to make towing as easy as it should be. For parts availability, the Toyota would be king in really remote areas, but any of the major brands are pretty well covered in Australia.

Meantime, don’t rule out ute-based wagons such as the Ford Everest, Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Toyota Fortuna. These offer better ride comfort when unladen thanks to more sophisticated rear suspensions and most have as much or almost as much towing capacity as their ute brethren.

On most cars, you can disable beeps and buzzers that tell you the car has locked or unlocked. Many people choose to do so, too, out of consideration for their neighbours who don’t appreciate even a small toot of a car’s horn when you leave for work at 5am.

On newer LDVs, you can go to the touchscreen and hit Settings. Then touch 'Car' and then 'Comfort' and 'Convenience'. That will then offer a list of features, but the one you want to touch on is 'Locking Feedback'. That will then give you the choice of 'Lights and Horn', 'Lights Only' or 'Horn Only'. By touching on 'Lights Only', you should have disabled the horn beep when locking and unlocking. Your neighbours will thank you.

Safety gear such as seat-belt warnings don’t usually have an on-off button, as they need to operate all the time in the interests of safety. But having them go off when there’s nobody in the back seat is just annoying.

Are your kids leaving their school bags or anything else on the seat when they leave the vehicle? Sometimes a bag of groceries or a small suitcase heavy enough can make the vehicle think there’s a human backside on the seat and, if the seat-belt isn’t done up, will sound the alert. If not, you’re probably looking at a problem with the sensor that triggers the warning. Either way, the car thinks the seat is occupied when it’s not.

This problem should be covered by your new-car warranty, so let the dealer sort it out. In the meantime, you might be able to silence the warning by clipping the seat-belts into their correct buckles, even if there’s nobody in those seats.

First things first; have the car electronically scanned to see what fault codes are thrown up. From there you can make a much more accurate diagnosis of the problem. Simply replacing random sensors and other parts on a hunch is a fast way to throw money away and still be stuck with a car that doesn’t run properly.

The de-carbonising process you mention is sometimes necessary in modern turbo-diesels which, for reasons of emissions control, consume a percentage of their own exhaust gasses as well as any gas build-up inside the actual engine. And since the exhaust gasses contain soot, and the crankcase gasses contain oil, those two compounds get mixed up into a black, gooey paste that clogs the engine’s intake system. At this point it usually needs to be pulled apart and manually cleaned. If this is the case with your car, it could well be the cause of the check-engine light and the poor running.

It would appear the vehicle has gone into limp-home mode. This limits how much power the engine produces and how fast the vehicle will go as a means of protecting the engine and transmission from damage due to whatever the root cause is. Often a low coolant or oil level or high temperature will force the car into limp-home mode, but there are many other reasons for this to happen. You need to take the car to a workshop which will be able to scan the vehicle electronically and gain a better idea of what’s going on.

Don’t forget, either, that provided you car is less than five years old and has travelled less than 130,000km, it should still be covered by the LDV factory warranty.

As for the colour of the oil, diesel engines are notoriously filthy things and nearly always turn their oil black in a very short space of time. In fact, even when topping up with new oil, by the time it has reached the sump and appears on the dipstick, it’s already black.