LDV Problems

Problems with the electronics appear to be the biggest source of grief for LDV owners. Many complain that the vehicle’s on-board infotainment system appears to be fundamentally incompatible with Android phones and that the Bluetooth function generally just doesn’t work as it should. Many LDVs also seem to have developed the annoying habit of ratcheting their stereo’s volume to full every time the car is started. The blind-spot warning system seems prone to offering false alarms and the reverse camera has been widely panned for it’s low-resolution image. About the only way to fix these issues is to replace the factory system with an aftermarket head unit…not what you’d expect from a modern vehicle.

Of course, given that the LDV T60 was launched in late 2017 with a five-year warranty, the oldest of them can now only be coming up for their fourth birthday. Which means that provided the vehicle has been serviced correctly and you haven’t driven it more than 130,000km, you’re covered by that warranty. Which seems to us, that it’s LDV’s problem to sort something out by either fixing the standard infotainment system or sourcing and fitting an aftermarket one that actually works. Contact LDV’s Australian customer service department and make sure your complaint is logged on the factory system.

Problems with the electronics appear to be the biggest source of grief for LDV owners. Many complain that the vehicle's on-board infotainment system appears to be fundamentally incompatible with Android phones and that the Bluetooth function generally just doesn't work as it should. Many LDVs also seem to have developed the annoying habit of ratcheting their stereo's volume to full every time the car is started. The blind-spot warning system seems prone to offering false alarms and the reverse camera has been widely panned for it's low-resolution image. About the only way to fix these issues is to replace the factory system with an aftermarket head unit…not what you'd expect from a modern vehicle.

Of course, given that the LDV T60 was launched in late 2017 with a five-year warranty, the oldest of them can now only be coming up for their fourth birthday. Which means that provided the vehicle has been serviced correctly and you haven't driven it more than 130,000km, you're covered by that warranty. Which seems to us, that it's LDV's problem to sort something out by either fixing the standard infotainment system or sourcing and fitting an aftermarket one that actually works. Contact LDV's Australian customer service department and make sure your complaint is logged on the factory system.

There are so few of these things on the road even now, that it’s difficult to find patterns within the LDV’s reliability record. But a few things have emerged with enough frequency to call them trends. Those start with the electronics and, specifically, the body computer. Some owners have found that the central locking has problems (sometimes traced to a faulty drivers’ door actuator) while others have problems with the entertainment system.

Beyond that, shock absorbers seem to die young and some owners have reported grumbling noises and low-speed jerkiness from the driveline which has been traced back to the rear differential. Some dealers have replaced these units, only for the problem to recur sometime down the track. Overall, the LDV seems to have its problems, but many would-be buyers are prepared to allow for that based on the budget pricing of the LDV range. You get what you pay for…

How sure are you that the caravan weights 2000 kg when fully loaded? What gear do you use when climbing hills? Make sure you are not heavier than you think, and use a lower gear on hills rather than let the engine lug in an overdrive ratio.

Coolants are pretty specific these days, and straying from the exact one the car’s manufacturer specifies can be asking for trouble. But the fact that the temperature settles a little when you travel more slowly and shift to a lower gear suggests that the whole cooling system is getting towards the limit of its capacity when you’re towing a big load uphill.

Going slower and using a lower gear all takes stress off the engine and, therefore, its cooling system. By using a lower gear, you’re effectively making the engine turn over a little faster which means both the coolant pump and the cooling fan (if it’s a belt-driven one) will both turn a little faster. That’s good for cooling. A lower gear also means you can maintain your speed with a little less throttle which means less fuel going into the engine and therefore less heat generated.

In the meantime, you can check things like the tension of the fan-belt and make sure that the coolant system doesn’t have any air trapped in it which can lead to overheating. Check, too, the condition of the coolant hoses, that the electric fan is cutting in when it should, there’s no debris blocking the radiator and that the radiator cap is holding pressure.

There’s another old-school trick that might make a difference next time: When the temperature starts to rise on the gauge, turn the car’s heater on full blast. This will make things a little toasty in the cabin, but it also means the coolant is now also passing through the heater core which, fundamentally, is an extra radiator.

For reasons known only to marketing departments, the LDV, like most modern four-wheel-drive vehicles, uses a rotary knob to shift between two and four-wheel-drive and high and low-range. While old-school off-roaders of decades ago used a simple, mechanical lever to make these shifts, the modern rotary knob system relies on electronics and solenoids to effect the same shifts. When these solenoids go wrong or there’s an interruption to or glitch in the power supply, you can easily experience the symptoms you’ve noted.

The LDV is by no means the only brand to suffer vague or phantom shifting with this system and a body-computer re-set may be required. The fault has nothing to do with you leaving it in 4H while it was parked for a few days. It’s also very unlikely to be an actual mechanical problem with the transmission. So make it the dealer’s problem; it’s a new vehicle, so the vehicle will be covered by warranty and it won’t cost you anything to have put right.

It seems like the fix here would be an obvious one, but there’s a number of potential causes for a fault like this. Let’s start with the actual starter button. It could have failed internally. Or the starter motor itself might have either failed or simply had a critical wire fall off its terminal. Perhaps the immobiliser system is not arming the ignition as it should.

And here’s one from left field: Is the transmission in Park? If it is and the engine still won’t turn over, try putting the selector into Neutral. Both Park and Neutral should allow the engine to start, but most people only ever try it in Park. You could also have a poor earth or iffy battery terminal which is allowing enough current to pass to illuminate the dashboard lights, but not enough to actually crank the engine over.

LDV originally stood for Leyland DAF Vans. Currently, under their new parent company SAIC Motor, LDV is simply known by its acronym. In its domestic market of China, LDV is marketed as Maxus.

There were three engines offered in the 2016 LDV G10, Brett; a turbo-petrol, a non-turbo petrol and a turbo-diesel. Here’s the answer to all three possibilities: Both the two-litre turbocharged petrol and the turbo-diesel use a timing chain. The 2.4-litre non-turbo petrol engine uses a timing belt.

The timing belt will need replacing at regular intervals while the timing chains should be good for the life of the vehicles they are fitted to.

This is possibly a fault with the smart key which not only physically unlocks the car, but also disables the immobiliser and allows the car to start. Have you somehow managed to lock the keys in the car at any stage and retrieved them with the spare key? If so, try the spare key to see if that will now start the car.

I’m told that locking the keys inside the car and opening it with the spare key, will wipe the electronic coding on the first key, meaning that it will no longer unlock all the electronic security measures. You can take the key to a dealership and have it recoded. Perhaps it’s just that the key has failed electronically for no good reason and needs either a new battery or a new key module. Generally speaking, messages like `No VID Found’ suggest that the key is not talking to the car’s body computer. Often it’s the key, but sometimes it can be the body computer itself.