LDV T60 Problems

Any time the engine revs up but the car doesn't go any faster, you're a fair chance to have an issue with either the automatic transmission or the clutch in a manual car.

If an automatic doesn't accelerate when you give it some throttle, our suspicions would be with either the torque converter, something inside the transmission itself or the unit is low on transmission fluid. If a manual car does the same thing, it's usually a poorly adjusted or worn out clutch that is slipping, allowing the engine to rev up, but not transfer that power to the wheels.

Your car would have come with a five-year/130,000km warranty, so if it hasn't exceeded that kilometre limit, it should still be under factory cover. So make sure LDV fixes it as per the warranty terms and conditions.

This is very likely to be an electronic problem based on the fact that if the transmission works properly in manual mode, there’s nothing internally wrong with it. But when you shift it back to automatic mode, there’s a stray or incorrect signal being sent to the on-board computer. In turn, that’s possibly throwing the operation into limp-home mode which is why you suddenly have a loss of power.

Limp-home mode is, as the name suggests, designed to get you home without doing further damage to the vehicle. As such, it can limit power, limit top speed and even lock you out of certain gears to ensure this happens. Have the vehicle scanned to see if any error codes are being thrown up by the computer.

The first question is have you tried changing the setting on the throttle controller? The U4 setting on this unit is slightly towards the lazy side of throttle response. Maybe a switch to U8 or U9 will give the throttle response the perkiness you are looking for.

A poor quality snorkel can definitely impede airflow and, therefore, power production, but so can a poor tune, dirty fuel filter, worn injectors, worn fuel pump, a blocked DPF, gummed up intake manifold and about a thousand other things. Is the turbocharger working properly and all the associated plumbing tight and leak-free? This can also cause a loss of power due to lost turbo-boost.

You really need to have a fiddle with the throttle controller to determine whether the problem as you see it is a lack of throttle response or, indeed, a lack of performance in an outright sense. For the record, 11.1 litres per 100km is not, depending on how and where you drive, unusual for this vehicle.

Conventional wisdom suggests that a fusible link failure is most likely to be caused by either an overloading of the circuit in question, or a short-circuit in that same circuit. The starter motor of a car (especially a modern diesel) consumes a lot of power to make it turn the engine over and that means a lot of load being placed on the electrical circuit. The fusible link is there to act as a fuse and sacrifice itself to prevent damage to the rest of the starter-motor system.

Sometimes, the fusible link can blow by chance or if there’s a momentary spike in the power entering the circuit. If the link continues to blow after being replaced, then you need to start searching for a short-circuit or another problem with the wiring.

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 sounds very much like you’re on the right track in thinking that the problem is diesel finding its way into the sump and increasing the level of the sump’s contents. This is a reasonably common problem (and not limited to LDV vehicles by any means) and occurs when the vehicle attempts to force a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) regeneration. To achieve this, the computer instructs the fuel system to inject extra fuel (diesel) into the engine to try to get everything hot enough to perform the regeneration. And sometimes, some of that extra diesel gets past the piston rings and into the sump.

The problem, of course, is that a mix of diesel and oil is not going to lubricate the engine as effectively as oil on its own. So, you’re running the risk of engine damage by having this situation continuing to occur.

If the dealer won’t play ball, go over their head and talk directly to LDV Australia’s customer service department. This is an obvious warranty issue and LDV is legally obliged to address it.

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.

If the oil is escaping the transfer case on your car, it has to be going somewhere. So, yes, you would expect to see some evidence of the leak where you park the car each night. The thing is the oil may not be directly under the transfer case, as it may have leaked onto a chassis rail or even a cable or brake line and be dripping on to the ground some distance from the case. That said, it might also be right under the transfer case as a big clue to what’s going on.

The costs of fixing the leak would depend on where it’s coming from and how much disassembly is required to get to it. But in reality, leaks like this are covered by your factory warranty, so really, it’s LDV’s problem, not yours.

It’s not a problem and is actually completely normal. What’s happening is that the car’s computer is detecting that the engine or transmission (or both) are hot enough that they need a little extra cooling. That’s why the electric fan comes on. It stays on for a minute or so after the engine is shut down to try to bring down temperatures a little more in anticipation that you may return to the car and restart it in the next few minutes.

It’s not that the vehicle is overheating, but modern cars are all about efficiency and thermal management is a big part of that. The fan is more likely to come on if you’ve just spent a few minutes idling at a red light or driving slowly through a car-park to your eventual parking spot. Low (or no) speeds mean there’s little to no air passing through the car’s radiator, so the fan switches on to create some airflow of its own.

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.