Car Servicing

Our Toyota Camry V6 wagon is 18 years old and has done about 220,000 km. It has always been serviced at a Toyota dealer and has been very reliable, but non-urgent issues are emerging, such as worn-out shockies and some oil leaks. We are still very happy with the car, but are we being unrealistic in having these items repaired, or should we just keep driving until it totally dies?

We have two questions relating to our 2012 Mitsubishi Triton. We have electronic rust protection and have noticed some surface rust appearing. Is this normal or covered with warranty? And we had our clutch fail yesterday and told today it's the slave cylinder and that it's not covered under warranty as sand got in and cause a leak. We still have almost a year on our warranty and I thought driving the car for what it's designed for, would be covered by warranty. We do go up the beach about four times a year. It always gets a thorough wash and clean after use.

I've got a 1992 VP Holden Commodore I want to sell. What is it worth?

I have owned a 2014 VF Commodore SSV, 6.0-litre 6-speed for two years and have a year to go with the warranty. The complaints I have vary, from a leaking radiator, which took two years to fix, the air-conditioning doesn't blow cold enough air, and my gearbox hasn't been able to change gears without going slowly or doing a double clutch. After it sat for six weeks while I was overseas, I couldn't get any gears to work. It took 30 minutes with my car running before I could get my gears to work. I've been complaining about this and other things for the two years that I've had the car and it falls on deaf ears. Can you please help me?

Every time I brake my 2006 Holden Vectra CD seems to jump, and when I go to accelerate it struggles to change gear causing the car to pull when accelerating. I thought it was the transmission at first but it seems to be something else. Could you please help?

I wasn't jumping up and down for joy when I made the discovery that the bottom of the steering wheel on my 6-month-old Lexus NX200t had shredded. I can only assume that this happened while getting in and out of the car.

I take meticulous care of my vehicles and have worked hard to be able to reward myself with what I thought was a car that was of high quality. I have driven many cars, and never have I seen damage of this nature to a steering wheel from everyday use.

I took the car back to Lexus to discuss the issue and I wasn't offered much help apart from being told that it was user-inflicted damage. Furthermore, they could not tell me what material the steering wheel was made of, as I know if real leather was used this would not have happened in six months of ownership.

A steering wheel should be able to withstand knocks and grazes without causing obvious damage as it is an item that you use every time you get into the car! I'm so disappointed and frustrated. I feel this is a major defect in the way Lexus make their "soft-touch" steering wheels and there is clearly an issue with durability that needs to be addressed.

My young apprentice son bought a 2009 SV6 Commodore Sportswagon about three years ago. He bought it from the original owner that had had it serviced at Holden. We have serviced it since, using only the best oils, and often earlier than needed. It's been playing up for the last 18 months. The check ignition light keeps coming up.

The dealer said it was the timing chain that is stuffed, as suspected, because the timing chains in these vehicles are not up to scratch.

They altered the computer program to temporarily accommodate this but said the chain would need to be replaced within 12 months, and it would cost $2500-$3000 to do it.

We now find that this was a Holden stuff-up. They knew the cheap version timing chain they put in to this car was defective/below standard. It was a manufacturing problem, but there has been no recall. My son put it to them when told today, and they changed the subject very quickly and didn't want to know about it.

We have spent money already to diagnose the problem. He is an apprentice and can't afford big repairs on a car that has only done approx. 115,000 km and was immaculate upon purchase.

Do we have any recourse with Holden, seeing though it has long been known to be a problem with this car? Do I need to ring Holden Customer Service direct and complain?

There is annoying noise around the fan area in my 1998 Mitsubishi Challenger. What could it be?

For the past month my 2014 Toyota Kluger has been struggling to accelerate. The gas pedal becomes heavy before the car struggles to accelerate, jerks then stalls for a few seconds before it kicks in for a few seconds then repeats the motion. These inconsistencies have been happening for a month now and are intermittent. Do you think it could be problems with either the engine or throttle?

I have a 2012 SZ Ford Territory TX diesel. The vehicle has been regularly serviced (every 7500 km), 99 percent of the time I am towing a two-tonne caravan. My only concern is when I should have the automatic transmission serviced. I have close to 50,000 km on the clock. Ford says it is a fully sealed unit and should be good for 150,000 km. I'm not comfortable with that and would love to hear your thoughts on how often and at what intervals the transmission should be serviced.