Car Servicing

Ever since purchasing my 2008 Ford Futura I have complained about torque lock up. While travelling about 78 km/h, I have to back off the throttle to get the transmission to shift into fifth, while under normal acceleration this does not happen. I am worried it will cause gradual damage to transmission. Please advise.

In March last year I bought a 2010 Toyota RAV4 Cruiser L and also took out extended warranty. At the first service a year later I was told the transmission required servicing. I asked how often the transmission needed to be serviced and was told that this was the first time, and that it should be good for another 120,000 kilometres. But should this have been done before I took delivery of the vehicle?

The Clear coat is peeling on the rear spoiler on my 2005 Falcon XR6. Is there an easy fix, or is it a full sand back and repaint?

My 2002 Renault Clio has just had its third TDC (crank angle) sensor fail in 3 months. It started a year ago when an intermittent fault developed and a Renault dealer diagnosed a faulty TDC sensor and I had it replaced by my regular mechanic. It failed in December, then again in early February, and it now seems to have failed again. Each time it has been replaced with the genuine item including the wiring loom, but by my own mechanic rather than a Renault dealer. Renault admitted they had a problem with them when the replacement happened in February. I have been talking to them about this problem and they have suggested it could result from using non-genuine spark plugs. Do you think this is realistic? They also have suggested they will not supply a new TDC sensor free of charge if it shows to be as a result of using non-genuine spark plugs. I think that is unfair, if the spark plugs used are listed as suitable in a spark plug suppliers manual for this particular car. Should I take this further with Renault?

After 2000 km I noticed my 2014 Kia Sportage had an oil leak. The dealer resealed the sump, but more oil drops appeared on my garage floor a couple of months later. The dealer said no oil leaks were found and that it was probably residual oil dripping off the plastic under-guard, and all they did was clean it. Just before Easter more drops appeared on my garage floor. When I rang KIA I was told to try another dealer. They inspected the car and said the sump needed to be resealed and did this early in April. I then drove to Geelong and back, after which I noticed more oil on my garage floor. Surely two KIA dealer service centres should be able to do this repair. What should I do next?

We bought a Skoda Octavia RS late last year and are very happy with this great car. My only concern so far is the long service intervals at 15,000km compared to our previous cars which were serviced at a much shorter intervals. So far we have run up about 7500km and it feels as if I should be getting the oil changed. What do you think of the "yearly" service? Are the oils and filters really good enough to go the longer distance?

I get my 2010 Subaru Forester serviced according to Subaru's specs at a Subaru dealer that I normally have complete confidence in. What is to stop me from supplying a 5-litre container of quality SM grade oil (as specified in the owners manual) that I can buy for less than $25 instead of paying the $48 that they charge for 4-litres of their oil?

A cautionary tale about drive-away free service deals and the complications of such a simple scheme. After purchasing a new Ranger in mid-2014 on a drive-away deal including free scheduled services I have discovered at my 15,000km service that this offer won’t be honoured as they consider my vehicle to have been purchased by a premium fleet customer as a major bank has its name on the novated lease it was purchased with and they aren’t entitled to this benefit. Despite the selling dealerships endeavours to rectify this through Ford we have had no luck in getting a common sense solution, so my scheduled services won’t be going back to their dealership network and neither will my next car purchase.

We want to change the auto transmission fluid on my daughter’s Japanese Mazda 2 (Demio), but we’re unable to find out here in New Zealand what grade of auto oil to use. Do you have any idea what grade of oil that should be used?

I recently bought a 2015 Jeep Cherokee and I was told by a salesperson that Jeep will be introducing fixed-price servicing soon. Do you have any knowledge of this?