2009 Great Wall SA220 Pricing and Specs

This is a great example of when it’s necessary to go back to basics. Obviously, towing or running heavily loaded places greater strain on every single component of a car. And, of course, that includes the cooling system. So start with the obvious things like the correct grade of coolant and its level in the radiator.

Working back from there, check the radiator hoses for wear (worn hoses can 'suck in' under the load of the water pump, leading to reduced coolant flow. Are all the clamps tight and leak-free? What about the radiator itself? Is it blocked with gunk or is it flowing freely (you might need a radiator shop to check this and flush the unit)? Are the engine’s cooling fans working properly? Is all the factory shrouding for the fans present and in place? Moving further inside the engine, is the thermostat working properly and opening sufficiently to allow extra coolant to circulate as the engine gets hotter? Is the fan belt tight and driving the coolant pump properly?

Any one of these things can cause overheating, but it’s also where most mechanics will start looking for the problem. If that doesn’t turn up anything, you need to dig deeper and start looking at the condition of the engine, whether the ignition timing and fuel mixture are correct and even whether there’s a dragging brake or park-brake that could be loading things up to the point where they start to get hot.

When a whole bunch of electrical and convenience items go on the blink all at once, the prime suspect is the vehicle’s body computer. This computer controls all the functions you’ve mentioned as well as plenty more including the entertainment and climate-control systems, the powered seats (if fitted) and even things like the seatbelt warning lights and buzzers.

An auto electrician is your best bet at this point, and chances are they’ll have seen this exact problem on similar models. Ultimately, you’ll probably need to replace the body computer, but you can try this trick first. Disconnect the car’s battery and leave it disconnected overnight. Next morning, hook it back up and see if the various functions have returned. Disconnecting the battery will sometimes force a reset to the factory settings and will return the body computer to normal service. It’s not a guarantee, but definitely worth a shot since it costs nothing to do.

A problem like this is all but impossible to diagnose remotely. There are literally hundreds of reasons why this could be happening, and simply guessing at an answer and replacing that part randomly is not the way to proceed. The fact that no fault codes have shown up Is a puzzle, too. Don’t forget, though, that there’s probably a second fuse-box somewhere inside the vehicle as well as the one under the bonnet that you’ve already checked.

I’m not sure about the flashing anti-theft light. Sometimes these flash constantly whenever the car is locked as a message to would-be thieves that there’s an alarm system fitted. That said, the problem could be something to do with the immobiliser system which would stop the vehicle in its tracks if it thought the car was being started by somebody without the correct key fob.

The bottom line, of course, is that this vehicle – provided it’s been serviced correctly – is still under Great Wall’s factory five-year/150,000km warranty which was introduced back in 2019. So make it Great Wall’s problem.