Ask The Guide

Your LDV has a seven-year/200,000km warranty so, in theory, any failure of the transmission within this period would potentially be covered by the warranty. The exception would be if the vehicle has not been serviced correctly. If you or a previous owner has skipped servicing and maintenance, you may find the warranty is void. The other exception would be if the vehicle has been abused or used to tow heavier loads than it’s designed for.

If your diagnosis is correct, the problem will be with the either sensor that detects the temperature of the coolant, the computer that creates the signal to open, the wiring that carries the message or the thermostat itself. An auto electrician should be able to sort this out by testing the components one by one until the dud one reveals itself.

But there’s another possibility in cars like this one with a thermostat that lives in a plastic housing. Over time and repeated heat cycles, the plastic can degrade and fail internally. At that point, the actual thermostat mechanism can move sideways and jam against the housing, effectively preventing it from opening., At that point the engine can overheat. Don’t rule that out until the condition of the housing has been checked.

A common cause of overheating can be a failed head gasket which allows the coolant to be consumed by the engine. When this happens, soon there’s not enough coolant remaining to cool the engine and the car overheats.

But it may not be as serious as that. You could simply have a stuck thermostat. This is the component that prevents coolant flowing around the engine when it’s first started, forcing the engine to warm up faster. Then, as the engine gets warmer, the thermostat starts to open to allow the coolant to flow through the engine and do its job, maintaining the correct running temperature in the process.

Other possible causes for overheating include incorrect ignition timing, a slipping fan belt, non-functioning cooling fans, a collapsed radiator hose, blocked radiator, a worn water pump and many others. A good mechanic should be able to make a diagnosis and tackle the problem from there.

You could have an engine problem that is causing the vehicle to lose power. The cause of this could literally be a thousand different things. An electronic scan of the vehicle might shed some light on the root cause of the problem, and most mechanics would carry out such a scan before doing anything else.

If the engine is not at fault, you might find the problem can be traced to a transmission that is not shifting gear properly or is slipping, or perhaps even something as simple as a dragging brake or poorly adjusted park-brake. But before you hit the workshop, you can check simple things like the condition of the engine’s air filter to make sure there’s no obvious cause. If your car is a turbocharged model, check the plastic trunking that carries the boost from the turbo to the engine’s intake. This trunking can split or fall off, leading to a loss of boost pressure and, therefore, performance.

If you want a very capable off-road vehicle with a good reputation for reliability, then the answer is probably yes. These were great vehicles and were actually phenomenal in the bush where it took a lot to stop them.

The better question is probably why you wouldn’t buy one, and in that case, the answers include high fuel consumption (the FJ Cruiser was only available with a petrol engine, not a diesel). The vehicle was also a bit on the small side inside and won’t hold all the gear a typical family would need for a week away camping. Also, the two-and-a-bit door layout means access to the rear seat is a bit limited.

There’s also the matter of not buying more vehicle than you need and, if you’re not planning to go off-road or outback touring, then the FJ Cruiser is overkill. They’re also getting a bit long in the tooth these days, but a well maintained example can still be ultra-reliable.

If you check out a lot of used-car sites right now, you’ll see that a 2016 Navara ST-X can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $55,000. Why the huge price-range? Because there are so many variables with this type of vehicle. Frankly, I’d need a lot more information to make any sort of educated guess on the value of a car I haven’t even seen, so I’m not going to offer one.

Because this type of vehicle is often used off-road, its condition is crucial. If it’s been bashed up, you can take thousands off the price. Has it been a hard working tradie truck, towing a huge trailer every day? How’s the service record? What distance has it covered? What accessories are fitted? What’s its overall condition? Has it been heavily modified (A lot of Navara four-wheel-drives have)? Is it a dual-cab, single-cab? Is it fitted with a tub, a canopy or a drop-side tray?

Without all this information, it’s simply impossible to hazard a guess at the vehicle’s value.

I believe the part number you need is GM96683849. That’s what shows up for the 2003 Cruze, anyway. But if you can’t find one, then maybe try a Suzuki parts specialist. Because the Cruze was heavily based on the Suzuki Ignis of the time, there’s a good chance the clutch cables will be interchangeable.

If you still can’t locate one, there are specialist businesses out there that can make you a clutch cable to any specification from scratch. This might be more expensive, but if it keeps you on the road, then it’s worth the extra. By the way, the cable for your Cruze, through a parts store, shouldn’t cost more than $100.

This is not an unknown problem with this make and model. Sometimes the stereo system will start by losing sound on the FM radio, then progress through to the CD player and even the Bluetooth system. Eventually, you won’t be able to get any noise out of the unit at all. Apparently, it’s a glitch in the unit’s electronics and cant’ be fixed via a reset.

The advice is not to buy a second-hand unit from a wrecked car, as the same problem is likely to occur down the track. The good news is that there are companies in Australia that have developed a fix for this and can return your stereo to full working order. You can find them online.

The other solution would be to ditch the original stereo and fit something new with better quality sound and maybe even features like an integrated reversing camera.

This model MG is designed and set-up to run as an EV for as much of the time as possible. That’s how it saves fuel and keeps running costs and tailpipe emissions as low as possible. To do that, the petrol engine mainly works to keep the battery charged, rather than actually drive the car’s wheels (which it can, but only in limited situations).

So, what you’re probably experiencing is the engine whirring away independently of the car’s actual road speed, as it attempts to keep the battery charged while going up a hill where the energy required is greatest.

It’s certainly strange behaviour and your theory that because it works perfectly some of the time, it’s probably not terminal is a decent one. If something internal was broken or worn out, the transmission wouldn’t work at all. Which leads any mechanic to suspect you have either a gear selection problem or an electrical glitch.

Scan the car electronically to see if any fault codes are thrown up. But also check for things like bad earths or blown fuses and relays. You can’t rule out a major internal failure until you get inside the gearbox itself, but starting with these simple things can help eliminate other possibilities. You may find the ECU (the computer than controls the driveline) is the culprit, and is having random melt-downs.