Faults we fix

Faults we see again and again, and how we track them down. We diagnose first and price the repair in writing before any work, so you never pay for a guess.

Known faults, by car

Land RoverRange Rover L322 PRND faultThe PRND letters flash, the dash says “Gearbox fault”, the wrong gear shows, or it will only start in Neutral. On the Range Rover L322 the usual cause is the gear position sensor — the part that tells the gearbox which lever position you have chosen. We diagnose it properly, then repair it.

From the workshop

Real cars, real faults: what we found and how we fixed it.

JournalFiat Panda Multijet: cranks, won't start, and the camshaft isn't turningA 2009 Panda diesel died on the road and would not restart. It cranked, it would not fire even on starting fluid, and when we checked, the camshaft was not turning with the crank.
JournalHonda CR-V 2.2 i-DTEC: the timing chain that wasn'tA 2011 CR-V diesel came in with a vibration and a suspected stretched cam chain. The chain was fine. The only stored fault was the mass air flow sensor, and on a diesel that matters more than it sounds.
JournalSubaru Levorg STI: resealing a weeping TR690 CVTA Japanese-market 2019 Levorg STI came to us with CVT fluid weeping from the oil pump area. Here is what Subaru's own bulletin says causes it, what the reseal involves, and what Levorg and WRX owners should look for.
JournalNissan Juke CVT after an oil cooler leak: rebuild, recon or used?A 2012 Juke owner asked us for a second opinion. The CVT oil cooler had failed, the car had been driven before anyone noticed, and another garage had quoted a brand-new gearbox. Here is how we look at that decision.
JournalMercedes-AMG A45: a new valve, the same fault, and why we stopped swapping partsA 2013 A45 AMG kept logging a fault on its all-wheel-drive pressure regulating valve. The valve clicked on the bench. A new one went in. The fault came straight back the moment the gearbox went into Drive.
JournalBMW F11 5 Series Touring: one side high, and the air lines swappedA 2011 530i Touring sat high and hard on one rear corner. It already had new level sensors, a new valve block and stock software, and the calibration still failed. The air lines were on the wrong ports.
JournalToyota Yaris 1.4 D-4D: no OBD, a dropping rev counter and a missing groundA 2011 Yaris diesel drove normally but lit up the dash, refused to talk to a scan tool and kept dropping its rev counter to zero. The clue was the steering wheel. The cause was the engine ECU not grounded to its case.

Not listed here?

Tell us what the car is doing. We read the fault codes, test before replacing anything, and tell you what we find.

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