I have just bought a 2001 2.5 diesel Grand Voyager with 105,000 miles on it and I am looking for some advice on a couple of faults it has.

The ABS light comes on intermittingly and stays on the whole journey and now and then I have noticed the red brake light come on and off.

Another fault is a high pitched sound from what sounds like under the car. I can hear it sometimes when I am driving and its there when I get out and lock the car but stops after a few minutes.

My tailgate won’t open from the remote button or overhead console but it will close from them. All I get when I try to open it is some noises and a couple of clicks but it won’t rise on its own. This fault I am not that bothered about to be honest but if its something simply to fix then I will fix it.

Any suggestions on the above?


Thanks

 

You probably want to have that ABS light looked at. It could be one of the sensors at the wheels. You could take each wheel off in turn and just check the sanity of the wires going to/from the sensors and do the same at the distributor pump.

The red brake light is probably indicating that your brake pads are worn or one of your bulbs is gone.

The noise sounds like it could be a bearing in your turbo. The blades in the turbo spin at a very high speed and don't just stop when you switch off the car. Because of their high rotation they tend to spin off the lubricating oil that is meant to protect them. If you have been driving at high speed and then just turn off the car, the oil pump stops instantly but the turbo keeps spinning. As such the next time you start the car the bearings are dry relative to the demand placed on them and it takes a while for the oil pump to restore suitable levels of lubrication. After repeated use of this practice the bearings fail and the turbo either needs to be rebuilt or replaced.

What you are meant to do is let the car idle for a minute or so before switching off. This gives the turbo time to unwind and the oil pump time to lay down a protective layer of oil.

Your tailgate issue sounds like the contacts in the switch need cleaning.

I am sorry to be the one to tell you this but these cars are pretty lousy, especially when compared to Japanese cars. When over a few years old they really should only be, in an ideal world, owned by home mechanics. Without this background they are guaranteed to cost you so much you might as well just have bought a newer car. That said there are one or two Japanese MPV's that fall into this same category such as the Toyota Estima and the Mazda Bongo

 

I'd say that the noise if the auxiliary heater - have you got your heater turned up to hot? If so, turn it down to about half, start the car and then turn it off (but heed the advice above about the turbo) - it should be all quiet. Then turn the heater up to maximum heat and repeat the process - if you now hear the whining, then it's the heater, and it's running as it should do.

 

The ABS will most likely be a sensor fault

The noise as already said will probably be the cabin heater

Tailgate will probably be the latch at fault.

 

Thanks for the replies all. I did have a play with the heater and you are spot on that's what it was.
The ABS i haven't done anything with yet but i will get it looked at soon.

Are these motors really as bad as they are made out to be?

 

Once you have it a while why don't you come back and let us know ???

 

Personally I love them and I work on them all day but everyone to their own.

 

I must admit I have always had a soft spot for them ever since i got my first one. I love the shape and the space in them.
My last one was a 1998 2 litre LE and gave me no problems at all right up until i got rid of it with 90,000 miles on it.
This one I have now i picked up at auction and has higher mileage so i do expect some problems with it but i still wouldn't swap it for a jap one.

 

They are nice looking cars, of that there is no doubt and, in my opinion, drive very well. I fell for them after renting one in Spain for two weeks.

However I still feel that you should ideally have a mechanical leaning to own one. There are some second hand cars that are super reliable and just keep going such as the early Nissan Primera's. These unfortunately do not fall into that category and main dealer repairs are very expensive.

So long as you know what the inherent weakness's are and either can fix them yourself or have the money to pay someone then they are a very nice car.

 

My last voyager didn't have an auxiliary heater so if this is a daft question please forgive me.

Should you sometimes here a clicking noise coming from what sounds like around the handbrake lever when the aux heater is on and does the aux heater sometimes produce smoke from under the car?

My wife is convinced there was smoke coming from under the car today when she got out it but i cant smell or see anything wrong under it but having said that ive not had the engine running again yet.