SQL LIKE - Working on single letters only - php

Question

I have an SQL LIKE query running on mySQL which runs fine on my local development server however on the production server it only works on single letters; i.e. if I enter a word any longer than one letter it returns no results.
Any ideas why and how I might be able to fix it?
Thank you in advance.
/**
* Searches all current vehicle listings for matches to given search string.
* #param string - Search keyword(s). Warning: If search string is empty all current vehicles are returned.
* #return array - Resulting table rows containing vin, imageFile, description, kms, auctioneerName, city, time.
*/
public function searchVehicles($search) { //
// Build up initial SQL query. Sub query returns all current vehicles
$query = "SELECT * FROM (SELECT vehicles.auctionId, vin, imageFile, CONCAT_WS(' ', year, makeName, modelName) as description, kms, auctioneerName, city, time FROM vehicles, models, makes, auctions, auctioneers, locations WHERE time > NOW() AND vehicles.modelId = models.modelId AND models.makeId = makes.makeId AND vehicles.auctionId = auctions.auctionId AND auctions.auctioneerId = auctioneers.auctioneerId AND auctions.locationId = locations.locationId) AS results WHERE";
$keywords = explode(" ", $search); // Break search into keywords
// Loop through each keyword in the search to build up SQL query
$firstLoop = true; // Initial loop flag
foreach ($keywords as $keyword) {
if (!$firstLoop) { // Check if this is not the first loop
$query = $query . " AND"; // Then: Add extension statement to query
} else {$firstLoop = false;} // Otherwise: Set flag to false
// Add each keyword search to the query ensuring case insensitivity by converting to uppercase
$query = $query . " UPPER(description) LIKE UPPER('%" . $this->escape($keyword) . "%')";
}
// Add ordering SQL
$query = $query . " ORDER BY time";
// Run query and return results (if any)
return $this->query($query);
}

Answer 1

$query = $query . " UPPER(description) LIKE '%" . strtoupper($this->escape($keyword)) . "%'";

Answer 2

try using COLLATE
$query = $query . " description COLLATE utf8_general_ci like '" . $this->escape($keyword) . ")%'";
for case insensitive search

Answer 3

Upper should be inside.
$query = $query . " UPPER(description) LIKE CONCAT('%',UPPER(" . $this->escape($keyword) . "),'%')";