Steering Wobble Goes Away!

The steering wheel wobble between 90-120 KMPH goes away. Two key observations:

1. If you put your foot down and push for a fix, the issue will be fixed. The way to do it is to come across as a partner to service advisor to resolve issue rather than "i dont care, i want it fixed" client. Don't be passive aggressive. Once the trust is established, it is amazing the way the issue troubleshooting happened.

2. The issue was with bent rim. Changed both front rims at a cost of 2000 INR. Car rides like new.

Completed a 1000 KM Bangalore to Kodai round Trip. ODO reads at 90300 KMs.

Next service due at 99000 KMs. Will try shell petrol pump/friendly neighborhood garage rather than concorde. Reason: labour costs. Plan to get the repairs done (if any) that need parts replacement at Concorde, but routine service such as oil changes etc at FNG.

- Aravind

Inddie completes 4 years

Inddie completed 4 years in style on 7th March 2016, ferrying us from Kanhanghad to Bangalore. The entire round trip that started on 5th March and ended on 7th was close to 1000 KMs. Few notable things that 4 years completion brings:

- Car has clocked 86000 KMs till date
- Gives a feeling that it is going strong and will continue to serve us well
- I have no intention of parting with the car as of now
- Extended warranty of 4 years or 1,50,000 KMs ends; effectively Inddie is out of warranty safety net


Few niggles in the recent past:

- The A/C speed control knob goes kaput. The knob would not move from switch off position to any other position effectively rendering A/C unusable. This was in early Jan (luckily) when we would not miss A/C much. However, the heat in Karkala and Non A/C drive back to bangalore was tiresome due to wind rush. Promptly the unit was replaced under warranty. No questions asked.

- Peculiar problem surfaced after the car came back from the A/C knob issue. Drove the car for quite some distance, about 10 KMs in city. Switched off engine for a cup of tea. Started the car, drove till petrol bunk which is around 1 KM from the location of tea stall. Switched off the engine, did a tank full and cranked the engine. The engine cranks perfectly fine, car wont start. I have a habit of not cranking more than around 3 secs. Tried multiple times, car wont budge. There is another lady customer in Tata Safari behind my car waiting to tank up her car. Impatience is setting in.

Inddie wont budge. Gas station attendants now making up mind to push the car to a side. I switch off ignition fully, take the key out, reinsert the key and crank, Inddie starts as if nothing happened. I drive off thinking this is an one off occurrence. So wrong I was.

No indications on dashboard for any malfunction. Issue happens intermittently over next week. Everytime, the key reinsert works fine. Once, the issue recurred, but the key reinsert would not work. But, I noticed red indicator in dashboard with "CAR and PADLOCK" symbol, which suggested that the engine immobilizer was not recognizing the key. No matter how much I tried with key reinsert technique, inddie would not start. Gave it a 15 mins break and tried, Inddie started. Drove straight to Concorde dairy circle, reported the issue.

The first mechanic tried to give me a load of bull saying it is the battery and it is normal for the car and padlock symbol to show up. I asked him to do a OBD scan and check to which he replied immobilizer errors are not recorded in ECU.

After spending 15 mins with this guy, I called my SA Chetan. He promptly came down to the service reception and listening to me, he said it is immobilizer issue. He said he will have the technician scan the ECU for errors. Car was ready next day.

Apparently they had to make ECU relearn the key code programming. Basically, i believe they had to flash the routine for immobilizer - atleast that is what I understood.

Car is behaving normal after that.

Latest issue: Car steering wobbles/vibrates between 100 - 120 KMPH. Vibration vanishes post 120 KMPH and is not there below 100 KMPH. Need to have this checked in the next service.

-Aravind

First Breakdown. Unable to shift gears

Wanted to take care of some household errands today, took the car out. Drove normally for about 1 KM, shifted gears as usual. At the time of breakdown I was in 3rd gear and wanted to down shift to 2nd and to my horror I realize the gear lever has become lifeless. You can move it anywhere in 360* and gears are not shifting. Car was about 20 KMPH speed and the location was such that i could manage a U turn in one turn of the steering wheel. Maintained 30 KMPH all through out and reached back home. The car is still in 3rd gear.

Incident Log (Will be updated as the incident progresses):

2-Aug-2015 10:00 AM: Called Tata Motors 24X7 helpline. Within 10:05 I was given a complaint number and spoke to emergency service crew. I was told that crew will reach by 11:00 AM.
2-Aug-2015 11:00 AM: One man crew reaches my home and inspects my car for 2 mins. Says that the gear shifter cable is broken and the car needs to be towed to service center.
2-Aug-2015 11:15 AM: 24X7 helpline calls me and puts me across with the person who will tow the car.

2-Aug-2015 11:45 AM: The car is towed.

2-Aug-2015 12:30 PM: Car is inspected at Concorde Diary Circle and am told needs gear shifter cable and another module replacement. Car will be given back tomorrow.

Car central locking system behaving weird after service

After the car was returned from the 70K service last week, I was driving back home and noticed suddenly the car central locking system made some sounds in the door handles and the cabin light turned on. Could not quite figure out what is going on. Was busy whole of friday, saturday and sunday and did not use the car. Today the car central locking system continues to behave weird and noticed while turning the ignition key, the car's flasher flashes indicator once before the car starts and then the cabin light comes on. Have no clue what is wrong. I will have to call concorde motors and have it fixed.

The very feel of getting in touch with them to resolve this issue makes me feel tired :(


EDIT: Took the car to highway on 9th Apr and realized that these guys did not do wheel balancing properly as well. Car feels like a tractor at 80KMPH with steering wheel vibrations.

- Aravind Kamath Posral

Less than satisfactory experience for two times in a row

60000 KMS - 16th Oct 2014 : 

I reach Concorde Dairy circle for my service appointment. I updated the SA about my clutch issue in addition to scheduled 60000 KMs service. SA tells me that he will have the clutch inspected and IF  it needs replacement, they will inform me and then the car will be delivered to me on 17th Oct afternoon (I for a fact know that the clutch needs replacement).

Engine flush was added to the service list. He was very interested in pushing for AMC, which I ended up buying, of course, on my own will. The point is, the focus is more on selling additional stuff like engine decarb, bardahl additives, Engine flush, AMC etc. Especially, when AMC is being sold, the promise is you need not pay anything from your pocket Sir! I will tell the story when i come to 70000 KMs story next.

I called up on 16th evening and I am told they are checking the car and will be ready on 17th. 17th Oct I dont hear anything. 17th Oct afternoon, still nothing. Evening around 6:30 PM, i get a SMS saying your car is ready and contact SA for delivery. I call the SA, the phone is not reachable.

I set out on 18th Oct morning to get my car and the SA tries to put me on defensive by saying "Sir I was trying to reach you yesterday but your mobile was not reachable". I show him the SMS and told him if it was not reachable, how did I get the SMS? I also had received calls from others at around that time. So, he quickly changed focus to some other topic and then, breaks the news that clutch they have checked and can still run 5000 KMs.

RIDICULOUS. So you took two days for a simple oil change and some bundled services that you were marketing!!!??

I pay over 10K for the AMC and then, the car is given to me. There is no customer satisfaction feedback form that was given - very convenient!

I let go of that experience as one-off as I have always had pleasant experience with them so far.

Fast Forward today:

2nd April 2015: 70000 Kms service

I take an appt on 1st Apr for service on 2nd Apr for 8:30 AM. I reach there by 8:40 AM. I was given a token and tag. I am asked to wait. I wait till 9:30 AM. The same SA comes to me. Looks at my service history.

I had done clutch replacement at around 63500 KMs in Jan 2015 and was handled by the same SA. He had with a lot of sarcasm told me then, that Engine Decarbonization is required after clutch replacement for a FULL SATISFACTORY EXPERIENCE. Funny! But since, I had not got the decarb done for last 20K+ KMS, I agreed, although I did not see the need for it. The decarbonization inflated the bill by 1375/-Rs - that is a different story.

I was under the impression that the service interval is 10K kms or 6 months whichever is earlier. It turns out that (as per SA) it is one year. So he told me that I can continue to run my car for another 2.5K Kms as it has done only 67K KMs and then come back, or get it done now. I chose to do it today - no complaints there.

Then we walk to my car. He says the car has AMC. When he sold the AMC to me last time, he said, "Saar, next time service you will NOT pay anything due to AMC, other than wheel balancing weights."

Today, he starts writing the stuff on the Job Slip.

He writes engine oil and filter replacement and puts Rs 500. I ask him why, he says that is for cleansing agent. Load of bull! Then, Engine Flush 700/- and some foam cleaning 1100. I ask him what on earth is that? He says cleaning is checking all the bushes of the car for 1100 Rs. My question is then, what the hell is supposed to be done in the services when they say inspect belts and bushes?

I politely tell him to take out engine flush and foam cleaning. Still, I am given an estimate of 1300 Rs of which Rs 500 is mud flaps, which is ok. Why should i still pay 800 Rs when I have AMC?

Then comes the best part. He tells me that he can give the car only tomorrow 3rd Apr. I tell him I need it today. He tells me he will TRY. I tell him no trying, I need the car today as there is no major work other than oil change and other small stuff like wheel alignment and balancing and mud flap. I told him that if he can not commit, I will not leave the car today. He very coolly takes the slip back from me and says come another day. I conveyed to him that I wasted over 1 hour, cancelled meetings for this service and this guy has the audacity to tell me to come another day as cars that came for service yesterday have not made it out, when I have a valid appointment! He sensed my mood and took the car for service grudginly and said I will have to give him lots of time today. I told him it is ok to be late, but I need the car today.

What is the value in taking a service appointment if you do not have enough capacity to service cars? Decline and give me an appointment on another day when you can really service my car. Couldn't help but think that the SA behaved the way he did because I refused the foam clean and flush! :)

Make no mistake, Inddie is fantastic car. But my current and last service experiences have been sub par. I think I really have to find an independent garage who can do routine service without fuss and go to concorde only when something is broken and needs replacement. I may not have a choice as long as I have ext warranty - till march 2016. Certainly, I will have to find another TASC other than Concorde.

Attitude towards customers is all it takes to break the confidence, trust and customer loyalty. Was very excited with Zest launch and Hexa concept and wanted Zest (or upcoming kite) to be replacement for my Inddie and Hexa to be replacement for my Corolla Altis at the end of 2016.

Must say, after spending lakhs of hard earned money and thousands in service so far, this leaves a bad taste.

Update 21:00 Hours: Got a call from SA at 4:25 PM that the car is ready. I reach there by 5:30 PM. Made to wait till 7:10 PM and the car is given to me. The car is delivered to me literally with words "Saar, dont mind, I have expedited tomorrow's delivery for today". Sigh!

Have no clue in terms of what went wrong in the last 6-7 months and why the service experience has dipped this way! Only thing I can think of is increased focus on Zest which probably resulted in lower priority to vista owners.

- Aravind Kamath Posral

clutch Replacement & Whirlwind Goa Trip

Finally, the clutch has been replaced at 63400 KMs. The clutch kit costed around 7000 with labour and another needless decarbonization for 1300 or so..total 8300. Car drives like new, clutch is super soft, no judder and pulls cleanly and linearly during acceleration. Overall car drives much better.

Decided on 23rd to do a goa trip on 24th and tentative return on 25th. Started 24th morning 6:30 AM from home and toll plazas upto tumkur were a mess. The breakfast at Kamat at Dobbspet took a lot of time too. There were two kamat's in the next couple kms, which we later realized while driving, which would have saved us atleast half hour. The route - bangalore - tumkur - Hubli byepass- Dharwad - alnavar road - mollem - ponda - mardol - madkai. Reached madkai, around 605 KMs from home by 6 PM. Had lunch at a Rajasthan dhaba near HP pump about 40 mins before hubli. Roads are excellent but for 20 KMs or so near the karnataka - goa border. Bangalore - Hubli stretch can do speeds excess of 100 KMPH but limited the speed to 90-100 KMPH to have a easy ride in the weekend madness traffic. Finished pooja at temple at Madkai by 10:30 AM on 25th, started back at 12 Noon. Reached home by 11:15 after lunch at Hill View before Dharwad - Hubli Byepass and Dinner at Kamat Reliance A1 plaza near dobbspet. Traffic was crazy. Inddie as usual was rocking. Two tank fulls and another 5 liters of diesel did the trick.

- Aravind

All about shiny bright headlights!

This blog post is for educational purpose only to understand different types of automotive lights that are available in the market today. I am not recommending the usage of high powered bulbs. Those are illegal and a safety hazard.

Ever tried driving in the night on Indian roads? Ever felt the need for brighter headlamps? I am trying to put together all that I know about brighter lights based on my research.

It all starts with one person deciding to go against law. As per law in India, halogen light upto 60w per bulb are allowed to be used as headlamps on vehicles. But then,  more often than not, those tourist buses, cabbies and some private vehicles decide that 60w of lights is not enough and upgrade to 100w, 110w or even 130watts of halogen bulbs. That is what is blinding the oncoming traffic. Mind you, none of these lights are street legal - which means it is illegal to use them for driving on public roads.

Now, as a fellow user of the road, these blinding lights are a safety hazard for you. You will not be able to spot any obstructions (which are plentiful) on the roads, you may not be able to see the edge of the road. These lights also put tremendous strain on your eyes. No amount of flashing the lights will make the oncoming persons to use the dipper or low beam. That is when the insatiable urge to get even with equally or more powerful blinding lights play tricks on your mind :).

Broadly, there are three different types of lights available in the market today:

1. Halogen bulbs
2. HIDs
3. LED

1. Halogen Bulbs: 

Cars in India primarily come with different types of halogen bulbs which are marked as H4, H1, H7 etc. H4 type is most popular and comes with two filaments - one for low beam and another for high beam. The filament is tungsten and the bulb is filled with some type of halogen gas. Now, there are OEM direct replacement bulbs that provide upto 100% additional light for the same wattage. Which means, there is need to quantify the light produced.

Wattage is rough way of looking at brightness of the light, the actual way to measure is lumens. For eg, a standard 100w bulb will provide 1500 lumens of light. Ideally, we would like 1:1 mapping in terms of wattage and lumens which would be 100% efficiency. So, the bulb is operating at 15% efficiency which means, the remaining 85% is dissipated as heat. So roughly a normal 60w bulb would produce 900 lumens of light. Some brands like Philips Xtreme Vision use a different gas to charge which has better efficiency and for the same wattage ie 60, it will produce higher lumens - not sure about the exact amount though - due to which it produces more light. Since the wattage is same, it is safe to use as direct replacement for original bulb.

Now, if one is upgrading to 100w bulb, then, following things would occur:

W= VA. Circuit is designed by original car maker for 60w. So W=60. V is constant from your battery = 12v. So, for a 60w bulb operation, the A would be w/v = 60/12 = 5Amps. Now, if you replace 60w bulb with 100w, then A would be 100/12=8.5 A. Combine this with the efficiency of the bulb which I mentioned above. This leads to two problems:

a. More current flowing through the circuit, overloads the wiring and will lead to melting of insulation of wires again leading to short circuit.
b. Excessive heat generated due to high wattage bulbs. So the plastic holder designed for 60w melts and leads to short circuit.

So, if one is to upgrade to higher wattage, appropriate wiring kit that includes a relay and ceramic holders is required. The entire setup will cost around 2000 Rs including bulbs. If the bulbs are of higher wattage than 100w, then there is a serious risk of the plastic reflectors turning black in the headlamp assembly. Mind you, the bulbs dont last as long as the 60w ones as well.

2. HID

We need to understand three things here:
a. Project headlamps
b. HID upgrade kits
c. Bulb types

HIDs are primarily to be used only in a projector setup. HIDs are street legal upto 35w IN PROPER SETUP. There are some cars that have reflectors that are specifically designed for HID bulbs but then, most of the cars are not. Before we get into other things here, we need to understand how the HID bulbs work. In a traditional halogen bulb, the tungsten filament lights up to provide the light. In a HID, there are some super duper expensive salts (some iodides) which create an arc when HIGH voltage is passed through them. How much voltage? probably around 25000 volts. Yes, you read it right, around 25KV for the initial arcing to happen. So when you switch on the headlights, around that much voltage flows through the bulb to create the light arc but then, once arc is created, it requires lower voltage to sustain around 42V. Remember, your car battery is 12v. So, that is where a ballast comes into picture. Ballast is essentially a step up transformer (intelligent one) which provides that kind of voltage for the arc to happen and to sustain. So, by now, you would have realized, HID is not just about plug and play of HID bulbs. The main component is the ballast and the entire setup will cost around 12000/- rs. Each bulb will be in the range of 3000 Rs. Now, for intelligent cars that display that one of your lights have gone kaput in MID, need something called canbus ballast which is generally costlier. There are cheaper HID kits in the market but they are not durable.

So with that theory, let's get started with the projector headlamps. The HID bulbs scatter light in all directions ie 360*. So to prevent glare and provide the focus for the headlight, projector lenses are used which is what gives that cool look to headlights, like the ones that are available in BMWs, Mercs and other high end cars and now, in the likes of TATA ZEST, XUV500 as well.

The HIDs produce different colors and is what is denoted by the 6000K, 4300K, 8000K marking. The light is red/yellow in the lower bands like 4300K and become whiter at 6000K and at 13000K it is purple. The most suitable for driving are 4300K and 6000K. Others are fancy color lights - thats about it.

Now, the projector setup comes with expensive cars and after market projectors is difficult to source as different cars have different headlight shapes.

That is where the HID conversion kits come into picture. What that does it gives you a way to fit HIDs into your existing reflector headlights. By now, you have realized that it involves additional wiring for ballast and the HID bulb will throw light is all directions. Most likely you will not be happy with the focus after the installation - so it requires a good skill have it focused right. Also remeber, 35w of HID light is almost 2200 lumens which means, it is brighter than 110w halogen bulb. So, with a better conversion efficiency, the bulb tends to heat less, and less damage to headlight assembly. However, note that the initial arc requires 25000 volts that puts tremendous stress on the circuit. So that is why, you see most cars that use HIDs use it as low beam - once the lights are on, it stays on. High beams require switch off and switch on operation which makes high beam not so suited for HIDs. This, in the 4 lamp setup with 2 low beams and 2 high beams. There is no concept of low beam filament and high beam filament in H4 HIDs so they are called bi xenons which is trick used to provide high and low beam with a cover that moves in front of the xenon bulb when you switch from low to high and vice versa.

Finally, the HID bulbs are marked as D4R and D4S which specify the usage. D4R stands for reflectors and D4S stands for Straight (projectors). D4R has some glare removing at the front end of the bulb where as D4S does not. D4S should not be used in reflectors. D4R is for use in reflectors that are specifically designed for xenon - example 2010 Toyota Corolla GL model. It is another matter that corolla xenon bulb costs around 10500 Rs per bulb, yes you heard it right, in dealerships.

3. LED

This is the newest trend and does not require any kind of ballast for wiring. The efficiency is also slightly better than HID - at around 27W delivering around 2200 lumens. But, the challenge is to find the right fitment to your reflectors. Also, although LEDs have better efficiency and generate less heat, the LEDs are susceptible to the heat generated by them which is far less than the normal halogens. So, some LEDs come with cooling fans that particularly pose a challenge to direct fitment. If you find a good LED bulb that fits your car type, then if you go upto designed wattage, you will get some serious bright light. For eg. a 45w LED can throw around 4000 Lumens. Probably that would be too bright for your eyes to drive, let alone the one coming from the opposite side.

Hope this post helps clarify the doubts that you have in your mind about headlamps.

Disclaimer: All the above information I have published based on my research and please use discretion before you decide to take the plunge. Please note the usage of higher wattage bulbs is illegal. Even the auxiliary lamps are illegal for street use and should be used for off road purpose only.

- Aravind