[dkaile]

It's still got the BHP...


A little TLC today




Cheers for now..

[dkaile]

Finally some evil eye struck my beloved...



Thankfully the impact was at less than 30kmph and the air bags did not open. My good karma came in I suppose. Still the bonnet was damaged. Now the company dealership at Noida quoted a princely sum of about 50k to 100k to repair this as they just replace the whole bonnet without repairs. So I took matters in my own hands and decided to get it repaired locally.

The required OE parts were procured from the dealership with a bit of arm twisting and these costed me Rs. 3305/-


Denting painting in motion


Can you spot the difference?


Back to its prime. Color matched perfectly.


Total cost of denting and painting was 5500/-. So Total damages were 8805/-.

Another beast standing along side with the same engine capacity.


Details here - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/superb...ve-review.html

Cheers for now....

[Akshay1234]

Looks to be back in perfect shape, but I hope Standox or equivalent paint was used, and it was done in a paint booth? Otherwise you may start noticing differences after a short while.

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

Looks to be back in perfect shape, but I hope Standox or equivalent paint was used, and it was done in a paint booth? Otherwise you may start noticing differences after a short while.

Total paint, base coat and top urethane coat that was used was from Dupont and was made on their automatic color matching machine. Though a paint booth was not used but all special precautions were taken to prevent dust and to properly cure the paint. Sometimes a custom hand paint job is better than the best machines, you just need to know the correct people and have the time and energy to give personal attention rather than relying blindly on dealerships and their exorbitant bills.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Back to its prime. Color matched perfectly.
Attachment 1397034

Glad to see all is well again. The old girl looks beautiful in the new coat of paint. Did you get the whole car repainted or only the front portion. I have a Skoda Superb manual transmission 2010 model that has clocked well over 100,000 kms and continues to render reliable service of about 1800 kms a month. When I spoke to the Skoda service chaps on repainting the whole car they suggested against it saying things will never be the same. Your car looks just fine to me. I intend to keep the Superb running for at least another year plus till we can look at a replacement by either the new Superb or the proposed Volvo S90.

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Did you get the whole car repainted or only the front portion.

Only the bonnet was painted, not the side panels and neither the bumper.

[ram_hyundai]

Good to see her in good shape again. Anyways keep your eye open for 3 months time. The fading rate for different brands are different. If we could have done the denting there and painting at ASS it would have been great. lols

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Glad to see all is well again. The old girl looks beautiful in the new coat of paint. Did you get the whole car repainted or only the front portion. I have a Skoda Superb manual transmission 2010 model that has clocked well over 100,000 kms and continues to render reliable service of about 1800 kms a month. When I spoke to the Skoda service chaps on repainting the whole car they suggested against it saying things will never be the same. Your car looks just fine to me. I intend to keep the Superb running for at least another year plus till we can look at a replacement by either the new Superb or the proposed Volvo S90.

If your service centre is not confident its better to avoid them for painting. Just getting an overcoat will not affect anything, as long as its done from a good painter. I'm sure there are enough of good experienced painters in with independent workshops in the NCR region.

[dkaile]

The car today, in all it's pristine glory, giving me the pleasure of the Mercs and the Beemers costing 3~4 times more, and still going strong without issues (unlike the DSGs) very unlike the Skoda's reputation.



Cheers...

[M00M]

Hello,

Been following your thread for a while. Looking at a new superb but torn between manual petrol or diesel auto ? The price difference between the two is also a lot but then this would be used by the family as a every day car so would prefer a diesel but would like to have it trouble free and not have the DSG issues. Any advice ?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by M00M

Hello,

Been following your thread for a while. Looking at a new superb but torn between manual petrol or diesel auto ? The price difference between the two is also a lot but then this would be used by the family as a every day car so would prefer a diesel but would like to have it trouble free and not have the DSG issues. Any advice ?

Our experience with the petrol-manual has been good for well over a lakh kms now (just short of its 4th birthday). On the issues with the DSG you may want to read the thread by Hayek on Team BHP. Doesn't sound encouraging at all though they may have cured the issues in the updated model that came a few months ago. Diesel & Petrol as you know is a function of monthly mileage over the medium term.

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by M00M

Looking at a new superb but torn between manual petrol or diesel auto ? The price difference between the two is also a lot but then this would be used by the family as a every day car so would prefer a diesel but would like to have it trouble free and not have the DSG issues. Any advice ?

The Diesel + 6 DSG combo is quite trouble free compared to the 7 speed DSG in the Petrol. So you can safely go for the Diesel if you prefer that. But I would still pick the Petrol with the Manual any day.

[dkaile]

22655 kms on 11-12-2015 - D-I-Y Time... loz



Buoyed after having serviced my Harley Davidson Heritage Softail Classic myself here, I pondered why I could not do the same with my Superb? My local dealer had shut shop as I had mentioned earlier and going 60kms to Noida with these perennial jams on NH 58 seemed like a nightmare. My last service was done at around 16k kms mark and nearly 1.5 years ago. Since I had done just 6k kms in this period I was pondering if service was required.

These videos boosted my confidence that I could do a fairly good job, maybe even better than these ill trained and over crowded Skoda Service Stations.

First thing I did was to clean the Air Filter. This video shows how -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UscwOiqmT8Y

And then the Cabin Filter (a 5 minute job)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZx7mCpnr9M

Both were dirty, especially the Air Filter and I am feeling a definite increase in power smoothness after having cleaned the Air Filter. The cleaning was done by gently tapping out the dust 4-5 times without blowing any high pressure air so as to avoid any increase in pore size of the filter. Both the filters are good for at least another 10k kms.

Next job was to open the Spark Plugs and clean them gently -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfqfjkoKyG4

As you can see from these photos, the spark plugs were firing perfectly as shown by the color of the soot deposit.





I gently cleaned the spark plugs taking care not to disturb their stock gap of 0.8mm (which I rechecked with a gauge). Now as per NGK website and also as per directions of VW USA, these titanium plugs are supposed to last the life of the vehicle or at least 80~100k miles or say 1 lac+ kms. This article on how long do the Iridium/Titanium plugs last is interesting. But Skoda/VW/Audi India wants to change them every 30k kms as they don't believe in cleaning or general maintenance as most cleaners usually foul up or damage the tip by not cleaning carefully. By careful cleaning these can easily last 1 lac kms.

After the cleaning of the spark plugs I can definitely feel the car cranking those Milli-seconds earlier.

The Battery was cleaned and voltage was checked


Next job (yet to tackle) is the oil change -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JatQPJRHiJw

As I had already procured the Oil Filter Opening tool for my Harley servicing, which incidentally fits perfectly on the Superb too. The Oil available here is better than the OE Castrol Magnatec Professional used by the Skoda Service Stations and it is the Castrol EDGE Titanium 5W40 Fully Synthetic and is available at 3100/- for a can of 4 L (4.6L required) which I shall be using as and when I get to it.





Also the Fuel Filter was located right behind the drivers seat under-body


And will be replaced when required as per these videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfK2OBeZK80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zphJijkiIw

Now even the fuel filter is supposed to last 1 lac kms but Skoda India changes it every 15k kms. As I had already changed it once, I will change it after I cross the 30k kms mark.

Now I tried to procure the parts locally but was not confident on the quality supplied. And Skoda India as you would be aware is very stingy in supplying parts over the counter. After a few emails including a cc to their MD, the Noida dealer has agreeed to supply all parts that I require which was good news.



Now they are asking a exorbitant price of Rs. 8331/- for the spark plugs (VW AG NGK part# 06H905601A), which are available in the open market (NGK OE part# PFR7S8EG or a Iridium Upgrade part# BKR7EIX) for around 2000 bucks or even cheaper at Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/NGK-BKR7EIX-Ir.../dp/B000GZAUX6 or http://www.amazon.com/NGK-Iridium-Sp.../dp/B00332PQKG , and which I am not changing anytime soon. These same NGK plugs go into the Passat and the Audi A4 due to evident reasons. So the rest of the parts are just for Rs. 3664/- (excluding the oil) which is quite reasonable and which I shall be getting from them shortly.

Hope this DIY helps to keep your Skoda's running smoothly, fingers crossed.

Cheers...

[dkaile]

In continuation of my above post, preparations to change the oil myself and in fact service the car in toto, are underway. First step, parts. They were procured today by my brother from Nawab Motors Noida and the Spark Plugs from the NGK distributor-



Here's what all was got and the price (3.8k)


Now coming back to the Spark Plugs, they had initially quoted me 8331/- for just the spark plugs. So I sought out the NGK distributor and after researching the NGK website for a compatible plug..



Narrowed it down to the available PFR6Q (Made in Japan)


These were Platinum + Iridium core having a life of 50+k kms going upto 90k kms.


Costed me just 2.9k


Now the only thing with the plug was that it was one heat rating hotter. After going through this article about heat range info - http://myfastgti.com/volkswagen/thre...eat-Range-Info and discussion with the distributor that the same plug is being used and recommended even in all Audi's with this engine and would cause less fouling than the colder plug and would perform better in city conditions and on highways in non-race-tuned cars, I decided to go for them.

Next job, get the job done...

[msudhir]

Awesome, appaently you are giving it more attention and doing things the way they ought to be rather than the perfunctory attention what the dealwr does. If you happen to have any links for DIY for a Merc 200 CGI do share them.