[madhav]

I have this creaking problem and the guys at Vecto (erstwhile Prerana) found this to be the brake caliper pin. They tighten it and the sound goes away for like a day and it comes back. I feel this could be the strut mounting... but can't confirm. I'm planing to get the mounting changed during the next service and will be able to confirm if this the cause!

[antorquetik]

Originally Posted by madhav

I have this creaking problem and the guys at Vecto (erstwhile Prerana) found this to be the brake caliper pin. They tighten it and the sound goes away for like a day and it comes back. I feel this could be the strut mounting... but can't confirm. I'm planing to get the mounting changed during the next service and will be able to confirm if this the cause!

Hi Madhav

The creak is not from the brake caliper pins. they make a ringing noise when they are due for replacement.
I got my strut mounts replaced and the creak still persists.I have not been able to find out the source.

[great_guns]

*** NEW UPDATE *** [Odo reading 1,20,000]

1) The Engine
Still works as before. No perceptible difference. It sounds much louder than the engines on my other friends' cars however most of them drive a petrol so not really much comparison.
Work done so far: NONE

2) The Gearbox
The gears do sometimes feel a bit harder to slot than before however a check-up at the local garage didn't reveal any problems. One of the problems I realised was that the foot-mat sometimes slid forwards to get lodged under the clutch pedal and so the clutch wouldn't be pressed fully thus making it very difficult to slot the gears. If you have gear problems, don't forget to check this out before you go running to the service centre.
Work done so far: Clutch kit replacement at around 30,000 KM

3) The suspension
After the car had developed severe suspension issues, I finally managed to save enough money to go in for the long haul and get the entire suspension assembly replaced. I expected to shell out 40-50K based on conservative estimates. I was (very pleasantly) surprised however to discover that my shock absorbers were perfectly alright and I only needed a change of the front lower-arms. Got the job done for 7K only.
Work done so far: Replacement of front lower arms at 1,05,000 KM

4) Body
There hasn't been much difference since the last review in terms of the body. Some more scratches here and there, courtesy kids in my society though. One of the major problems is that the a/c louvres now have a few loose bits and the instrument console glass is also loose. Apart from that a few bits and bobs vibrating around the cabin mean a rather noisy and rattly drive experience. This is honestly, my biggest frustration with the car at the moment and I can't seem to find any service center or mechanic that offers a fool-proof removal of rattles. If any of you have any leads, please let me know.
Work done so far: None

5) In-cabin noise
The in-cabin noise is now lower than before since I have sorted out the suspension issues for now. I have also now moved on to Michelin XM2+ tyres up front (175/70 R13) and the rear tyres are still the Yokohama A-Drives (185/70 R13) which have already done around 65,000 KM of service. This has reduced tyre noise somewhat however I still wish the Palio had better sound proofing in its cabin.

6) Handling
The handling is as before. No major changes however I feel a wheel-alignment and balancing is due at the moment. Given the huge variation in equipment and skill level of these alignment folks, I am really confused who to trust and who not to. Any recommendations are more than welcome. My brake booster and master and slave cylinder were changed since I had oil leakage into my brake booster and my brake pedal kept getting stuck. Even after the repair though (done at Carnations auto), the problem never really went away completely. Even now, if the car is parked in very hot Sun for a few hours, the brake pedal gets stuck the first few times but the problem goes away after a few pumps.

7) Air-conditioning
Works just as new. Any lack of efficiency that might have occurred is not noticeable.
Work done so far: NONE

8) Electronics
The rear high-mounted stop lamp kept breaking after every few months due to the rubber gasket getting hard and cracking. After a few attempts, I got fed up and removed the entire assembly. My car doesn't have a high-mounted stop lamp for now but maybe I will just buy an entire new assembly and get it fitted again. The cabin light auto-on feature also seems to have been damaged. The light doesn't come on automatically when the doors open. I'm not sure if it is a problem of the sensors near the door or of the light itself. I've got under-well white LED lights installed so the cabin lamp isn't always necessary.

9) Brakes
Braking is accurate and no particular issues however I still need to find a really good mechanic who can find out and resolve the problem of the brake pedal getting stuck when parked in hot Sun. Maybe it is just because the pedal contacts get heated and expand, thus affecting the hinge mechanism? It's a wild guess.
Work done so far: Replacement of brake booster, master cylinder, slave cylinder. Brake bleeding done 3-4 times. Brake pads replaced 2 times since in 1,20,000 KM.

10) Steering
Same as before. No change.
Work done so far: None

11) Current Issues
The clutch seems to be making a noise every time it is depressed. Whenever I press the clutch to change a gear, I hear a whistling noise, similar to an airplane taking off. From the outside, there seems to be a distinct whirring noise whenever the clutch pedal is pressed. There is no change in the clutch operation however.


Thanks for reading the review and your comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

Regards,
Ganesh

Originally Posted by great_guns

I have now just passed the 75,000 KM mark on my Palio Stile MJD. I bought the car in Oct 2008 so that makes it 4 years and 3 months. While I am generally satisfied with the car, I do have a lot of complaints. If any of you know the solution to these complaints, your views are more than welcome.

1) The Engine
By far, this is the best part of the car. Even at 75,000 KM, there is no change in how the engine feels, sounds or behaves. I still get more than enough torque on steep climbs and getting out of craters that one usually sees on the way to Hinjewadi. On the highway, I have not felt the lack of power or acceleration even once when I’ve needed it. For an extended period of time, I ran the car with no servicing and the engine oil was black as tar, the coolant was empty and the brake oil had gone bad. Even then, the engine never gave me any problems.

2) The Gearbox
Once again, I have no complaints here. I have read time and again about the ‘rubbery’ feel of the gearbox and frankly it just irritates me to read that because if the gears slot into place if and when needed without fuss, noise or grating – what is there to complain about?

3) The suspension
Now here is one of the biggest worries I have. I have heard Palio owners wax eloquent about the amazing suspension of the Palio but I am yet to see it. The suspension is unbearably hard and while going over rough roads, I can feel the shudder right up my spine and even onto my hands via the steering wheel. On other cars that I’ve driven, the Figo, Fiesta, Swift, I-20, Accent etc., the wheels just seem to take on the bumps themselves without transferring any of the shudder into the car. The feel improved vastly after I moved from my stock Goodyear GPS-2 to Yokohama A-drive but the feeling is still nowhere near, say an I-20.

Is there a way to soften the suspension a bit?

4) Body
This is quite a mixed bag. I am happy with the fact that the car has withstood numerous bumps and equally numerous biological idiots. The metal body feels solid enough and so do the doors and various components. I am horribly disappointed with the interiors though. Everything in my car seems to creak. The A/C console rattles, the ICE HU creaks, the panel in front of the instrument cluster rattles (though this was an after-market feature provided free by Pandit Auto in the due course of their ‘servicing’), there is a constant rattle from the left rear of my car which I had found to be the speaker but even after tightening it, the rattle exists. Besides all this, every time I go over a bump, it seems like the entire dashboard crashes with a solid symphony. There is also a few thuds to be heard at the back and I'm not sure if it is the boot lid or the parcel tray or something else. I think there is also a wire or something under the front passenger seat which rattles.

The worst though is the atmospherically loud creak and groan that the car makes while going over large speed bumps, even at slow speeds. It seems as if the entire suspension system is creaking or the whole floor is creaking.

Is there anyone or anyway we can trace and eliminate all creaks and rattles? Also, is there a way the suspension creak can be removed?

5) In-cabin noise
Again, this is one of my major complaints with the Palio. The noise deadening and blocking is horrible. Though the engine noise can’t be heard as much as you can in say, a Figo, the noise of the tyres and everything else below the car is horrible. In no other car have I heard so much noise from the floor. No, the tyres are not to blame – I have heard worse tyres on other cars and they don’t sound as bad as my Yokohama A-drives on the Palio.

I've considered getting noise deadening material on the floor and the door panels but there are too many conflicting opinions out there about which material and process is best. Can anyone guide me on this too?

6) Handling
Handling on the Palio is great. The high ground clearance means that in 4 years and 75K KM, I can count the number of instances where my floor has grazed on my fingers. With the 185/70 R13 Yokohama A-drives, the grip is also great and the braking has never let me down. Mind you, I don’t do mad cornering or standing on the brake type of stunts but still the handling does give me confidence. There is one small glitch though – when I corner at a decent speed and there is a bump in the road during the corner, the car seems to fly off for a millisecond and then land back and get its grip back.

Is this normal?

7) Air-conditioning
No problems with the cooling yet but like some others have said, when I turn off the air-con and keep the blower on with circulation mode, I get a very foul smell.

What is this smell and how can I get rid of this?

8) Electronics
Had two fried tail lamps so far but everything else still works.

9) Brakes
As mentioned above, the brakes are good but during my last service (close to 60,000 KM) I got the brake pads replaced by Ravi. Since then my brakes starting grating noisily and the brake kept getting stuck into the floor. I thought my master/slave cylinder would need to be replaced again but strangely enough; a good pressure wash of the underbody fixed the problem to a large extent. On further investigation by the car washer (who is also a mechanic) said my brake oil was messed up which was causing me the problem. This had caused my FE to drop from 20 odd to 18 odd. I tried out servicing at Jitendra Mali’s pit-stop, in the Phoenix Mall here in Pune and they did a splendid job. They changed the brake oil and now the brakes work perfectly and my FE is back up to 20. They also mentioned that the brake pads that Ravi had installed (TVS Girling) were the wrong ones and were too hard which explained the grating sound every time I hit my brakes hard.

10) Steering
The steering is good enough but I would have preferred it to be a little lighter as it is on a lot of other cars that I’ve driven.

11) Things I like
The Palio has a lot of things which are a big advantage over other cars. I like the fact that the brake and the accelerator are placed close to each other so you don’t need to lift your foot to change the pedals – though this is irritating for some, it certainly saves precious milliseconds if you get used to it. These milliseconds could be the difference between life and death. The whole console is turned towards the driver to improve visibility and accessibility. It gives the cabin a ‘cockpit’ like feel. The double barrel headlamps mean that when you turn to high-beam, the low beam doesn’t disappear. This is much less disconcerting to me than driving single-barrel, double-filament lights. The ground clearance is better than any other small car I’ve driven. There is dedicated space for 6 speakers ( in the SDX model). The fuel lid is on the driver side. The wiper has a single wipe and an intermediate wipe function. The visibility of all tail lamps, indicators etc. is very good.

Thank you all for reading this long winding review and I would be more than grateful if you could give me some tips on how to mend my complaints that I’ve mentioned above.

[great_guns]

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good mechanic who can look at all the rattles and squeaks and fix those and also get some sound dampening done to keep out all the engine and tyre noise that I'm fed up of.

[Autocop]

If you can afford to travel to Mumbai, then, R S Motors should be your choice. They are authorised Fiat Service shop now, however, before that shop owner (Mr. Deshmukh) ran independant Service Center specializing in Fiat. Mr. Deshmukh has prior work ex deisgning Gearboxes working for Fiat, before starting workshop.

During last service at R S Motors happened to meet a guy owning a Grey Palio Stile 1.1 SLX (obviously in love with his ride), who is getting his drive serviced/maintained since purchase at the same shop owner.

Originally Posted by great_guns

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good mechanic who can look at all the rattles and squeaks and fix those and also get some sound dampening done to keep out all the engine and tyre noise that I'm fed up of.

[great_guns]

Thanks a ton for the update. Do you have a number? I can check them out.

Originally Posted by Autocop

If you can afford to travel to Mumbai, then, R S Motors should be your choice. They are authorised Fiat Service shop now, however, before that shop owner (Mr. Deshmukh) ran independant Service Center specializing in Fiat. Mr. Deshmukh has prior work ex deisgning Gearboxes working for Fiat, before starting workshop.

During last service at R S Motors happened to meet a guy owning a Grey Palio Stile 1.1 SLX (obviously in love with his ride), who is getting his drive serviced/maintained since purchase at the same shop owner.

[Autocop]

Call @ +91 8108109002 for appointment and to discuss your issue over phone.

Originally Posted by great_guns

Thanks a ton for the update. Do you have a number? I can check them out.

[shajoshi]

I have a Palio MJD in Pune. I would recommend he only mechanic I trust with the Palio as Vitthal Tavare - you can contact him at 9850811304 - he is at Bavdhan on the Katraj bypass next to the DSK Toyota showroom.

You can refer to my post at http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...w-life-31.html for more details.