[condor]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

.. speedbreakers in Karnataka are so bad .... My son counted 38 speedbreakers between Mysore and the Kerala border - ALL of them unmarked, many enough to break a truck and almost all of them crudely built.

Trade-marked, Patented, Never-to-be-found-anywhere-else speed-breakers. Actually, vehicle breakers.

[babureddy]

steer, lot of questions on the box and too many people waiting..y don't you reply soon..is there anything similar to ford endeavor that you know...

[Rahulk76]

Steer,

Any updates on the test vehicle with perf mods ?

[shaheenazk]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Overall impressions - originally pissed-off owner is now a very happy customer. The vehicle is finally living up to my expectations! This car is imperious on the highways, excellent off-road and usable within the City. Comfort is unbeatable, as is space and convenience.

i am a big fan of safari... a very impressive looking vehicle. your review was very informative. thank you. from your review i feel that the vendors of tata are supplying tata with sub-standard components. i wonder if any quality checks are applied on the components at the time of fitment into the vehicle at tata. are you sure that the safari is fitted with a rev. limiter? it is not mentioned in safari's literature. have you test driven the new safari 2.2 vtt? i want to buy a petrol safari. what will be your advice? i am not bothered by the high fuel costs. once again... great review friend.

[Rahulk76]

Steer

Whats this light on the instrument cluster on Dicor. I have seen it glow on some dicors, when ignition is turned on. It doesnt on mine.. What is it all about any ideas ?

Thnx

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by Rahulk76

Steer

Whats this light on the instrument cluster on Dicor. I have seen it glow on some dicors, when ignition is turned on. It doesnt on mine.. What is it all about any ideas ?

Thnx

Rahulk76, that symbol usually is for the engine management system. It should glow when the ignition key is in ON position and it should go off when the engine has started. If it continues glowing when the engine is running, then there is some thing wrong in the engine/ECU. But it SHOULD glow when the ignition is in ON position, before you start the engine.

[Steeroid]

Update
The truck has just been returned to me after some time spent at Desert fox's Truck Spa in Bangalore.

The vehicle went in for damping work on the firewall, to reduce noise which I thought had increased the last time around. The idea was to remove the dashboard and plaster the firewall with Wurth.

Dashboard was removed and the car given to Anwar. He found gaps in several ducts within the firewall (for wiring, a/c, steering, etc. He had all of these gaps sealed properly and refused to Wurth it saying he could easily charge Rs.4,000 for the job but the primary problem was not damping - it was the gaps. I was so taken up by his straight-talk that I gave him business for about Rs.40,000. More on that later.

The truck is noticeably silent now with the ducts sealed up - sounds very different from the animal I drove 2 months back.

The battery finally gave up on the truck - v1p3r being the unlucky soul that had to get the 2 tonner pushed while steering it without power assist. Two cells were apparently dead, and during the 4 days the truck spent at Anwars place including some heavy duty audio tuning (without the engine running, I bet) it had drained out.

Meanwhile my rear brakes gave up on me too - something to do with the handbrake adjustment (probably done during the last service). The truck had apparently been running around with its handbrake engaged all the time due to this misadjustment, and the rear brake shoes were completely worn out and the drums damaged. Replaced both.

And finally we did the audio upgrade we had been planning to do for quite some time. We got that great JBL amp that has just been discontinued, plus 2 sets of RF components. Cost me a bomb, but I'm happy except with the soundstage which is a bit towards the rear. I think Zak's going to be happy tuning this...

And oh yes, we have the Italian Job running on the truck now - it is allegedly pumping out 138 bhp and 375 nm now.

[dadu]

Can you provide the contacts/ address ???

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Update
The truck has just been returned to me after some time spent at Desert fox's Truck Spa in Bangalore.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Update
And oh yes, we have the Italian Job running on the truck now - it is allegedly pumping out 138 bhp and 375 nm now.

Great! How does it feel now? The performance and pick up?

[Rahulk76]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Great! How does it feel now? The performance and pick up?

Steer
MORE on this. its getting real interesting now

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by dadu

Can you provide the contacts/ address ???

Jayanagar 9th Block, on the way to the Ragigudda (spelling?) temple. If you go there anytime please take some pics of my old Landmaster and post it on that thread.

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Great! How does it feel now? The performance and pick up?

Very good

Originally Posted by Rahulk76

Steer
MORE on this. its getting real interesting now

What more do you want to know? It hasnt affected Fuel Economy, but has increased power significantly. Engine noise was slightly more intrusive till I got my sound-deadening done and now its back to what it was before.

The temp indicator now howers around the 1/2-way mark, and sometimes goes JUST above halfway (needle barely clearing the 1/2 indicator) in very heavy traffic.

I can talk forever about the difference in performance, but you have to drive it to experience the difference. Its not mindblowingly different low down, but it makes the truck zoom in mid-range.

[tsk1979]

Did the italian job assasinate the speed limiter?

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Did the italian job assasinate the speed limiter?

We managed to assassinate the speed limiter even before the Italian Job. THat was a Tatalian Job thanks to some influential friends of mine.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Jayanagar 9th Block, on the way to the Ragigudda (spelling?) temple. If you go there anytime please take some pics of my old Landmaster and post it on that thread.

What? My office was on that same road for 2 years (2004-06), barely 200 meters from the temple.

[Steeroid]

Update (please update title)

My Tata vehicle with "below average reliability" has now touched the 50k mark and is nearly 3 years old.

I've tried my hardest to make it unreliable and give up on me sometime, but this hasnt happened despite my best efforts at throwing the vehicle around, straining the engine, etc.

In what should be an encouraging sign for the review quoted above though, my clutch has started slipping a bit. It should see some work at the 50k mark, and just to make sure this would actually happen both Zak and I made sure we did some clutch-burning shifts on the trip to Idukki recently.

We also NEARLY toppled the Dicor off a sheer drop (not a cliff - there was a large excavation) when Sriram (Quicksilver) and I decided to explore what looked like an off-beat track on that trip to Idukki. Thankfully we noticed clear skies below road level before we actually cleared the crest .

I've also had a steering column rattle that seemed to come from the locking mechanism for height adjustment (the rattle goes off if I hold the height adjustment lever) - this one mysteriously disappeared after a full water service, though!!!! Both Zak and I were flummoxed when the sound disappeared immediately after the wash - I dont want to raise the issue with RF now, or I'll sound like a crackpot if I try to explain this non-existent sound. Sadly, there are no other rattles to report for a vehicle that is supposed to be very very rattly.

No other issues other than a cat-con cleanup to get rid of soot. I continue to wait for my truck to turn into a vehicle of less than average reliability.