[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by QuickLink

Congratulations for crossing such a huge milestone. You have maintained the Linea really well. I am happy to see that there are no untoward part replacements from your pocket.

P.S - Any issues w.r.t rusting etc?

Thank you QuickLink! Yes, Fiat was good with Warranty/Extended warranty claims, it was always a smooth process.

Thankfully no rusting issues.

[finneyp]

Great ownership log Arun! Wish you many more miles & smiles on the Linea!
Time to try out Fully Synthetic oil & let us know the feedback.

[bharatbits]

Good to see you have a very nice tryst with the Linea.

Have you during your ownership period ever experienced left pulling in your Linea? I have been facing it since the last fortnight or so. I got the wheels aligned at MRF T&S. That didn't help. I went to them again, they double checked, shuffled tyres from left, right, rear, stepney etc. They checked and found the suspension everything ok. I don't doubt their alignment. The car still steers to left. They finally zeroed down to the fault with tyres which i don't agree. My past experience with most alignment guys is to quickly fault the tyres and push you for replacement. Mine is Jan 2016 Linea Classic Plus Apollo tyres 175 65 R14 steel wheels run 20k kms so far.

Appreciate it if you could provide any pointers with your elaborate ownership experience of the Linea. TIA.

[--gKrish--]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

I am planning to try this additive some time this week, I will try to capture the same data after using this additive as well.

Great going sir! Any initial impressions on the additive? I too have placed an order for liqui moly diesel additive.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by finneyp

Great ownership log Arun! Wish you many more miles & smiles on the Linea!
Time to try out Fully Synthetic oil & let us know the feedback.

Thanks finneyp!
Sure, will consider FS.

Originally Posted by bharatbits

Good to see you have a very nice tryst with the Linea.

Have you during your ownership period ever experienced left pulling in your Linea?

Appreciate it if you could provide any pointers with your elaborate ownership experience of the Linea. TIA.

Thanks bharatbits!

Yes, I had left pulling issue couple of times. Once it was corrected at True Sai FASS, they inserted shims to correct the rear camber/caster setting. Also, I think they inter-changed the front tyres. Normally outside WA/WB guys don't work on the rear camber/caster settings. So you may need to check at FASS. I know few of them in bangalore who got the left pull issues resolved at True Sai, Salem.

Originally Posted by --gKrish--

Great going sir! Any initial impressions on the additive? I too have placed an order for liqui moly diesel additive.

I will try it this week sir. Last week I forgot to take the additive when I went to refuel.

[bharatbits]

Thank you very much Arun. I am heading to Landmark Fiat in Andheri, Mumbai today or tomorrow. Yes, MRF guys said they cannot do anything about alignment on the rear, only Fiat can do it and is required in collision cases where rear suspension/ alignment gets affected.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by bharatbits

Have you during your ownership period ever experienced left pulling in your Linea?

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Yes, I had left pulling issue couple of times. Once it was corrected at True Sai FASS, they inserted shims to correct the rear camber/caster setting. So you may need to check at FASS. I know few of them in bangalore who got the left pull issues resolved at True Sai, Salem.

For the benefit of everyone, I'm attaching a left-pull correction published by Fiat. As mentioned by Arun, some shims are to be added as well. Now, the problem is this process is a bit time consuming and not everyone (FASS) wants to waste their time on such a job. Very few will even touch this.

@bharatbits - I would strongly advise you to visit Vroom Pointe in Koperkhairane over Landmark for this issue. Please contact Mr. Devendar (72085 11530) and talk about it. He has corrected left pull issues on a friends Abarth as well as many people have said good words about him. I've been personally taking my cars to him since a long while and no complaints so far.

Quoting Lij's response on the same:

Originally Posted by Lij

Thanks blackwasp and thedragula, on your suggestions I took my car ("Bruno") to Vroom Pointe on Saturday. I wanted to wait for a few days to confirm that my issue was resolved before putting this post up on the forum.

Met Devendra the service advisor at Vroom Pointe and he came across as a technically very competent and straight forward person. Just a few meters into the test drive he understood the issue and I was assured that it will be resolved the same day. The front right shock absorber had to be replaced in warranty and true to his words I got back Bruno the same day by 4 pm and without that irritating noise from the suspension. As for the rear wheel wobble, I was told that there are no issues on that front, mechanically now the car is very good.

Finally after 2 months and nearly 2000 kms on the odo the car runs as it should have been on day 1.

I am very happy that I found a trust worthy FASS and now not dependent on the incompetent Landmark service center. I got to know that there a few T-BHPians who get their beloved FIATs service from them.

With my experience I would definitely not recommend Landmark for servicing since they are technically not good at troubleshooting the issues. Even the known issues are diagnosed and fixed by trial and error method. Unfortunately we have only one FIAT dealership in Mumbai. Vroom Pointe definitely recommended.

[bharatbits]

blackwasp thank you very much. That helps. I'll try scheduling an appointment with Vroom and update the results. It has become very frustrating driving with that issue. Another clarification - will this get carried out under warranty?

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

For the benefit of everyone, I'm attaching a left-pull correction published by Fiat. As mentioned by Arun, some shims are to be added as well. Now, the problem is this process is a bit time consuming and not everyone (FASS) wants to waste their time on such a job. Very few will even touch this.

Thanks a lot blackwasp for sharing the details

As mentioned by Arun, some shims are to be added as well. Now, the problem is this process is a bit time consuming and not everyone (FASS) wants to waste their time on such a job. Very few will even touch this.

Yes, this process takes some time and I have never seen Vecto motors doing this exercise.

Originally Posted by bharatbits

blackwasp thank you very much. That helps. I'll try scheduling an appointment with Vroom and update the results. It has become very frustrating driving with that issue. Another clarification - will this get carried out under warranty?

Have you complained about this issue before the first service itself? If so, they may do this at free of cost.

[bharatbits]

I have done 20000 kms in 14 months of ownership and this issue cropped up a fortnight ago. Before that it was fine. I am the sole driver of the car. The car is driven totally on South Mumbai city roads and i don't recall going through any potholes either.

Thank you all for the info. I'll check with Vroom.

[arun_josie]

Routine 10K Kms Servicing @ 1,51,005 Kms:

The last servicing was done at 1,41,000 Kms, so it was time for the next servicing. Also, since I had decided to get the EGR cleaned, I booked an appointment at True Sai FASS, Salem. Two of my friends came along with me to service their Punto's.

At the breakfast place, A2B - Thoppur



@ True Sai, Salem.

Along with EGR cleaning, Air filter, AC filter, Engine oil/filter were replaced as well. Also, got the floor mats replaced as it was in a bad state. Here are few pics,

Before/After pics of EGR valve





AC Filter



Air Filter



There was a minor coolant leakage due to these hoses. So, got this replaced(Flex Hose/Slex Sleeve).



After the Service

My son came along with me for this service and he took this scale model of Punto for him.

The ongoing service camp helped to reduce the billing amount with 10% discount on mechanical parts and 10% discount on labour charges.

Total expense for EGR cleaning + Servicing : 6868/-
Floor mat: 1032/-
Punto scale model (2 Nos): 878/-

Overall, it was a very nice experience with these guys again. My friends were super happy too.

With clean EGR valve, it was more fun during the return drive. I could feel the improvement in pick-up immediately.

All white cars at the dinner place



Here is the service camp details for Fiat customer, 9th February to 23rd February.

Originally Posted by Randhawa

Get the EGR cleaned and then let me know if that noise is still there Mechanics could not explain me how this noise is related to dirty EGR and neither did I scratched my brains to get to the bottom of it. But they are related. Regular EGR cleaning will make this noise vanish and dirty EGR will make it more pronounced. At one point I even thought that something was wrong with the con rod big ends and even got that checked when I got the chain replaced. It was accidentally I found out that cleaning the EGR helps keeping this noise down or totally gone for some time. On some 1.3MJD it's so pronounced that makes you . It used to irritate me a lot and it started when I had done only 10k but no one could hear it apart from me

The humming/abnormal noise is still there at around 2500-3000 RPM. Cleaning EGR didn't help. They accepted that the sound is little higher at around that RPM but not to a level that this can be taken as a complaint.

As mentioned earlier, Vecto Motors said this is very normal.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Two of my friends came along with me to service their Punto's.

Is that the old 'Red Rocket'?

Good to see it after a couple of years now.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Is that the old 'Red Rocket'?

Good to see it after a couple of years now.

Yes, it is the same 'Red Rocket', changed hands though.

[Randhawa]

@Arun I think I referred to the tractor like sound you mentioned(kind of knocking at slow speeds) and not EGR cleaning to humming noise. May be I don't remember correctly now. Have you ever got the water pump, idler pulley checked? If by removing all the belts you have the noise then it's within the engine.

I have felt that after 1L kms, these engine do produce a humming noise but I have never heard the same on Swift engines. Although the engines are same but I don't know why they don't and our does.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by Randhawa

@Arun I think I referred to the tractor like sound you mentioned(kind of knocking at slow speeds) and not EGR cleaning to humming noise. May be I don't remember correctly now. Have you ever got the water pump, idler pulley checked? If by removing all the belts you have the noise then it's within the engine.

Ok , I think that mild tractor sound is not there anymore.
Water pump is not yet replaced. I will ask them to check this next time.