[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Is your car made out of metal or Gorilla Glass!
That is so glossy that I can hear a squeak even in these pictures!

I have no clue about that Hemanth, but I surely feel like a Silver Back everytime I get to floor it !!

It is a pure driver's delight as much as it is a delight to look at from outside.
Today morning a Red hot Polo GT with black roof and black alloys overtook my car and I was seeing it in awe and a pinch of jealousy

Agree completely. However, I still wish the stopping power was just as good as the acceleration thrust. One thing that I am totally clueless about is to know how are you stopping/curtailing the urge to upgrade from the Punto 1.2 ??

Or is this the calm before the storm known as Punto T-Jet ??

I have been thinking a lot and have somehow managed to hold on to any mods for over a year now. The "1 YEAR ITCH" seems to have caught up and things will roll very soon on my GT !!

By the Way, I see a KA 14 registered Mahindra in the second picture. is that a Thar?

Boy you really have some keen set of lenses bro. I had to scroll couple of times to just see where was the 'Jeep' in the first place, let alone the number plate.

Yes that is the first gen Thar that my cousin picked up long back. That pic was during our visit to his house in Shimoga last month.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

One thing that I am totally clueless about is to know how are you stopping/curtailing the urge to upgrade from the Punto 1.2 ??

Yoga

Or is this the calm before the storm known as Punto T-Jet ??

I'm in no hurry and so I've not zeroed in on anything...I have too many cars (in different segments)in my mind.
In Hatchbacks, currently polo GT TSI is on top.
If Punto Tjet is lauched (rumoured to be 135ps)and it is really worthy, then it might win.
But then Polo GTI 1.8(rumoured to be 192ps) is spotted testing!!

I have been thinking a lot and have somehow managed to hold on to any mods for over a year now. The "1 YEAR ITCH" seems to have caught up and things will roll very soon on my GT !!

Will be eagerly looking forward to it.

[Gannu_1]

Quoting from the other thread:

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Oh and by the way, my GT will remain at the workshop for a week as the EGR must be replaced and the warranty claims will take that long.

What went wrong Vikram? Please share the details if you can.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Quoting from the other thread:



What went wrong Vikram? Please share the details if you can.

There have been couple of issues on my GT in the last 1 month Gannu and I have been shuffling between work and workshop to get these sorted:

- The infamous 'Shuddering' came by during high speed braking and I was informed that the Brake rotors & Pads must be replaced.

- Just last weekend, while returning from a holiday, the 'Coil' symbol started flashing. After I checked with Prashanth (Speed_Kills) and a VW Service folk, I restarted the engine and then the 'Engine Malfunction' light came up.

These were what I could decipher:






Long story short, I have got the brake pads rubbed, the rotors cleaned and things seem to be a lot better there.

With the second more serious issue, apparently there have been issues reported with EGR on the old Polo's and if the car is under warranty, after series of steps the EGR must be replaced.

If the car is not under warranty, the EGR is speculated to be upwards of INR 45K


EDIT

Gannu, I am adding to this post which also addresses your questions below:

Yes, when the Coil symbol started flashing, the car went into the limp mode and would neither rev beyond 2.1k RPM nor accelerate beyond 80Km/hr.


I will post a detailed report once my GT is back with me, which I am afraid will have to wait for a week at least

[Gannu_1]

Did you have an OBD reader plugged to check the errors/codes it threw? Other than the glow plug symbol flashing on the cluster, did the car go into limp mode or something?

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

With the second more serious issue, apparently there have been issues reported with EGR on the old Polo's and if the car is under warranty, after series of steps the EGR must be replaced.

If the car is not under warranty, the EGR is speculated to be upwards of INR 45K


I will post a detailed report once my GT is back with me, which I am afraid will have to wait for a week at least

One of my colleagues' Punto 1.3 had a similar problem but in his case, the car would switch to limp home mode. after 3 engine restarts, the problem would vanish.
EGR system cleaning was the first solution that was prescribed by the service centre (amusingly there were no errors recorded in the OBD scan)
The car was ok for a few days and when the problem cropped up again, they diagnosed for a week and finally identified the root cause to be a faulty Turbo Unit.
it was replaced under warranty and the problem has not come up again
Maybe you can ask the service centre guys to look at this angle too.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Maybe you can ask the service centre guys to look at this angle too.

Yes Hemanth my car was connected to OBD scanner and after a series of tests, the issue has been determined as the EGR itself.

In fact, Prashanth told me instantly that this is the problem, which he had faced as well on his Vento TDI a year back. Ever since the EGR was replaced, he had not had this issue.

I am hoping that there are no further complications with Turbo, etc and keeping my Fingers/legs/arms crossed


I will post a detailed report of my ownership experience once I have my GT back with me, which I think must help all other VAG group owners, if need be.

[nakul0888]

Wish the geniuses at vw focus on improving reliability rather than trying to figure out cheat modes. Morons.
This thread just reminded me to take the extended warranty. Looks like I might need it. Have you taken the EW? Remember the rates?
Keep us posted on the issue. Good luck.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by nakul0888

Have you taken the EW? Remember the rates?

Well Nakul the timing of my purchase of 1.6 GT TDI was almost impeccable, as I had got the following offers from VW Finance for a 'Soon to be Phased Out' engine:

- 3yrs Insurance Free
- 3yrs Warranty Free
- 3yrs RSA Free
- 20k cash discount

I shudder to think what would happen if I only had 1yr warranty on the car now

Additionally, from what I understand, one can only buy/extend warranty within the first year of ownership. Experts, please correct me if my understanding is incorrect.

All my previous ownership gripes were with the product & not the reliability. This German machine has taught me the exact opposite. I only hope and pray things fall in place and I get back my GT in one working piece.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Additionally, from what I understand, one can only buy/extend warranty within the first year of ownership.

Before the standard warranty runs out. I renewed mine a couple of days before the expiry of the standard warranty.

[Vik0728]

So, after over 2 weeks of watching my GT sit idle, either at VW workshop or my garage, drove it into the VW Whitefield facility for a fix
The EGR had arrived sometime last Friday, but due to some unknown logistic issues, had to wait till today.

Service adviser has been quite helpful throughout and assured the car will be brought back to its original glory in 1 day, and I can start living my life again from tomorrow. I guess my despair was very visible and just oozing out of my eyes.

I also checked with him if they had received any alert/update from VW with respect to working on the diesel emission cheating thingy running wild, for which his reply was 'No, not yet'. On further probing, he also revealed that when these are corrected, the loss of power may be very marginal and for the most part unnoticeable by most owners.


Did a bit of research and here is what I found:

Link


Excerpt -

"Mueller says performance would not necessarily be compromised by the repairs, although he concedes that the cars may lose "three to five kilometers per hour" of their maximum speed."


I am really unsure if his predictions are that accurate, as long as they don't spiral down further. I bought GT for one big and probably the only reason, that pure beast of an engine. If this "Ethical Fix" may rob me of this, I would be very unhappy.

For now, I am only awaiting the return of GT and Good Times into my life. I will update this post with the pics and all the observations once I get my baby back home.

[Vik0728]

Attachment 1435303MY GT IS HOME

So after over 2 weeks of frustration, disappointment, sorrow and quite a lifeless living, got my GT Home early this morning.

How it started?

Was returning from Coorg couple of weeks back when I noticed a coil symbol flashing on the MID:



I immediately called Prashanth (Speed_kills) who suspected an EGR issue as he had a similar thing on his Vento. Strangely I noticed this symbol while I was cruising at some good speeds.
I turned off the engine and allowed it to cool down a bit on the road side and turned it back on. Lo-behold, I saw an additional symbol light up right beside the first one now:



Also, the car had gone into limp mode and would not rev beyond 2.5k nor accelerate beyond 80 km/hr. GERMAN ENGINEERING eh ??

As luck would have it, this happened on a Sunday afternoon and right during the festive week. So, I had to 'Crawl' back home and park the car hoping for a miracle.


The Run-around

Prashanth shared the contact of SE by name Joseph from VW Whitefield who requested me to get the car to workshop first thing on Monday. I was there as informed and the car was put through a series of scans & tests. Joseph confirmed that there were 3-4 sensors that has malfunctioned/failed the diagnostics. He advised me to drop off the car for a thorough test. Also, I was aware that VW service would be closed for 3 days and my GT might just have to sit it out at the workshop.

After a day, I get the news that the tests/diagnostics concluded that EGR was faulty. VW Whitefield could only placed order post the holidays and that meant that I could hope for a fix only a week later.

Joseph informed me that EGR can go bad due to:

- Contaminated exhaust gases which is a direct result of bad fuel
- Dust
- Lot of idling of diesel engine

I think irrespective of the cause, such parts going kaput at >25K kms is quite poor engineering by the Germans.


The JOY

I could either not concentrate on all the proceedings or was least bit interested in knowing them, as all I could think of is getting my GT back home. Finally, I got a call from SE yesterday that my GT was finally back to being its best and I was free to take back my baby.
As I did not want to put myself and my GT through evening traffic nightmare, I requested SE to ready the car for a morning delivery, to which he agreed.

All in all, the work done on my GT:

- EGR replaced under warrant (INR 45,674/- otherwise )
- Intake hose pipe changed as well
- Engine oil topped up
- Coolant flushed out and topped up





A big shout out to Prashanth (Speed_kills) for being so helpful with the contact and constant enquiry on the updates. Owe you one bro.


NIRVANA

After more than 2 weeks of slow/lethargic/boring drive, the rush of torque I felt today in my GT gave me the smile I was longing for. I almost had nightmares of missing this feeling for a long time now.

Its time to clean my GT and restore it back to its original glory, which I am planning to spend the entire weekend on.

For now:

[Vik0728]

Finally, MOD IT !!

Amidst all the VW emission controversies, pathetic VW after sales inventory and rumours of the German Giant shutting down, I have completed nearly 1.5yrs of Polo 1.6 GT TDi ownership.

There is nothing really great/unique about that. What's really been a surprise to some folks who have known me through my previous car ownership's was the 'Stock Condition' my GT had remained over all these months. I had promised myself not to even think of getting onto mods on my GT for first 3 yrs at least.
But thanks to some of the brilliant 'Mod Gurus & Visionaries' such as Gannu, Prashanth, Graaja, frankmehta, etc I eventually took the bait!!

One of my colleague had recently installed 15" GTR wheels on his 2015 Vento TDI Comfortline. He was asked to relocate to California on 3yrs assignment and he wanted to sell his car. As he had done merely 1k Kms on these new rims, I pitched in and we had a deal. Gave my Estrada rims to friend and paid the different amount for these.

So, my GT was transformed from this...




...to this




Now that I had got the wheels in the shade I always wanted, I knew what was one other thing that would get this just right.

A Gloss Roof Wrap

So I bugged Hemanth (hemanth.anand) for couple of days and he agreed to take me across to the person he got his Wrap for his 1.2 Abarth.

Thank you bro for sparing some time on a weekend for this

I did not want a complete roof wrap since it was way too common and I just did not like that look either. So I decided to give a 'Pseudo Panoramic Roof' look on my GT.



And the results were:









The drive & ride has quite literally transformed post this swap. I already had a 205/50 section tires and with these rims being 7J (Estradas are 6J?) the stance has become a killer. The car feels a lot more in control through bends, which I found out this morning on a drive to Nandi hills.


Everybody knows, once you get started with modding your stead, there is just no stopping it.

I always wanted a boot light on my GT and never really had the guts to tempt my fate by going in for an add on or D.I.Y like Gannu did. I scoured through the net and finally landed on the same place I started, AliExpress.

I bought this motion sensor LED and the product landed at my doorstep in 10 days. The best part of this is it works like a charm, every time I just open the boot lid.

I don't have pics of this or a video of the same working, but for those interested:

Link


So, though I have not kept up my promise on the modding front, I think I will have to hold onto my 'German Horses' now, else I may just end up blowing up all my fortunes.

Thats all for now folks, will update the thread with any further changes/add ons which I have a funny feeling is quite inevitable now.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

[b][u]

One of my colleague had recently installed 15" GTR wheels on his 2015 Vento TDI Comfortline. He was asked to relocate to California on 3yrs assignment and he wanted to sell his car. As he had done merely 1k Kms on these new rims, I pitched in and we had a deal. Gave my Estrada rims to friend and paid the different amount for these.

So, my GT was transformed from this...

.

Nice Mods Vik, the alloys look very good and given the car a look to a new level.
Would have preferred the gloss wrap to cover the entire top part, never the less it looks good

[DRIV3R]

Cool, now all you need to do is paint the ORVMs black to complete the theme.