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Old 8th September 2019, 22:00   #106
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

Did a trip with fellow XUV owners to Yellapura during last weekend of July. Completed 70K Kms Odo reading during that trip.

Few pics taken by TBHP mod and fellow XUV owner, SDP

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-855213320_95953.jpg

As few of us said, the only color in which XUV should have been manufactured

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-855003398_407300.jpg



Video of a section of the drive



During the trip, at couple of instances where there was slush, I felt tyres losing traction. Hence thinking of making tyre change which I was planning to do around 75K KMS earlier.

I have some 3 outstation trips in September and don't want to risk it with lesser traction though thread life is still available.

Last edited by mpksuhas : 8th September 2019 at 22:03.
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Old 19th September 2019, 23:35   #107
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

As mentioned, wanted to get tyre changed before next highway drive.

Options considered were :

Bridgestone Dueler - Same tyres which I currently used. They have good thread life even after driving for 70K KMs. There are fellow XUV owners who have done till 1 lakh KMs on same set of tyres. They are hard and can withstand abuse. However, are bit noisy too.

Michelin Primacy - Silent and grippy, have driven fellow XUV owner and TBHPian abrinale's XUV and liked it. However, with a life of around 40K KM's, it gives only half the life of Bridgestones.


Goodyear Wrangler AT - Chunky, beautiful to look at. Fellow XUV owners like this tyre. Also, this is the cheapest tyre among the lot too. However, tyre noise was bit high though not as in Bridgestones league.

Michelin Ltx AT - Again an AT tyre. Since my drive is primarily on highways, I was bit relectuant to go for this. But then a friend had shifted to this tyres recently and I was able to drive his XUV for around 300 odd KM's on highways. Was impressed with the grip and plush ride, hence considering other options decided to go ahead with the purchase.


Ended up at Madhu's (Wheel Alignment/Balancing : Madhus Enterprises (Langford rd, Bangalore)) like I do for all tyre related work. They had tyre in stock, hence finalized the same and got 4 tyres changed. The best tyre went as steppeny.

Old tyres - Bridgestone Duelers which served for 70K+ kms.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190824_122757.jpg

As you can see, it still have decent tread life left. However, I was feeling loss of grip sometimes and also noticed the rubber cracking up. Hence wanted to get the replacement done.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190824_122831.jpg

Old and new tyre

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190824_115718.jpg


Balancing and alignment done

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190824_123633.jpg


Getting changed

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190824_124038.jpg


Dirty car, clean tyres

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190824_135657.jpg


Till date I was able to drive for around 1500 KMs on new tyre. Love the silent and grippy nature, was able to drive on both highways and also twisty ghat sections. In both the conditions tyres behaved extremely good.

However, I had filled 33psi on all tyres as I did for Bridgestones, this I guess causes tyre to be extremely bouncy when going fast over undulations. I am planning of decreasing air pressure to adjust the bounciness. May have to do play around with air pressure a bit to understand the optimum settings.

Last edited by mpksuhas : 19th September 2019 at 23:37.
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Old 23rd September 2019, 21:17   #108
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

Remote replacement

Since past few months unlock button on remote had developed a crack and then in one press, a large chunk of the plastic came off exposing the IC board inside.

This was during a trip and in middle of rainy season, luckily the remote held good till I got back from trip. Went to Chrome motors and replaced the same.

There were cheaper options available online, however I wasn't sure of the quality of those. Hence decided not to go for saving few hundred rupees.

How the key was

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190907_091112.jpg


Product and cost details
Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190902_192546.jpg

In case you are doing this as a DIY, do remember to take out RFID similar to this and fix it inside the new remote.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190824_100429.jpg
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Old 29th October 2019, 22:38   #109
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

As mentioned in above posts, car was covered in mud ever since returning from monsoon drive, based on feedback from fellow XUV owners in Bangalore took the vehicle to Xpert Detailers

Got waxing and polishing done along with washing, would recommend them for anyone in Bangalore looking for value for money work.

Work getting done

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190831_103558.jpg


Before and after pics

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190729_202236.jpg

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20190831_202619.jpg
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Old 14th December 2019, 22:29   #110
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

Got hold of a high pressure washer while I travelled to Calicut, went ahead and made full use of the same.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img20190930wa0054_2.jpg

Apart from that, covered around 3K Kms on new tyres. Loving the same, I am still inflating the tyres with 33psi, like I used to do the Bridgestones. I want to try by bringing it down to around 31 psi and see how it will feel. Will try that in coming weeks.

Also, during the early morning non stop drive from Bangalore - Calicut, after around 4 hours AC was working weird. Blower was working and I could hear the sound, however air throw was not proper. On top of that, I was feeling less cooling from whatever air was coming.

I guess it is a combination of two issues - one with that of blower and another with the AC refrigerant leakage. The second I doubt since there is a hissing sound produced randomly when I switch on the AC and also I am getting an oily smell inside the cabin sometimes.

Last edited by mpksuhas : 14th December 2019 at 22:34.
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Old 14th December 2019, 23:01   #111
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Hey

Just wanted to know about the life of Michelin LTX AT. Is it same as Primacy?
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Old 2nd January 2020, 18:49   #112
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

Quote:
Originally Posted by sbala View Post
Just wanted to know about the life of Michelin LTX AT. Is it same as Primacy?
I hope it last more than Primacy, fellow XUV owners who had primacy had mentioned a life of around 35K KMS for Primacy. Another owner who has LTX was running on around 15K kms when I met last, the thread was looking new.
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Old 22nd February 2020, 20:36   #113
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

Since past few months I been facing an issue with AC. It works fine for initial couple of hours of the drive, however about 4 or 5 hours in to drive the cooling stops.

Only blower works, I am able to feel the composer working based on the sound. AC cooling resumes however once the car is switched off for a while, usually for any food stop during these kind of long drives. Also, while switching on the AC there was noticeable 'oily' smell coming from the vents.

Reluctant on going to the service center, since my warranty got over recently, I contact a AC mechanic suggested by fellow XUV owners in Bangalore. He identified that the issue is due to cracked evaporator coil.

As per, this is causing gas leakage and hence the slight smell when switching on AC. His diagnosis was that the leakage is so small the smell is faint, however this causes ice formation around the area causing blockage. This is the reason for stoppage of cooling after a while during driving. Once you stop the car, ice melts off and AC cooling resumes.

However, evaporator change is not an easy job in XUV. Due to what ever reason, Mahindra engineers have thought of putting evaporator coil at the most inaccessible place in the car.

To remove the same, one has to -

- Remove inter-cooler, unplug the evaporator connector which is towards the firewall side.
- Remove both the front seats (can be done without this also, but it becomes difficult due to space constraint)
- Remove floor carpet for both sides in front.
- Remove center console, all the way till left side hand rest.
- Remove A pillar plastic cladding, to remove unhook electrical cable connectors.
- Remove steering wheel.
- Remove dashboard.


This was done at my parking and it looked like a war zone and lasted for good part of a day.

This is how it looked like -


After removing inter cooler

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20191026_085043.jpg

After removing dash board

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20191026_095911.jpg


Another view after removing dashboard

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20191026_095903.jpg


All for changing this -

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20191026_112519.jpg


Its been couple of months that I got this done and AC is working fine till now, hope it continues that way.
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Old 23rd April 2020, 11:36   #114
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

29-Feb-20

XUV Owners group - TORC had planned for a 2 night meet near Belgaum. Since the drive is next day, was planning of getting the XUV ready once back from office (The usual, fluid level check, clean windshield).

For this, I park my Alto and take move XUV to a convenient position in parking lot. After moving couple of meters, I feel hardness in clutch pedal, for a moment I thought my floor mat was fouling with the pedal play. Soon I make out that is not the case and clutch has become hard.

The regular clutch cylinder issue in XUV causes the pedal to drop to floor, also, brake fluid level has not changed. So mentally make a note that this cannot be an issue.

Clutch feedback till this issue happened was fine, so didn't suspect that it was an issue with clutch wear.

Anyway, park the vehicle back, since the drive is from next day, taking the vehicle for the drive is ruled out.

Was thinking of joining someone who is driving from Bangalore for the meet, however fellow XUV owner Anil, comes up with a suggestion of me driving his XUV for the drive. He had planned on driving shotgun in another vehicle, so his car was free. Decide to take that option, though I was bit apprehensive at start since I usually avoid driving others cars due to worry of causing some damage.


So, went for the meet without Optimus

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-dscn1501.jpg
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Old 23rd April 2020, 12:57   #115
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

The report comes 2 months after the trip!! This lockdown period, we should be planning the next one.
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Old 24th April 2020, 11:16   #116
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

Quote:
Originally Posted by krish3 View Post
The report comes 2 months after the trip!! This lockdown period, we should be planning the next one.
True, just clearing the backlog.

Yes, the itch of going for long drive is there, more than ever. I had planned for two drives during past month before the lock down made me to cancel the same.

With the current situation, it is unclear when things will be back normal, especially regarding inter-state travel, hence unable even dream of a trip.

But then, most of us are lucky that our concern is limited smaller issues compared to what many around the globe is facing.

Hope things settle down soon, till then I have a weekly date with cars. Last week polished seats.
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Old 29th September 2020, 19:49   #117
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

A long delayed update, was held up due to work.

05 March 2020 / 76258 KMs

As mentioned earlier, I had a clutch failure, since I had RSA from M&M called them up and booked a flatbed.

As per Mahindra policy, they will take the vehicle on flatbed to the nearest M&M service center (~ 6KMS for me) , if you want the vehicle to be send to any specific service center, it will be considered provided the same is within 10KMs of the nearest service center.

However, the service center where I take the vehicle to is about 23KMs from my place, so the RSA put me on a conference call with tow truck operator and mentioned that they will charge an additional Rs 700 for that.

In the morning, the flat bed reach my apartment. Luckily for me, there is an opening at near to my parking which is accessible for the truck. Also, since vehicle was driveable (though gear changes were hard) I drive till the ramp of the truck.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20200305_072932.jpg

Vehicle was winched and tied and shifted early in morning so that it reach workshop before it opens.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20200305_074229_2.jpg


I am someone who does not ride in half clutch and was expecting clutch to last till 90K + KM's based on average clutch life of XUV's with other owners. So this sudden clutch failure was a thing which made me question my driving technique.

Late in the morning, service advisor from Chrome motors calls up and says that the clutch is fine, however the pressure plate has given up and that is what is causing the issue. However, when pressure plate is changed, it is better to change all the clutch components including the slave cylinder, the achilles heel of XUV.

Total damages -

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-clutchbill.jpg


Work was done by the same evening, however I was not able to go and get the vehicle in the evening and didn't want to take delivery at home since I wanted to get the same tested in workshop after a bigger work.

So the next day I go there to get the vehicle and check the 'clutch pressure checker'.

The antennae kind of part on top of the equipment is used to push on clutch to find what is the clutch hardness reading shown. I felt it was a rudimentary approach.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20200307_130303.jpg


The service advisor said that old clutch plate was 'looking new' (massive ego boost for me ).


Just two weeks after this change, lockdown started due to Covid pandemic, so vehicle has been mostly lying idle, covering only about 2800KMs till now. There are couple of ~1K trips coming up, so hope to get the 80K KMs service done in couple of months.

Few changes I am planning to do -
  • Shift to synthetic oil, I am feeling the engine noise is high now. Especially since I am nearing the 20K oil change interval
  • Change light bulbs - I guess the headlight bulbs are towards end of life since the light output has deceased considerably. Yet to finalize on a replacement.

Last edited by mpksuhas : 29th September 2020 at 19:51.
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Old 13th November 2020, 20:59   #118
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

In the meantime, purchased few accessories for the car.

Windshield wipers

I been happy with the OEM wipers, had found their durability and also cleaning efficiency good.

However, on seeing Michelin wipers available online, thought to try that since the Mahindra OEM wipers were nearing replacement time.

Went for 26 inch one for driver side & 20 inch one for passenger side.

Found the Michelin ones good, however this years rainy season was mostly spend indoors due to Corona pandemic, hence need to check on the durablity aspect.


Windshield cleaner

I been using Sonax clear glass since many years, again, thought of checking out new product and did a search to find out Shell window cleaner.

It's been only two months since the purchase, however based on the limited usage, have been good.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20201003_153622.jpg

Last edited by mpksuhas : 13th November 2020 at 21:01.
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Old 13th November 2020, 22:07   #119
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

70mai 1S Dash cam purchase.

As I had posted earlier (Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report), I do have Transcend Drive Pro 520 dash cam which was purchased around 3 years / 40K KMS earlier and is working fine still.

However, I been thinking of having a seperate cam for rear and decided to purchase a cheaper variant for the same.

Finalized on this model during Amazon sale. Got it for Rs 3900.

Link


Boxing and contents in box -

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20201019_204501.jpg

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20201019_204844.jpg

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20201019_205521.jpg



Video of both day and night footage after installing on rear windshield, night time footage as understandable is bit blurred since headlight of vehicles will be directly falling on the camera. However, overall I am happy with its performance and also found that the WiFi transfer of files are much faster than that on Transcend.


Last edited by mpksuhas : 13th November 2020 at 22:09.
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Old 14th November 2020, 21:57   #120
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Re: Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report

80000 KMs service. 13-Nov-2020

Vehicle had crossed 80K Kms last weekend, the slowest 10K ever, taking around 1 year 5 months.

There was no issues as such to take care, just that I was noticing a clicking / rattling sound when going over bad sections of road from front RHS.

As it has been the case with past few services, headed to Chrome motors.

Since 80K is a major service, was anticipating that it will be past afternoon by time the vehicle is ready. However, thankfully service was done surprisingly quick and vehicle was ready by around 01.00 PM.

I had informed RM that I will be getting engine oil from outside, I wanted to try out Liqui Moly TopTech 4100 based on positive feedback from fellow XUV owners who been using the same.

However, on contacting the local dealer for Liqui Molly, it was informed that the oil is not in stock due to disruption in supply related to Covid. He then suggested oil of same grade from Meguin.

Since both are under same company, decided to go for that since I had made up my mind that I wanted to try synthetic oil this time.

The supplier got the oil to service center and Chrome motors accommodated the request for change.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20201113_100122.jpg


Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20201113_114019.jpg


Total cost of service was Rs. 10792 and oil costed another Rs 4800.


Along with service, I had got headlight and fog lamp bulbs changed. Mentioning that in a seperate post.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-capture.png




Since service got done quick, I headed to recently opened alignment center of Madhus at Wilson Garden.


As always service was quick and was out within an hour. As in case of most visits to Madhus, you end up meeting fellow TBHPians / TBHP readers there. This time too it was nice meeting a fellow XUV owner and TBHP follower, who had come over to get his stock Bridgestones changed to Michelin LTX.

Optimus Prime - Tuscan Red Mahindra XUV5OO W8 ownership report-img_20201113_14155201.jpeg

Last edited by mpksuhas : 14th November 2020 at 22:17.
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