[abirnale]

I have been maintaining the expense track on Orange Cheetah using Gas Cubby iPhone Application. Here is the summary so far -







The Rs. 10,800 service expense if for paint treatment.
This is "first" ever for me that in 122 days, I drove 9000+ Kms! Way to go

[tilt]

Wow Avi; I have been using Gas Cubby for the past three years and never knew that this views could be obtained by turning the phone sideways! I have always wanted these stats and was frustrated at not being able to see them, and was manually calculating all this until now. Duh!!!!

Thanks man

Cheers

[MindOnWheels]

Thanks Avi for this info. I have been using the Car Logbook app on my iphone/ipad. Pretty decent information as the pictures below tells you. This one is for my BMW X1.

Cheers

[abirnale]

During the week, I had to rush to Delhi for work. So I decided to drive down the car to airport, leave it there for a day and pick next day evening. Head from there to Bangalore Tbhp meet up which had majority of XUV owners signed up. I did not want to miss that opportunity.

So we drove to Indian Paratha Company eatery on Friday evening, followed by a fun drive to AP border - Total of 250 Kms.

My orange cheetah had opportunity to spend time with legends -



The super special one is of course J.Ravi's Pet Purple Cheetah. Further right of Cheetah, is Suhas's Optimus Prime - Red XUV5OO. On my left is Arun's Linea. The others who joined the drive are - Sathya (cmiuc), Ashwanth (achyu), Vikram (indian), Sunay (fusionbang), ParagSachania, SpeedSatya, Prashant (contycruiser500), Bejoy. I think I am still missing few names.



Again, the night drive on Bangalore Hyderabad road is always fun especially with fellow Tbhpians around.

The odometer as on today shows 9623 Kms Another week may be before Cheetah goes for second servicing.

[abirnale]

It happened yesterday -

Around lunch time the the car was parked at office parking (it is specially monitored by CCTVs as well as Security Personnel who is deployed to monitor it in person), the Cheetah's alarm triggered. It started the alarm chirps and parking lights all around went blinking. It continued for a minutes or so. Meanwhile Security tried reaching me but the alarms and lights went off like nothing has happened. At the time of incidence there was no-one around. Nothing thereafter.

In the evening the about to leave for the day I unlocked the car and it gave me three chirps and parking light flashes. Indicates that something was wrong earlier since I parked. I took a good walk around of the car, checked hood, boot, body - nothing! Literally nothing.

So my question now is, what made the siren go off? Why? And If I can recall correctly, the three chirps suggest something specific. I tried glancing through the user manual but could not locate the section that helps troubleshoot this.

Any pointers what might have gone wrong?

[S5157]

It could be the faulty bonnet sensor which could have triggered the alarm.

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by abirnale

So my question now is, what made the siren go off? Why? And If I can recall correctly, the three chirps suggest something specific. I tried glancing through the user manual but could not locate the section that helps troubleshoot this.

Any pointers what might have gone wrong?

Strange behavior Avinash By the way were all the doors closed properly? Do you remember if you had opened the hatch and not closed properly? might be the switch was not pressed properly and it sounded the alarm. Also it might be the bonnet switch issue. Better to check on all the switches with the service center.

Was it just lights or there was sound too?

[abirnale]

It was lights plus sound. Absolutely nothing opened, kept unlocked. No doors were open, no loose latches anywhere. This is something that happened very first time and I am not sure what indicates three chirps when I unlocked. For sure this is an indication of something. I was wondering if this is to do with steering lock not engaged on last lock warning?

[mpksuhas]

Unless someone tried to force open the vehicle it has to do with a loose, faulty sensor or switch.

The usual culprit as mentioned in earlier posts is bonnet sensor. I had faced this issue when after driving in rain and getting mud all over the vehicle. After few door ajar warnings, cleaned mud around the switch by opening the bonnet and it is working fine after that.

Second culprit can be any door sensors. It has been raining in Bangalore since past couple of days and as you know cats doesn't like water much.

[abirnale]

So before i could send the car for second service, an impromptu trip to Trichy has come up. We are driving from Bangalore to Trichy and return on Sunday. So the second service will only happen once we are back and probably when the ODO reads 10400 Kms or so!

By the way, I retrieved a dash cam footage from our drive to Goa earlier during Ganesha festival. Here is the quick link - clips specifically in the Chorala route. You can imagine why I love that stretch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88lcdZKNJK0

More updates to follow soon!

[abirnale]

All the past two weeks I was hoping to cross over the 10K Kms mark and stuck at 10850Kms. But then I was only able to do this yesterday! A wedding invitation called for a drive to Trichy with family friend. With full car (7 pax aboard) It was fun driving to Trichy through Salem - Namakkal - Trichy route alongside Cauvery! It was raining cats and dogs while cheetah was at it's best making way through the traffic as well as rains The whole trip was around 650Kms.

Here is what the current ODO reads -


Second Service Update -
So today I turned in the car to Sireesh Auto Singasandra for second service. Although its relatively quick service, I must applaud the RM Zyed for outstanding service performance. The car was attended to all details, washed and returned in flat 2.5 hours! I have always seen him with broad smile on his face and extremely polite at all times. He is one gem of a person to have in your staff, Sireesh Auto team

Apart from the regular AC filter change there is no other consumables to be used. Being Free service total bill was Rs. 1050 including taxes. I have never seen any bill so small on vehicle of this size!

Few things done on the car -

• The Welcome and Good Bye message is not updated to properly reflect my name. There was a typo earlier.
• AC filter changed
• Wheels and Brakes are checked, cleaned and put back
• Suspension checked. Since I mentioned about other car owner's experience of rain caused noise while going on the speed breaker they sprayed something to ensure there are no noises.
• Wipers were not at their best. Some time the cleaning is not clear-swept. They did some adjustment and I see the windshield now getting cleaned better that it was before. Thanks to incessant rains in Bengaluru.

There is no Software or ECU update after 5K service it had earlier in September. Simple and easy servicing this was.

I requested for engine oil change. But the RM declined it. His point, just stick to regular schedule and guidelines from M&M. No need to do anything extra. The Engine Oil was changed at 5K, so to change now at 10K is too early when M&M recommends changing at 20K Intervals. It made sense to follow his advice.

For all the service experience at Sireesh, I will not hesitate to rate them perfect 10 out of 10 as well as recommend them to others. Very much impressed I am as a customer.

Micro-Hybrid System Experience
I had not used the start/stop - micro hybrid systems so far. But for past 200 Kms or so I am switching it ON. I find it very convenient but some time irritating. The moment I slot the gear in neutral and leave clutch, within few seconds it switches off the engine. As a driver, I can notice it. Who I depress the clutch, engine comes to life. My co-passenger if awake can notice it too. Not a problem so far. But as a user I find it annoying sometimes. For example, In traffic I am stuck so I put car in N and leave clutch. Within 3-5 seconds engine is off. But at very next moment I realise the traffic is moving again, so as soon as I press clutch again engine starts. This kind of start/ stop makes me feel stressed. Apart from that start/ stop engine annoyance, everything is fine. To make this entire process, the engine has to be dead silent al the time so driver does not even notice this phenomena.

The good thing about this system is - it keeps the music, phone call or AC Fan on even if the engine is off. And there is no disturbance in the operation of accessories. When I say AC fan is ON while engine is off - if your car stays in this state for more than couple of minutes you will notice that not really a cool air! I guess the AC stops but just blower/ fan continues. Not sure if this is standard behaviour of Micro Hybrid system?

Originally Posted by abirnale

I guess the AC stops but just blower/ fan continues. Not sure if this is standard behaviour of Micro Hybrid system?

Yes, absolutely normal.

[abirnale]

^^^ Thanks Ravi sir. Makes sense. Silly me, did not pay full attention to every page in user manual. Time to go back to basics. A lot of questions are answered in the user manual but we tend to ignore that. Blame it to our laziness and comfort of questioning on such forums or WhatsApp Groups. And then we also have you

On the same topic of Start/ Stop, I wonder when we put the car in the garage for parking and this Micro-Hybrid system is working, as soon as car goes in N gear, the engine switches off. That's little different than how I used to keep the engine running for a minute before I stop after day's drive. Not sure if this will have any adverse impact on the engine as such but I am inclined to assume that M&M would have taken care of not abruptly switching off turbo and engine but letting it cool off around when we switch off car manually indicating the drive is over.

Anyone here who is using Micro-Hybrid system for a prolonged time and more than may be 40-50 K Kms? How's their experience?

Thanks in advance.

[achyu]

Originally Posted by abirnale

On the same topic of Start/ Stop, I wonder when we put the car in the garage for parking and this Micro-Hybrid system is working, as soon as car goes in N gear, the engine switches off. That's little different than how I used to keep the engine running for a minute before I stop after day's drive. Not sure if this will have any adverse impact on the engine as such but I am inclined to assume that M&M would have taken care of not abruptly switching off turbo and engine but letting it cool off around when we switch off car manually indicating the drive is over.

Hey Avinash,

I used the Start/Stop feature initially but stopped using it fearing it might have an adverse effect on the turbo due to zero cool off period. For a while, I started manually turning the feature off just before I reach my destination but it was too much work and I stopped doing that as well

Now, it remains an unused feature in my SUV. I didn't see any improvement in the FE levels while using it.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by achyu

It remains an unused feature in my SUV.

But RM/ SA always kept on saying that we don't need to worry about idling, cool off. When we shut down the engine by using start/stop button system takes care of all things shutting off. And I think it may be correct otherwise how would they justify the start-stop/ Micro-hybrid operation to be tested and introduced in the vehicle!

I think the older gen XUV has micro-hybrid feature as well as Scorpios which works similar. How are they fairing so far? Anyone with relevant relevant experience here? Or my understanding is incorrect?