[abirnale]

Does it feel very silent here?

Actually yes. Just wanted to keep you posted that, there are no stories to tell yet. The lights saga is put behind. No major drives happening yet - blame it to Kid's exam season or heightened work activities due to fin-year closing! Whatever, the life is peaceful and nothing to report yet.

The situation is sure to remain like this almost entire March or may be in the end of this month when more marching may happen!

Until then stay safe, drive safe. Ciao!

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by abirnale

So the last week's air loss in rear-left tyre turned out to be a puncture!

This time it is the turn of front left tyre! The air was slowly getting released for past two days and hence yesterday i topped it up with N2. That was in the morning. Before I start back to home from work, I see that the pressure was dropped to 12 psi! Clear sign of a puncture.

Turns out to be a similar screw on the tyre - Rs. 100 repair cost and 30 minutes of detour to puncture repair shop.




This Cheetah somehow seems to pick up more nails than my previous cars!

After a long time, finally this weekend, I am heading to my home town on MH for a quick trip! Another 1500 Kms on the odometer that takes it closer to 20K Service!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by abirnale

I see that the pressure was dropped to 12 psi! Clear sign of a puncture.

I type this with my hands touching the wooden table where my laptop is.

The Michelins on the WagonR are at least 70,000 kms now while the one in Ertiga have also clocked 69,000 kms. Tires on both these cars have suffered zero punctures till date except that the nozzle/Valve of one of the tires in the WagonR has become weak and was replaced.

In the Ertiga, when tires were 40,000 kms old, at Madhus, the person who was working on the balancing job removing those pebbles before the job noticed a screw on one of the tires and pulled it out. Luckily again, the screw had barely made entry onto the tire's surface such that it hadn't cause a puncture.

Damn lucky me!!! So that makes it almost 140,000 kms without a Puncture and No wonder I need to regularly lubricate the Jacks and check if the wheel spanners have corroded due to non usage .

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Damn lucky me!!! So that makes it almost 140,000 kms without a Puncture.

Thats not plain luck - but the carefulness of yours paying off Parag. And if you still argue about luck - let me quote - luck only favours those who work smarter to turn it in their favour!

I can never match your enthu and vigour of maintaining the tall boy or Ertiga! I can blame the punctures to the ongoing "under construction" status of an apartment where I live. But you know, no excuse is good enough to cover up for the lapse. I am generally not careful about daily maintenance/ checks and up-keeping of the car. Something is not right with the way things are moving. Otherwise how do you justify the two Aux Onella LEDs I wanted to fit many weeks ago are still lying in the boot with no luck of fitment? Or the bald driver side noodle mat is waiting it's turn to be replaced with new one? Or the dents on the doors are still teasing me every day and I am not reacting at them? Or I am still not thinking about second round of detailing on the car - interior as well as exterior?

Cheetah had munched 15K on the odometer merely in 5-6 months but to reach to 20K it has taken another 3-4 months! Too bad, I would think!

But you know what, this is just the pendulum swinging in other direction. This is going to change. Summer vacations for kids are round the corner! Multiple Home and Goa runs shall resume. And in April, we head out to Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in the hope that Cheetah will meet some cousins!

Stay tuned for more updates - they are coming slow but for sure!

[abirnale]

Whether things are good or bad, when I get in XUV, everything becomes just right. Past 9 months have been blissful with the car, bar few minor issues. The car gets dirty/ I pay less attention to it but when it is clean and shiny, it's a head turner.

Over the last weekend, I had to travel to my home town for some family medical urgency. Things are all fine but case in point is, just when I was feeling sad for not been able to put more miles after last 2 months or so, the situation arose. Friday noon 3pm departure from Bangalore and mid-night arrival at home after 650Kms of drive was nothing less than feeling of getting back on line after a bad-patch! And returning on Sunday evening back to home in Bangalore, the Odometer is now only 900Kms short of 20K mark!

While I have been on NH4 umpteen number of times, never ever realised that for around 650 Kms of distance from door to door, I have always ended up paying around Rs. 734 as one way toll! That was a revelation when for the sake of fun my daughter did a listing of all toll receipts and counted total!



For a sedate cruising drive, XUV always returns the FE of 14 kmpl. This time around the year, temperatures were soaring around 40 degrees! Both the ACs were put to maximum work. The FE figures were fluctuating around 13/14. Considering the average FE as 13 Kmpl, 1500Rs of toll, 4 Pax - this expense is far more economical than the AC bus option! This is a good calculation I am happy to debate with my wife who prefers to take train. I haven't added the time saving and fun to the argument yet!

By the way, a quick drive on this long weekend to somewhere nearby should make XUV touch 20K mark! I have something in my mind to make it happen sooner. Long live summer vacation, minus the heat!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by abirnale

- this expense is far more economical than the AC bus option! This is a good calculation I am happy to debate with my wife who prefers to take train. I haven't added the time saving and fun to the argument yet!

Believe me, now my better half doesn't even bother to book flight tickets for Rajkot as she has a chauffeur who will drop her and our daughter without much ado. They are not tired at the end of the journey and I am not tired to start back for Bangalore after a day's rest. It has been a Win-Win situation till now. And no, this was even before my Ertiga days in my humble WagonR. So I don't even recall the last time we flew to any destination within India.

Having driven the SX4 so many times over thousands of kilometers, no wonder that too is an able highway mile muncher, an underrated one though.

So it is all about driving it right and am sure we succeed there!

I have something in my mind to make it happen sooner. Long live summer vacation, minus the heat!

If you are hitting Goa again, we might end up driving together this weekend as my plan to drive is almost getting finalized.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

If you are hitting Goa again, we might end up driving together this weekend as my plan to drive is almost getting finalized.

No no. We have booked the train tickets long ago for April 1st! Junior hasn't boarded a train yet in his life (3 yrs though). So we had planned to drop folks for vacation to Sanquelim in Train this time. Return will obviously be by road.

To bring 20K number on the odometer, I was thinking to join the overnighter fellas upto Salem for breakfast and return

[jacobvarughese]

Hi abirnale, I am a new kid on the block whose membership got approved a week ago. However, I have been following your stupendous ownership experience over the past 6 months along with those of the other XUV ownership thread blokes. Just to state that I am also a proud owner of the W10 (purchased in July 2015) and the odo stands at 10,200 kms. My longest drives were to Thekkady and Bangalore (2 separate trips done from Trivandrum).

Once again keep munching miles and wish you uneventful trips with your family !

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by jacobvarughese

Once again keep munching miles and wish you uneventful trips with your family!

Thanks Jacob for your kind words and wish you too many more happy (s)miles on your XUV!

The life of the XUV family is always eventful, more fun and lesser woes recently. But yes, XUV is not a complete package, but of course more addicting one!

Drive Safe.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Turns out to be a similar screw on the tyre - Rs. 100 repair cost and 30 minutes of detour to puncture repair shop.
This Cheetah somehow seems to pick up more nails than my previous cars!

By any chance did you stop services from any car cleaning guys in your apartment? In my apartment they were doing this intentionally when some of them stopped their services.

Originally Posted by abirnale

Cheetah had munched 15K on the odometer merely in 5-6 months but to reach to 20K it has taken another 3-4 months! Too bad, I would think!

I would blame the owner for not being smart enough to find a reason to drive But a big big difference in munching Kms when compared with your earlier SX4.

Originally Posted by abirnale

Whether things are good or bad, when I get in XUV, everything becomes just right.

I get the same feeling when I get behind the wheels.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

By any chance did you stop services from any car cleaning guys in your apartment? In my apartment they were doing this intentionally when some of them stopped their services.

Nope. After my experience of swirl marks on SX4 many years ago, I prefer to keep vehicle exterior dirty for a week or two before it goes for a proper water pressure wash. And my family is particular about not dirtying the interiors by eating food there/ throwing biscuits and stuff like that. So interiors are always clean! This way I can survive almost 2-3 weeks in a row without having exterior washed or dusted.

Coming back to the puncture - there is no foul play here. There is ongoing maintenance work in the basements for various reasons. Folks drop the things on floor and forget to pick them back. Moreover, in my allotted parking space, I have a Motion sensor based CCTV monitoring setup for which the control units and recorders are kept inside my flat. Yep, I spent that money on wiring and setting up cameras facing each other so that they watch each other's back too! After this, no scratches and even trespassing near the car while at home. At work, there is a dedicated covered parking slot for me and a security guard keeps vigil 24/7. Perks of executives All of this has only resulted into not having any incidences like scratches/ dents or fiddling with any of my vehicles yet! And if at all anything like this happens and I find it caught on digital eyes, I wont narrate the aftermath of the incidence on this forum

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by abirnale

This time it is the turn of front left tyre! The air was slowly getting released for past two days and hence yesterday i topped it up with N2. That was in the morning. Before I start back to home from work, I see that the pressure was dropped to 12 psi! Clear sign of a puncture.

Even I have been unlucky on puncture fronts. All my cars get punctures. MRF, Michelin, Apollo, Bridgestones none have been strong enough. Recently on my drive to Pondi, I got first one on the cheetah as well. TPMS beeped in time however showed front left when in reality it was front right, programming issue. Luckily i didnt drive on a flat tyre cause the punture was big and it deflated in a matter of minutes.

[DragonHawk]

Avinash, you seem to be in serious mile munching business man. Kudos for you and wish you a safe drive ahead.

Originally Posted by arun_josie

By any chance did you stop services from any car cleaning guys in your apartment? In my apartment they were doing this intentionally when some of them stopped their services.

It looks like days are not far where we and airforce personal stationed in airbase have one thing in common ie to inspect the runway/pavement for foreign object debris

[abirnale]

Today for good breakfast drive me and Sunay joined the overnighter folks from Bangalore to Salem on their way to Munnar. A good 450Kms round trip brings 19700 Kms on the odo. Any time next week, I should take it for 20K kms service.

Here are some pictures from early AM drive today -




The the TBhpians at Park Plaza Salem for breakfast -



The long weekend holiday crowd made it difficult to maintain cruising speeds and longer queues at toll booths were more annoying than getting up early for the drive!

Nevertheless we had great fun. XUV when it is in 60+ kmph speed which will be around 1800 RPM in 5th or 6th gear pulls nicely upwards to speeds of triple digit. It made things easier to cope up with crowded highway! I have grown up to feel that on XUV, the best gears to be always are 3rd for lower speeds, 5th and 6th gears for anything 70+ and 2nd for crawling traffic. If the RPMs are maintained, the power is always available on the tap! Not to mention that highway manners of the XUV so far has made me feel proud to compare it with some of the good sedans!

No wonder it feels so good to look forward for every drive in XUV!

[abirnale]

OBD Carputer Setup
This morning an old friend offered me his "carputer" thingie! I already have the ELM 327 mini bluetooth adapter but that works only with an android phone. Does it's job perfectly well. But what I got today is this - Its a iCar OBD professional solution from Vgate.



The size is just perfect for all kind of cars. It does not protrude out of the socket.



The best part is, even if you keep this plugged into the OBD socket, within 30 minutes it will go to power save mode there by drawing almost zero power from battery. You can force it to shut off by using that power button too.

It is compatible with iPhone over Wifi and there are many apps on the app store to be used with it. I chose - Dash Command - pricey but very detailed, cool interface.



There are still a number of settings that needs to be made in the app since it does not know what Mahindra and the XUV is But with the minimum settings it was able to show the correct RPM values - easy to compare with on screen and dashboard. I will fill in all the other details soon and give a detailed feedback.

Turning in for 20K Service -
The odometer has crossed 19700 Kms and the XUV is ready to be taken in for servicing tomorrow. Appointment confirmed, all set. The things to be corrected/ addressed from my side -

• Upgrade the infotainment software (there is new version 6.x)
• Address that minor clutch spring noise I mentioned long ago
• Clean all brakes and brake dust
• Do NOT align and balance wheels! Just rotate, do TPMS learning. I plan to save few bucks by taking it to Madhu's!

Apart from this it is whatever as per schedule (oil change, Filters Change etc.). More updates to follow tomorrow once the service is completed.