[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by abirnale

I hope that I will not need to worry about light anymore and this will be enough for my need.

Awesome Avinash

When something pops up in our head in terms of this vehicle, you can't resist that urge to get it done, be it work or other personal commitments. You have left me thinking Avinash.

Can you please post the details on overall cost for this setup and link to procure these lights?

Extra pair of sleek lights actually look good on the car

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by fusionbang

Can you please post the details on overall cost for this setup and link to procure these lights?

Thanks dude.

I had earlier the LED lights which had all clamps already setup. So no additional cost there apart from repairing the clamp bend. That costed Rs. 1000.

The Hella lights were bought more than a month ago from amazon - link here. This costed me Rs 5800.

Today the relay kit, wiring, labour costed Rs. 900.

The Remote control unit for switch setup was also taken from the older setup - inspired by Nibu's setup on his XUV.

So total cost of this setup is around Rs. 7700.

[abirnale]

Today morning before I pulled the car out of apartment parking, I just did a quick check on Aux lights.

Here is how the parking area is around 8.30am -



When I switched ON the Aux lights -



This was clearly not good aligned. I tried moving lights by hand and a small adjustment could be done as nut was not very tightened. Aux was adjusted like this -



When I see it from inside the car, and after switching the low beams along with aux -



Knowing how the area looks like with and without light, I think this is good light for my need for now. A better alignment in a dark patch with low/ high beams and with fog lamps is required. If the alignment is set well and nuts tightened well, I can conclude this setup as satisfactory.

[abirnale]

The Orange cheetah was expected to take me on two nighter trip with TBhp buddies to Pondy and Tranquebar. But destiny had something else for me. Couple of weeks ago, I cancelled tBhp meet participation sighting to extra work. Happens that some more work brings me on road again - today post midnight around 2am left from Bangalore and here I am on my favourite stretch!

@Chorala Ghat, en-route home to Sanquelim. Land of hills, temples, rivers, Sand, sun and beaches!




The aux hella lights are not yet aligned well but they sure are fun on highways. Light is good to be seen and to see!

Ciao until next update!

[abirnale]

You may be busy. There could be tons of things in daily routine. But when kids demand some free time of yours in that boring routine, places like these come to respite -





This is from a place called Aravalem/ Haravale, 2 kms from where my third home is. And tomorrow we return back to first home in Bengaluru! No toll will be saving grace for otherwise crowded highway with Sunday inbound traffic to Bengaluru.

Ciao until next update!

[abirnale]

Quick update -

After the most relaxing drive of around 12 hours from door to door (Sanquelim to Bagaluru), Cheetah is back in its home too. No tolls, just NICE Road fees made it even more fun. No stoppages at any toll booth. Folks were still reckless on the road but I was never so happy driving on NH48 (old NH4).

There is a small observation though that I need to address. I have observed that off late brakes are making very audible sound. Its like a BMTC bus braking hard and making that chee-chee/ whistling noise! Feels bad. must be a lot of brake dust trapped in the front wheel callipers or may be the lubrication issue. Before I head out to Kodaikanal this Friday, I guess I should get the brake dust cleaned, wheels checked. Nothing seems serious but considering the drive in a territory that I have never been, thinking if I should choose to ignore this for now?

Cheetah has clocked 38350+ Kms on odometer and as soon as we are back from Kodaikanal, it would most likely to go for 40K kms service! Another milestone - seems like the 1000th post of mine on the forum happens to be with Cheetah ownership thread!

Exciting times ahead!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by abirnale

I have observed that off late brakes are making very audible sound. Its like a BMTC bus braking hard and making that chee-chee/ whistling noise!

Get the discs and pads checked for once and cleaned it too. That should mostly solve the problem.

Considering its winter, the noise would be due to that as well but your XUV has all discs and that whistling noise is more synonymous with Drum Brakes than discs.

Could be a case of your pads gone hard too (If the replacement was done much earlier) and asking for replacement? or if the Discs are now showing signs of ageing and needs replacement.

Anyway, get that cleaned once and see if the issue persists during your next drive.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Get the discs and pads checked for once and cleaned it too. That should mostly solve the problem.

Today morning I took the orange cheetah to nearby tyre and brakes shop. The front two tyres were removed, brake pads checked, cleaned and put back. A strong force of air flow was let go over entire brake assembly thereby throwing all the dust out. Before putting the brakes back in place, they were cleaned using sand paper too. Looks like the brake pads are about to be declared worn out. May be another 2-3 K Kms life at the max they will live for. This was also the case earlier - at around 21K or so, I had to change the brake pads. They made noise and during a visit to service at service station post 20K, I just changed them. For now, the 40K service will be due in another 2-3 weeks and that would be perfect timing to change brake pads too.

Disks seems to be ok, no issues. After cleanup, the noise has come down drastically. I rarely hear it. So at least Cheetah is ready for Kodaikanal trip tomorrow afternoon!

Ciao until next update!

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Looks like the brake pads are about to be declared worn out. May be another 2-3 K Kms life at the max they will live for. This was also the case earlier - at around 21K or so, I had to change the brake pads. They made noise and during a visit to service at service station post 20K, I just changed them. For now, the 40K service will be due in another 2-3 weeks and that would be perfect timing to change brake pads too.

Thats how long they typically lasted for me as well. The service center also vetted the same fact and said that the design should've been better to make it last atleast 40k. Not sure about that though!

[abirnale]

^^^ Yes. that is true. A lot is dependent on how we drive too. I have met with people who claim their XUVs running on the same set of brake pads for almost upto 30K kms. The general trend is - change brake pads every 20K Kms.

I had also inquired for Brembo pads if available for XUV. The search was hugely unsuccessful. If anyone has reliable info about Brembo pad availability for XUV, I would just follow the lead!

[sbala]

Originally Posted by abirnale

This was also the case earlier - at around 21K or so, I had to change the brake pads. They made noise and during a visit to service at service station post 20K, I just changed them. For now, the 40K service will be due in another 2-3 weeks and that would be perfect timing to change brake pads too.

Originally Posted by luvurride

Thats how long they typically lasted for me as well. The service center also vetted the same fact and said that the design should've been better to make it last atleast 40k. Not sure about that though!

During my 20k service last week, Sireesh Auto SA mentioned to me that brake pads may required to be changed. I asked him to let me know the mm left. Later in the evening, he called me and said the brake pads are fine. So, i didnt change this during 20k service. But will have to watch out for any noise.

Thanks Guys !!!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by abirnale

I had also inquired for Brembo pads if available for XUV. The search was hugely unsuccessful. If anyone has reliable info about Brembo pad availability for XUV, I would just follow the lead!

If I were you, I would stick to the stock pads till the Extended Warranty period.

I have seen cases where Brembos have been good to some and bad to others. Further, if your rotors are not in good shape, they can ruin a fresh set of pads and that warrants you to change rotors along with the Brembo pads too.

Unless you feel the braking is inefficient on a consistent basis and troubling you, stock pads are the best!

Regarding life - I say anything between 35-35K kms for an XUV is good life - For its weight and for its might.

Not at all relative, but when I ask about Ertiga too, the ASC says 30,000 only but I have had them last till 82,000 kms and its only due to driving.

[abirnale]

Trip to Kodaikanal

We have been to Ooty many times but never had opportunity to drive to Kodaikanal - the princess of hills. So this time when the question came to spend a weekend somewhere we haven't been so far, Kodaikanal topped the list. On Friday afternoon around 4.30pm we left from Bangalore and made it safe to our Hotel - Villa Retreat (adjacent to the Coaker's walk). Since the logistics was planned well-ahead of time, everything got executed to the exact precision.

The hotel staff was super helpful to keep everything ready. It was only 5 minutes affair to check-in. They made sure that after a long drive (reached hotel by 11.45pm), we hit the bed without any further delays. A good night's sleep is very important - next day (Saturday) we were up by 6 am, well rested! ready to feast on the breakfast and take up the local sightseeing trip! We had decided to hire a taxi to take us to places on Saturday. It was a great decision. No worries of parking, directions, places! Just told the driver what are our priority places and he made sure that by 3pm we were done with all the important places leaving us rest of the day to boat/ roam in park!

A nice dinner with our very own fire place lit up, good sooting music in the room and kids not throwing any tantrums, we felt everything working just perfect for us.

On Sunday morning, we woke up late, ate our breakfast and went for another walk on Coaker's walk. We loved the place very much! A late morning departure from hotel, we took stops at few more places including the national history museum in Shenbagnaur. Kids loved it.

Our return rote was picked to be via Palani - Dharapuram and again getting back on NH7. The breathtaking scenery and relatively less traffic gave perfect start for the return journey.

Here are some pictures from the trip to rekindle memories -

















General Trivia

• The traffic in Salem in the evening is a mess especially due to the flyovers construction towards Namakkal.
• The traffic from Bangalore to Salem is average but must be careful for two wheelers plying on the road as well as across the road!
• Plenty of hotels and food options until 30 Kms beyond Salem.
• Roads were great through out expect the patch in Vattalagundu town.
• The return Palani Ghat Roads are super narrow but scenic. They are dangerous for night drive for sure if you are first time on this stretch.
• The climb via Kodai Ghat was awesome even if we did it at night, it was fun. No fear of driving this stretch at night - many vehicles we saw plying on this road even at 10-11.30 pm at night.

The odometer stands at this state today -



A good mileage drive over the weekend and Cheetah should go for 40K Kms servicing

The minor bits about Cheetah and its performance on this stretch -

• It did perform as expected, no tantrums whatsoever!
• The cornering lights/ Static bending lights were of huge help to take every corner on the ghat with confidence.
• The Kodai cold had an impact on the tyre air pressure. The spare tyre this time threw a warning of low air pressure! But when we descended the ghat and around afternoon on Sunday, this warning was nowhere seen. For sure Salem weather un-did the low air pressure
• Since the Ac was not used much on this trip, we almost finished the round trip on single tank. The mileage from tankful to tankful returned an average of 13 Kmpl including ghat ascends and NH7 highway run.
• The brakes were effective throughout the trip contrary to my perception. Noise kept coming but no safety threats were perceived.

Needless to state that Orange Cheetah has been treating us so well.

Ciao until next update!

[abirnale]

Lucky thing!

just when I needed a quick mileage run to reach 40K Kms on odo, an invite and perfect plan hatched up for me. On Saturday we went to witness APRC and INRC rally at Chikmaglur (CKM). In the coffee estate, APRC cars throwing around and drifting was fun to watch. of course our home champion Gaurav Gill was icing on the cake to see in Fabia.

The Special package was to see Super XUVs thrashing everything else in their category for INRC! Their launch from the start line was worth the watch. I have couple of videos that needs to be uploaded on youtube but for now, here are the pictures.

On the way to CKM, after Belur - we saw this beautiful flower farm -


How can we let go the chance to click our Orange XUV?


Catching up early morning at the start line on Sunday had its perk - got so close with APRC drivers and their cars - Orange Cheetah was happy seeing them -


And the eye-candy for the day were these Super XUVs -



The way these things launch at the start line and drift around the track can put some good sedans to shame -


And with all objectives finally achieved - here is Orange Cheetah at its yet another milestone -


Today morning dropped the car for servicing at Sireesh Auto, Singsandra. As usual, simple formalities and a small list of must do's handed over -

• Front Right Door Rattle and hinge adjustment
• Fog Lamp alignment/ adjustment
• AC Vents cleaning
• Pending Wash/ Span Coupon Utilisation
• 40 K kms servicing (Fluid Changes, Rear Brake pads, WA/WB, Tyre Rotation, Underbody check, Suspension bushes replacement, etc)

This time I let the car with Service Station for no-rush completion of the work - including proper cleaning and caring. Explicitly instructed the staff and my M&M friend who is GM to pay "special" attention to work

They were sure to give car to me today itself but I know it wont be easy - so will go and collect the car tomorrow!

Ciao until next update!

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by abirnale

They were sure to give car to me today itself but I know it wont be easy - so will go and collect the car tomorrow!

Both - rear and front brake pads needs to be changed. Spa coupon/ Wash treatment is not going to be complete today. So for first time, Orange Cheetah rests in service station for good.

The total estimated cost for this servicing is Rs. 12000/- change.

Tonight I will go home to take good night's sleep but not Cheetah