[Vulken Auto]

Originally Posted by kutts

SA did not find any rat or electrical issue. Vehicle is always parked on level ground.

This is a slant ground, the tilt cant be seen with naked eye.

[kutts]

Originally Posted by Vulken Auto

This is a slant ground, the tilt cant be seen with naked eye.

Agreed. There will definitely be a slight slant for water drainage of the parking lot. But then it would be a daily issue for all and not random one like i face.

[Vulken Auto]

Originally Posted by kutts

Agreed. There will definitely be a slight slant for water drainage of the parking lot. But then it would be a daily issue for all and not random one like i face.

Simple solution is try to park the vehicle at some other place over night. This happened to me twice in a year of ownership and my car runs brand new.

[Anupam]

Very nice share, I am in 13th year with my 2005 G3

Crysta is a beauty and a huge temptation but despite the 13 years, my 2005 Innova is going as strong as Milind Soman

There is just one point that you may want to confirm...I hear from my driver's in the office who have been driving the office crysta for a while now that the seat does give some fatigue unlike the Innova

My personal feel is, the green house effect was more in Innova, but that also seems to be the trend for cars of all brands

[sridhu]

Originally Posted by Anupam

Very nice share, I am in 13th year with my 2005 G3

Crysta is a beauty and a huge temptation but despite the 13 years, my 2005 Innova is going as strong as Milind Soman

There is just one point that you may want to confirm...I hear from my driver's in the office who have been driving the office crysta for a while now that the seat does give some fatigue unlike the Innova

My personal feel is, the green house effect was more in Innova, but that also seems to be the trend for cars of all brands

Keep going!

I don't think that the seats are worse. In fact
I would rate them as slightly better than the old Innova.

I think that your driver is just getting old!



BTW, you do realise that you have to get a road worthiness certificate for your cat after 15 years, right?

[CrippledLucifer]

Originally Posted by Anupam

There is just one point that you may want to confirm...I hear from my driver's in the office who have been driving the office crysta for a while now that the seat does give some fatigue unlike the Innova

For what it's worth, I drove our Crysta for around ten hours not including a one hour restroom break and didn't feel at all fatigued or tired at the end of it. I say this as someone who primarily drives overseas where the roads are far less congested and therefore less stressful. The Crysta is a very comfortable drivers car, moreover so with the AT. It chews up the kilometers and spits them back out with minimal effort. Perhaps Sridhu is right, your company driver may be getting old!

Personally, I can't comment on the driving dynamics of the previous generation Innova as I haven't had the chance to drive one. From a passengers perspective however, I felt the Crysta was just slightly more comfortable from the previous gen which was already comfortable enough. My aging grandmother with a back problem had zero qualms when it came to the comfort of the captain seats. It really says a lot when it comes to this car.

[Anupam]

Yes Sridhu, post 15 I will have to get into all the logistics, even more I have a DL registered car and I live in Pune. Will deal with all that when the time comes. My intention seems to be building up on keeping this car till it's breaking point and just add the crysta when the time comes.

Originally Posted by CrippledLucifer

For what it's worth

Thanks, I suppose so.

Btw, it would be interesting to share that in last few years I have rarely visited t-bhp, and when I did it was mostly through the app. (I find app very limited/constrained)

2 days back this thread appeared appeared in "my google" highlights / dashboard which drew me here.

Originally Posted by VEA

Its a driver driven personal car. It does a lot of long trips and is in use all days of the week. 45 to 50k is his usual annual usage.

Wow!!!!, I have done 1,65,000km in 13 years ��

Originally Posted by Vicki_Rau

Hiya again Sridhu,

Keep checking for the black smoke while driving. Had this problem when I took possession of my Innova V, all those years ago. It got so bad that once when I gunned the engine (to around 3k rpm), I couldn't see the vehicles behind. Toyota initially stated that there was no problem, since it didn't happen at the dealers. In fact thats how I got to know about Team BHP, when I went home that evening and googled(in those days Yahood I suppose).


Went back to the dealer and created a ruckus. They told me to come back the next week and I think there was a senior engineer from Toyota standing there. Was informed that it was an engine ECU problem and would be fixed and Catalyctic Convertor changed under warranty. Problem was solved. BTW I used only Shell diesel for many years (till my br-in-law, who was in marketing in IOC, told me that Shell sources its diesel from Mangalore refinery & I was a mug to pay the extra amount.) Read somewhere in the FORUM that the Toyota dealers are asking Crysta owners not to use Shell Don't know if this post will be of any help.

Cheers.

Mine is from the early lot of 2005, and had developed the smoking problem too.

This was swiftly sorted out by the local dealer through ECU tweak, also I was told that they had sent a notification to all owners from 2005 to bring in the car for ECU reset.

It seems that the car was following the global standard since launch and fuel mix was not customized for Indian purity level and when the started noting this issue from almost all owners they tweaked and send the new code to all service center and to be included in the next service of this batch.

Which year is your car.

[sridhu]

Couple of updates folks:

- Excessive Engine Noise issue: The car had excessive engine noise at idle and sounded very strained. The issue persisted after the engine warmed up and even after a change of oil (synthetic).

I had it checked at the dealer with a decibel meter and it showed up 3-4 dB higher than other cars at service. So, I sent the car for check-up with TKM after it had run 2k km after the service. The manager arranged for TKM folks to be present. It was also agreed that the soft recall on wiring harness will also be done at that time.
THe car came back with a note saying it was fine & the recall was done. (Sorry, lost the work order copy). I was not charged anything for it.

In the spirit of experimenting, I tried switching off the eco-mode (I keep it on all the time in the city) and driving. There was a noticeable improvement in the sound - it became quite smooth sounding. I did not see any major change in mileage - still gives around 10.5-11 kmpl in the city. (Tankful to tankful method. Have averaged over 3 tank fulls, about 120 lts). So, have decided to keep it in normal mode.

The SA was telling that eco-mode is for highway use and it is advised that we use only normal mode, well, normally. Does not sound right. The Crysta Manual says (pp 184) says "Use Eco mode to help achieve low fuel consumption during trips that involve frequent accelerating". That sounds like a description of city driving to me. Make your own call. I am staying with "Normal".

In summary, I am not satisfied with the resolution but have decided to drop the issue.

- Could not get Methods / Thule to give me a footer and could not convince myself that the old Innova footings are safe enough.

So decided to bite the bullet and go for the Toyota OEM Roof Rails (no basket) as I am sure the fitment & safety will not be compromised.

Accordingly, shelled out 13k for the roof rail.

Features

• It is extremely well made
• Comes with a torque limited allen wrench to tighten the bolts.
• A bit fat but otherwise very nice.
• The front/ back rail & the right/ left positions are marked very well.
• There is a nice rubber strip on top to prevent rattling.
• There is also a plastic retainer clip to ensure that the bolt does not spin out in use (at least according to the guy installing it).
• There is also a requirement to tighten the bolts every 1000 km. (I think that is just a CYA requirement)
• The rated load capacity is 60kg.

I think there might be wind noise without the Thule box. Will update if this is true.

My Thule box fits fairly comfortably and securely on these rails.

Image of the rail on the car:


Learning today: There is a very small indent on the door sill showing where to situate the footing. This is where the clip will rest on the sill and the door will close on it. It was not visible to my naked eye but one can clearly feel it when running one's fingers on the sill.

If you cant feel it, dont worry! It is mounted 25 cm from the top of the windshield and 76.5 cm between the front & back.

Conclusion:

I think it is a reasonable accoutrement and since my car is silver, looks quite good too. I think I will take it off after use, though - bound to accumulate dirt and scratch the paint.

- The rear wiper is sagging & is quite loose. Looks like becoming loose is a normal thing (3 out of 3 cars in service were loose. A new car wiper was not!). They tightened it. Let us see how it goes.

[sridhu]

In case some one wants images of the roof rack. (Taken on phone)

Close up of the rack:



A feel for the width of the bar. Note the rubber strip:


Retainer clip:


The torque limited Allen bolt wrench:


Standard warnings:


Labelling & markings:

[sridhu]

45,000 Service Update
Issues:

- Steering feels heavy
- coolant level
- check air filter, ac filter
- noise on acceleration
- rear wiper level
- check rear brake wear
- the windshield boot has come up

Service Cost: 3948

Work That Was Done:
- Topped up all fluids including the power steering fluid & coolant. No real answer to why the levels were low in the first place.
- The steering heaviness seems to have gone
- They did a decarbonization for about 2100. Claimed that Toyota has added this step @ 45k intervals as a lot of customers complained about drop in power & noise (THe latter is true in my case). Seems more refined but that could be the wallet effect.
- Leveled the rear wiper
- Brake wear: The front is at 4.5mm & rear, strangely, the SA said is 3.5 mm. At 40k, it was 2.5mm! Let it go
- They have stuck the windshield boot back but not sure if it is a permanent fix.
- Since the car is very noisy in the ECO mode, have started using NORMAL mode only. Seems to be OK - not seeing any great drop in mileage in Bangalore city driving. Noise is certainly lower. With the decarb, should be better. Will keep you folks posted.
- As I suspected, there was a fair amount of wind noise with the roof rails. So removed them and stowed them in the Thule box. This, despite my son's opinion that "Keep the rails. It is easier to spot the car!"

The Bill:


Accessories: Added the luggage carrier basket. Review & pictures in the previous post

The other cumulative numbers are below:
Cumulative Costs


The ICE KMPL from 40k showed as 11.7 kmpl.

Costs per period

[sridhu]

Quick update:

The battery in one key remote failed today. The good thing is that there is a message on the dash that alerts you to this. Since I religiously swap keys after 10k, it basically seems to last only about 15-18 months of regular use.

The old battery shows about 2.73 volts + so I think it would have lasted another 3-4 months but I am slightly anal and since so many things are dependent on the remote thought it prudent to change it


The replacement is fairly easy. The remote takes CR 2032 batteries. The process does not require any tools

[dean5545]

Originally Posted by sridhu

45,000 Service Update

- Brake wear: The front is at 4.5mm & rear, strangely, the SA said is 3.5 mm. At 40k, it was 2.5mm! Let it go

What a coincidence!
I had given my Fortuner for 45k Km service the other day, I felt the brakes had lost their bite so asked them to check it. They said I still have 5mm thickness left. At 40k Km service I distinctively remember the service guys telling me the thickness 3mm front and 4mm rear!
I saw them checking the thickness myself, it is not done very accurately for sure. They should take 3 readings at least and then reconfirm.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by sridhu

45,000 Service Update

Service Cost: 3948

Thanks for sharing the 45K service details sridhu. The service cost that you have mentioned above is all for labor and your parts cost shows "zero". Have you purchased any kind of service package through which the part costs are taken care of? If not for this, how much would the parts have costed?

[sridhu]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Thanks for sharing the 45K service details sridhu. The service cost that you have mentioned above is all for labor and your parts cost shows "zero". Have you purchased any kind of service package through which the part costs are taken care of? If not for this, how much would the parts have costed?

No package was purchased. No parts were changed.

AFAIK all 5k services don't have any real work. Meant for Cross selling only!

[kritikesh]

Originally Posted by sridhu

45,000 Service Update

- Brake wear: The front is at 4.5mm & rear, strangely, the SA said is 3.5 mm. At 40k, it was 2.5mm! Let it go

Hi could you advice which app you are currently using track the expenses.