[tharian]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

I havent done it so far. Where is the shifter located? Is it required to remove the bumper?

The bumper doesn't have to removed. You need to pop your head below the front left side. I'll take a video tomorrow and post it as I couldn't find a good one online showing the location and joints.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

I havent done it so far. Where is the shifter located? Is it required to remove the bumper?

I managed to find the post which has the video that shows the gear linkages. Refer post 998 ;

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...review-67.html (Ford Aspire : Official Review)

It is easy once you locate it which is behind the left fog lamp. It is a box with a cover which is a clip on type. Once opened, grease the joints preferably with a grease spray.

[tharian]

Car is inching towards the 35k kms mark. Odo stands at 34,850 kms after a trip to Yercaud last week.

It was a total of 550 kms round trip including some nice winding roads after a while. Was able to get a fuel efficiency of 21 kmpl on the return which was for around 230 kms. The downhill section would have helped too, but most of the journey was kept to just above 2k rpm and I made sure I topped up once I reached Bangalore just to check the fuel efficiency on the highway.

When I was at Yercaud, the instrument cluster went dead after parking the car for couple of hours. I had left the GPS device and a phone plugged in through the 12v socket, which I have done few times earlier. Not sure if that was the reason, but when I returned, the instrument cluster lights, gauges and MID were dead although in the background, everything worked. The sad thing about this car compared to my previous car, the old gen Figo is that there is no spare fuse in the fuse box, neither a tweezer to remove a fuse which is not possible without some kind of tool.
I had a feeling it was the fuse since this had happened once before when my dashcam was hardwired to another fuse and the instrument cluster came back to life when I disconnected the dashcam. I didn't connect it thereatfer. This time there was nothing connected and I had no clue why it went dead suddenly or was it because of the 12v socket being in use while parked.

Anyway, I swapped the fuse with another 7.5A fuse which was for the power windows and it worked until I returned an hour later and it was dead again. This time I replaced it with a 5A fuse which I had for the dashcam hardwire, that was not in use. It is working till now without any issue. I will be visiting the service centre to get some fuses although they don't look fused and alsofix the correct fuse for the instrument cluster.

The car performed just like always on the highway and was able to put a Skoda Superb to shame this time.

[tharian]

December is that month of the year when I spend on my car and it has been the case most of the years.
I have been planning for a downpipe for a while now, but the costs along with having to do a Stage2 along with it, made me think twice and the main reason being that the brakes needs to be upgraded if I go that route and right now, I don't have the time for that. So decided all that for another day, when I get bored with the car, which I am not at the moment.

The car was quite dirty after a recent trip to Chennai and back, especially with the rains. I have been washing the car mostly with a pressure washer, but since I cannot set up the pressure washer easily now with a torn hose pipe end and with a Tennis Elbow that I have, decided to get a wash and polish done at 3M since I have never done that for this car. Decided to go for the pain sealant package with machine polishing using synthetic wax.

Dropped off the car around 3:30 on Saturday afternoon at the Indiranagar branch and was told 3 hours which finally was 5 hours. I didn't want to hurry them as I wanted the job to be 100% and this was the first time the car was getting a proper polishing. The swirl marks were increasing especially since I have been giving the car at a local service center the last few times who use the same worn cloth on the on multiple surfaces. I was there for most of time and must say they did a good job, to my satisfaction. It was a much needed TLC for the car and it looks better than what it was in the showroom when I took delivery. It was a complete package in which the engine bay, interiors, and glass area were cleaned specifically.

Overall satisfied with the work. The car has run 35900 kms.

Some before and after pictures.

[tharian]

The car has been not used much except for weekends which are usually short distances.
Last weekend saw a 1000 kms trip covering Velankanni and Pondy and back via Arcot. Car performed well most of the journey and a fuel up in between showed almost 20 kmpl. Not sure if it was the that fuel quality, although it was from a big bunk in Karaikal, towards the last 50-60 kms, the engine felt like it was not it's usual self especially with the roll-on figures. The usual power delivery is instant and the turbo spools up quickly which leads to good acceleration after every gear change.
I keep an old android phone connected to the OBD to keep a tab on the coolant temperature which was showing around 6-7c more than usual which is 80-81c.
Normally the temperature shoots up after a spirited drive of few minutes above the 3k rpm mark and drops to normal when back to cruising. Bu this time the temperature was always between 84-86c with AC and that is when the power felt to have reduced. Once I hit the city limits and turned off the AC , it dropped to 81c.
The oil is around 5.2k kms old and I will be getting it replaced this week and will check if the issue persists. Either there is an intake leak somewhere or the radiator/air filter is already clogged.

Apart from this the car was running fine and smooth till this point. Once the service is done, I will get to know if the issue is fixed.

[tharian]

Got the 5th year service done few days ago at 37k kms on the odo.

My only complaint was the reduced power as mentioned in my previous post. Before dropping off the car, I had tightened all the clamps on the intake plumbing. The service centre is around 7 kms away and on the way, it seemed like the power was back, but not 100% like before.
Asked the SA to check the radiator , fuel filter and coolant temperature sensor which I am quite sure they hadn't.
On the way back after the service, things seemed to be normal. However, I need to go for a longer drive to confirm.

The engine NVH is back to its smooth ways since the oil is fresh. This time I tried ABRO engine oil additive. Asked the SA to pour less 300ml engine so I can top up with this. Either ways the engine smoothness will last for around 2k kms or so with the semi-synthetic oil they use.
Decided to carry fully synthetic oil next time, which they allow to be poured at the A.S.S.
This was my first visit to the A.S.S after Ford moved out of the country and was happy to see the place filled with cars.

The bill came upto 5k. The only parts used was a glovebox bush and a reverse lamp and fuse.

In the midst of a concrete jungle which used to be a nice empty layout years ago.

[tharian]

Since I wasn't fully convinced that the power loss I was experiencing on a trip was fully fixed after the annual service, I decided to clean the MAF sensor and replace the air filter as well.
I had specifically asked the A.S.S to check if the air filter needs replacement and to replace even the fuel filter if required. I don't think any of it was even checked although they said it was cleaned.

Thankfully, I had stocked air filters directly from the A.S.S's parts depot in Peenya few years back which came handy. The existing air filter locked dirty, but not clogged.
I removed the MAF sensor and used some after shave and cleaned it as well. Hopefully it should help.

Also started using Indian Oil Addon-D from the last tankful. This must be the sixth different fuel additive I am trying out of which CetaneX and LM SpeedTec diesel were the best. My aim is to keep the NVH levels to how it was when the car was new. Car is nearing the 38k kms mark and idle NVH had increased a bit although cruising on a highway is still smooth at certain rpm ranges.

[tharian]

Took off on an impromptu drive being a holiday knowing traffic would be low on Eid. Worked out well as I got an enjoyable drive of around 350 kms on well paved Tamil Nadu state highways after a long time.

The route was Bangalore-Attibelle-Anchetty-Hogennakal-Pennagaram-Mecheri-Thoppur-Dharmapuri-Palacode-Rayakottai-Hosur-Bangalore. This a motorcycling road and is more enjoyable on a two wheeler up to Hogennakal and even up to Mecheri because of the numerous small ghats. I had done this route couple of times years ago my motorcycle and was planning to do it again on my Interceptor. For a change I thought why not take the car as traffic would be less and I haven't driven on a non-expressway road in a long time, alone. Being alone makes a difference as I need not worry about passengers in the car when I want some fun. This was more in the recent drives since my toddler daughter tends to throw up being in the car seat, even for a short drive. And so I was itching for some fun driving and headed out in the morning towards Hosur.

Traffic was lean being a holiday and the toll booths were not clogged as was the case last Saturday when I headed out on my Interceptor planning on doing this same route and ended up in Chennai instead. More on that on my Interceptor ownership thread.
I cut off at Attibelle and took the TVS factory road towards Anchetty. It had been few years and I had forgotten how this road was in terms of the curves and scenery. Traffic was low except for few cars and more of two wheelers. As soon as I hit the curves, I started taking them aggressively that the driver seat started making a clacking noise from the rail every time I took a turn too sharply. I realized after reaching Anchetty that I am not enjoying it mainly because the roads were narrow and I was carrying too much speed into the corners and all the time holding onto the steering if it wasn't for the seatbelts. From there on, I kept the speeds in check and had a much more enjoyable drive through the rest of the stretch with the feeling just right. There are plenty of small hills which have ghat sections one after the other all through this stretch and the roads are in good condition almost all the way.
Tamil Nadu inner roads are still beautiful with straight stretches of well paved surface with big shady trees on either side. The Mecheri-Thoppur road from memory was one such road that I remember from childhood as that was the route my dad used to take when we used to do long trips from Bangalore to Cochin. Before the expressways were built, most of the highways used to be the same.

After enjoying the twisties , of which there are quite a bit on this route, I got back to the plains at Mecheri, which is near Mettur, but headed towards the Salem-Bangalore highway. Stopped just before I hit the expressway for some lunch from a shack beside the road and continued my drive towards Dharmapuri which was around 25kms on the main highway. I could have headed back to Bangalore on the same highway which was quicker, but I was no mood to drive on a 4 lane highway with most of the cars in race mode after the long weekend and so I cut off at Dharmapuri back onto the state highway towards Palacode. There is a new 4 lane highway being built from the looks of it on this stretch up to Palacode, I am not sure if it begins at Dharmapuri, but for around 10-15kms , there are roadworks after which the roads are good all the way to Hosur. After driving on expressways all the time on a trip, these kind of roads are a welcome change although they are slower, but more fun to drive on. There are so many crests and dips and turns that it almost feels like a rally stage and you have do is keep a consistent and safe speed to have fun driving on these roads.

The car performed well with the power loss issue now gone after changing the air filter and cleaning the MAF sensor. Power delivery was just like how it was now with no overheating. As always, it was fun to put some bigger cars in place in the short stretch I did on the expressway.

Car has run 37,900 kms.

At Hogennakal, just before climbing the next hill.

Just before reaching Mecheri, a small ghat section but with racetrack type of wide roads.


Lovely Tamil Nadu state highways


If you are starving and not too bothered about a clean place or variety, these shacks are plenty on state highways in TN.

[tharian]

One highway not many would like to travel out of Bangalore is the Mysore highway, especially on a weekend.
I used to frequent this road often until few years ago to head to Calicut and before that I rode often since my motorcycle mechanic was in Mysore. It was only last October when I did a ride to Mysore that I realized that it was being 6 laned with lots of deviations on the way. On the bike, with no stops it took me 3 full hours which wasn't the case on a two wheeler even during weekend traffic.

Last weekend, I had to attend a wedding in Mysore and ended up leaving on Saturday morning. As we had to use two cars, my sister was driving her MG ZS and we had no other option but to take the Mysore road itself. If it was me alone, I would have gone via Kanakapura.
The onward journey took 4.5 hours with a 30 minutes halt at a Coffee Day nearing Mysore. Surprisingly, this was the first time I noticed that outlet. There were quite a lot of deviations due to the 6 laning work and there were couple of jams on the way, but apart from those, it was just heavy density all the way. But the roads were well paved even with the road works.
Since the roads don't let you speed and also since I was driving along with another car, most of the time the speeds were below 100 kmh except for few bursts here and there. I had a full tank before leaving and after reaching Mysore, the fuel gauge needle had just dropped a bit below the Full mark after 155 kms.

On the return which was on Monday morning, traffic was much better, even after entering Bangalore, it wasn't too bad. There was heavy rains while leaving Mysore in the morning all the way to Mandya. Since some sections of the 6 lane were open, it was not too bad in terms of roads flooding.

It took around 4 hours on the return of which one hour was in the city. Car had no issues and was running fine. On an open stretch of the 6 lane, I opened up for a short stretch and there was no lag or overheating like in the earlier trip. Looks like cleaning the MAF sensor and replacing the air filter did the trick.

Car hit the 38k kms mark on the trip and is now at 38,000 kms.


Taking a break with a Lexus and a MG for company.

[tharian]

Nothing much to report since the car is seeing less running. This has caused an old issue of rat entering the engine bay to return. Especially with the rains and since the car is not used daily, they find it a safe haven. I have been lucky so far that no damage has been done and so to be on the safe side, I picked up this and used it liberally.
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B08PL84WJ5?...S0MC14DEJC09E5

I have used the 3M spray before and it is similar and should last couple of months at least. Except in this case I didn’t coat the full bay like 3M did, but only on wires and pipes.

In the last tankful, Used a LM diesel purge as well since that is something which I was waiting for the car to cross at least 35k kms to do. The engine is smooth as always. The tyres are due for replacement since it is 5 years, but run less than 40k kms. The tyre noise is present only on rough asphalt and the grip is not reduced either. The wearing is not bad, so I thought I’ll for some more kms and then replace.

Car has run 38,600 kms.

[tharian]

Done with another Chennai trip which the car did in one full tank including 70kms in city there.
This was the first time I drove the car till the needle was at the last mark on the guage. Topped up after I returned home and it drank 40 litres with an over all fuel efficiency of 20kmpl. This was also the first time that I drove the whole journey below 100 kmh except once or twice where I crossed it for few seconds. Otherwise I kept it at 90-100 kmh. If not for traffic jams and the city driving, I am quite sure I would have got 20kmpl plus.
Onward, I took the Krishnagiri route and left early morning and was averaging 75 kmph till nearing Chennai with the average kmpl showing 30 kmpl.
The car performed well as always except like everytime, there was some roughness to the engine after the onward journey.
Not sure if it was the clutch, but in stop go traffic I felt the engine braking was quite strong in first gear especially soon after letting go of the clutch and trying to crawl. The clutch switch on these cars also adds to the annoyance and I had to drive on half clutch to smoothen things out.
The tyres have become super noisy especially on rough surfaces as it has run 40k kms now.
I am planning to change them sometime next year after running them for some more.
I moved to Indian Oil xtragreen finally and the whole trip was on a tankful of the same. I am planning to continue with the same as I don't have to add additives everytime and it seems to be good as well as it was quite similar to when I use CetaneX.

Odo stands at 39,850 kms.

[tharian]

Replaced the headlamp bulbs to that of a yellow tinged set. The previous ones were quite old and from a 2005 Swift spare set . Prior to that, I was running the Philips Xtreme vision bulbs and once I got the reflector replaced under warranty because of the known issue of the burn mark around the bulb, I went back to the stock bulbs. These yellow ones are stock rating as well, and was on my Interceptor on which I replaced them to a LED one. So I decided to go for full yellow on the car since I had a set of two and the foglamps are yellow tinged bulbs too.
No much difference in terms of brightness or illumination, but different.

After a good wash ;

The yellow is not prominent on both the fog and headlamps.

[tharian]

After fitting the yellow tinged bulbs, I had to do a night drive from Whitefield back home in peak traffic and realized they as are good as a 40w bulb at home.

I had some H4 bulbs lying around of different makes, but all 60/55w. I still regret not removing the Philips Xtreme Vision Plus from my dads Swift before we sold it. That was genuinely the only 60/55w bulbs that were brighter than stock. So I replaced the yellow ones with a OSRAM set that I had which worked out brighter than the previous set I had before the yellow bulbs. I have around ten H4 bulbs lying around and have no idea how I ended up with so many. After fitting the bulbs and checking it against a wall in the front I realized the alignment was different between the left and right ones and also realized only the left headlamp motor was working for the headlamp leveling. Now the right side is around 6 inches higher than the left when parked facing a wall and gets more apart on the road. I didn't notice the difference earlier and neither realized the headlamp leveler on the right side did not work, but now I think it was probably damaged and the headlamp not fitted properly when I got the headlamps replaced few years ago under warranty for the reflector burning issue.

The rear view camera quit working all of a sudden as well which I need to get fixed along with the headlamp for the next service which I am planning at Engineering Exponant.

Car has hit 40,000 kms.

[vivekgk]

Originally Posted by tharian

After fitting the yellow tinged bulbs, I had to do a night drive from Whitefield back home in peak traffic and realized they as are good as a 40w bulb at home.

I had some H4 bulbs lying around of different makes, but all 60/55w. I still regret not removing the Philips Xtreme Vision Plus from my dads Swift before we sold it. That was genuinely the only 60/55w bulbs that were brighter than stock.....Car has hit 40,000 kms.

Having experienced the stock headlamps in a Ford Ecosport, I can empathize. Like many manufacturers, Ford cheaped out on the headlamp design by going with the least they could get away with. The main issue with a single bulb design like the H4 is that the maximum light that you can have is limited to 60W in stock condition, as only one filament is active at a time. In a dual barrel design, even with only reflector elements like the Brezza, you get either a 55W low beam or a 55+60W low+high beam. The old Figo had the same issue with weak headlamps as well.

If you decide to go with Xtremevision or Nighbreaker series halogens, you sacrifice heavily on reliability and life. If you decide to go with an upgraded wiring kit and ceramic holders and replace the stock bulbs with 100/90, you fry the reflectors very soon, especially if you have long night drives.

I have been a early adopter for replacement LED bulbs, and the newer versions really do offer really good lighting and focus, along with good life. I have had passively and actively (fan) cooled models,and the actively cooled lasted about twice as much. Prices for the branded ones are now coming down and you can get OSRAM and Philips branded H4 LED bulbs for less than what you would have paid for a no-name chinese bulb a couple of years ago. You can also get them in lower temperature rating like 3000K for use in fog lamps. I have tried and found that 4300K gives the same color as an Xtremevision or Nightbreaker bulb, while 5000K-5500K gives pure white, non-bluish light that illuminates well, and is usable in rain too.

Of course, as the Aspire has round fog lamps, you can replace them with projector foglamps with a solenoid for low/high beam, like the IPHcar. They improve the lighting massively when you couple them with HIDs.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by vivekgk

You can also get them in lower temperature rating like 3000K for use in fog lamps. I have tried and found that 4300K gives the same color as an Xtremevision or Nightbreaker bulb, while 5000K-5500K gives pure white, non-bluish light that illuminates well, and is usable in rain too.

Of course, as the Aspire has round fog lamps, you can replace them with projector foglamps with a solenoid for low/high beam, like the IPHcar. They improve the lighting massively when you couple them with HIDs.

Thanks for the input.

I thought of moving to LEDs on the Aspire, but since my night driving is hardly anything and mostly in city, I decided not to. It is just once or twice a year when I decide to leave before sunrise for a trip, that I feel I need brighter lights.
I had the old gen Figo and the lights on the Aspire are better. I had 90/100 on that car along with aux lamps which had 100w bulbs in them since back then I used to work in shifts and needed powerful lights especially to drive with those cabbies that has blinding lights.
With the Aspire, I didn't try anything in regards to headlamps until now and I don't want to go for LED's yet till I fix the focus on the headlamps which is off. I tried adjusting it and made it worse. Maybe I will think about it after that. Also will the reflector get damaged with LED's?
I have a 6k LED H4 bulb on my Interceptor and know how much more better it is.

The fog lamps on my car double up as DRL since it is programmed to be always on and turns off only when I switch on the park lamp or headlamps. Not that it is not reversible, but I like it that way.