No news is good news.
Elantra is doing city runs now, have not gone for any out station trips in a long time. This does not mean car is not running, last March to May we did about 5K in Kerala alone. Car is doing local runs without any complaints, which is a good thing. I did notice that starting takes more cranks than usual, which is understandable. Old diesels need to run pretty much every day, battery must not be getting enough charge. I use the car whenever I am in Kerala or it is my brother who uses it once in a while.
It was time for yearly service, had to change engine oil and filters. Went to Hyundai service at my town, they were like, "We need to order the parts." They don't even have air filter in stock. I don't know what to say to all these things. Got all the filters and oil from genuine parts outlet, went to a good independent garage and did the service. Labour charge was 600. Engine oil, air filter, oil filter, diesel filter was around 5K, so in total it was not even 6K to do the normal service. For these older cars this is the best way to do it I think, when ASS see these old D segment cars, all they see is cash bundle is rolling in, they just take you for a ride. Last refuel, added Abro diesel injector cleaner, I don't use diesel addictives very often, I am not sure if it will actually clean injectors, but will be doing some type of cleaning, I guess.
In 2017, AC was having some leak and car was serviced at Trident Hyundai, Domlur. While picking up the car I especially asked the advisor if cabin filter is installed and he replied "Yes." I did not think much of it then, and cabin filter area is not easily accessible in this model Elantra.
I was thinking it is time to change cabin filter too, Hyundai charges a moderate 3K for paper cabin filter. Parts for older models are ridiculously priced, no wonder people are unable to maintain these vehicles. Four years back when I need to replace MAF sensor Hyundai wanted 13K, I sourced it from Singapore for 1.5K, while checking for some parts in Boodmo, I just checked what's the price for MAF now and it is an eye watering 23K! Have they gone mad? There are other items like this and I can go on forever.
Coming back to the topic, I got cabin filter from Amazon, I usually do the installation myself and opened the case and I was shocked to see there was no cabin filter in my car. So when the work is done back in 2017, they did no install the cabin filter and the advisor either did not know or he just lied to my face saying they installed the cabin filter. So two years of dust, pollen, smog and mold spores deposited in cooling coil and nothing can be done about it. So next time the service advisor tells you, "Yes, we did it," you better make sure it is done.
After installing cabin filter I could feel the difference in cooling, in a good way. There is absolutely no dip in blower speed, which is again a good thing. Dusty country like ours, cabin filter must be changed every year. When I bought the car, it did not come with cabin filter, I did not know about cabin filters back then, when I had first cooling coil issue, they had to remove the dash to replace it and it is after that I got to know about cabin filter in Elantra and it was missing from the car. Since then I made sure I change cabin filter every 10K. I overlooked for a second and it went missing again.
Good news is, Elantra is running just fine, suspension is little weak, I don't think I am doing any suspension work this year due to minimal usage. May be next year. My dad was complaining that he got a bill of 5K for a normal service for his two year old Datsun Redi Go, more interestingly car has done only 4000km so far, there were no repair other than routine service.
One question I have is, how often we need to do engine flush ? Decarbonization was done 20K before, but I noticed in previous service bills, they charged some 500 bucks for engine flush. Is this necessary at every service?
Some pictures...
New Cabin Filter
New Air Filter
Old Air Filter
Injector Cleaner
Glove box, marked clips and retractor needs to be removed
Clips after removal
Retractor
Crossbar protecting the case
After removal
Filter case
Case after removal
Filter in
Instruction given about cabin filter cleaning
New addition to the family, Jawa
I even forgot we had booked this one year back