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-   -   The First Grand Vitara on Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/30922-first-grand-vitara-team-bhp-87.html)

^^ Get a 95D26L Amaron 65Ah. This is the battery for the diesel Innova and fits perfect in the battery bay; cheaper and 20Ah more than the GV stock battery.

I've been using one since March 2015.

I was searching for options to equip the radio with Bluetooth, Aux, USB etc. For bluetooth i brought a simple Bluetooth FM transmitter but the sound quality was poor with constant hissing sound. It was a waste of money.

Discussion over other forums revealed that provision for AUX-In is available in stock radio. Soon the cable was located on alixpress.

AUX Cable
The quality of cable is good.

Ordered these trim removal tools. Even at such low rates the tools are good quality.
Trim tools


The cable goes into a port at rear of the Head Unit. The radio has to be removed from dash to access the rear port. Removing the radio is a very simple task. Just pry the silver colored plastic trim right at the edge, near Gear shifter and they come out easily.

Open these 3 screws on left and right side.



The Radio and AC control unit comes out together.



Insert the AUX cable on the port at bottom left side and route the cable in space behind the radio such that it comes out from passenger side foot well.

The radio from Calrion. Wonder what tech from Microsoft goes into this basic device.


Power up the radio and it does a system check.


Press CD button on radio and "AUX" appears on the display.


This is it, simple plug n play.

Surprisingly the speakers were only producing distorted output on FM, while on AUX they sound like new. Couldn't figure out the reason for this. May be it has got something to do with the way signals are processed by the Head Unit.

Thanks will check this also, but do you have any idea what is the OE spec? 45-55-65?? AH??

Innova battery - only thing I was not happy with is the 3 year warranty cover, but yes it has higher cranking power. As far as Amaron and my luck goes, battery would conk at exactly one day after warranty cover :D

I have been using 65AH since 2010. You will need a throttle body re-calibration right after replacing the battery.

Yup saw that mentioned in your earlier posts.

But I wanted to know what was the OE specs are? The other GV I know has 55 AH battery, again a replacement battery. The online sites show 45 AH as the right fit, and battery wale which is Amaron's direct sales, is not allowing me to order any other model lol.

Hence checking, not sure if owners manual has a mention? If so I can check once I get back home, was in a hurry so jumped onto the bike and got to office.

It is 45Ah ; 55B24LS is the battery model under Amaron. This one is 30+30 months. So as per your date with Amaron , you'll have a problem only on 60 months and one day, by when you'd have parted with the GV:D

Alrite so Amaron guys are right then, and hopefully this car will be a keeper till then :)

Ill go home and order so that I can get it installed tomorrow, don't mind the higher AH since it would be useful for a low mileage use.

I have been unpardonably lazy....
My Apologies.
I am posting a full update regarding the repairs to my CV boots.

I had posted regarding my torn CV join boots here:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...ml#post4411884

And my jugaad repairs here:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...ml#post4413475

I got the parts ordered form Partsouq

Grease

Clamps and circlips

Inner Boot

Outer Boot



A view of the driveshaft assembly with my jugaaad repairs.


The drive shaft dismantled


After thorough cleaning, the CV joints were filled with fresh grease. During trial fitment of the new boots we found that the outer boot was loose on both the driveshaft and bearing housing.
So I promptly got out my trusted silicon tape and Fevikwik. We cleaned the required areas with isopropyl alcohol and wound in the silicon tape with liberal application of Fevikwik.


Then the boot was inserted and crimped into place


To be doubly sure I applied silicon sealant to ensure that the boots have a firm restraint.



(The system is not allowing me to upload any more pictures in this thread. So please see part 2 that follows)

Both the boots replaced


A view of the torn inner boot


Views of the torn outer boot


It has been almost 4 months and 2300+ kms since I did these repairs. They have held up well.

The OE outer rubber boot has dimensions of 78.5mmID x 22.8mmID x 111mm length (approximate).
The Febest boot has dimensions of 82x25.5x105. That is why it was loose on the diameters. I found that the difference of 6mm in length did not make any difference.

One major point that struck me after going through this procedure was as follows:
Suzuki wants you to buy a complete half shaft assembly if you want to replace the outer boot. But to install the half shaft assembly you have to remove the whole driveshaft and dismantle the inner (diff side) bearing assembly. While doing so there is a very high probability that the inner boot will get torn. This is because it is virtually impossible to remove the crimping band without nicking the boot. So it may be advisable to order the inner boot as a backup.
Or go in for the jugaaad route, like I did, and save a lot of money.:D

Surprise surprise, the owners manual prescribes the same for AT cars and for extreme cold climates. So its a perfect match if you are looking for an upgrade to the AH capacity. Purchased the same for 49x0 INR, since the old battery was the smaller capacity paid another 250 while installing. Got it through Batterywale. The site was listing the OE 45 amp one and finally gave the exact part number (upgraded capacity) over WhatsApp support to place the order.

Downside - being diesel spec the warranty is only for 18+18 months prorate replacement. Now she is purring back to normal.

Did not need to do this, everything is working fine. Did about 30 kms since the replacement without any issue.

Last to last weekend GV meet at Damdama Lake Gurgaon.. GVs in Photo - top to bottom - prateekswarup, Vivek, Amit (Styler) and Rajiv.

Lovely simple breakfast and great catch up!

Hi all,

Yesterday I ran into a big problem and my Grand Vitara is stuck at the workshop right now.

Finally after bearing with it for 18 months since I bought my Grand Vitara yesterday I took it to get the Power Steering oil leakage checked by my local mechanics.

Right from the time I got the Grand Vitara 2.0 in May 2017 the Power Steering oil was not dripping but you can see the PS rack dirty with oil stuck. First we wanted to rule out external leaks before going in for a rack overhaul. I had bought the Power Steering overhaul kit (Oil seals and rings) some months back in US and we were thinking of using this for the overhaul of the rack.

My mechanics cleaned everything with diesel and then started looking for any leakage. After turning on and moving the steering vigorously a few times they could see a tiny trace of oil on one of the pipe nuts on the rack. They opened it and fixed it properly.

In the meantime they felt the oil was dirty and so they opened the bottle and completely drained the dirty oil.

When everything was fitted back and fresh oil put in we went for a test drive. The steering was hard. Tried a few things but the problem did not get resolved. Finally it seems something has gone wrong with the Power Steering Pump. Today they removed the Power Steering Pump, and tomorrow they will take the pump to Palika Bhawan to get it checked.

Surprisingly we did nothing but drained the old oil and put in fresh oil. Anybody has had an experience like this? Any ideas ?


Styler

Steering oil replacement generally requires bleeding the air out from system. It is usually done by turning the steering left to right lock to lock while the engine is started. The return pipe is kept open and fresh steering oil is topped up in the reservoir till no air bubbles are seen coming out of the return pipe.

I hope this procedure is same for Vitara as well since its the same for most power steering systems with pump.

If air is left in the system the steering pump cannot generate enough pressure and steering becomes very hard and also makes a graoning sound when in full lock.

Please get the system bled for air, it seems the air was not completely bled from the system.

Hello,

Here is the update about the Power Steering going hard after oil drain and re-fill.

GV is back, up and running as before. The Power Steering had gone hard as the Power steering pump had stopped building pressure as dirt went into it while flushing the oil. The pump was removed and serviced in Palika Bhawan and installed back. It is a long process to remove and fit back the pump as a lot of things need to be removed including the Alternator. Finally it is all done :)

Haven’t touched the Power steering rack yet. Just refitted the pipe from where the minuscule oil leak was suspected. We will monitor to look for leaks in the coming days. If it persists then we will look at overhauling the Steering Rack.

Styler

Radiator cap on my Grand Vitara failed yesterday when I was opening it for a routine check.

Checked that the cap is a common part across all current Marutis ; rushed to the MGP distributor and got the part before their closing time of 6pm.

The replacement part is 17920M75F00.Cost is Rs.264.

Those who have 10 year old GVs - please keep a spare handy.

Here is a pic of the failed part.