[humyum]

Got a call from Sai Service Andheri yesterday afternoon, asked me to get the car over and they ll check for the hard clutch.

Had complained to maruti too regarding this and that really helped.

A faulty pressure plate was diagonised and will be replaced FOC!

Kudos to maruti for putting pressure on sai service. I had complained about this before and the only reply i have got was its 'normal'

Now with pressure from maruti, they had to acknowledge the problem and get it rectified!

[Jaggu]

So how does the clutch "feel? now Happy DDISing!

[humyum]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

So how does the clutch "feel? now Happy DDISing!

Ek dum makkhan malai types. Hope it lasts this way! Thanks for all the help Jaggu da!

[humyum]

Car has done 14 thousand km till now in around 6 months and some days A trip to Murud, Janjira and Kashid yesterday made it reach this number !

The car has done trips to Goa, Mahabaleshwar 4 times and Lonvala almost every Sunday,

Except for the clutch fiasco and gearshifting being hard which eventually got sorted out, everything is perfect.

Build quality i would say good, have not got a single rattle till now *touchwood*

Gearshifting is very precise, It needs to go where it needs to go. No 19/20 here.

Mileage has been 15 to 16 in city with 100% AC. Pedal to metal many a times

Highway mileage hovers around 18 to 19, this too is at speeds of 120 + speeds most of the times

Overall i am happy, Steering though feels a little tight, planning to get this sorted during the 15 thousand km service.

[humyum]

Car was done with the 15 thousand service at Vitesse
Change to Mobil Delvac MX.
Alignment Done along with damper settings as the steering damper was making a noise after which the steering has become butter smooth with brilliant feedback

The brakes seemed a little weak so the front and rear brakes were cleaned and the brake calliper greased

The Air Filter was replaced at my insistance as it had its foam and material inside comming out from some places.

All the nuts, bolts, suspension was tightened and the end of it the car seemed even better than it came out of the showroom.

The brakes seemed even weaker after they cleaned it, but i thought he must have interchanged the brake pads and hence they needed to bed in so i let it be and waited for sometime.

After 500 km of running the car in city and on a trip to lonvala i observed that there was a grrrrr grrrrrrrr grrrrr sound comming from the booster when the brake pedal was released and the brake pedal required more effort than usual which got on to my nerves when the car had its load of 4 passengers.

I took it back to vitesse today morning and they acknowledged the sound and said that they had never heard something like this ever before and kept the car for further checking, called them in the evening to know the progress and they were installing a new brake booster is the last information i got.

Tomorrow is the delivery date for the car, hopefully everything should be fine.

The car felt so tight and smooth on the expressway with all the vibrations, harshness arrested after the service.

This truely feels like a Swift DDIS.

PS: On the Lonavala Expressway ghats, the car with its oil change and a new air filter the boost from the turbo was sooo addictive and brilliant that i had a hard time keeping that grin of my face, 2nd gear wooosh,3rd gear wooosh and it kept on an an on an on with the momentum.

[amit]

Originally Posted by humyum

All the nuts, bolts, suspension was tightened

What exactly did you ask them to do? My SX4 is going for it's 40K service tomorrow to S.K.Maruti and it needs the same treatment!

[humyum]

Originally Posted by amit

What exactly did you ask them to do? My SX4 is going for it's 40K service tomorrow to S.K.Maruti and it needs the same treatment!

Sorry for the late reply, I asked them to retorque the suspension, The engine mounts, exhaust mountings, and all the interior knicks and knacks which could rattle or come loose.

The Vitesse Guys knew exactly which bolt is where and what needs to be tigthened so no experiments there and a perfect tight car after service.

I have never faced the problems of rattles as such in my swift except the odd dickey rattle which was present when i got the car brand new, after that it has been almost rattle free.

The stuff i feel that makes a lot of noise is the loose content we fill in the car in the dickey, the spanner and chillar and remote we keep in the dash.

My car is still not back from Vitesse for the booster replacment, they say the AC gas has to be drained as there are some AC pipies which need to be removed to remove the booster, so they have done that and the car will be delivered today.

Hopefully it should be fine.Will Update after I get delivery

[humyum]

27500 in 1 year and 7 months.

After I went to UK in October 2009, my dad hardly drove the car for 2000 km in 8 months

Came back on May 23rd 2010 with a car standing exactly at 22000km at the airport.In this one month and 17 days that I have been in India, churned out an amazing 5500 kilometers.

A 2000 km trip to Gujarat is planned in the coming week too. She ll see a service at 30 thousand in around a month since she last got serviced :P

A 4 day trip to bangalore, lots of Lonavala, Mahad and trips here and there and there she is at her best.

Did the Mumbai Bangalore run in around 14nd half hours and not once did she feel tired or out of breath.
She does 600 kilometers easily before requiring a refill.

Overall in the city i am getting a mileage between 14 and 15 with 100% Ac and with no concern what so ever at mileage

On the highway and the Bangalore trip we got 18 kmpl with 100% AC and speeds of around 140's all the time.

The gearshift problem has competly vanished and so has the juddering. The gearshift is a bit hard when started first in the morning but later after a run of around 2 kilometers it becomes butter.

The engine noise has gone down. The performance has increased. The turbo kick is still as vicious as it used to be. (touchwood). The brake pedal used to judder at speeds above 120 when braked and that is an area which the car sees everyday. The car was given for service 25 days back at 23700 with an oil change, brake disc cutting and new pads.

Got a bill of 4200 which i think is totally fantastic. Ravi Automobiles as usual rocks.

The steering felt a bit loose after 120 and I really detested that.

Got the alignment done and steering damper tightened.

Did a few expressway runs and the steering felt like a rock all the way till 180 kmph on a downslope on the expressway after which she ran out of breath.

The Michelin Xm1+'s are holding really good. 27500 and they still look like they can last another 15 thousand km and trust me they are driven HARD with high speed corners etc.

Overall a bad start with the swift which is turning out to be sweeter as the days pass.

I would recommend this car to everyone for the shear joy of driving her.

Living the VDI LOCA !!!!

[Schoudhury]

Humyum.
Its great to know the car is running fine now(i read your thread for the hard clutch issue).
Also looks like you got your ZXI's alloys changed to some other new white ones which you were originally looking for when you got your white baby.
Bdw, these drive which you make every often is it because of your work or you just enjoy going for drives.
Anyways,drive safe and keep us posted how is your car performing.
Also i must say,the picture of the black and white swifts look great.
Cheers

[humyum]

Originally Posted by Schoudhury

Humyum.
Its great to know the car is running fine now(i read your thread for the hard clutch issue).
Also looks like you got your ZXI's alloys changed to some other new white ones which you were originally looking for when you got your white baby.
Bdw, these drive which you make every often is it because of your work or you just enjoy going for drives.
Anyways,drive safe and keep us posted how is your car performing.
Also i must say,the picture of the black and white swifts look great.
Cheers

Thanks, yeah everything is perfect now , The clutch has done 10 thousand kilometers on the new clutch and its still perfect with no issues at at either with judder, hard clutch or shifting issues.

Got the ZXI alloys changed to Prestige white ones as when I got the car, could not find white Alloys in 14 inchers so had to settle with the ZXI ones. Later found them and immediately got them exchanged. Now she looks like a total babe.

The drives are just for fun. All the trips are done because mom dad and me are all travel freaks. Going just for lunch to Lonavala or Mahabaleshwar is a normal thing at our place

I ll keep updating as and the kilometers pass

[humyum]

Long time I updated this thread. Just got back from UK before a month and half and Finally finished with my BE in Automotive Engineering and got the result before 2 weeks. I got a 2:1 Hons and got admission into MBA in Engineering management too

Its been 2nd half years with the car and finally its trouble free since a year+. The tyres of the car were changed at 30 thousand km again to Michelin XM1+in 2010 August. The older ones had developed some bulges and it was best to replace all 4 and keep the stepney which was hardly used and an XM1+ as it is. After that I ran the car for another 4nd half thousand after which at 34500 I handed the car over to my dad in October 2010.

He got it serviced at 35000 and everything was running perfectly. For 8nd half months all he used the car was for 1500 kilometers after which when I got back in May end I got the car back with an odometer of 36500. We got it serviced again as we plan to go for long trips through the 4 month vacation I have.

It is standing right now at 40400 and everything has settled down perfectly. The clutch, the gearshift, the handling etc is superb. The entire steering system was changed in extended warranty during the 36500 km service as it had developed a play and was making a noise even with the damper tightened to the company settings. The Entire steering unit costs 24 thousand and was FOC. The Coolant, gearoil, Engine oil and everything that is done in the 40 thousand service was done.

The Turbo kick is as vicious as it used to be since day 1. The steering is neither hard now nor light. It stays rock steady till 160 and does not lighten up like the previous one used to after 140.

I have started filling in 33 PSI in the front and 31 behind and BOY O BOY is it some joy to drive on the highway with the said pressures. Super planted to the road and excellent high speed cornering capabilities. Regret not trying it earlier but anyway 'Jaago tyare savar'

Did a trip to Alibaug and a couple of Lonavala's. Mileage is hovering at 16 in the city and 18 to 18.5 on the highways with 100% AC.

Planning a trip to Jaiselmer, Longewala, Tanot, Ramgadh in the next month. Being out of India makes you a patriot to no extent.

Will update as and when the kilometers pass.

[humyum]

So now the car finished 47000 before some days. Thats like 10500 km in 2nd half months. A trip to Gujarat and a lot of escapades around Mumbai with Lonavala more than 20 times.

Battery was changed to exide 74 din because the old one showed signs of conking off anytime which was confirmed by the battery test.

The dreaded turbo problem which some of us are facing plagued my car too since the last service at 36500. It used to make a whining noise from 2000 to 2400 in 4th and 5th gear. Used to get really irritating to drive on the highways. The kick was as brilliant as before but I figured that this was the turbo bearing maybe on its way out and needed looking at.

This time since there was a lot of highway driving, decided to change the oil at 10 thousand and forgo any service in between.

The car was smooth till the 9000 mark after which it started feeling a bit rough.

Navneet looked at the turbo and decided that it needed replacement and covered it under my extended warranty.

Gave the car last thursday and expect it back by wednesday. Intercooler is also going to be cleaned and serviced. Does the turbo replacement really take this long ? I am worried at the time frame.

Fingers crossed, I hope they install everything back in perfect tandem.

During the trip to Gujarat the car gave 18.5 kmpl with 100% AC and speeds hovering between 120 to 140 for the entire trip.

In short I am loving every moment with the car. Going to UK on october 10th and the car will complete another 3 or so thousand km before that making it around 13500 km in 4 months. She will rest for another year with barely covering 2 thousand arounds in the entire year after I am gone.

[humyum]

Now I know how your face will look when either me or your father die my mom exclaimed angrily.

I just blinked, not knowing what to say.

There is a prologue to this, let me get there with a little story.

We had gone to R city mall on the 31st December 2013 as going anywhere else would mean lots of traffic and parking scenes. While scrolling through the mall, I was very quite, which was very unusual and answered what I was asked in mono syllables with an irritated tone. My parents just thought of this as just a bad mood of mine which will get over in some minutes, but this went on for 2 hours until my dad retorted.

“Lets go back home, this guy is behaving like someone has not given him food for more than a week"

He then asked me ‘WHAT IS IT, TELL ME RIGHT NOW?'

Slowly I went like ‘While driving to the mall, the car was shifting hard in 1st and 2nd gear and this has been happening since 3 days'

My parents had their mouths open, they were like ‘YOU WERE BEHAVING LIKE A MONSTER FOR THIS’ ?

I was like ‘yeah, u wont understand’, I have been having sleepless nights since 3 days because of this’

My dad said angrily ‘There is nothing money can’t fix in a car’

Ah well, he won't understand is just what I thought.

We went home and I had one more sleepless night thinking

‘WHAT COULD IT BE?’

It was fine all this while, the only thing that I have touched in the gearbox is the gearbox oil.

I had replaced the gearbox oil at A Maruti Authorised service station called Ravi Automobiles when I had gone to change the axle oil seal which was leaking and thus a little bit of gearbox oil had leaked out. Since the old gear box oil had run 15 thousand km, I decided to ask them to pour in a new one. I was standing all this while right next to the car while they were doing all this, but this could be the only thing that could go wrong (The wrong grade of gearbox oil or the store manager had given the guy engine oil instead of gearbox oil although they billed me for gearbox oil).

Instant enlightenment and went to sleep so that morning would come in a jiffy and I can try and refill new gearbox oil. In the morning called Navneet Motors in Thane and explained the problem to them. Mr Radhe Shyam who is a supervisor in the workshop there and a friend, heard me out and said

‘Come over, we ll check it out’.

Raced to Navneet at the speed of light. He made a job card and told me to wait, I was so restless to see the result that I kept pestering him ‘NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW’

He understood my anxiety and instantly took the car in and drained the old gearbox oil ( It had run 80 km since the change btw).
The oil looked okay, but he said ‘We cannot judge the viscosity by just looking at it’. He was right, so I asked him to change the gearbox oil again and he said ‘We ll add a 3m gearbox additive to it too’, I was cool with that since they had earlier too added this my gearbox and gearshifting had become butter smooth’.

All set and done, he said ‘Lets go for a test drive’
I got in the car with the hair on my hands standing, I wanted this to WORK like nothing else in the world.

1st gear, rev till 2000 rpm, shift to 2nd and Click, PERFECT. It goes in like how it used to go before.
2nd gear, slow down the car, Downshift to 1st, CLICK. PERFECT

HURAAAAAAAAAY. Everything was back to normal.

We ascertained that the gearbox oil at Ravi was fishy. Instantly called my friend at Ravi and told him the scenario. He asked me to come and meet the supervisor.

I was smiling like a kid while driving back from Navneet. Purposely slowing down, driving fast and shifting gears at every opportunity. HA HA , HO HO, HE HE , Gearbox is perfect.

Next day I met the supervisor at Ravi, Mr Chandrakant and told him the entire story. He took my bill from Ravi and Navneet and said ‘He will talk to the boss about this as this should not have happened and he needs to check if everything is fine with the gearbox oil container they have or no.
All happy reached home with a big smile. My mom said my face looked like it had gained 5 kgs out of happiness.

This was one part of my life which revolves around my swift, a major one that. There have been lot many sleepless nights before when something or the other has gone wrong, a lot of money and effort has been to put to set those things straight, at the cost of family time too. But never has there been days, where I have kept her in anything other than perfect.

Even after I came back from Ladakh, the only thing that should have been running on my mind should have been reminiscing the trip which had been so awesome, but the only thing running on my mind was

‘I want to get the alignment checked, I hope I have not bent the struts on any side’.

Ah Well, such is life dearies in the life of someone who loves cars.

My dad had made a one liner for me, ‘Turbocharged brains and Diesel in the Veins’

My Swift Diesel stands right now at 1 lakh 5 thousand kilometers and is running like exactly how she came from the showroom, oh yes a little rattle from the dickey, but that is about it which is wrong. No I won’t have a sleepless night over that I assure you.

Now for the things the car has had done by this duration.

A gearbox overhaul. YES AGAIN at 76000km, I had driven it through pretty deep waters and because of a failed axle oil seal, water went inside the gearbox and that was when she stopped shifting to 1st gear, 3rd gear and 4th gear. I was shattered, but then Navneet took care of it like a pro and gearbox was as good as new but with me lighter of 18 grand. YES 18 grand. But its okay, It was my fault and I deserve a pinch.

A strut got bent while driving back from Bangalore at 84 thousand km, I realized much later at 87 thousand k when I got the alignment checked, that the left side strut had a camber and was bent. Got the front 2 struts changed, lower arms changed, stabilizer bars changed and the bushes changed, one brake pad had rubbed against the disc (the inside one ) and hence was not visible to the naked eye and the wear indicator showed still about 5 thousand k of life. So had to get the front discs and pads changed too. All this costed me a whooping 15 grand but was worth it.

Front two tyres after the Ladakh trip needed replacement, so at 58 thousand km, 2 Michelin XM2's were brought and fixed in the front. The rear 2 had quite a bit life left so I let that be. After running the front 2's for 20 thousand km in the front, I decided to rotate them and got 2 more new ones at 78 thousand km.

I have not had a punture, YES a single punture in 30 thousand km, that is also because I have the habit of looking down on the road and driving and have spotted quite a bit of nails, bolts, nuts and avoided them.

Oil change is every 7 to 8 km, but that comes up pretty quickly as mine is a highway run car, So in 3 to 4 months, I have an oil change due.

One of my alloy wheels is quite troublesome as it gives a little bit of floor vibration at 140+ speeds, I am planning to do away with all of them for good and get brand new steel rims, mount the Michelins on them. I have realized that I want a trouble free experience while driving much more than looks.

Engine wise, she gets quieter with every oil change, Yes she is not as rev happy as the new swifts and the turbo lag is way more than the new swift, but when she gets in the element, you forget all that lag vag.

The clutch was changed at 58 thousand km because the pressure plate had turned out to be faulty due to some of the rev dumps in Kashmir. Its still light and fun to use.

The car has been more reliable after it has aged, then it was when it was new.

I plan to keep this car for atleast another 10 to 12 years. Drive to Thailand in it and if possible to London too later. It's a dream and I want to work towards achieving it.

[rakesh_r]

This thread is due for an update since a very long time . How is the car running by the way?

[humyum]

As the journey with her continues, she teaches me everyday that a car a life too, it's an almost a live being too, except the procreation bit, there is not one journey of your life in which the car will not be like a member of the family to keep you company.

As she takes every bend on the road you begin to realise that happiness is not around the corner, it is the corner!



So as the journey with her continues, the odo stands now at: 1 lakh 25000 km

Oil changes are religiously done at 5 to 6 thousand kilometre intervals, if I can find the oil, its mostly Mobil Delvac MX which has been used, but once or twice, Servo had to go in too as I could not find Delvac. Since I have stayed with Delvac MX for the entire cars life, I did not think it would be wise to shift to synthetic oil, so dropped that idea.


Water is drained from the fuel filter whenever an oil change is done.

Air filter is cleaned every 2 to 3 thousand kilometres and replaced every 10 thousand km



Alloy wheels were done away with and steel rims put in place at 1 lakh 20 thousand km as there was an irritating vibration from one of the alloy wheel one of the nut hole had become a little larger in size due to it being heated and lathed to get a stuck wheel nut out. They had lost their shine too and at some parts had chips of white colour falling apart.

AC has lost its flow a bit and planning to get my first AC overhaul done in 8 years in a few weeks time. Also 2nd gear synchroniser ring has packed up since a month, does not downshift to 2nd from 3rd and sometimes does not shift from 1st to 2nd too. I have to double clutch to make this work.



The wheel bearings were replaced at 1 lakh 17 thousand km. An audible hum started from 2 of them and I decided to replace all 4, costed 6500 for the entire job including labour. This was the first ever wheel bearing replacement in my car.

The struts and lower arms were replaced along with stabilisers at 80 thousand kilometres, there is a slight leak from the front struts now, I am surprised why because the factory fitted struts had no leaks even at 80 thousand km, I had to get them replaced because on a nasty pothole hit, one of them got bent slightly and the alignment showed an out of spec camber on one front wheel. The service station is of the opinion that the strut will last another 20 thousand kilometre and I'll take his word for it.

One of the rear struts has also sprung a minor leak, that too will last another 20 thousand kilometres is what the service station guy has said. Will get the front and rear suspension overhauled after 20 thousand km.

There is no timing chain noise. Not planning to touch this at all for the moment.

Performance wise, she still runs like a beast. Mileage is a consistent 17 to 18 kilometres with a mix of city and highway run.

Got the 2 new Michelins XM2's in the front at 1 lakh 20 thousand. I follow a 30 thousand rotation cycle for tyres. Has worked for me really well till now. At the end of this 60 thousand kilometre cycle, I get all 4 tyres changed.

Every highway drive still gets a smile on my face, in fact going to work in the morning is such an exciting thing for me, YES this even after 8 years of owning her.

Also like the saying goes, 'Ain't no Mountain High, Ain't no Valley low'.

When you are in the mood for it, no other car is fast enough and no other car can out handle the Swift, that keeps the fun factor high when the party gets going sometimes

This is how she looks now.



I am beginning to start going for solo trips with her soon, Dhanushkodi or Goa is going to be first one.

Also I find the concept of going to Thailand by car now a little unexciting, It will be just like reaching a destination for the sake of it, to make a mark, because I have been to Thailand and I don't find it all that exciting.

So my mission has changed from Thailand to Mongolia - Ullanbattar. I always wanted to take part in the Mongol Rally while I was in UK, but I could not, so why not drive to Mongolia from India. There is no Carnet needed, no 500% deposit and all that, just taking care of the bureaucratic Chinese permits will be the only difficult part, hopefully will get Maruti to sponsor some of the trip costs