[Vid6639]

Got the car back yesterday afternoon. Breakup of 30,000kms service:

Engine oil 4.2 litres - Rs. 1,200
30,000kms service - Rs. 800
AC cabin filter - Rs. 1,300
Oil filter, drain plug - Rs. 400
Total - Rs.3,700 + tax = Rs. 4,260

Apart from that the mirror was repaired:

Mirror Cover - Rs.900
Painting - Rs.800
Indicator - Rs.1250
Total including tax - Rs.3,200

Front brake pads were at 6mm. 8.5mm is the depth of the new one.

They didn't do a very good job of cleaning the interiors but were prompt to take it back and get it done again very nicely.

My guess is that this year, I will need tyre replacement. 34,000kms and I can see the depth is less and the tyres have become hard.

[agambhandari]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Got the car back yesterday afternoon. Breakup of 30,000kms service:

Engine oil 4.2 litres - Rs. 1,200
30,000kms service - Rs. 800
AC cabin filter - Rs. 1,300
Oil filter, drain plug - Rs. 400
Total - Rs.3,700 + tax = Rs. 4,260

My guess is that this year, I will need tyre replacement. 34,000kms and I can see the depth is less and the tyres have become hard.

Maintains the fact that japenese cars are very cheap to maintain even if they cost over a million bucks. A service like this would have cost at least 3 times on a VW/Skoda.

Well at 40k pretty much every car needs new shoes and your car is nearing the mark. Any particular tyres you will go for?

[F150]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Got the car back yesterday afternoon. Breakup of 30,000kms service:

Engine oil 4.2 litres - Rs. 1,200
30,000kms service - Rs. 800
AC cabin filter - Rs. 1,300
Oil filter, drain plug - Rs. 400
Total - Rs.3,700 + tax = Rs. 4,260

Front brake pads were at 6mm. 8.5mm is the depth of the new one.

Viddy,

Could you please confirm if the brakes were cleaned as part of paid service ?

Is it included in the Rs 800 or were you charged extra ?

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by agambhandari

Well at 40k pretty much every car needs new shoes and your car is nearing the mark. Any particular tyres you will go for?

Still to decide which tyre but nothing fancy since this car is driver driven and is almost used like the beater car. Any soft tyre will not last. The bridgestone's can take a good amount of abuse.

One thing for sure though, the OE size is 195/65-15 but I am going to opt for 205/65-15 for 2 reasons. One is better ride due to higher profile and 2 is increased ground clearance. It is marginally larger but the benefits are worth it.

Originally Posted by F150

Viddy,

Could you please confirm if the brakes were cleaned as part of paid service ?

Is it included in the Rs 800 or were you charged extra ?

I believe they must have cleaned it since the report showed the thickness of each of the pads made. Plus usually after service the brakes usually groan for a while indicating that they were cleaned.

[GrammarNazi]

So, were the tyres changed? Which ones did you go for?

[vivekrvcse]

Dear Vidyut,

I have been having a torrid time with my low beam HID lights not working - Toyota asks for 11k per bulb and those bulbs cant be found even with AK Traders!

Can you suggest someone who would be able to install P8 or Philips HID in this particular car? (You have the 1.8V / Automatic right?)
Also did you upgrade your tires? Which one? How are they?

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Still to ... bridgestone's can take a good amount of abuse.

One thing for sure though, the OE size is 195/65-15 but I am going to opt for 205/65-15 for 2 reasons. One is better ride due to higher profile and 2 is increased ground clearance. It is marginally larger but the benefits are worth it.



.

[Vid6639]

Gave the car for 40K kms service with 44,000kms on the odo. This is because I steadily overshot all services by 1000kms.

Anyways, there was not much to report for the service. Zero complaints.

As per 40K kms, spark plugs change and brake fluid replacement is recommended. Each spark plug is Rs.240.

Estimate for service given was Rs.3,500 and delivery was the next day.

I got a call in the afternoon from the SA saying that service was complete but they found the rear brake pads are worn out and need replacement. I was taken aback with this yet again since the rear brake pads were changed at 21,000kms. I told them I was not happy but to go ahead and change.

The guy gave me some rubbish about Altis pads getting worn out at 10K kms also, and it depends on driving style and roads. My Altis has not seen the highway in over than a year and does only city traffic which is almost impossible to wear out rear pads.

Today I went to collect the car and asked to see the old pads. When I saw the pads they seemed fine and weren't even close to the wear indicator. Then I looked at one of the pads and saw that it was worn out till the wear indicator but only on one side. 1 out of 4 pads was worn completely but it was uneven wear from one side only.

This clearly meant that the calipers are not aligned or one of the pistons is not working as expected. I questioned the SA on why he didn't look into this and wanted to blindly change all pads without diagnosis. He argued a little and then agreed that they could have checked it before changing. He then spoke to the works manager who came and spoke to me. He said he will try to diagnose the problem but also added some nonsense about how the Altis has a complicated braking system with ABS and EBD and the braking force would change. I told him both ABS and EBD will work only during hard braking during emergency and will certainly not lead to one pad getting worn faster vs the other 3. He tried to convince me but then just said they will look into it.

End result was me driving all the way to the service centre with my driver in one car and returning back without the car.

Will get to know on Monday what the cause was for the uneven wear. I also gave them firm instructions that the rotors should not be blindly changed without diagnosis. Unless the issue is confirmed I do not want to change parts unnecessarily.

[Vid6639]

Got a call from the works manager on Saturday evening to tell me they had identified the problem.

They did all checks on the old pads and the issue was identified as incorrect seating of pads when they were changed 1.5 years back. He said one side of the pad was not seated correctly on the groove.

I'll go by what he says for now. Even though he admitted the mistake was caused when they replaced the pads 1.5 years back, there was no offer made to replace them at their cost. Entire expense has to born by me.

Note that the prices of the rear brake pads have gone up steeply. Overall service ended up to be Rs.12,500 with almost 9K for brake pads including labour.

I intend to take this up with Toyota. More details once I get to see the car in evening.

[undead]

Seen many altis owners complain low life of brake pads and the cost is much higher.
Why dont you try sourcing brake pads from outside and other companies.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Got a call from the works manager on Saturday evening to tell me they had identified the problem.

They did all checks on the old pads and the issue was identified as incorrect seating of pads when they were changed 1.5 years back. He said one side of the pad was not seated correctly on the groove.

In automatics it might be normal to wear out fast, but yours is a manual and pads especially the rear ones should last for 30-40k kms minimum. I still cant figure out how they misfitted the pad inside the caliper assembly?

Look at how a typical caliper assembly is at the following link. http://hock.net/m-brake-pads-step-2.php

My guess one of the pins would have been rusted and the pad sticking to it and getting pressed by the other edge. This assuming that only one edge was wearing out.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Today I went to collect the car and asked to see the old pads. When I saw the pads they seemed fine and weren't even close to the wear indicator. Then I looked at one of the pads and saw that it was worn out till the wear indicator but only on one side. 1 out of 4 pads was worn completely but it was uneven wear from one side only.

This clearly meant that the calipers are not aligned or one of the pistons is not working as expected.

THere is only one piston, unless its a dual opposed type

It means the caliper slider pin is sticking and needs to be cleaned and lubed....and checked to see if its functioning properly. Check the dust boot as well.

[sameerg001]

I don't know what's wrong with your car, but mohit's altis is at 31k kms and he haven't changed the pads so far, nor front ones nor rear ones. At 30k service of his car, the sa informed him the rear pads are good for another 6-7k kms.

[NGM]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Still to decide which tyre but nothing fancy since this car is driver driven and is almost used like the beater car. Any soft tyre will not last. The bridgestone's can take a good amount of abuse.

One thing for sure though, the OE size is 195/65-15 but I am going to opt for 205/65-15 for 2 reasons. One is better ride due to higher profile and 2 is increased ground clearance. It is marginally larger but the benefits are worth it.

Have you changed your tyres?
My Altis shows 38K in odo and i think i need to change tyre in another 2K. So can someone recommend good replacement tyre for Corolla Altis.
Now it runs on stock Bridgestone.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by NGM

Have you changed your tyres?
My Altis shows 38K in odo and i think i need to change tyre in another 2K. So can someone recommend good replacement tyre for Corolla Altis.
Now it runs on stock Bridgestone.

Yes indeed I have. I changed the tyres to Yokohama Earth-1 just 2 weeks back. More details here:

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Fitted the Earth-1 tyres on the Altis last weekend from Madhus.

Initial impressions are very good. Moved from OE size of 195/65-15 to 205/65-15. This has caused the ride quality to improve dramatically. Ofcourse the old Bridgestones were 47K kms and 5 years old so the ride/handling had pretty much gone for a toss.

The other advantage is the increase in ground clearance. No need to worry about bangalore infamous speed breakers. The car now looks visibly raised. Some may not like stance but wider tyres with larger dia fill the wheel well completely. I love that.

Tried a short highway stint and was impressed with braking and road noise. Cabin now has very little road noise vs before and even dad appreciated the silence in the cabin. On the highway it performed very good at speeds upto 110kmph. After that I felt some lightness around centre position which I found a bit strange. Since this was on day 1 I will check this out again. Braking is vastly improved. Even on slippery wet road the ABS did not kick in when braking for a hidden speed breaker. Earlier the ABS would go crazy in the rains.

My driver came and told me the new tyres are so smooth that you don't feel anything on the road and they are so silent. Even he loves it.

Here's a few pics.

195/65-15 OE Turanza on the left and the 205/65-15 Earth 1 on the right. The turanza seen here is the spare and had almost full life in it so changed only 4 tyres. No sense in throwing a good tyre away. The spare will only be used in emergencies now.


Diameter difference between old and new tyre. This turanza is the one that is worn out.


Love the wheel well completely filled up with no huge gap:


A shot of the car with the new tyres. Almost 5 years old now.

[Vid6639]

The new tyres have given a new lease of life to the Altis. Smoother than ever before, higher ground clearance, much improved ride comfort and more weight to the steering thanks to wider 205 rubber.

47K kms of city driving with less than 1000kms of that on the highway means this car really goes through the worst conditions. Except for the brake pads there has been nothing changed in the car in terms of maintenance. Exactly what I was looking for when I got this car in 2009.

Going by the running, August will complete 5 years and most probably hit 50K as well.

In December took it to 3M HSR layout and got full interior cleaning done. This was the first time in 4 years and Siddhu was surprised at the reasonable condition. After the interior cleaning it feels like new inside.

Outside I have neglected thanks to driver washing the car daily and car seeing heavy traffic resulting in many nicks from 2 wheelers. This car has basically become the beater car in the house.