[epicenter.rulez]

so it was 65100 on the odo a couple of days ago and the car had been behaving a tad on the rougher side.
slightly more nvh, an anaemic growl from the engine bay. also the performance had dwindled down a bit and the car had lost its appetite to eat anything (well almost) that came its way.
took time off to check out what was going on and plonked open the bonnet. the first thing that hit me was that the air intake hose had come loose and was hanging disconnected from the system. that explained the odd growl from the bay. the air was sucked directy into the filter instead of going through the length of the hose and that was causing the turbulence. fixed it and was a happy man, but not before cleaing everything thorougly.
fired up the car, a bit smoother but not upto the mark. bad diesel was ruled out since the family prefers only two diesel bunks locally and the car hasnt been out on a spin since some days.
zeroed it down to the air filter (shouldve been the first checkpoint but i suppose i am getting old )
got the spanner out to open up the filter lid but nothing had prepared me for the condition of the filter. i'd cleaned it some while ago (the logbook said 10000 kilometers) so throwing caution to the wind, i took the filter out.
the pics will probably be the best way to make you understand what havoc all the dust, dirt, grit, and all the other elements play with the induction system of an engine.
tapped it down, applied the k&n filter cleaner, washed the filter once and let it drip dry, not satisfied, applied the filter cleaner again and washed it down again till the water ran clear.
drip dried it overnight and sundried it for a couple of hours the next day, wicked and charged it and its all ready to go back into the car.
in the meanwhile the car is running on a stock filter. the low end is fantastic, but as the speed builds up, the car starts to pant. will have to put the k&n back asap.
enjoy the pics guys, drive safe and always wear a seat belt.

[@tombum]

Damn! That's so much grime and dust! I'm hooked on to this thread for so long! I am sure one day, I will be able to see you Punto in all it's glory!!

[neoonwheels]

Well, at 64000 km, yours is the first Punto to munch so many miles. By this speed, soon you would be India;s first 1L km customer.

[amit1234singla]

Hi Mandeep, can you please tell which engine oil you are using on the Punto? Is it TASS filled Selenia WR 5W40 or some other. And do you change it every 15k as recommended or earlier? Thanks in advance.

[blueblooded]

thats superb,man you are the true brand ambassador of punto mjd ,not the cricket Yuvi

[epicenter.rulez]

Originally Posted by @tombum

Damn! That's so much grime and dust! I'm hooked on to this thread for so long! I am sure one day, I will be able to see you Punto in all it's glory!!

yes sir, you are always welcome to admire the beauty, a bit banged up now whenever i am in ahmedabad next. thanks for going through the thread.

Originally Posted by neoonwheels

Well, at 64000 km, yours is the first Punto to munch so many miles. By this speed, soon you would be India;s first 1L km customer.

inshallah....with the rate the car is gobbling up the miles, i think by the beginning of monsoon the car will be on the hundred thousand mark.

Originally Posted by amit1234singla

Hi Mandeep, can you please tell which engine oil you are using on the Punto? Is it TASS filled Selenia WR 5W40 or some other. And do you change it every 15k as recommended or earlier? Thanks in advance.

yeah amit. i use the selenia and yes again, i change it at every 15000 kilometers.

Originally Posted by blueblooded

thats superb,man you are the true brand ambassador of punto mjd ,not the cricket Yuvi

thank you brother. we got another punto for a friend yesterday. i'll be putting the details in another thread. this car rocks. i'll only say one thing. if at 72k kilometers, your car doesnt rattle, its built to last.
thanks everybody, drive safe, always wear a seatbelt.

[epicenter.rulez]

hi guys,
had this update pending since long.
so the car is 69000 kilometers old as of yesterday.
had taken the car in for the free service n checkup camp a couple of days ago. had a few issues that needed to be checked out asap. the front left suspension was making a lot of rattling and the car swayed a bit during high speed jaunts. fearing worn bushes n leaked shock absorbers, i asked the service advisor (old faithful bawaji) to check out the car.
a short drive later he was back saying that the mounting pads (stuff that actually lets the shock absorbers rotate from the top) had gone kaput and would need replacement. no damage done, because they would be covered under warranty. the price was a bit too steep at 2600 bucks odd a piece.
During the replacement, one more thing that was noticed was that the brake pads had only about 500 kilometers left on them and the brake disc rotors were also scoured out and needed replacement.
not wanting to compromise on the brakes, i told the guys to go ahead and get the parts and change them. bad news, the brake pads were out of stock and changing rotors without pads would be foolishness. so its been postponed to saturday when the parts would be available. the rotor set is 3000 bucks odd and the brake pads cost around2500 bucks.
Tragedy struck yesterday afternoon.
Dad was driving back home, when a state transport bus rammed into the car from the right side at the back. before dad could stop the car and check the damage, the bus guy had vanished.
Dad got home and we checked out the car. The rear door has been dented and so has the rear body panel right on the wheel arch. called up the trustworthy shabbir and i have an appointment for saturday when atleast all the denting work would be done. Most of the scars would come off after a polish job but the rear body panel may need painting.
Will be putting up the car for touch up work in any case by the end of next week.
Till then i am riding the bullet to work.

And this was also pending:

The car has also been repaired to an extent but will have to give it for a paintjob one of these days. the body panels of the car are so strong that even my denter had a hell of a time getting them back to shape, and even then he could only do them up to about 90 percent of perfection.
the overall expense to get things back to shape (almost) was 1500 bucks.
as always, couldnt take pics but will try to get them from a friends cam when he had clicked some.
drive safe guys, always wear a seat belt.
will be sharing a couple of more infos in the next post.

[headers]

Originally Posted by epicenter.rulez

Tragedy struck yesterday afternoon.
Dad was driving back home, when a state transport bus rammed into the car from the right side at the back. before dad could stop the car and check the damage, the bus guy had vanished.

Sad about what has happenned. Thank goodness all are safe. Yup the FGP is one STURDY car.. you can feel the grip even at 140 unlike some rivals !

[gopikb]

epicenter, your post gives us a lot of confidence on the longevity of the Punto. My car is just 19000 kms old and feels the same solid sturdy car from the day i bought it. After 70K kms, if you are reporting the same, it goes very well to show the Punto is a good engineered car.

Congrats on your multiple milestones with the car and I am sure you will crunch more and more miles for a long time to go

[architect]

I replaced a shocker mounting on my Palio Stile at 50,000 km. That's the only suspension component changed so far during the 65,000 km my car has done so far. I don't think it's unreasonable for only ONE suspension component to give up in 69,000 km. Remember, many people sell off their cars around the 50,000 km mark.

[lejhoom]

Originally Posted by epicenter.rulez

will be sharing a couple of more infos in the next post.

We haven't heard anything from you for quite a while. Is everything OK?

[epicenter.rulez]

Originally Posted by lejhoom

We haven't heard anything from you for quite a while. Is everything OK?

yes brother, everything is ok.
its just that i havent been able to get time to pen down the updates since the last few months.
hopefully, i'll be updating the thread today or tomorrow.
the car has already crossed 78000 kilometers without much aplomb.
keep watching this space for more.
till then, drive safe and always wear a seatbelt.

[epicenter.rulez]

Mods: A request to you first to change odo reading to 79100 kms. please.

Ok. so I guess I stopped updating at around 69000 kilometers.

Well here goes:
The car has been performing without any major hiccups since the last 10k kilometers. Dad took the car on a sedate jaunt to Udaipur and back with no issues.

Except for the regular fuel stop, nothing went wrong. The odo reading then was 73000 kilometers odd. The tires seemed to have faded and even the suspension was feeling a bit on the queasy side. Nothing major but i felt that the car just didnt handle that nicely on turns. Maybe a ghost at the back of my mind or something. Strangely, the issue sorted itself out for a while.

On closer inspection, the tires were still good to go for sometime as the pitch depth still hadnt come close to the wear indicators. A respite. Tire changing sets you back by around 20K. The car had already done 50000 odd kilometers on these tires and the way it had been driven, the kilometers and the wear pattern was justified.

Had been contemplating shifting to Bilstein B16s with stock sized V550s on the car on the next tire change and it may just be possible within the next few days. Drove a friends car extensively thats been fitted with the Bilstiens on stock sized A-Drives and runs only a K&N and is otherwise stock. The cornering and handling simply blew my mind away. I need those on the car for sure.

This was what I had been contemplating doing when it came to the tires and suspension. It doesnt always happen the way you think it will.

Now coming to the harsh realities of life. Couldnt write in earlier because of a very heavy work schedule coupled to a motorcycle being painted and an engine being custom rebuilt which took a toll.

The car was having some issues in the mornings during the first start since the last few days. As soon as the engine cranked up, the mid beeped and the engine check light would go on. The engine revolutions would jiggle a bit from 800 to 900 rpm and come back in line and the beep would continue.

Had to switch the car off and turn it back again to get rid of the problem. But it was just a work around and everytime it happened, a beep in the back of my skull said, "EGR needs cleaning!!!"

even the car performance had deteriorated and while I didnt notice anything, a friend had noted black smoke billowing from the exhaust a couple of times during hard acceleration while he was tailing me in his Punto.

Cause of concern ofcourse and the EGR trouble was confirmed too.
So finally managed to give the car for service at a little over 75500 kilometers. Told the guy to specifically do up the EGR and everything else could be forgotten if they didnt have the time to do it. they said they would do everything I'd asked them to put on the jobcard.

It also included servicing the clutch slave cylinder. The gears had been getting a bit hard to engage since the last few days and even the clutch felt heavier.

Leaving the babe at the workshop and after a warning about instilling the wrath of God into one and all who were going to work on my car, I left.

As i sat twiddling my thumbs in the office, got a call at around 6.30 in the evening saying that the car was complete and was being washed. I told them to hold polishing the interiors of the car and go ahead with everything else, prepare a credit invoice and leave the car at the main gate as I'd be late in getting to the workshop. Ok sir, that was the answer.

8.40 PM I was at the workshop and the car and i were eyeing each other with apprehension.

Getting the key into the ignition, I switched on to the accessories till all the system lights went out. A little further and the engine shrugged and purred to life.

It actually purred to life. The engine had smoothened down to such an extent it was hard to believe I was sitting in the seat of my own car. Grinning from ear to ear I depressed the clutch pedal. heaven. the pedal was so light, I could almost press it with a feather.

Slotting the car into reverse, I slowly wangled it out of the parking space and shifted to the first. Since I shift very quickly to the 2nd, I couldnt find any difference in the acceleration there but as soon as I let out the clutch on the second and let my foot down on the accelerator pedal, the world out of the window was a blur.

60 came up in the blink of an eye and before I knew, I had already slotted into the fourth and was crossing the 120 mark. splendid. Decided to see whether the car would perform like new. it bettered it with the speedo needle going to the 140 mark in the 4th gear. Just like the time when we had test driven the car after the exhaust fitment.

Awesome was the only word in my mind.

Since the diesel light was showing, decided to tank up and reached home. The highway was a bit traffic oriented so decided to leave the endurance run till the next day.

On the other hand the bill had come to about 8k with all the fluids changed, the egr valve serviced and everything else thrown in.

Morning came and I just coudnt wait to go to office. I'd be driving the car to its limits, almost, today.

The car started again with the engine purring softly and the thrumming exhaust the only evidence of the power to be unleashed by this multijet engine.

Heading to the highway and negotiating the first 30 kilometers of so took well over 40 minutes. I was getting impatient as the odo needle barely crossed the 80 mark. The only consolation was that this figure came up really fast.

Crossing the tax limits of Gujarat, I headed onto the nh 8 towards talasari where the traffic is considerably less and the roads, wide open stretches with amazing undulations and turns.

Slamming my foot on the accelerator, it felt like the car was going to leap out of its skin and head northwards. It was so damn fast, I couldnt believe it. It usually happens that when you drive the same car day in and day out, you tend to take the speeds and the performance of the car for granted and you can only feel the difference when you actually start thinking about it.

Crossing the 140 mark on the climb towards the top of an undulation, I shifted to the 5th. the car still had juice to surge to 150 and the needle kept going on and on, but then it stopped making a difference as the car was now descending.

On a couple of flats where i was driving flat out, managed to see the accelerator needle nudging the 170 mark and also a grin on my face.
All in all the service guys had done a good job and i called them up to tell them the same.

The only problem left unsolved was that my upper beams were playing hide and seek and had a mind of their own. They only worked in the daytime and as soon as I wanted them at night, they stopped working.
Finally figured it out to a sticky relay on the harness and changed it.
Cost me about 190 bucks.

The car has travelled around 4 odd thousand kilometers and still performs like a gem.

I've planned to go for the same size of tires as i have now. The bilsteins will have to take a backseat as of now and i may go in for them after a couple of months.

Also in the pipe line is a trip to Ladakh and if everything goes on alright, then I am heading for the hills on the 2nd of August this year.

Keep on watching this space for more updates.
Till then, keep driving and always wear a seatbelt.

Originally Posted by epicenter.rulez

Also in the pipe line is a trip to Ladakh and if everything goes on alright, then I am heading for the hills on the 2nd of August this year.

In spite of all round discouragement, I want to take my Linea to and fro Leh via Srinagar. I will be following your Leh plans closely. Bon voyage.

[Irish]

Originally Posted by epicenter.rulez

Also in the pipe line is a trip to Ladakh and if everything goes on alright, then I am heading for the hills on the 2nd of August this year.

Keep on watching this space for more updates.
Till then, keep driving and always wear a seatbelt.

Mandeep,

Do update us with the performance of your Punto on the Ladakh terrain. All the best for your trip!

Cheers!
Irish