[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

- I haven't been charged for pollen filter - so I assume it hasn't been changed. The manual says replace the filter "every 15,000km" and not the standard "15k or 1-year, whichever is earlier" - so I guess it's OK.

I received a call for feedback from the dealership today and I asked about this. I was told that the part was not changed because it was not in stock!

Then I received a call from Fiat for service feedback, but I forgot to mention the issue with pollen filter. But, I asked if Bardahl products are recommended by Fiat as well. He suggested that I should call up the Fiat service helpline to get an answer to that. So I called up the Fiat service helpline and asked the same question. First the lady suggested that I should ask this "technical question" to the dealer. I said I don't want an answer from the dealer, but from Fiat. So she noted down my query and when I asked, I was told that I should receive an answer in 72h.

Again, I forgot to mention the pollen filter, so I called the Fiat service helpline again and mentioned the issue. The person attending the call said that this should not have happened and I can get in touch with the dealer and get the pollen filter changed at the earliest. I said that's all fine - but this is a part that's replaced for every Fiat vehicle at 15K, 30K etc - so I don't expect the part to be out of stock in the first place. I was told that this feedback will be passed to the dealership.

Originally Posted by gemithomas

Why did they remove refit the throttle body.

No idea - but maybe this item from the owner's manual explains it?

"Visually inspect conditions and integrity: exterior bodywork, underbody protection, pipes and hoses (exhaust - fuel - brakes), rubber parts (boot, sleeves, bushes, etc), oil leakage and coolant leakage"

Originally Posted by gemithomas

Ho does the car feel after service / bardahl?

The car has become quieter and a little bit smoother - although I had expected that with the oil change. Performance-wise I feel zero difference, but the FE seems to have gone up a bit. That's the feeling I get from the MID's DTE (Range) figures, which seem to drop less every day although my usage pattern has remained the same (4 short trips of about 7km each day). Any effect on FE can only be confirmed with the next tankful-tankful check.

Funny incident at the dealership:
I was waiting in the customer lounge till they replaced the engine oil, then I decided to call my BIL to ask him to pick me up. The call connected, but I couldn't hear a thing. I thought it's bad reception and tried 2-3 times more. Then it struck me: the service guys had the ignition ON at that point of time and I was close enough to the car to be connected via Blue n' Me. The mechanics would've heard a lot of 'Hi, Hellos' from my BIL

[StarrySky]

My Punto is approaching 15K and I got wheel balancing and alignment done at Global Tyres, Cochin today. The total bill came to Rs.900 (Rs.300 for alignment, Rs.200 for balacing, Rs.200 for the weights and Rs.200 for nitrogen filling). The alignment report is below. I can't make much sense of it, but I guess there was nothing much wrong with the alignment to begin with. Not a bad thing, since this was the first time in 15K km that my car has undergone alignment/balancing.



I also got hit by a bike at Vytilla junction today on the rear bumper. The signal had just turned green and as I was accelerating, the car in front jumped on the brakes, I did too and the bike didn't stop in time. It was a low-speed accident and I thought it couldn't have caused much damage. When I stopped to check the car, I found that the rear fog light had been dislodged from the right-side edge - but there was no scratch that I could find on the bumper. The Concorde Motors service centre was near, so I paid a visit to the A.S.C. One of the friendly SAs pushed the light into place. But I was told that the it wasn't a permanent solution. The light would now have to be glued to the bumper, I guess. It is held tightly from one end and it seems to stay in place for now, but it may still get dislodged when I go through a few potholes.

[StarrySky]

My Punto got hit by a Wagon-R yesterday in a hospital parking lot. The Wagon-R was trying to get into the parking space beside my parked Punto. The actual parking space is slightly raised from the road level and he was struggling to get his car parked in reverse. He managed that somehow and then probably wanted to park it a little better based on what the parking lot assistant was telling him - and his car lunged forward, almost out of control, dangerously close to my Punto. I was watching the whole thing and I felt at that time that once he takes his foot off the brake his car is going to roll forward (because it was in a slope) and hit my car. He took his foot off the brake and things happened exactly as I had feared. The damage:



Someone at the spot suggested that I should take the car to the service centre and get an estimate from them and the Wagon-R guy should pay me. I was preparing to take our new-born baby home and didn't have time for that. The driver of the Wagon-R also was obviously visiting someone in the hospital, so I thought why to take his time as well. He paid me Rs.500 based on someone else's suggestion. I chose to take it, forget the incident and move on.

Otherwise, the odo now stands at 16300 and my Punto is doing well. There's a noise while traveling on bad/uneven roads, which I think is coming from the left front door pad. It hasn't become an irritant yet, and I will get it checked when I can spare some time on the weekends. No complaints on the performance front or the mileage front. My city mileage is about 14kmpl, but my highway runs give me 22+ kmpl most of the time. Last 3 early morning solo runs have given mileage in excess of 25kmpl.

[StarrySky]

I have renewed respect for the Punto's boot space/luggage carrying capacity now. Below is what the Punto carried on Thursday along with 3 adults and 2 kids (one 6-year old and an infant):



All bags except my laptop, my daughter's school bag, wife's handbag, my son's bed and 2 of the plastic bags were carried in the boot.

The obvious side-effect was that the car felt too sluggish with my normal levels on A-pedal input Had to be slightly more aggressive on the throttle and the FE went down to 21kmpl (Mannuthy to Cochin, ~71km, 1h27m travel time, start at 3:20pm, ACC 100% at 24 degrees).

[StarrySky]

One more incident that happened recently. Hopefully it will make those who think "I don't need ABS in city driving" or "I've managed without ABS for X years, I can continue to do so", think again:

I was at a traffic signal at the very front of the queue. When the signal turned green, I started accelerating on the right lane. There was a Tata Ace on the left lane in front of me. Just as I was picking up speed and almost level with the Ace, he suddenly swerved on to the right lane (I guess somebody joined the road from the left). The speeds weren't very high (max 50-60kmph), but I had to swerve right (towards the median) and then swerve back to correct my line when the Ace moved away to avoid hitting the median - all while braking - and I could feel the ABS kicking in. I'm not sure how would I've fared without ABS. My Punto was quite composed over the sudden direction changes.

Instead of feeling agitated, I was feeling quite relieved and relaxed when it was over. I was smiling at the Ace guy when I passed him later and gestured to him asking what was he thinking? He put up his hand saying "Sorry"!

[StarrySky]

I took my Punto to Hyson Motors, Thrissur today to attend to two issues in my car mentioned here.

I had not taken an appointment, so I thought I'd try my luck going early to the service station. I reached the service station a few minutes before 8:30am. Mine was the second car in today. I had to wait about 5 minutes before the SA came in. He mentioned that this weekend they are running a special Sumo service camp, so they weren't taking many other appointments. He mentioned that due to the camp and because rattles usually take some debugging time, I may have to keep the car in the service station till Monday. This wasn't acceptable to me (I have to return to Cochin on Sunday), so I told him that if he isn't able to fix the issue today, just return the car to me and I will come back later.

We went for a TD and I demonstrated both the issues to him. He said the issue with the doorpad should be fairly easy to fix - he is aware of issues with the doorpad. He mentioned that the other noise could take some more debugging, but he will try his best. He mentioned that the issue could be due to the hatch door.

I was back home by 9am after leaving the car at the service station. At exactly 1pm, I got a call from the SA saying that both the issues have been fixed. I went to the service station and we took another TD with the SA driving. I found that both the noises had disappeared.

I thanked the SA and took a long route home to check for issues, but I couldn't find either issue during the ~6km return trip home. I was back home by 1:40pm.

The SA mentioned that they found some play in the rear seat locking mechanism, fixed it and took a TD. But, the noise from the rear was reproduced. Then they checked the hatch door and found and issue with the alignment (of the lock, I guess) and fixed it too, after which the noise disappeared.

Total cost: Rs.0/- (well, except the Rs.60 I spend on auto rickshaw trip from/to the service station)

I'm very happy with the work done by the SA and Hyson Motors today , but I'll keep an eye (or ear) out for the issues for some time.

[StarrySky]

This is going to be a long post.

During the last week of February, it was known that I'd have to be away from Cochin for about a month. Since I'd not be using my Punto during that period, I thought I'd get a few dents/scratches take care off.

Main issues were:
1. Dent of the bonnet pictured here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2466035

2. Pretty big and ugly dent of the front left fender. I was going through a very narrow road, when a row of cars came opposite me. While trying to maneuver the car between them and a row of bikes parked on the left side, I touched a bike and it fell on top of the car. No pictures of that, because it was too painful to take pics of .

3. In my car, the edge of the bonnet on the LHS is very close, almost touching the left headlamp assembly. Due of opening/closing of the bonnet, it was starting to lose paint from that edge. I wanted that to be painted as well.

Since I had to leave in a hurry, my BIL took the Punto to Hyson Motors, Thrissur to get these taken care of. He asked the body shop to take care of a few very old scratches on the RHS rear door+fender (mentioned here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2104287) and a few on the rear bumper as well.

Total cost: About Rs.11.3K

Quality of Work:
Note: I wasn't here, so the following is 2nd hand information.
There was shade difference between the left fender, bonnet and the rest of the car after the painting work. Also, the fender felt rough to the touch. The interior of the car was dirty. The car was taken to the body shop for a 2nd time and all the issues mentioned above were fixed. The rear bumper was not painted, but the scratches have been covered up in a rather ugly manner.

Pictures:
Right rear fender: There was a small dent on the fender and lot of scratches on the fender and the part of the door close to it.


Left front fender: There was a big dent here and a few scratches on the bumper as well.


Bonnet: There were two narrow but deep scratches near the headlamp area.


Rear bumper scratches: Bad "coverup" job.


Other Issues:
1. While my BIL was trying to adjust the IRVM, the mirror broke off. Upon getting it checked from a nearby store, they mentioned that the adjustment mechanism had gone out of shape, probably due to parking the car in the sun for long. Yes, I don't have covered car parking in the office and the car is out in the sun. And, I avoid parking under trees since some small fruits from the trees fall on the car and leave a stain.

2. After the 2nd visit to the body shop, the MID started showing an error message "Check LHS turn light". The front left turn light wasn't working.

Since no one was using the car, the issues were left unattended till I came back, on Friday.

Back to service station:
Yesterday, I took my car back to the service station to fix the two issues.

Immediate observation on running the car for a few hundred metres was that it sounded much more muted that I remebered it. I couldn't explain that. I thought maybe they put some extra sound dampening material under the bonnet after they had removed it during painting.

I went to the service station at around 1:50pm without prior appointment. I was attended to within 5 minutes.

I wasn't sure how much the IRVM would cost, so I asked the SA to check if spare is available and inform me about the price before changing it. The SA came back in 10 minutes. He told me that the spare is available and it would around Rs.500 for the part and Rs.100 fitting charge. I asked him to go ahead.

This time, my car was in the service bay right next to the customer lounge, so I could see what's happening. They tried changing the bulb - no luck. They checked the fuses - no luck. Then the SA came back and told me that it would take about an hour longer since they had to remove the headlamp assembly and check - for which they would need to partially remove the front bumper as well. I was getting late for an appointment, but still told him to go ahead although I wasn't really sure if it'd be over in an hour. Anyway, he put 2-3 technicians on the job and they were done in 30 minutes. It was a loose connection. After the jobs were done, the SA told me that the IRVM had been replaced under warranty. The turn light loose connection was also fixed under warranty. Total cost to me: Rs.0/-. I was out of the service station by 4pm.

New Issue:
Even while coming back from the service station, the "muted" Punto bugged me. Once I was back home, I asked my wife to sit inside the car and started it. She too said it sounds different, but I observed something new. The MID now said "Check glow plugs". I turned the car off and started it twice or thrice more and the same message appeared. I observed that all the warning lamps were going off as normal one I started the car and the "Glow plug failure" warning lamp was not lit. Just the message on MID, no beeps. Anyway, I parked the car and since it was already nearly 5pm and I had to leave for an appointment soon, I thought I'll take the car to the service station on Monday morning. The car was left parked till today morning. At around 10am, I tried starting the car (cold start) and it started at the first crank. No warning lamps and no "Check glow plug" message either. Tried it twice more and the same result. Now I'm even more confused. Is it still necessary to take the car to the service station?

[StarrySky]

The "Check glow plugs" warning re-appeared yesterday, so I gave a call to the SA at Hyson. He told me that there is no emergency to bring the car in and I could do that over the weekend. However, I wasn't ready to wait till the weekend, so I took the car to the service station today. The issue turned out to be due to a faulty plug and it was replaced under warranty. The entire visit to the service station took about 2 hours, which was OK since I had again gone without prior appointment.

[StarrySky]

My Punto touched ~160kmph on the Mannuthy bypass today before we ran out of clear enough road to go further. My BIL had picked me up from the airport and since I'd had a long journey, he was the one driving. Sometime during the drive, I thought he was going pretty fast (I had heard the speed beep at 90kmph). I checked the speedo - and we were doing 140 already. Then I remarked to him that it's the first time my Punto had seen speeds north of about 110kmph. I guess he then decided to do a speed test when the road was clear enough And on the bypass, he indicated to me when we hit 140 again and a few seconds later, we hit 160 on the speedo. We probably hit a few more kmph before we had to slow down. Although I wasn't the one driving, I could feel the stability of the car even at 160. GTO had said in his Punto review that at 140 in the Punto, he was yawning. Now I know it's definitely possible to be that relaxed in the Punto at high speeds although I personally won't be attempting to hit such high speeds again. I'm pretty sure I'll run out of guts long before the Punto runs out of grip and stability.

In other news, I crossed 20K on the odo. The odo now stands at 20450km. The car hasn't seen much running since the beginning of March since I've been travelling most of the time.

[KuttappanAbhi]

Awesome. I have run till 130 in the Mannuthy bypass, and my Punto too performed like a breeze.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by KuttappanAbhi

Awesome. I have run till 130 in the Mannuthy bypass, and my Punto too performed like a breeze.

Yes, the stability of the car at high speed is something to be experienced - absolutely rock solid.

The bypass is a really long straight stretch of road and I guess very few people keep to the legal speed limit on that road. Earlier there used to be police presence on the road, but I haven't spotted police vehicles there for a long time. My BIL told me he hit double ton in his friend's new Passat on that road. The Thalore-Mannuthy direction may be better for speed runs since it is more downhill than uphill when compared to the reverse direction.

[StarrySky]

A small milestone that I passed 2 days back

[StarrySky]

It's just 3 days away from my Punto's 2nd "birthday" and it was time to get the car serviced (2years or 30K km, whichever is earlier). I booked an appointment for the service for today at Hyson Motors, Thrissur.

Reached the service station by around 8:30am and was promptly attended to. I had 4 complaints:
1. (In) famous rattle from the glovebox
2. Rattle from RF door
3. A vague noise, which probably comes from the suspension on the front left side.
4. Sometimes, the remote key does not work.

The SA informed me that in addition to engine oil change, there are some others that are recommended by Fiat at 2 years - like coolant change, transmission oil change etc. I had missed that when I checked the manual yesterday, so I checked again and found that indeed there are some extra stuff recommended by Fiat every 24 months/60K kms, whichever is earlier. So I asked him to carry out those works as well. I mentioned that if they are using engine oil from a fresh can and billing me for 4L, then they should give the unused oil to me in the can. The SA promised to deliver the car in the evening.

As usual, I stayed back for sometime till I personally saw them change the various oils. In the meantime, I spotted Mr.Enrico Atanasio, Fiat's new chief visiting the showroom.

I went home for lunch and was back in the showroom by about 3pm. By that time, my car had been sent for washing. I used the time to get my insurance renewed. The premium came to Rs.9775 for insured value of 4.9L.

The car was ready by about 5pm. The total bill came to Rs.8464.

The break-up:
Engine oil (4L): Rs.2044
Oil Filter: Rs.362
Fuel Filter: Rs.1850
Air Filter: Rs.265
Pollen Filter: Rs.47
Transmission Oil (1L*2): Rs.882
Power Steering Oil (1L): Rs.431
Coolant (1L): Rs.969
Brake Fluid (1L): Rs.325

The total maintenance cost so far has been about Rs. 17,920, which translates to about Rs.0.73 per km. Slightly skewed calculation, as I have just incurred a major expense, but won't hopefully be spending any more money on maintenance for another 15K km.

In addition, the CSC replacement (changed to steel) was done FOC under warranty. I was informed that the brake pads are still in good condition. The vehicle was cleaned properly, exterior and interior. But they have applied some polish on the dashboard and it's smell doesn't agree with me. Hope it will go off in a few days' time. The unused amounts from the various oils that have been changed have been returned to me in their own cans.

The car sounds quieter post-service. Initial feedback on my 4 complaints - all of them seem to be solved. Although, I'm not quite certain if the third one has been solved for good. The SA told me they checked the suspension and there's nothing wrong with it. I'm not sure if they checked something else too.

The washing has revealed some new scratches I haven't noticed before. Unfortunately, I haven't been paying much attention to the car lately, so I am not sure if they were gifted by "biker friends" or the service station. Moral of the story: Wash the car yourself before giving it for service.

[krish3]

Nice reports and good to see that you religiously update the thread. Also nice to see that you are very happy with the service experience.

9k for a big service is not a big deal, specially considering that synthetic oil is being used and costs almost 2k and you have to do it only every year or 15k kms.

How are the interiors holding up apart from the few rattles.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by krish3

How are the interiors holding up apart from the few rattles.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so here are a few pics.






A bit a wear and tear on the gear lever and the handbrake. I also had an issue with the IRVM, whose adjustment mechanism got spoilt as a result of parking under the sun during office hours. It was replaced under warranty.


Only part of the car that has the original plastic cover intact:


The much-maligned plastic near the wipers. As mentioned before the car is exposed to the elements during office hours, considering which, it doesn't appear too bad:


A few exterior shots: