Hey Guys
Extremely sorry for the long pause with the update. Last maintenance update was on
15th October 2010.
The ODO has now (as of today) crossed 111k kms and now reads approx
111030 kms .
In the past couple of months I took the vehicle to the workshop thrice to sort out some small and big issues that are natural to crop up with the ownership of the vehicle especially when one buys a second hand or in my case a 3rd hand vehicle. Please do not misunderstand me as I am not cribbing or complaining, I am rather happy that these issues are cropping up as, as and when I am resolving these issues my vehicle is getting close to near perfection, atleast mechanically.
ISSUES
As I hadn’t got a chance to check whether the 4x4 was working or not, I was not really comfortable about the 4x4 capability of my vehicle. Please bear in mind that I never had or have any doubt over the 4x4 ability and/ or capability of the mighty 80 series, I only wanted to check whether it was in proper working condition or not. The reason for my doubts was that my brother had taken the vehicle for two outstation trips and both the times he’d got stuck in sand and that too in the simplest of the places. Over the phone I guided him to lock the front hubs and press the H4 button on the centre console but he had to be pulled out both these times. So this was problem number one.
The second issue, though much smaller was the front power windows ceased to function along with horn.
SOLUTION
All this time I wanted to get the 4x4 issue resolved but I didn’t get a chance to even check what the problem was. I didn’t know whether there was a problem in the front differential or the transfer case or the 4x4 switch or any other issue that I wasn’t thinking about or didn’t know of it. So one fine day (9th of November 2010) I took the vehicle to the workshop and told guy to raise the vehicle on jacks and mount the triangle shaped mounts which all workshops and tyre shops use. They can be seen in the following pictures
What effectively I thought that we’d do is that raise the vehicle on all 4’s and then try engaging and disengaging the 4x4. This would tell us whether the 4x4mechanism was working or not.
After the above exercise was done we discovered that upon engaging the 4x4 the front shaft was rotating but without the force or the rotation being transferred onto the front two wheels. This gave me a sigh of relief that atleast the transfer case and the 4x4 mechanism was working and this was my main worry. Now I thought that the fault would either lie in the front axles or the Free Wheeling Hubs. So naturally we started opening up the front disc assembly along with the front hubs and all.
In this process it was discovered that the front left Free Wheeling Hub FWH had developed an issue. There was this small circular plate which when the FWH is rotated to the LOCK position, pushes and locks the axle in place. This ring or plate was badly bent and mangled and was was preventing the front left wheel from being locked in place.
Also it was decided that when we have already opened the front assembly we do a complete service of the front discs (i.e. cleaning, greasing, washing, checking the bearings, etc)
A picture of the faulty part after being repaired
Some pictures of the final assembly in progress
The air filter was also given a customary cleaning or the air filter element
So after everything was done the vehicle was again checked and this time the front wheels were engaging like a charm. Also earlier I had to use a pair pliers to lock and unlock the front FWH’s but post this exercise I was able to lock and unlock them with my hand.
When one has to spend an entire day at the workshop you have to keep yourself busy. Well, I took some pictures of vehicles standing at the workshop.
As it had become quite late in the evening and me too was quite tired, I decided to attend to the power windows the next day. Next evening I took the vehicle to Palika Bhawan and discovered that the power window motor had gone for a toss. The mechanic overthere told me that I can install Hyundai’s (whether accent or Sonata’s I am not sure) power window motor and that it works flawlessly. Spoke to Bobbie and he too agreed that I can safely get them installed. These were eventually changed along with the complete window rubber beading.
Again time has to be passed so I tried taking some long exposure, just experimentation
All pictures are from a P&S camera.