[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by condor

@AutoIndian, good to hear that ! FIP overhaul may be expensive, but it gives you almost new FIP at about half the cost of a new FIP. When done at TVS-Lucas or Bosch, you should get the right service.

I dunno, I had my FIP overhauled less than a year ago, and it has started leaking diesel (my regular mech (ignite) confirmed this) . I called up lucas TVS, and they said they offer only a 6 month warranty. Now I'm driving around with the leak. Don't want to spend another 8K for a fix that won't last beyond 6 months

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

I dunno, I had my FIP overhauled less than a year ago, and it has started leaking diesel (my regular mech (ignite) confirmed this) . I called up lucas TVS, and they said they offer only a 6 month warranty. Now I'm driving around with the leak. Don't want to spend another 8K for a fix that won't last beyond 6 months

Sorry to know about that. But if I may ask you, what were the problems that you were facing with your FIP and what all was done during your FIP servicing/overhaul? If you can attach your invoice here we can make some conclusions. It is true that TVS-Lucas usually offers 6 months of warranty for any kind of repair/overhaul work they do. That does not mean your FIP should start leaking diesel within a year and they sit tight on it. They should at least show the courtesy of diagnosing the root cause and fix it with nominal charges. How can they expect to overhaul the FIP every time any issue crops up in the FIP.

Good that you shared this info. I will have to be extra cautious at least for the next six months and bring it to their notice if any issue/diesel leakage is observed.

[greenhorn]

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post3037888

This is the bill. I had excessive jerking during acceleration. The myTVS service centre said the FIP needed an overhaul. After the overhaul, they fitted it back, and still had issues which they traced to an injector. So that was also overhauled.

Now I'm getting the same jerks (though not as bad) and after leaving the car parked somewhere for an extended time, there is a small pool of fuel. I had given my car for a regular service, and they said they had replaced everything else, but the fuel is leaking from the pump. I called them up, and they said that warranty was there only for 6 months, but to bring it over. They're a bit far from my home, so I think I'll take it to them for my next service.

PS: I had my FIP calibrated earlier in 2009
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post1625137
but then I didn't face any issues

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

PS: I had my FIP calibrated earlier in 2009
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post1625137
but then I didn't face any issues

Saw your both bills. The first one in Dec 2009 was obviously the calibration to adjust the fuel injection timing. I doubt of any of the parts were replaced that time (might be couple of "O" rings, washers etc)

In the second invoice of Feb-2013 I can clearly see the FIP overhaul, however I could not find any mention of rotor replacement. Is there any other good Lucas-TVS workshop around, where you can show to take a second opinion?

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

In the second invoice of Feb-2013 I can clearly see the FIP overhaul, however I could not find any mention of rotor replacement. Is there any other good Lucas-TVS workshop around, where you can show to take a second opinion?

I was told by the mech that the rotor needs replacement as some sound was coming from the FIP. I had this done at a myTVS near my home. the others are too far away, and the other Lucas service centers are not TVS, but third party. The only 'better place" would be their corporate office/plant in chennai

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

I was told by the mech that the rotor needs replacement as some sound that was coming from the FIP. I had this done at a myTVS near my home. the others are too far away, and the other Lucas service centers are not TVS, but third party. The only 'better place" would be their corporate office/plant in chennai

I am wondering how the mechanic made this conclusion that the rotor needs replacement just by hearing the sound was coming from the FIP. Anyways if TVS plant is Chennai does the FIP servicing, then that would be the best place to get it serviced.

Couple of more observations from the 70 odd kms that I have driven the car after FIP overhaul:

1. The engine comes to life even at half a turn of the key (or half cranking if you may call it). Also the engine note (sound) at idling has changed completely. It sounds very sweet now. The roughness at idling has gone for good.
2. The idling rpm is on the higher side now @ 1000 rpm and when AC ON it shoots to 1100-1150 rpm (due to FICD). The ideal idling rpm is 800-850 with AC off and with AC ON, it should hover around 1000 rpm. Will drive the car with current setting for at least a week and then get it reduced over the weekend.
3. The low end torque has improved considerably. I can drive the car in 3rd or 4th gear even at 1200-1300 rpm. Not only that I can cross some smooth speed breakers in the city even on 3rd gear. For the bigger ones, have to get down to second gear, but not the first gear as was the case earlier.
4. The most critical problem of engine stalling when very hot (for which the whole FIP overhaul exercise was undertaken) has been fixed. That is the single greatest achievement.

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

The idling rpm is on the higher side now @ 1000 rpm and when AC ON it shoots to 1100-1150 rpm (due to FICD). The ideal idling rpm is 800-850 with AC off and with AC ON, it should hover around 1000 rpm. Will drive the car with current setting for at least a week and then get it reduced over the weekend.

This is the reason why all your other problems have been solved. I have found that increasing idle RPM to 1000 (with the ac switched off) improves idle NVH, pickup, driveablity, that I always tell my mech to keep it that way. I think there might be a negative trade off in terms of lower clutch life/mileage , but I find it totally worth it.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

This is the reason why all your other problems have been solved. I have found that increasing idle RPM to 1000 (with the ac switched off) improves idle NVH, pickup, driveablity, that I always tell my mech to keep it that way. I think there might be a negative trade off in terms of lower clutch life/mileage , but I find it totally worth it.

You have a valid point there greenhorn. The increased idling RPM might have improved idle NVH, pickup, driveablity. Hence I will continue driving this way for this whole week. Over the week end will go to Lucas to set it back to 850 levels and check out on driveability, NVH, etc. If the lower idling rpm does not adversely affect the pickup, driveablity much, then I would retain it, else I will find a golden median between the two.

On a side note I forgot to share the most important part of the FIP overhaul story. The factory fitted pump had black coloured, hard plastic vanes on the propeller/impeller. During servicing all the plastic ones were replaced by metallic ones (I guess new ones are made of steel). Sandip Lucas-TVS guy said that older FIPs used to come with plastic vanes, but later the design was changed to metallic vanes. I believe that is the major reason for this remarkable improvement in pick up and low end torque, even when the engine is hot. The plastic indeed will have a tendency to warp, loose shape and in turn loose the pumping efficiency, when sizzling hot, steel can easily withstand very high temperatures without loosing efficiency.

[condor]

Idling RPM is normally @ 850, as a balance between FE & pickup. Though some people prefer a higher speed. Effect should not be too much, since the extra rpm is using fuel only at idling.

[AutoIndian]

Car has run almost 700 kms after the FIP overhaul. I am very much satisfied with the end result. The car's driveability and low end torque has considerably increased. Afterall the 15K has been well worth the spend. Now the only item pending is change in shoes. The current set will be completing 80K kms next week. By end of May will replace the current set Michelin XM1s with XM2.

[AutoIndian]

Today morning went to Pandit Auto in Bhosari and purchased the combi switch (both wiper stalk and light switch) and the rear wiper. Though both the switches were functioning, with constant usage over the years each of them had developed a problem:

• The wash and wipe function of the left side combi switch was working erratically. When I pressed the wash and wipe button, out of 10 times it would work only once, spraying water and wiping.
• With the right side swtich, whenever I gave the side indicator, it never used to stay in position and fall back to the centre. Many a times I had to hold it in position with my middle finger, keeping the remaining fingers firmly on the steering.

I took the above parts to my garage and within 30 mins he fitted them in my car. The part and labor details are as below:

Wiper stalk (Left side Combi switch, part # 540154509904) 614.00
Light stalk (Right side Combi switch, part # 540154509902) 729.00
Rear wiper blade (part# 269954509909) 85.00
Total - Part Charges 1428.00
Labour charges for combi switch fitment 100.00
Air filter cleaning 0.00
Total - Labour Charges 100.00

The old combi switch being removed


The new Light stalk


The new Wiper stalk


The parts invoice

[AutoIndian]

From the time I had done the pump overhaul work, I had observed that the oil leakage from the car has increased. Everyday in my apartment parking and in the office parking floor, I could observe couple of oil drops beneath the car near the right hand side front tyre. Initially I had thought that the engine oil might be leaking from somewhere near the alternator and for a 10 year old car, this is normal. However the engine oil level would never drop down. Surprisingly when I observed the power steering oil container, I found the oil level well below the "min" level mark. I then topped it up to the "max" level mark. However after two weeks the level again dropped below the "min" level mark. So it was now clear that the oil spillage all these days was indeed the PS oil and not the engine oil.

On Saturday I took the car to the tyre shop to fix a puncture in RHS rear tyre. There was one nail embedded in the tyre. Besides this the valve was also leaking air. So fixed the puncture and fitted a new valve, which I had in spare. I then took the car to Venus Auto. The mechanic raised the car on jack and observed the car underneath. He concluded that the oil was leaking from the PS pipe. I told him to check the pipe clamps. To my utter surprise both the inlet and outlet pipe clamps from the PS container were very loose and all the PS oil leakage was happening from these two loose joints. (Probably when the timing belt was removed during the FIP overhaul, the PS container pipe was loosened and was never tightened back). He tightened both the clamps. Asked me to top it up and clean the area, so that next time if leakage happens it would be clear from where it is leaking.

Yesterday I topped the PS oil to the "max" level and thoroughly cleaned the area. I will now observe for the next couple of days. If there are no oil traces on the parking floor, then I will conclude that the issue has been fixed, else I will have to look at somewhere else to trace the leakage root cause.

[AutoIndian]

Hello Friends,

My front LHS tyre was loosing air (@ 5 psi a day). When I filled air with my handpump, I noticed that the valve was leaking air. I thought of going to my friendly tyre garage and replace the leaking valve with a new one that I had in spare. Also the tyre tread depth had reduced considerably. Hence thought of moving that tyre to spare and replace it with the current spare. Hence went to the tyre repair shop.

When I told Anna to check the spare for puncture, it was observed that out of the 4 punctures fixed earlier, two had very minor leaks. I scrapped the idea of replacing the front LHS tyre with this "multiple puncture" tyre and straightway headed to Darshan tyres for tyre replacement. Though the current set of tyres are 4.5 years old, they have run more than 81K kms combined. I was delaying the tyre replacement as I am anyways going for an upgrade in the later part of the year. But then to continue using the current tyres would be a far stretch. Unfortunately there were no Michelin XM2 in stock and the owner said these needs to be ordered (each tyre costing Rs 3,550/). He had only Goodyears in stock costing Rs 2,650/- a piece (such a vast difference in the price of two different brands, obviously there is a vast difference in quality as well). After knowing the horror stories with Goodyears, I didn't want to opt for them. On asking if there are other brands like MRF, Bridgestone etc, he said that he has two used Bridgestones in stock (run only 200 kms as the tyre owner went for an upgrade). I thought what's the harm in at least giving it a try. When he showed me the tyre, it was in pretty good condition, but then it was 2013 manufactured and the asking price was 2,900/-, which I thought was not worth for a used tyre, which has been manufactured more than a year ago. I skipped the tyre purchase from there and went to Vishwanath tyres (Chapekar chowk) who is an MRF dealer.

He showed me MRF ZVTS (Feb 2014 manufactured), asking price Rs 3,100/- per piece. The two new tyres were put in front and the good one kept as spare. I didn't go for wheel alignment or balancing as there was no issue with either of them. Had to pay Rs 200/- extra for the two valves fitted on the two new tyres (I know the actual valve price is Rs 50/- or even lesser, but then the poor tyre fitter can only earn that much more). Though I have driven only 3kms after fitting the new tyres, the initial observation is that the steering has become lighter. Once I hit the highway and drive at a speed of 70kmph or above, I will come to know if the road grip and braking has improved or not. Will give further updates on Monday.

Thank you for reading.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Though I have driven only 3kms after fitting the new tyres, the initial observation is that the steering has become lighter. Once I hit the highway and drive at a speed of 70kmph or above, I will come to know if the road grip and braking has improved or not. Will give further updates on Monday.

I have driven more than 650kms now on the new MRF ZVTS and managed to drive @ 80-90kmph. The road noise is not that much as was expected. Grip is obviously better than the worn out tyres. In one emergency braking situation an i10 in front of me braked suddenly while cruising @ 60kmph to allow a woman to cross the highway. I could manage to stop behind the i10 within a safe distance. However an Accent, which was trailing behind me closely was caught unawares. He might have literally stood on the brakes with all his might as I could head a loud squealing noise of his tyres. Fortunately he didn't kiss me and my rear was saved. Momentarily I thought it was almost a sure shot rear ending.

The only issue with the MRFs is that they look older than my Michelins XM1+ right from day one although the Michelins are 4.5 years old and run 80K kms. Michelins have a darker rubber compound compared to the MRFs, hence they look newer than the MRFs

[ramzsys]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

The only issue with the MRFs is that they look older than my Michelins XM1+

May i insist a photo comparison, please!