[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by johnruben

@AutoIndian, ~19-20 is a great mileage, maybe you are getting that much because of highway driving + less traffic, but in my case i am driving almost in bangalore's heavy traffic daily.

Thanks for that. Yes I attribute the good mileage to the odd office hours, more than 50% of highway driving & last but not the least sedate driving.

Originally Posted by johnruben

I did a full tank from auto-cutoff to auto-cutoff and this time mileage was 11.8kmpl, this is a ridiculous mileage inspite of following the fuel-saving-methodology while driving. The vehicle was serviced 5k KM back, am i suppose to change something ?

There could be multiple reasons for your poor mileage. Listing below few things that significantly affect fuel consumption (Courtesy TIUG: Achin Juneja)
1) Bunk --> Change your bunk immediately if you have been filling from the same bunk consistently.
2) Air filter --> a clean air filter element improves driveability as well as mileage. To be checked & cleaned every 5000 kms, more frequently if
driving in dusty conditions.
3) Fuel filter --> even a slight obstruction can reduce pickup. If in doubt,
replace immediately.
4) Tyre air pressure --> under inflated tyres bring down the mileage.
5) Alternator & AC compressor belts too tight --> increses the load on the
engine.
6) Brakes --> mis-aligned disk brakes are one of the major causes of reduced mileage & pickup.
7) Using headlight lamps of 90w or more imposes a higher load on the
alternator, which in turn loads the engine, reducing mileage.

[johnruben]

@AutoIndian, thanks for the quick guide. I quickly observed change in mileage from 11.8 to 13.3 after changing the petrol bunk and also started adding System D, works wonder

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by johnruben

@AutoIndian, thanks for the quick guide. I quickly observed change in mileage from 11.8 to 13.3 after changing the petrol bunk and also started adding System D, works wonder

Wonderful, that's great news johnruben , keep it up. I am sure you can slowly but steadily improve on these figures as well, it could really test your patience at times, but then patience pays (& it will pay you in terms on rupees saved & mental satisfaction).

[AutoIndian]

Gives me immense pleasure to share with the group that I joined the Indica 1 Lakh club today. Yes while coming to office I could see the magical 6 digit figure on my odo (100000). Immediately took the car off the road & clicked some snaps of the odo (for 99999 & 100000). Will upload these as & when the time permits.

It is exactly 7 years & 3 months ago that I bought my Indica (10th July 2004 was the delivery date). The car has been nearly trouble free all this while & not even once I was stranded on the road (due to any failure or breakdown, touch-wood).

The first 50K kms were covered in 57 months, while the balance 50 is just under 30 months

Will be getting the 1 lakh km service done on the coming Saturday, 14th Oct & share with the group my findings.

Thank you once again to each & every group member for being with me in thick & thin. Had it not been for this group, the experience of owning & driving an Indica would not have been that great.

Request to Mods: Can you please change my thread title to "Indica DLX - One Lakh kms & beyond"

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Gives me immense pleasure to share with the group that I joined the Indica 1 Lakh club today. Yes while coming to office I could see the magical 6 digit figure on my odo (100000). Immediately took the car off the road & clicked some snaps of the odo (for 99999 & 100000). Will upload these as & when the time permits.

Congrats!!! Thats THE major milestone. 1 lakh trouble-free KMs is great. Waiting for the pics.

BTW, how many more KMs do you plan to keep her? I see you commenting on most of the new car threads (Fluidic, Fiesta, etc.). Seems to me you are going to jump in the market soon with a very confused mind to start with.

Wishing you all the best!

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

Congrats!!! Thats THE major milestone. 1 lakh trouble-free KMs is great. Waiting for the pics.

Thanks Ajay, will surely upload the pics in the next couple of hours.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

BTW, how many more KMs do you plan to keep her? I see you commenting on most of the new car threads (Fluidic, Fiesta, etc.). Seems to me you are going to jump in the market soon with a very confused mind to start with. Wishing you all the best!

I intend to keep it for another year or so (roughly @ 20K kms more). I am on the look out for more than 2 years now & can extend it for one more year . Fluidic is still on my radar, Fiesta ruled out. Can also consider Manza, Etios, Sunny (all in diesel strictly), Linea (1.6 MJD only if at all it is launched within a year). I am keenly following the Duster thread as well. So you see my choices are wide open.

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Gives me immense pleasure to share with the group that I joined the Indica 1 Lakh club today.

It is exactly 7 years & 3 months ago that I bought my Indica (10th July 2004 was the delivery date). The car has been nearly trouble free all this while & not even once I was stranded on the road (due to any failure or breakdown, touch-wood).

@Autoindian - Congratulations on this wonderful milestone. What is even more commendable is that it has been mostly a trouble free ownership.

So does TATA provide any certificate to individual owners (non taxi segment) on completion of this milestone

Wishing you all the best for the new search.

Edit: It would be a good idea to report your post to the moderators asking for the title change.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Thanks Ajay, will surely upload the pics in the next couple of hours.

Here you go for the pics.

Originally Posted by amitwlele

@Autoindian - Congratulations on this wonderful milestone. What is even more commendable is that it has been mostly a trouble free ownership.

So does TATA provide any certificate to individual owners (non taxi segment) on completion of this milestone

Wishing you all the best for the new search.

Thanks for your wishes Amit. How nice it would be if the manufacturer would take a note at least (leave aside providing certificate)

Originally Posted by amitwlele

Edit: It would be a good idea to report your post to the moderators asking for the title change.

Can you please help me out in doing this? How do I report my post to the Moderators?

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Can you please help me out in doing this? How do I report my post to the Moderators?

Thanks for the snaps. The dask looks really clean even after so many years.

You can see one Red Triangle on the original post next to the green circle (which indicates you are online). You can click on that. This will open a new window for you to type in a message. You can put in your request to the moderators in that and submit it. Most of the times it works, unless moderators are inundated with numerous reported posts.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

Thanks for the snaps. The dask looks really clean even after so many years.

Thanks for your compliments Amit. I clean the car myself every Sunday (without fail). Spend at least an hour cleaning it (inside out). Also daily I clean both the windshields & window glasses with moist cloth.

Originally Posted by amitwlele

You can click on that. This will open a new window for you to type in a message. You can put in your request to the moderators in that and submit it.

Have done it. Lets hope moderators can do it for me.

[AutoIndian]

Thank you moderators for changing my thread title, now the new title looks more apt.

Now that I have reached this milestone, thought of sharing some vital stats about my car:

[amitwlele]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Thank you moderators for changing my thread title, now the new title looks more apt.

Thanks Autoindian. I think your car is a proof of VFM tag attached to TATA cars.

The one figure i would die for it to be back is the Avg Diesel Price = Rs.37.17

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

Thanks Autoindian. I think your car is a proof of VFM tag attached to TATA cars.

If only the service centre guys haven't screwed up things Tata by now would have been the top car manufacturer in this country.

Originally Posted by amitwlele

The one figure i would die for it to be back is the Avg Diesel Price = Rs.37.17

Indeed, when I started using the car way back in July 2004, diesel was priced @ 27.24. Even then just look at the petrol prices, they have almost doubled since then, but the increase in diesel prices have been half of that.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Will be getting the 1 lakh km service done on the coming Saturday, 14th Oct & share with the group my findings.

As promised earlie,r got my 1 lakh km service done today, from an independent garage, Venus Auto in MIDC, Chinchwad, Pune. This was the first time I was getting my car serviced from there. Had taken a prior appointment for Saturday morning (confirmed by calling the proprietor, Mr Harish, on Friday). Landed there today @ 09:15 this morning. Mr Harish was fair enough to inform me in advance that I can source the spares from outside & get his services or I can avail the spares from him, obviously I chose the former option.

I told Mr Harish to do a test drive to get a feel of the clutch, suspension, transmission etc. After a short test drive car was raised on the ram at 10:15am. I then gave him the list of tasks to be carried out. Underbody checked thoroughly, found to be OK. Suspension checked, little oil leakage from front suspension, but no need for any replacement. Brake discs were also okayed & no need for replacement. He then handed over the car & task list to Bharat, his mechanic. Bharat started his job with earnest.

Removed the old oil filter, drained the engine oil first, then the gear box oil. Lowered the ram. Poured the 4 litre GTD can in engine, topped it up with 200 ml of GTD to get the oil level to the max mark on the oil dip stick. Then poured the 3 cans of gear box oil. Fitted both the fuel filter elements (actually only Primary filter was scheduled to be changed, but to take good care of fuel pump & injectors replaced both the filter elements). Removed the car from the ram & took it to the bay. Before I could go to the TASC to procure the spares I wanted to know which all parts need a replacement. Rear brake liners were on my priority. Hence Bharat opened both the rear wheels & brake drums. Removed the bearings. The brake liners were found to be OK (again no need for replacement). However the LHS brake drum had lot of brake dust. Also on cleaning the bearings with diesel it was found that the LHS taper roller bearings (both big & small) had some discolouring on the rollers & it was recommended to replace them. RHS bearing set was good.

Bharat then started his job on the belts. First removed the AC idler pulley & AC belt, then the alternator belt & finally the timing belt (by locking the flywheel & making a mark on the pulley). The AC belt had multiple cracks from the inside, also the alternator belt had some flarings, advice replace all the belts.

The Idler for timing belt was also making some grinding noise on rotating by hand, recommendation replace it.

He then checked the coolant pump & said there was some play in it. Asked me if I wanted to replace. Mr Harish told that it can perform the duty for some more time but if it needs a replacement midway, the timing belt will again have to be reopened (which was cumbersome). I agreed.

The pump was carefully dismantled after removing the 5 bolts (but before that all the coolant was drained from the drain plug on the lower rear side of radiator & collected in a can). Pump was rotated & checked for play by Mr Harish. Surprisingly there wasn't any. He concluded the same pump fitted with a new gasket can do the duty (Rs 1100/- to be spent o pump saved). I then gave the list of spares to my Brother-In-Law(BIL) & he procured the same for me.

Meanwhile Bharat started the hub greasing job. When bearings came he greased them, roughened the brake liners & drum & fitted the rear wheels (took care of tyre rotation during this). He then fitted the coolant pump, timing belt idler & timing belt.


Started the engine for a short while to check the fitment of the timing belt. Loosened the tensioner to flex the timing belt by 1/2 inch. He then fitted the alternator & AC belts. Poured back the coolant from the can, topped it up by one more litre. I liked his idea of pressing the hose pipe from radiator (pumping action) to drive out the trapped air. Coolant was topped to the max level (some water was added to raise the level). The air filter was then replaced, took a while to fix the cover back in place. Other minor works like LHS fog lamp replacement, RHS OVRM screw fixing etc were carried out. Engine was then started & kept on idling with AC ON. The car was now ready at 05:00pm for wash, however the wash-man being on leave it could not get washed. I asked with Harish to do a quick test drive & prepare the bill, which he did. I too got my hands on the wheel. Car felt good, engine obviously smoothened & pick-up improved due to the fresh air & fuel filters. Bill was settled & I moved out of the premises @ 05:30pm. The part & labour costs is as below:

Part Charges:
Assly Oil Filter -1 nos (Purolator make) 75.00
15W40 Diesel Engine Oil - 4 ltr (Castrol GTD) 1,000.00
Castrol GL-4 90 Gear Box oil - 3 litres 675.00
Part # 254705116312 Timing Belt - 136 Teeth 825.00
Part # G279009130118 Air filter element - 1 nos 228.00
Part # G279005110104 Assy Idler timing belt - 1 nos 538.00
Part # - 279023116307 Poly Belt 875 Kg (Alternator belt) 425.00
Part # - 279020105301 Gasket water pump - 1 nos 6.00
Part # - G269533403104 Outer bearing Indica 277.00
Fuel Filter - 2 nos (Delphi make) 275.00
Distilled water (for battery top-up) 15.00
Fog lamp - Mico Bosch 35.00
Thanda Raja Coolant top-up - 1 litres (@ Rs 110 a litre) 110.00
AC belt - 1 nos 270.00
Rear wheel outer bearing - 1 nos 290.00
Rear wheel oil seal 60.00
Grease 100.00
Total - Part Charges 5,204.00

Labour charges:
Engine Oil change 150.00
Gear box oil change
Timing belt replace labour 650.00
Water pump removal, check up & refitting with gasket
Rear wheels hub greasing 200.00
Electrical check-up 50.00
General check-up 100.00
Coolant drain & refill for pump check-up
Replace Oil Filter
Tyre Rotation
Air Filter replacement
Replace alternator & AC belt
Battery electrolyte level (top-up with distilled water)
Brake pads removal, roughening & refitting
Rear wheel brake drum & brake shoes cleaning & roughening
LHS fog lamp fitting.
RHS ORVM screw fittment
Discount on labour -70.00
Tip to the mechanic (Bharat) 100.00
Total - Labour Charges 1,180.00

Gross Total 6384.00

Overall it was a very good experience (though I had taken the risk of going to a totally unknown place). Labour charges seem to be very minimal. I was expecting around 7 to 8K total, however settling on 6.3K was a very pleasant surprise. I would highly recommend this garage to people in & around PCMC area.

Recently I came across the invoice of the first major service (read oil change service @ 15K kms) of a Vento owner. He had to shell out @ 10K rupees, just for a simple oil change service (remember there are no free services for any of of the VW cars & the first service itself is a paid service). On knowing this I felt very very proud to be an Indica owner..........Jai Indica

[Eddy]

Hi AutoIndian,

For the benefit of other users, can you please post a review of this garage in the Directory section ?

TIA