[onkar1710]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

4 extra hours and the usual stress (arguments, escalation etc).

Shocking indeed ! With very high expectations from Toyota ASS standards, it's absolutely unacceptable. Is this the usual state of affairs with Toyota ASS? What to talk of others when Toyota itself is like this. For the benefit of prospective buyers and others alike,kindly give an objective view on Toyota ASS especially apropos the premium they usually charge.

Regards !

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by dean5545

Donot touch the alternator if you aren't facing any problem given the expertise your service centre seems to have. The only thing I changed in my Innova till date is the alternator bearing. Got the alternator current checked this time and it was normal. I have an Innova which is at 1,44,000km the bearing was changed at 1,22,000 km.

Will get alternator current readings next time.

Originally Posted by onkar1710

Shocking indeed ! With very high expectations from Toyota ASS standards, it's absolutely unacceptable. Is this the usual state of affairs with Toyota ASS? What to talk of others when Toyota itself is like this. For the benefit of prospective buyers and others alike,kindly give an objective view on Toyota ASS especially apropos the premium they usually charge.

Toyota is probably the best of the lot.

The ASCs folks are fine for standard 2WD stuff. They just haven't been trained properly for the 4WD extras. I would assume very few Fortuner owners insist on prop shaft greasing, or front diff oil change.

[roadjourno]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Will get alternator current readings next time.



Toyota is probably the best of the lot.

The ASCs folks are fine for standard 2WD stuff. They just haven't been trained properly for the 4WD extras. I would assume very few Fortuner owners insist on prop shaft greasing, or front diff oil change.

My Fortuner goes for 10k service this month.
Apart from regular things, what all precautions needs to be told to them upfront?

1. Propeller Shaft Greasing
2. Front /Rear Diff Oils change?

Off late i noticed, 2 tak tak sounds when starting from standstill when straightening from full right. Comes somewhere from near accelerator pedal. Anyclue?

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by roadjourno

My Fortuner goes for 10k service this month.
Apart from regular things, what all precautions needs to be told to them upfront?

1. Propeller Shaft Greasing
2. Front /Rear Diff Oils change?

Off late i noticed, 2 tak tak sounds when starting from standstill when straightening from full right. Comes somewhere from near accelerator pedal. Anyclue?

Only prop shaft greasing. Diff oil changes are required every 40K km.

Not sure about the noise - haven't faced this. You might want to check with Guderian or Manuuj on their threads.

[nilanjanray]

Had gone on a 2800 km roadtrip to Satpura National Park last week. The Fortuner performed well, as usual. Another 'nothing to report' trip. Took me 1.5 days to reach, 2 days there, 1.5 days driving back. Next day in office.

The Pirellis held up fine when driving fast over the two rough stretches near the AP-MH border. The suspension didn't protest when I went over a few 1 foot deep craters.

A few photos from the trip:

[nilanjanray]

5th Pirelli Scorpion ATR
Picked up the 5th Pirelli Scorpion ATR this Saturday from Millivision. Govind in the end agreed to provide it for the same price as the previous 4, though he had procured it from someone in NCR. 3014: 30th week in 2014, so relatively new. Got alignment done. Had a good experience.

The one that had a puncture, has become a stepney. I put the new tyre in the rear, and moved one of the rear ones to the front. I had done 4 way tyre rotation 3000km back, but there seemed to be no easy way to minimize wobbling with a new tyre that had done 15K km less than the others.

Since then, after driving for 125 km, I haven't found wobbling or pulling issues.

Now I can venture on roads less traveled with a little more peace of mind.

Learning: go for a popular tyre if it is suitable. Took me a few months to get the 5th tyre. Pirelli is pushing Scorpion Verde (HT version) nowadays, and have stopped supplying ATR.

Driver's seat
The leather on the right side of the driver's seat has become a little worn, and squeaks a little bit at times. I have a habit of sliding down when I get down, so that could be a reason. Anyway, no biggy.

The vehicle is running smoothly. One can't make out that it has crossed 80K km. Before buying the Fortuner, I almost ending up buying the Grand Vitara 2.4. I am glad now that I didn't, for various reasons.

I am thinking of upgrading the HU and speakers. The inability to play songs from my mobile is irritating during the long drives.

A couple of more photos from the Dec end trip.

[columbus]

Nilanjan

So the ASC experience remains the same even after 5 years of launch of Fortuner. Its the same here too. Every time the 10K kms service and i brace myself for a headache.

Superb photographs. By Satpura National Park, I am assuming that you went to Madhai ?? Where did you stay there ?

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by columbus

Nilanjan

So the ASC experience remains the same even after 5 years of launch of Fortuner. Its the same here too. Every time the 10K kms service and i brace myself for a headache.

Superb photographs. By Satpura National Park, I am assuming that you went to Madhai ?? Where did you stay there ?

Yeah! And Toyota is supposed to be the best of the lot.

I went to Madhai, stayed at Forsyth Lodge. Lovely place. Incidentally, a Team BHPian, Rishi Sharma, is the General Manager of the lodge.

[nilanjanray]

I test drove the Honda City and Verna on Sunday.

Random thoughts:
1. Verna felt the same as my old SX4 in terms of driving dynamics.
2. The Honda seemed a little more robust over bad roads (surprising!). Smoother too.
3. Needed to tiptoe on bad roads. Since I don't drive the SX4 nowadays, I had forgotten what it feels like to tackle broken roads in a non-4WD vehicle.
4. When I started driving the Fortuner after the test drives, I pressed the brake and had a shock as nothing happened. Took me a few minutes to get used to the spongy brakes again
5. I can't just sit and start driving, without worrying about what Indian roads might throw at me - on a roadtrip - when driving a sedan. Especially when I am driving in the night on unknown roads.
6. The ICE and other stuff in the sedans are fancy. My poor Bison - the dashboard seems ancient lol

Liked the driving dynamics of the Honda better. But wary about ownership opex. The seatbelt sensor was not working on the City. Is the ANHC robust enough for 5 years of ownership? And what will happen to the fancy touch screen, and sensor based gizmos, after a couple of years of rain and heat?

Interesting: Verna 2 years additional warranty is ~ 8K. ANHC: 18K.

[nilanjanray]

The vehicle is purring along. Tyres holding up, the Pirellis have done about 18K km.

The 85K servicing went smoothly, except for a shocker in the end. When I was about to drive off after paying the bill (things were working fine earlier, so didn't do a test drive before payment), I noticed that the centre differential lock light was on. The service adviser hadn't even noticed that. Neither had the person who bought the vehicle to the parking lot, after washing.

Some idiot had driven the vehicle in 4HL for a while. No idea why. And when. The service adviser said that it must have happened around the washing time.

A technician came and tried giving the usual fluff. "Saaar, nothing happens if the vehicle is driven in 4HL on tarmac". Gave them a blasting - they could have damaged the vehicle by driving in 4HL around the ASC. The light went away after some back and forth (try driving - very slowly - straight in 4H, the light will go away once the transmission wind-up is released; if not, try reversing slowly for a few feet, again in a straight line). I didn't know how they had driven the vehicle, so had to experiment with driving forward and backward - very slowly - before the transmission windup was released, and the light went off.

Learning: next time, I will tell the service advisor that no one should play around with the 4WD lever. I would have thought that one need not worry about such hygiene factors, but I increasingly realize that with a 4WD vehicle, one can't let one's guard down, even in Toyota ASCs.

Had gone for a 900 km roadtrip (Nilgiris, Anai Malai Hills) after that, no issues with the vehicle after the transmission windup incident, whether during high speed cruising, or offroading. Didn't try 4LL though - should have tried on some track, after what happened at the ASC.

Note: after any servicing, I always drive the vehicle in the city for 1-2 days before going on a roadtrip - helps in identifying issues due to ASC negligence. I had a bad incident many year back, during a family trip in my Indica. Immediately after servicing, I had taken off for the Nilgiris. The ASC hadn't fixed the coolant lid properly after replacing coolant ( I know, I should have checked everything before the trip, so it was my oversight too). After Gundlepet, the vehicle started overheating. Coolant had oozed out. Steam was coming out of the engine bay. We had to wait - under the burning midday sun on an April Sunday - till the engine cooled down a bit. Then poured water (there was a tubewell closeby) in the coolant chamber and slowly drove back to the nearest garage, 10 km away. We lost 3 hours, family suffered in the heat.

Had a minor adventure this time: I had reached Valparai around midnight. Not a single soul around. I missed the gate to Waterfalls estate, and went into some other tea estate track. After a while, I realized that the trail was getting narrower, steeper, and rockier. After driving 1 km, I figured that this couldn't be the road, since by then it had become track suitable only for 4WD vehicles. There was no place to turn. Kept going up, and finally found a suitable place. A 10 pointer turn, had to get down frequently and check with my torch how far away from edge (there was a 60 feet drop, the trail surface was full of rocks with loose clay) my wheels were, how much space I had etc.

As I keep saying, a 4x4 makes life a little more interesting - you can get away with a few things during such trips.

Next morning, I had nice sightings of the endangered Lion-tailed macaques, I had been wanting to take photos of them for quite some time.





Had become friends with the guys who were staying in the other room at the resort. Drove back with them till Tiruppur. They were in their new Scorpio. They had forest department contacts, so on the way back we entered a forest road (tarmac, but restricted access) after taking special permission. I parked my vehicle and went in their Scorpio (btw, the Scorpio's interiors felt far more upmarket than my Fortuner's). Had a couple of forest department guys with us. Got charged by an elephant. Saw forest fires. Came across a Sambar deer kill - we could smell the kill from the road, so was easy to find it.

During that weekend, I had an interesting spiritual (? jury still out on that) experience, but this is not the right forum for that .

[Sheel]

You know what, have been reading your ownership thread for the past 3 days (time permitting).

I enjoyed going through all the pages, the pictures, General's comments along with others. Nice read and good details

When are the other trips lined up, especially the one to North East?

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

During that weekend, I had an interesting spiritual (? jury still out on that) experience, but this is not the right forum for that .

Would be interesting to know if you can share some or at appropriate thread.

[alfredenuemann]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

The 85K servicing went smoothly, except for a shocker in the end.

Nilanjana, Where did you get your service done? Was it in Ravindu ? My vehicle is due for its 80k service and your input on watching out for service pitfalls is opportune. Thanks for the inputs.

Mod Note : Please quote ONLY the relevant bits of a post. Quoting a full, long post inconveniences our mobile readers.

Thanks!

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by alfredenuemann

Nilanjana, Where did you get your service done? Was it in Ravindu ? My vehicle is due for its 80k service and your input on watching out for service pitfalls is opportune. Thanks for the inputs.

I had got it done at Nandi Toyota, Kudlu gate, Hosur Road

--

90K servicing update

I got the servicing done at 89K, since I am going on another 3000+ km roadtrip.

The experience was very smooth, for once. I think they realized that I was a 'difficult' customer, so treated me with extra care. Even the prop shaft greasing happened smoothly (pun intended).

Major line items in the bill: engine oil (normal, not synthetic), oil filter, ac filter (gets changed every 30K km), 90K servicing, grease. Came to about Rs. 9.1K - with grease costing ~ Rs. 900. There is a little juddering when braking at 80kmph plus - but no safety implications, as per the service folks. The discs need skimming, I didn't have time for that.

The Bison is munching kilometers happily. A 1200 km drive is planned for Saturday: Bangalore - Pench. I have got a frozen neck/shoulder since yesterday, so trying to get well before I start driving. I will be visiting Satpura National Park (yet to complete my 2 previous Satpuras travelogues), and stop at Pench on the way.

As other Fortuner owners know, the age of the vehicle doesn't show at all. A little weather-worn - with scratches and dents, which I haven't bothered removing (the vehicle keeps getting scratched whenever I am on some narrow trail), but the heart beats as strong as ever.

A few photos with the mobile phone (the river bed ones are old DSLR photos):

[TOINGPOING]

I happened to see your thread pretty late,rather very late! Sat glued till the last page. You and Bison make an terrific combination! Lovely photographs. My best wishes to you and your family for lots of wonderful and safe journeys ahead. I am planning to buy an used T Fort from certified car dealer like,Mahindra True Value. After seeing the type of service being provided by Toyota ASC from your experiences,I would like your suggestion as to whether I would be right in going ahead with an very less driven T Fort with service history.And also your valuable suggestions. Thanks in advance and Happy Driving.

[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by TOINGPOING

I am planning to buy an used T Fort from certified car dealer like,Mahindra True Value. After seeing the type of service being provided by Toyota ASC from your experiences,I would like your suggestion as to whether I would be right in going ahead with an very less driven T Fort with service history.And also your valuable suggestions. Thanks in advance and Happy Driving.

Thanks. Yes, Fortuners keep purring along for a long time. Even in South Africa, many people buy Fortuners that have been driven for more than 100000 km.
-------
Update
Back from a 3200km trip. My leopard craving satiated for the time being. Drove extensively on forest trails inside Satpura Tiger Reserve. The vehicle performed very well. Used low range a few times.





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