[Dhruv29]

Originally Posted by noopster

This was a few days ago...could mine be the highest run automatic petrol car on the forum ya think?

Not yet mate .
Currently at 1,71,900 and still, I have an year left before it completes 15 years and then I'll be forced to scrap it.

[gasinveins]

A gem of a thread! Read it from page 1. Being a November 2019 Rapid 1.6 owner I can relate myself lot with this thread. Clocked around 5500kms in 4 months.

My dad's friend who owns a 2013 Skoda Fabia 1.2 MT is running perfectly at 1.85L km with just a single breakdown due to an alternator failure when water entered the alternator due to heavy rain. You'rs may be the highest mileage for a Petrol Car in this forum.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by gasinveins

A gem of a thread! Read it from page 1.

Thanks so much!

Car just crossed 1,30,000 km. I had some issues recently with noise coming from the engine and the Mechanix folks changed the tensioner and idler pulleys but it wasn't till they cleaned the timing cover (into which the PCV fits) that it finally went away.

More and more am patting myself on the back for the decision to retain this car for just a while more. It does the job, cruises nicely on the highway and is a joy in city traffic.

I see my friends upgrading to 20L crossovers and even 40L SUVs but they don't seem to get the pleasure out of it that they had anticipated. So for now, am quite content!

[gasinveins]

Originally Posted by noopster

More and more am patting myself on the back for the decision to retain this car for just a while more. It does the job, cruises nicely on the highway and is a joy in city traffic.

I see my friends upgrading to 20L crossovers and even 40L SUVs but they don't seem to get the pleasure out of it that they had anticipated. So for now, am quite content!

My dad's friend says the same. He can buy one from the german trio anytime, But he says driving this car gives him pleasure that can't be unmatched. Keep driving, I hope to drive my 1.6 MPI MT to a similar mileage like yours in the next 7 years!

[nileshch]

Originally Posted by noopster

More and more am patting myself on the back for the decision to retain this car for just a while more. It does the job, cruises nicely on the highway and is a joy in city traffic.

I see my friends upgrading to 20L crossovers and even 40L SUVs but they don't seem to get the pleasure out of it that they had anticipated. So for now, am quite content!

I am at 1.24L kms with the TDI. And its been the same consistent car as ever. Just came back from a BLR-BOM-BLR drive and it still ticks all boxes of driving fun, efficiency and comfort. I am happy I did not sell it last year. I was in a dilemma and was looking to upgrade. With only Octavia as a option (but less attractive due to the new model due this year), I did well to put off my decision (other than the option of jumping into a pre-worshipped Jetta, if I could find one). I am not much into soft roaders either.

[Turbo_anup]

Hi, I am at 1.73L kms with 1.6 TDI. A couple of questions as most discussions here are with respect to long term ownership -
1) has anyone faced temperature sensor issue is their Vento? Mine is a March 2012 TDI highline model and after a recent trip to Manali and Dalhousie (3 months back), my temperature sensor started showing variable readings in MID - it keeps on fluctuating in between -5c to 20c on its own. Further, I was surprised to see that the car ac stops functioning due to this! I thought that the temperature reading is only for external temperature and has nothing to do with ac working.
2) there has not been a single season when I had not to replace the vipers of my car. The service position coupled with every time the viper moves down before start on a dry glass surface seems to be the culprit. After sometime, the viper always stops cleaning properly for me (leaves a hazy screen with minute droplets still attached)
3) has anyone experienced vibrations while driving vehicle ONLY at certain speeds? Eg - as of now, I am seeing lot of pedal movement and vibrations only at around 80kmph speeds, not above or below that

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by noopster

I knew it would be a whopper but it still took my breath away when the estimate (and the eventual bill) arrived. It was close to 70,000/- including a complete suspension overhaul, transmission fluid replacement and servicing, car servicing and some issues related to leakage and idling.

Hey Anoop,

By any chance do you remember how much the AT fluid replacement costs?
My Vento has gone for the 8th service today and I have been asked to get the AT fluid replaced as part of service. The cost estimate for the same is around 10k. Just wanted to check if they are not fleecing me. (by the way, my car has done only around 36k at this 8yr mark! I asked them but they still insisted on having the gear oil changed, which is understandable as it is in 8th year service schedule. But do we really need to get it changed at just 36k KMs done?)

[noopster]

Originally Posted by joslicx

Hey Anoop,

By any chance do you remember how much the AT fluid replacement costs?
My Vento has gone for the 8th service today and I have been asked to get the AT fluid replaced as part of service. The cost estimate for the same is around 10k. Just wanted to check if they are not fleecing me.

10K sounds about right. At 8 years the AT fluid (in my case) was reduced virtually to a dry sludge and I was experiencing issues like jerky shifts and overheating. But in all honesty I don't think you need to change till at least 60,000 km run (mine was more than double that!)

If you can live with the cost, please go ahead and change it.

[udaydesai]

Hi
Have 2010 AT 1.6 petrol having done 90k till date and I have still not changed my gear box oil.
My manuals says to change at 1.1 K.

Uday

[noopster]

So my car is creeping up to the 135K mark as we speak. Were it not for the pandemic WFH situation, it would have be touching 150K already.

There was an annoying mechanical sound coming from the left front side and the brakes were not biting as well. Pickup was also a bit laggy and the wife was complaining that the AC wasn't performing as well. So sent the Vento in for its 135K service. Decided to stick with The Mechanix since I had a good experience last time.

Summary of works done:

• Oil filter, cabin filter and air filter replaced
• Oil top-up: 3.2 lit of Shell 5w30
• Wheel Alignment & Balancing
• Brake pads replacement & brake discs skimming
• Driveshaft repair (this was discovered during inspection)

Total damages came to around 16K.

Car drives fine now. The brakes still have a bit more play than I remember, will check if I can get that remedied.

Other issues:

• There is an ugly dent on the top of the trunk that got there during a careless reversing maneuver. Unfortunately they said they couldn't beat it out and it would need replacement- a big expense so deferred.
• My DD Pai dashcam has been throwing up an SD card error so I uninstalled it last night and have ordered a new Class 10 SD card from Samsung, which seems to be the way to fix this (currently was using a Sandisk that has been written over multiple times)
• The decorative chrome strips at front and back of the car are broken. Parts were not in stock so couldn't get this done.
• There seems to be some obstructed air flow in the central AC vents. Need to get this checked and fixed. Am a bit hesitant because replacing the HVAC unit (which is VW's solution for everything) is not an expense worth making at this stage. However summer is already here, so needs must!

The Seltos is the primary car now but we still use the VW for shopping runs and the like. It feels good for another couple of years at least which serves our purpose!

[tristis2008]

Originally Posted by joslicx

By any chance do you remember how much the AT fluid replacement costs?

Mine has done around 58k and for me they said its not required after checking the viscosity. I got this confirmed from another service center as well. We got our cars more or less together ( Shadow Blue, May 2012 ), if I remember correctly.

[noopster]

The car completed 11 years of ownership last month. Some updates:

Originally Posted by noopster

Other issues:
There is an ugly dent on the top of the trunk that got there during a careless reversing maneuver. Unfortunately they said they couldn't beat it out and it would need replacement- a big expense so deferred.

I got this fixed at my FNG and he did a competent job; probably won't meet the "Viddy eye test" but good enough for me!

The decorative chrome strips at front and back of the car are broken. Parts were not in stock so couldn't get this done.

At some point both the chrome strips seem to have fallen off, so problem solved!

There seems to be some obstructed air flow in the central AC vents. Need to get this checked and fixed. Am a bit hesitant because replacing the HVAC unit (which is VW's solution for everything) is not an expense worth making at this stage. However summer is already here, so needs must!

Earlier this month I hesitantly approached BU Bhandari with this issue. As expected the service advisor I spoke to on the phone didn't seem optimistic of a low cost fix. Replacing the HVAC would cost some 70K which is not an expense I was willing to undertake, so he said he would get it checked and give me an estimate. Meanwhile an issue had cropped up with the ABS light always being on. The SA advised that changing the full set of ABS sensors would cost about 12K (gulp!) By this time I was regretting calling the VW ASS already!

But things worked out in the end. Only the ABS sensor on the front right side was damaged so I got that replaced (approx cost:3000/-). The AC compressor was working fine and the obstructed air flow in the centre was attributed to one of the motors in the AC assembly failing. Got that replaced for about 4000/-

Car is back today and the AC is blasting happily away after ages! Good timing since the rather cold winter we enjoyed this year is almost at its end.

The car has just covered 6,000 km in the last 2 years thanks to the pandemic! Hopefully hybrid work-from-office model should be in place by next month, after which I can hope to raise the miles crunched!

[noopster]

Hardly use the car anymore but with companies starting to coax employees back, have started making the commute to the office especially when clients come a-visiting! Have taken the Vento both times this week and the odo finally inched past the 136,000 km mark!

Just 6K covered in 2 years (to be fair, the Seltos has covered 13K in that time). But more and more I believe that retaining this instead of getting another new car was the right decision!

[noopster]

It's been 18 months since my last service and the “Inspection” alert on my dashboard has been on for the past 2400 km so I finally decided to get it done yesterday. The proximate cause was my engine coolant tank developing a leak, which was causing the car to overheat. The Mechanix has moved right next door to my place now so I called up Sushant and dropped the car off in the morning.

Before:



After:





Cost of replacing the coolant tank was approx 3500 and the rest of the servicing plus some brake bleeding & wheel alignment cost about 9500. Not bad at all and the car feels much nicer to drive and brake now. It's started doing regular duty again dropping the kids off to college, classes etc. So it makes sense to keep it ship-shape.

Also managed to see this absolute beauty in person. Sigh!



The car (my Vento, not the M340i ) is at 138,000 km give or take. Turns 12 in January.

[noopster]

Since the car is being used quite regularly now, the usual share of regular wear and tear problems have started popping up. Pune has been cool of late as winter finally sets in, but the last time I drove the car, I noticed the AC wasn't cooling at all. Took it for a check up at Mechanix and turned out the compressor was the issue. But they said they could fix it with some valve replacements and topping up the AC gas. Note that VW ASS would typically recommend the entire compressor be replaced which is a huge expense. This cost about 12K to fix. My bonnet opening handle has become tough to open and has broken off twice now (attributable to a faulty cable that somehow they can't seem to fix) so got that replaced too. Need to be really gentle with it now.

They also cleaned up the car nicely and it felt good to ride in a shiny white car that doesn't- touch wood- show its age. Odo is almost touching 140,000 clicks as of today.

I had some free time this evening, so put together the running cost of maintaining my Vento. This includes only routine maintenance, annual servicing, parts replacement and tyre changes. I've excluded all elective expenses like cosmetic upgrades, light upgrades, detailing/touch ups, accidental repairs etc.



The numbers are telling: this car has been a dream in the first 7 years of ownership (maintenance cost just over a rupee per km/15K a year). Between years 8 and 12 (current age) that running cost has nearly doubled to nearly 2/- per km/ 22K a year.

The specific line items contributing to the increased maintainence costs are clear from the table. However my reasoning is that a well-maintained car translates to a hassle-free driving experience albeit at a cost.

Car looks good enough for a few more years of running. Was joking with the elder after today's AC repair that it will probably be the car she learns on in another year and some. She didn't look too perturbed at the thought!