[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by DevilzzzzOwn

So the spare, although never used, is already 3 years and 10 months old. User manual mandates a tyre to be changed every 6 years regardless of the usage.

Things to evaluate:

1) If you're forced to use the spare - what situation is it likely to be in?
eg. Will it be for 1.4km in city traffic to the nearest tyre shop?
OR
Will it be for 26km to the nearest town on a high-speed motorway?

In other words -- will your upcoming running be city or highway?

2) Are you likely to run through this new set of tyres in the next 2 years and 2 months? If yes, then you could put off the spare replacement till then.

If you keep the spare, you just need to remember that IF you use it, you should go easy on it (low speed / stress).

Personally I don't think you need to replace it, UNLESS you're doing a lot of highway trips and need that redundancy to be able to get back up and running at close to 100% ASAP after a puncture.

[ExtremePocca]

Christmas Catastrophe

I consult you once again, fellow bhpians. This
is a really old problem I refrained from posting due to a personal situation (read laziness). Our XUV on the day of Christmas last year refused to start. Nothing seemed to be out of order during this ordeal, we could hear the healthy fuel pump buzz upon starting the car in accessories mode and the starter would run at a perfectly normal speed. Lights worked, ICE worked, everything was fine. My dad called the withyouhamesha helpline and it took around an hour and a half of telling the guys to get a move on for them to show up. Mind you, this entire ordeal took place in our garage, and our house isn't in any sort of remote spot or anything.

After a pretty infuriating wait during which we tried cranking the car for around 10 seconds every 10 to 15 minutes, the RSA guy showed up with a dilapidated scooter holding a spare battery. He tried starting the car to no avail and concluded by saying we needed to call a tow truck. At that moment my heart sunk, not because of the tow truck, but at the thought of trying to get the car out of the garage.

Our garage is notoriously difficult to get out of, and the XUV just about fits. Getting this 1500kg tank out of the garage would be a herculean task for whoever would have the misfortune of being entrusted with it.

As a last hail-Mary the following day, at 9pm we called an FNG who used to work on my dad's prehistoric Santro. The guy showed up, walked in and nonchalantly just turned the engine one in a jiffy, no weird noises, no misfiring or anything. He did rev the engine at around 4k rpm for like 30 seconds while it was cold but what do you know? It worked just fine. I let the car idle for 2 or 3 minutes while my dad got dressed and we left for the SC straight away. One noteworthy observation was a little bit of water leaking from the exhaust tip, the amount was very small however.

During our drive to the SC nothing was out of the ordinary, and our service advisor remarked there were no codes or warning lights. He kept the car under observation for a day as we had a 400km trip planned and wanted the car to be in perfect condition. The car came back working as intended, no signs of it being inoperational for 2 days. And that's where it ended. The car has been working for these last 9 months as usual. It is however important to note that in the days prior to the failure, the car started taking longer and longer to start and sometimes took 2 or 3 cranks. During this period, I could sometimes here a piston or two fire and then my dad would have to crank it again.

My hypothesis is, our car struggles to start in even just slightly cold weather such as 25 to 30 degrees centigrade. With winter nor far away, I wanted to ensure we don't get a repeat of the 2022 Christmas catastrophe, any inputs on this would be highly appreciated

[DevilzzzzOwn]

Originally Posted by ExtremePocca

Christmas Catastrophe

I consult you once again, fellow bhpians.

My hypothesis is, our car struggles to start in even just slightly cold weather such as 25 to 30 degrees centigrade. With winter nor far away, I wanted to ensure we don't get a repeat of the 2022 Christmas catastrophe, any inputs on this would be highly appreciated

To be honest with you, my father had a similar episode. But the situation was different.

Dad was getting to know the car and went to a nearby shop by it. Once he was there, he called saying the car won't restart. I was trying to remotely troubleshoot the issue and it came as a shock that dad wasn't pressing the Brake while pressing the Start/Stop button In his defense, he was used to driving a manual old gen Dezire.

As for the cold weather startups, last year in December, we did a road trip from Pune to Kullu Manali and faced no issues whatsoever during the cold morning starts. Since I was worried about the low temps, I would start the car each morning and let it idle for 3-5 minutes in Kullu and Manali (we decided to use local taxis for local travel). But there was not once instance of the car not starting on the first crank. And this was in ambient temps around 5.

So the next time an instance like this happens where the car does not start, start with trouble shooting the basics and then move on to the RSA/Towing/FnG etc. More often than not, the basics are missed which cause the most trouble. Start Procedures/Fuel Level/Battery Level etc.

Drive Safe!!

[ExtremePocca]

Originally Posted by DevilzzzzOwn

To be honest with you, my father had a similar episode. But the situation was different.

manual old gen Dezire.

As for the cold weather startups, last year in December, we did a road trip from Pune to Kullu Manali and faced no issues whatsoever during the cold morning starts. Since I was worried about the low temps, I would start the car each morning and let it idle for 3-5 minutes in Kullu and Manali (we decided to use local taxis for local travel). But there was not once instance of the car not starting on the first crank. And this was in ambient temps around 5.

So the next time an instance like this happens where the car does not start, start with trouble shooting the basics and then move on to the RSA/Towing/FnG etc. More often than not, the basics are missed which cause the most trouble. Start Procedures/Fuel Level/Battery Level etc.

Drive Safe!!

Ah, that is some enlightening information, it seems this is just a weird issue with our car I guess? I did lots of troubleshooting during this weird stage but everything seemed to be ok? the starter cranked at the normal speed, the fuel pump made the buzzing noise it's supposed to and we had plenty of voltage in the battery. The possibility of bad fuel is unlikely considering my dad only gets petrol from 2 of his preferred pumps. A bad fuel injector could have been the issue but the car drives just fine. Here is something I noticed but forgot to add in the original post. The car displays some odd behaviors when starting in this weird state. I'll try my best to explain this with a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzXcjxtaGvc

I don't really know what this is called but notice how the revs fluctuate once the car starts and settles down in a matter of a second and then revs drop even more in a minute or two once the engine warms up. Well the first rev "spike" happens in our car as well, but on cold days where it takes a few more cycles of the starter motor to start the car, this spike in revs doesn't happen once starting and instead rises to 2.5k rpms once my dad starts accelerating gently to roll out of the garage. The struggling cold starts are also accompanied by a very strong smell of petrol. The car is working just fine, and out on the open road it still got it's fantastic characteristics, but the reliability of our car in particular is getting me a bit worried for the winter season. Even now on the days where the temperature is near 28 degrees celsius (due to rain), the car displays some of those struggling characteristics during a cold start.

[mihir_m13]

One question wrto the the inbuilt navigation.

I travel a lot in forest areas around Vadodara. Mostly 70-80+ Kms east of Vadodara. Its the Jambughoda, Shivrajpur, Ratanmahal forest ranges I am referring to. There are many Forest Department campsites which are well marked on Google Earth(GE) and Google Maps. I can easily find a route to these place in Google Maps on my Phone. But the GPS of the car doesn't have these places listed in the search function.

How can i add these places in there (Car GPS). Problem with some of these places in the forests is - there are many that aren't so popular and once you're close Cell Phone coverage is mostly absent. So my Google Maps won't work i guess. And at times I narrow down on the place on GE first, decide the route on my Laptop screen and now i want to follow that route.

[Goandiaries]

Originally Posted by mihir_m13

One question wrto the the inbuilt navigation.

How can i add these places in there (Car GPS). Problem with some of these places in the forests is - there are many that aren't so popular and once you're close Cell Phone coverage is mostly absent. So my Google Maps won't work i guess. And at times I narrow down on the place on GE first, decide the route on my Laptop screen and now i want to follow that route.

Unfortunately, there's no straightforward way of even updating these maps by us end users. I did check mapmyindia for any possibility of updating, but they redirect to the OEM. And there's no updates for the past year and half or so from OEM! Considering that Mahindra has removed this navigation feature from the new cars, i don't think there's going to be anything in the future!

The best way to go ahead in your situation is to download these maps/area on Google maps so that it works offline. Again, google maps isn't very friendly when you want to follow your path, it keeps updating to show it's path to the destination you intend to go.

[ashishk29]

Surprisingly, after just 2yrs/23,000kms, my battery died.

The car was parked over Friday, and it won't crank on Saturday. And it's been in daily running, so that definitely wasn't the issue.

I called Mahindra RSA which was an annoyance. I first rang the number in the With you Hamesha app. The call centre folks guided me nicely, and they would say that they were transferring my call to the RSA helpline. Which didn't happen. Twice.

So then the second service person gave me a direct RSA helpline number, where I generated the request.

A local battery guy came by immediately with a spare battery, and gave me a jumpstart. I kept the car idling for about half an hour then, but now I had the "check engine" light ON.

So I kept the car idling, then went out for a short drive, and parked.

In the evening, the car wouldn't crank again.

So i called the same battery guy again. Except this time, I called him in with a replacement battery. Got an Exide one installed.

Went to the showroom to get the "check engine" light checked. Waited for an hour but couldn't get any service advisors to look.

Today morning the car started fine, and no "check engine" light either.

A wild ride it's been.

One potential culprit I suspect is the auto start-stop system which I had been using quite frequently recently. Diesel engines need more power to crank, so It's possible that extended start-stop usage drained it out.

[Goandiaries]

Originally Posted by ashishk29

Surprisingly, after just 2yrs/23,000kms, my battery died.

The car was parked over Friday, and it won't crank on Saturday. And it's been in daily running, so that definitely wasn't the issue.

......

One potential culprit I suspect is the auto start-stop system which I had been using quite frequently recently. Diesel engines need more power to crank, so It's possible that extended start-stop usage drained it out.

Have you installed any dealer level official accessories that has tapped the power from your original wiring by any chance? Example: LED scuff plates..

[ashishk29]

Originally Posted by Goandiaries

Have you installed any dealer level official accessories that has tapped the power from your original wiring by any chance? Example: LED scuff plates..

No Dealer level accessories.

I do have a dashcam, but I confirmed that's it's connected to a fuse which only turns on with the vehicle. No offline battery sap. And even that was installed over a month back, so it couldn't have drained the battery in one day somehow. And I've had a dashcam installed in the same fuse for over a year, so I don't think that was the culprit.

All the other accessories I have come into picture only after the vehicle is running, like horns, headlight bulbs, speakers. None of these drain any additional energy.

Hence my suspicion on the auto start-stop feature, which I've only been using the past month or two.

[krishnakumar]

Hi everyone,

I’m thinking of changing the roof lamps to LEDs for better interior lighting - neutral light or white light is going to provide more visibility.

What type of bulbs come for our car? Or are all roof lamps universal? The manual doesn’t specify the bulb type.

[ashishk29]

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

Hi everyone,

I’m thinking of changing the roof lamps to LEDs for better interior lighting - neutral light or white light is going to provide more visibility.

What type of bulbs come for our car? Or are all roof lamps universal? The manual doesn’t specify the bulb type.

Interesting thought. Hadn't considered that.

On second thought, even I'd like some slightly brighter bulbs. Although I'd prefer a slight yellowish tint.

On another note:

I am seeing a lot of crack like patterns on my tyres:








Should I be concerned? The car is almost in daily running, is in direct sunlight maybe half an hour a day maximum. Tyre pressure kept within range.

[Sachin_s74]

Hello forum,

I am thinking of changing the headlamp bulbs from halogen to LEDs. I have a few noob questions for which I request answers...
1) Do the LED fans provide effective cooling inside sealed headlamp housing over extended time periods? I occasionally make prolonged night trips..
2) What's a canbus? Will I need it during switching over to LEDs? Or will it be a simple one-to-one replacement?

Thanks in advance.

[ashishk29]

Originally Posted by Sachin_s74

Hello forum,

I am thinking of changing the headlamp bulbs from halogen to LEDs. I have a few noob questions for which I request answers...
1) Do the LED fans provide effective cooling inside sealed headlamp housing over extended time periods? I occasionally make prolonged night trips..
2) What's a canbus? Will I need it during switching over to LEDs? Or will it be a simple one-to-one replacement?

Thanks in advance.

I have had LEDs as my upper beam for a long time. But that's the thing. It's the upper beam, so not as frequently used. I haven't used them at length because roads requiring constant upper beam are rare.

I think they should work fine, because the volume inside the 300's headlight units is quite large.

Canbus is just an electronic communication channel by which the ECU talks to the various devices in the car.

You will not have to replace it. Or anything. LEDs are plug and play. They come with sockets that match the ones in your car. You just plug them in, and that's that.

[krishnakumar]

Hi all,

I got a call yesterday from Mahindra saying that there is a “recall for a software update”, which I believe is an ECU update. I asked for details but they did not know anything (obviously) but confirmed there is no parts change. Only a software update.

BHPian Goandiaries also got this call and our cars are from completely different batches. Seems like the commonality is BS6 Diesel.

Does anyone have more details on this? Would be nice to know if you also got a call and your variant and manufacturing month of car.

[Duckdoc]

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

Does anyone have more details on this? Would be nice to know if you also got a call and your variant and manufacturing month of car.

Had a call yesterday and got the EMS ECU software update done today which took 20 minutes.
Mine is a Diesel BS 6 W8 O, bought March '21.