[harshbhat]

Quick question about damping the doors. Does it void the warranty? I have GTX+ DCT which is 6 months old.

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by harshbhat

Quick question about damping the doors. Does it void the warranty? I have GTX+ DCT which is 6 months old.

Which component warranty are you thinking will be void if you damp the doors? Ideally IMHO, damping the doors should not void the warranty. I have it done in my Seltos to the doors, front fenders and bonnet. My vehicle is 1 year old and I have the 5 year warranty on the car.

[Rajiv Krishnan]

Originally Posted by dipdawiz

Wanted to know how the speaker installation was done, did they use any adapter and connected the speaker without cutting/splicing any wire? (done damping already).

Front woofer in place of back speaker may perform less if tweeter is not connected, in co-axial it has inbuilt tweeter. Without a tweeter, it has a large part of sound frequencies missing.

So the front comps are plug and play. Remove the oem system, replace with the new one. There is no cutting or splicing involved.

The rear speaker is not a coax, its a full range. Connecting the front woofer without the tweeter and its crossover makes it a full range as well. Go ahead and upgrade, it makes a world of difference.

[Rajiv Krishnan]

I saw a lot of comments complaining about the Bose audio in the Seltos, so i thought ill share my two cents.

I was very underwhelmed by the Bose system. It just felt very muddy to me and over the course of ownership, I actually stopped listening to music in the car, or only at low volumes. High volume brought rattles and distortion with it. Eventually i decided something needed to be done.

I took my car to Galaxy in Kochi. Its a very respected audio shop (they do other stuff too) and several BHPians have got their cars worked on here. Muneem, who runs the shop is a passionate audiophile, who walked me through the several upgrade paths available to me. But one thing he was clear about from the start was, the doors would need to be damped no matter what. There are some brands like VW where it isn’t necessary, but with Hyundai/Kia it absolutely is. Since I couldn’t afford to do it all at once, i decided to start with the damping.

I got all 4 doors damped with 3M at 10k (I think its 2 layers). And what a difference that made! It was really night and day. The bose felt like an entirely new system and i was enjoying listening to music in my car again. If you are even remotely passionate about audio quality, i recommend that you get it done. If you don't have a big budget like me, this alone will make a huge difference and also lays the groundwork for future upgrades.

I was now enjoying the true performance of the Bose system (only at the front, its pretty bad at the rear lol), but pretty soon the want for something better started gnawing at me. The biggest disappointment was the rear speakers. It sounded like they didnt exist. If you sat at the rear, you were still hearing the front speakers. So i popped down to Galaxy again. Muneem and i had discussed installing better coaxials in the rear, so that was what i had in mind. However, he convinced me to go for better components in the front. And I am so glad i did (will explain later).

So we swapped the front components out for DLS Performance MI 6.2 components. DLS is a Swedish brand and came recommended by Muneem. It was between this or Gladen. Gladen was the first choice because of its lower power requirement, which meant it could be run more effectively off the factory amp, but he did not have it in stock when i went. The comps cost me 18k inclusive of fitment.

The speakers blew me away. Granted it did not sound as good at first with the equaliser values set to 0. But some messing about with the eq and some hours of running in later, i was truly ecstatic with the result. As of today, this is the extent of my audio upgrades.

Now to the Bose scam (there really is no other word for it). Kia advertises it as an 8 speaker setup (component in the front door, coax in the rear, a speaker on the dash and a subwoofer in the boot, all powered by an amplifier). As we removed the factory speakers, we realized that only the front speaker is a 6.5. The rears are 5.25s that are housed in a 6.5’s slot. And the rears are vastly inferior to the fronts in construction (weight and depth of speaker). I can only assume that its the same story with the speaker on the dash and the sub in the boot. So for all practical purposes, the seltos has a 4 speaker audio system with speakers only on the front doors.

We thought since we removed the only working speakers on the seltos, might as well put the it in the rear (swap the front bose woofer for the rear). I thought this would solve the issue of no sound at the rear. Boy were we in for a surprise! The speakers which had sounded good at the front produced very little sound at the rear. This leads me to believe that the amp was not sending much power to the rear. Either that, or the rear speakers are powered directly by the head unit. This might be because the amp is not powerful enough, or the rear speakers are so bad that more power will only expose its lack of quality. Either way, the car continues to have noticeable sound only at the front.

As it stands, im very pleased with the performance of the DLS speakers. However, there is still more to be done. I am planning to add a subwoofer in the boot, upgrade the amplifier and possibly add a DSP. I dont know when this will happen, but if it does, I will update this thread with the results. Cheers!

[dipdawiz]

Originally Posted by Rajiv Krishnan

So the front comps are plug and play. Remove the oem system, replace with the new one. There is no cutting or splicing involved.
...

I am not aware of how car speaker connector comes. If you see the photo, left is Seltos' Bose speaker's connector and right is wire harness coming from amp.



Are you saying car speakers come with the connector like the one in Bose speaker? Just wanted to confirm.

[Rajiv Krishnan]

Originally Posted by dipdawiz

I am not aware of how car speaker connector comes. If you see the photo, left is Seltos' Bose speaker's connector and right is wire harness coming from amp.
Attachment 2393158


Are you saying car speakers come with the connector like the one in Bose speaker? Just wanted to confirm.

Honestly, i think you have investigated this more than i have. My understanding came from observing the technicians as they put the speakers in. To the best of my knowledge, they did not splice any wires or put adapters in. However, its entirely possible i may have missed something. You are better off asking your local car audio shop.

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by Rajiv Krishnan

We thought since we removed the only working speakers on the seltos, might as well put the it in the rear (swap the front bose woofer for the rear). I thought this would solve the issue of no sound at the rear. Boy were we in for a surprise! The speakers which had sounded good at the front produced very little sound at the rear. This leads me to believe that the amp was not sending much power to the rear. Either that, or the rear speakers are powered directly by the head unit. This might be because the amp is not powerful enough, or the rear speakers are so bad that more power will only expose its lack of quality. Either way, the car continues to have noticeable sound only at the front.

My Creta SXO boss rear speakers are bad, the rear passengers complain that the music is playing only from the front. I was thinking about damping the doors as the panel vibrates while playing music with high treble and also changing the rear speakers. I am satisfied with the output of the front speakers. After reading your experience with changing rear speaker, I am skeptic about going that route as not having amp/ enough output for the rear might be the issue. Any idea if amp provided is a 4 channel amp (powering front as well as rear) or it is a 2 channel amp (only front speakers)? I am trying to see if the amp output to the rear is the issue or no channels for rear. Thanks

[psbali]

I have HTK+ 2020 petrol model and the car just got back from service center and I guess the music system has received a software update. It shows a message " Connect a phone projection device" what does that mean? Will it enable wireless aundroid auto. If yes then where to get that item?

[samuelkoyya]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

I have it done in my Seltos to the doors, front fenders and bonnet.

Hello Abhinav, Can you please suggest a good workshop in Bangalore as I would like to get dampening done for my Seltos?

[fhdowntheline]

I have a general comment to make here. I own a Creta SXO with the Bose system. And also recently pirchased a Tiago which has Harman as its OEM. For a product that has to be fitted in thousands of cars per month , I think Bose does a decent job. The depth and punch is good , clarity could be a bit better ( it feels crispier in the Harman) but its not a bad OEM set up by any means. Lets also appreciate that Bose itself is not the last word in audio systems, and then all else is ok.

[Stribog]

At exactly 40,100 kms, the first real maintenance expense for my HTX + Diesel manual comes up.

Brake disk + brake pads (front wheels) has to be changed.

Estimated cost is 8500 for the disk and 5k for the pads (taxes incl).

[carnutfrombanga]

Originally Posted by Stribog

Brake disk + brake pads (front wheels) has to be changed.

I could be wrong but from the pictures attached, both pad thickness and disc seem to be fine.

Maybe an Independent garage might confirm?

[ashis89]

Agreed. The pads look fine and probably the discs are too. Did you request them to be changed?

My car's brake pads are in a similar state but the service centre confirmed they're good to go for another 10k (currently done 53k).

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by carnutfrombanga

I could be wrong but from the pictures attached, both pad thickness and disc seem to be fine.

Maybe an Independent garage might confirm?

Originally Posted by ashis89

Agreed. The pads look fine and probably the discs are too. Did you request them to be changed?

My car's brake pads are in a similar state but the service centre confirmed they're good to go for another 10k (currently done 53k).

The pads they did tell me had a life of 4-5k km easy, but i was doing a cross country drive that would add 3k km in 10 days so figured might as well change it.

The discs, the SA informed me that it needs a min 27mm thickness to skim it further and the current one was at 26mm

Figured might as well change the set.

[RaghavKuthiala]

Hi, fellow BHPians.

I've been a long-time reader of this website, first started way back in early 2011-12 when I wanted to upgrade my car from the Indica Vista (I know right) to the VW Polo (diesel, comfortline).

A lot has happened over the last 10 years, my Polo got totaled in a crash (courtesy of a friend who borrowed it to upgrade my headlamps), I bought a new Ecosport in 2017 (my luck that Ford shut shop), and finally when the EMIs cleared in late 2022, I got the urge of replacing my car (this could also be linked to my parents getting the new Sonet and me just in love with Kia cars - So I guess my parents' purchase became the catalyst for me to change my car.

A little about me - I'm married for three years now, my wife and I have a dog (medium size), and take trips to the hills (not really the rough ones) at least twice a year. My daily drive would be around 45-55 KMs (Delhi + Noida) and some days even more.

Some requirements for the new car:

1. Petrol - Don't trust Delhi and their plans with diesel cars, plus cost differentiation is not that substantial between petrol and diesel.

2. Automatic: I've torn my meniscus twice (I'm a football fanatic and that won't go) so automatics would be easy on my knees (plus my FIL has an automatic Jeep that I have been driving - and it's too easy compared to the MT)

3. Upgrade on the Ecosport - I don't want to settle for a smaller car, so no hatchbacks and I don't love sedans (it's probably because I don't identify as a person driving a sedan - probably sounds vague)

4. Budget - While initially the budget was between 18-20, I willing to spend around 22L for a car that deserves that kind of money.

5. Sunroof - Wife loves the panoramic sunroof, I'm okay with the normal one, but I know the bigger one won't harm one bit.

Getting into the cars' side of things, here are the cars that we have tested:

1.XUV700 - While we tested the AX& variant, the 28L on road was over our budget and the AX5 made more sense. When you look at the car in the showroom, it stands out, it's big, bulky, and commands attention. The test drive was okay, I liked the response I got the throttle, but didn't fall in love with the interiors. I feel they are too plastic for my liking (plus in the AX5 - mostly everything is fabric and shelling out 22-23L for fabric won't let me sleep at night)

2. KIA Seltos HTX IVT: I honestly love the Seltos - 3 of my closest friends own different variants and from the day I sat in the first one, I've always wanted one. I test drove the IVT variant a few days back and felt quite at ease with the car - the acceleration according to me was fine, so was the braking (on road with new costs is about 18.40L). The interiors look good and I love the fact that it comes with paddle shifters - something I've been fascinated with since I started watching F1 (way back in 03)

3. MG Hector - Man, this car is big, butch, and looks badass. The test drive was good - the seating was comfortable but few things that I just can't get over - the manually adjusting internal rear view mirror (how could they!) the outside rear view mirrors don't shut automatically if you lock the car, the laggy infotainment system & of course no physical buttons to change AC or anything else on the (which I feel is a true hassle when one I driving alone). Now, with the Hector you get two variants - Hector & Hector Plus (bench vs captain seats), and also, the new Hector is just around the corner, but that also means that the cost will increase from 23L to at least 25-26, maybe even touch 27. So this is a big problem.

4. Creta - Did not test drive the car, I sat in one of the showroom cars, but nothing grew on me, so didn't test drive it. Safe to say, this one is out.

5. Alcaraz - Wife wanted to see it, she likes the overall look of the car, it's spacious, but I just didn't like the plastic interiors (passenger side - above the glovebox) and the overall cost of the car 24.12L, doesn't seem worthy of the car.

Last but not the least

6. Hyrydr - It makes a lot of sense, getting a high mileage of 20+ is something that will keep the fuel expenses to a low, but the average interiors (I drove the new Glanza sometime back) and honestly, these interiors go better in that car, rather than a 22+L SUV. The dealership in Delhi didn't have a test drive (quite strange) and the first thing we were told was that the waiting is 6 months. Without really taking us through the car (wonder what changed in treating the customers well)

So that was the list - a couple of more things - I don't drive rash at all, I'm a simple sober driver, but obviously enjoy the occasional revving, especially on an empty road, so DCT isn't really something that interests me.

That's all folks - Here's hoping this post abides by the rules of the post (mods/admins - I apologise if something if off on this post)

Many thanks and happy driving to all.