[puchoo]

Thank you! Clarifies it all and yes i never get the wheel balancing etc done from the showroom , be it my Wagon R , the Fabia , my wife's cars - these guys simply cannot do as good a job , atleast in my experience , than someone like a Bridgestone for example.

Since we are on the topic, is there any run in duration specified for the car i.e. not to exceed a certain speed/rpm for X amount of Km's.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Nope. the first service is at 5000 km or 6 months, second service is 15000km or 1 year from purchase date.

Thereafter, it is once every 15000 km or 1 year from previous service date.

Schedule should be like this as an example :

Purchase date : eg. 1st July 2013
1st service: 5000 km or before Jan 1st 2014, whichever is earlier
2nd service: 15000 km or 1st July 2014
3rd service: 30000 km or 1st July 2015
4th service: 45000 km or 1st July 2016
and so on....

Just get the wheel alignment and balancing done once every 5000km from a reputed tyre shop in your city. There's no other reason to visit the service centre apart from the annual services .

[madhukar_n]

can we increase the GC of the older T-Jets??
I think some drive was done for the Lineas.. but since T-Jet then had a better GC never bothered, but with the newer ones 190mm is too good and there will be a worry free drive even in bad conditions??

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by puchoo

Thank you! Clarifies it all and yes i never get the wheel balancing etc done from the showroom , be it my Wagon R , the Fabia , my wife's cars - these guys simply cannot do as good a job , atleast in my experience , than someone like a Bridgestone for example.

True. I specifically tell the service guys not to meddle with the tyres during service. I would rather not have any extra pulling / wobble occurring after their trial and error experiments with ancient alignment/balancing machines.

Since we are on the topic, is there any run in duration specified for the car i.e. not to exceed a certain speed/rpm for X amount of Km's.

Nothing is specified in the owner's manual about a running-in period, although it wouldn't hurt to take it easy for the first 1000 km just to be on the safer side - avoid redlining for the first 1000-2000km, that should be sufficient. You can otherwise drive normally like you drive any car. One SA here told me the engines are pre-run-in, and that's the reason why the owner's manual also doesn't specify anything.

There is no need to follow the 1 minute turbo-idling rule on this car either, since it is a water-cooled turbo on the T-Jet and not the conventional oil-cooled setup found on other popular turbo-diesel cars. Just shut off like you normally would with a NA car, unless you have raced or stressed the engine way too much like on a highway.

P.S - I went to Munnar for a 500 km steep ghat section drive when the odometer was at 1000 km "running-in" period zone!! Couldn't resist the urge to blast it through the hills

Originally Posted by madhukar_n

can we increase the GC of the older T-Jets??
I think some drive was done for the Lineas.. but since T-Jet then had a better GC never bothered, but with the newer ones 190mm is too good and there will be a worry free drive even in bad conditions??

I don't think it is possible to retrofit the old GC upgrade kit on T-Jets. The GC kit which was introduced last year, as far as I know is only meant for MultiJet and FIRE versions of Linea. I was told the 2011 T-Jets had a slightly different suspension setup to make it stiffer than other Lineas. Maybe it is possible to retrofit the GC kit now by transplanting some suspension components with the 2013 T-Jet, not sure. I'll try to dig out more information on this and post here, but I'm happy with my 170mm. Won't change it even if they give the upgrade to me for free *winks*

[puchoo]

That's precisely the reason i asked , within about a month of the car coming i will be making a trip upto Himachal , round trip distance will be about 800 Km's and there are some really nice stretches on the road now. The last time i was up in the Fabia i could actually cruise at 120-130 for minutes on end.

The first one thousand makes sense and i shall follow that , am normally very disciplined when it comes to the running in period - all the older cars including the Fabia had a 'run in period' specified as well.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

P.S - I went to Munnar for a 500 km steep ghat section drive when the odometer was at 1000 km "running-in" period zone!! Couldn't resist the urge to blast it through the hills

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

There is no need to follow the 1 minute turbo-idling rule on this car either, since it is a water-cooled turbo on the T-Jet and not the conventional oil-cooled setup found on other popular turbo-diesel cars. Just shut off like you normally would with a NA car, unless you have raced or stressed the engine way too much.

It is still good practise to idle the car after a spirited run, Turbo or non turbo. More than cooling, its too get some oil circulating for the turbo charger and engine internals. When driving on a highway, say if you suddenly decide to pull over for a big Mac, then I would idle. In a daily driving cycle, this may not be required as you are probably close to idling in the last minute or two before you shut down the engine.

I can speak for yours and my case Karthikk, especially when you drive to work. From the ITPL gate to the parking, the car is idling mostly. That is a good 4 minutes by the time the car is down to a complete stand still after you finish parking. In this time frame, there is more than sufficient cooling and oil circulation time so you don't have to idle.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

It is still good practise to idle the car after a spirited run, Turbo or non turbo. More than cooling, its too get some oil circulating for the turbo charger and engine internals. When driving on a highway, say if you suddenly decide to pull over for a big Mac, then I would idle. In a daily driving cycle, this may not be required as you are probably close to idling in the last minute or two before you shut down the engine.

Totally agree, when the car is ripped or maxed out like on a highway, it is always better to run it idle for a couple of minutes anyway, irrespective of the type of car. Under normal usage, I still follow the idling rule religiously for the MultiJet which runs the oil-cooled setup. But for the T-Jet in the city, I hardly follow any idling precautions. I just treat it like a NA petrol after reading a lot of stuff on the net about how water cooled turbos don't require any extensive idling unlike oil-cooled counterparts. This (water cooled setup) is probably the reason why Fiat does not mention anything about idling in the owner's manual either. But like you said, no harm in practicing it for longevity

[puchoo]

Agreed , its something i do all the time with any car much to the irritation of fellow passengers every once in a while but its an old habit. The Fabia for example is run for 1 minute during the summer before it start driving and 2 minutes during winters.

While shutting down its about 1 minute.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Totally agree, when the car is ripped or maxed out like on a highway, it is always better to run it idle for a couple of minutes anyway, irrespective of the type of car.

[coolboy007]

Ah Fiat, wish you had launched the T Jet at this price point in 2009 when i had bough my 1.4 NA Petrol, would never ever had got that version. I didnt and wouldnt TD the T Jet ever as am 100% sure this freaky, god like handling car would make me sell my old Linea in a huge loss and get this variant. It lacked only power and the 1.4 T jet has solved that as well at a brilliant price point.

The 1.4 NA is a slow coach but i still love driving it every km , wonder how Fiat tuned the suspension and steering to such brilliance, its extraordinary, own a Vento, driven a Rapid for a good amount of distance but nothing comes close to this, driving this car is like being connected to it, its a vast difference from other C segment cars.

Would be selling off my 09 Linea later this year or next year and i have my eyes all set on this car - till then not even a single test drive

[xaero]

Originally Posted by coolboy007

Ah Fiat, wish you had launched the T Jet at this price point in 2009 when i had bough my 1.4 NA Petrol, would never ever had got that version. I didnt and wouldnt TD the T Jet ever as am 100% sure this freaky, god like handling car would make me sell my old Linea in a huge loss and get this variant. It lacked only power and the 1.4 T jet has solved that as well at a brilliant price point.

The 1.4 NA is a slow coach but i still love driving it every km , wonder how Fiat tuned the suspension and steering to such brilliance, its extraordinary, own a Vento, driven a Rapid for a good amount of distance but nothing comes close to this, driving this car is like being connected to it, its a vast difference from other C segment cars.

Would be selling off my 09 Linea later this year or next year and i have my eyes all set on this car - till then not even a single test drive

You are right here coolboy , T-Jet is a love affair waiting to happen. If you test drive one before being sure of buying one, you are at the risk of a single sided love taking your sleep away and making you feel miserable when you drive lesser privileged cars (no offence meant)

[bharanidharang]

Just now test drove the T-Jet at Ramkay chennai. Dealer being new is very responsive.

Coming to the car, damn the car is awesome after driving my diesel mill (fiesta). The turbo is simply addictive and expects you to unleash more.

[Ricci]

Originally Posted by Sommos

Ground Clearance is the distance between the flat level ground and the lowest part of the car body (other than those parts designed to contact the ground such as tyres etc.). This is measured without cargo or passengers.

Under the Indian road conditions 170mm is the minimum requirement for any sedan. Apart from this the stiffness of the suspension also plays a great role. In case of a car with soft suspension, putting more people on board would mean that the car will bottom out much easily.

Ah - yes, by definition is straight forward. But looking at vehicle underbody, I see some parts that stick out more, usually axle/suspension components, and while I haven't measured them, they seem to be low enough to get damaged, say you drive over a small rock thinking there is enough clearance without your wheels going over the rock (unlike a speed breaker where the entire axle is raised thus also raising the lowest bits ), and the rock hits the steering rod. Mostly though, it's not the lowest bits that ground out , it seems to be the underbody ahead of the rear wheels , when carrying 4-5 occupants, that seems to get hit the most, thus not really making the claimed clearance based on lowest part above the ground.

Important to note - you mentioned without cargo/passengers, so suspension sag will definitely affect effective ground clearance. A lower GC car with stiff suspension might have better effective GC than a higher GC car with softer suspension, with a high cargo/passenger load.

[Ricci]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

But for the T-Jet in the city, I hardly follow any idling precautions. I just treat it like a NA petrol after reading a lot of stuff on the net about how water cooled turbos don't require any extensive idling unlike oil-cooled counterparts. This (water cooled setup) is probably the reason why Fiat does not mention anything about idling in the owner's manual either. But like you said, no harm in practicing it for longevity

Ok, that is news to me ! I too didn't find the mention of idling after starting and before shut down, but I presumed it was due to failure of the manual writers, doing a copy-paste job from the regular NA petrol Linea.

Are you certain it does not require some idle time to allow lubrication/coolant to flow around ? Yeah, I'll do some searching of my own too.

Mods: sorry for back to back posts, read quoted comment later, and I couldn't edit the earlier post as it was past the 30 min time frame. Please merge posts if needed.

[Guite]

Fiat Kashyab brought a test drive vehicle, appropriately marked, to my place today. Had a long drive over varied familiar road, except over those nasty black and yellow readymade speed breakers. Steering feel is excellent, so is the ride quality. Suspension is so good, maybe this is what they call mature road behaviour? Interior quality is also quite to my liking, much better than City. Built quality is solid: panels are firm and door is rigid. In my drive upto 80 kmph I did not notice any wind noise at A pillar, which was mentioned in the review.

Engine noise is a bit intrusive at 2000 rpm, which is my standard gear change point. But most of all the AC compressor is extremely loud inside the cabin. It's those low frequency drumming noise which gives me and my wife headache, and consequently, fatigue. We had set the auto AC temp at 16 degrees. Maybe the compressor was working extra hard? Would higher setting, say 24 degrees, produce less noise? By the time we noticed this noise, our drive had ended and they had to make it to their next appointment. So we could not try other settings.

Is it normally possible to replace car AC compressor with other brands than OEM? Will it be expensive?

PS: As mentioned by another member I wish the official review gets regular update, because lot of purchase decisions are based on it. It's very difficult to sieve through member inputs running into tens of pages. So product updates and relevant member inputs should be captured as addendum to the original review, at regular interval. It can even read like software application revision notes.

[puchoo]

Was this the white T-Jet , Dynamic model with stickers all over?

When we took the test drive recently , about 4-5 days ago , there was actually no wind noise even at 110kmph.

In context to the AC , the AC does make a fair amount of noise but only if the fan is turned way up , at the lower settings its a fairly quiet piece of machinery.

Maybe this is a matter of personal opinion , but we red lined the Tjet we drove , at 2000 RPM or approximately around there , and i remember this because i was watching out for the turbo kick , the car is fairly quiet. Sure there is some engine noise , my 1.6 fabia has it as well , but would i call it intrusive.... absolutely not. And i am only talking Db levels here , forget whether they sound sweet or harsh. For me the car is nicely quiet at that range.

Ofcourse , unless this was a different car or somethings happened to it since we drove it. When we drove it, it had less than 90kms on it.

And i personally have to agree with you on your mention of the City , i know lots of people have complained about the finish of the interior , overall plastics etc , i find the Linea to be ahead on many many levels as compared to the City (no offense). I was delighted with the Cit engine , but the interior quality left me , atleast, disappointed.

Originally Posted by Guite

Fiat Kashyab brought a test drive vehicle, appropriately marked, to my place today. Had a long drive over varied familiar road, except over those nasty black and yellow readymade speed breakers. Steering feel is excellent, so is the ride quality. Suspension is so good, maybe this is what they call mature road behaviour? Interior quality is also quite to my liking, much better than City. Built quality is solid: panels are firm and door is rigid. In my drive upto 80 kmph I did not notice any wind noise at A pillar, which was mentioned in the review.

Engine noise is a bit intrusive at 2000 rpm, which is my standard gear change point. But most of all the AC compressor is extremely loud inside the cabin. It's those low frequency drumming noise which gives me and my wife headache, and consequently, fatigue. We had set the auto AC temp at 16 degrees. Maybe the compressor was working extra hard? Would higher setting, say 24 degrees, produce less noise? By the time we noticed this noise, our drive had ended and they had to make it to their next appointment. So we could not try other settings.

Is it normally possible to replace car AC compressor with other brands than OEM? Will it be expensive?

PS: As mentioned by another member I wish the official review gets regular update, because lot of purchase decisions are based on it. It's very difficult to sieve through member inputs running into tens of pages. So product updates and relevant member inputs should be captured as addendum to the original review, at regular interval. It can even read like software application revision notes.

[Biraj]

Originally Posted by puchoo

That's precisely the reason i asked , within about a month of the car coming i will be making a trip upto Himachal , round trip distance will be about 800 Km's and there are some really nice stretches on the road now. The last time i was up in the Fabia i could actually cruise at 120-130 for minutes on end.

I did the same last year. I took my T-jet to Kasauli and Shimla within 45 days of purchase. I had decided that I wouldn't take it beyond 120 during the trip. I think I could stick to that limit only till Murthal. It's a different story that I misjudged the fuel efficiency and almost got stranded near Kasauli I religiously follow the turbo cooling off procedure. What I have noticed during long trips is that the rpm hovers around 1100 when I reach the destination and after 2 mins of idling it settles at the usuall 800-900 mark. So, I always wait for the rpm to settle at the usuall level and helicopter fan to turn off before switching the car off.