Team-BHP - Mahindra Scorpio : Issues & Solutions

Friends,

need help. Today, I was out with my family in my 2009 VLX, 85k done. On my way back, heard a strange whistle sort of a sound when I switched ON the Low AC. I switched the AC off and the sound went away. Tried it one more time and the same thing happened. I switched OFF the AC and then after about 30 seconds I got the 'attention-engine temperature is high' warning. On checking the display, I could see the temp needle on the extreme right along with the 'red' light lit up on the temperature scale. Parked the car to the side and checked the engine bay, no untoward signs, plus enough coolant was there. Tried the ignition after few min, temp needle had come down to mid scale and the Scorpio started without any fuss. After driving for another 50 meters, same warning and red light. Luckily there was a garage there and asked a mechanic. He looked inside the hood and said the fan belt is gone along with another part (don't remember the part he mentioned) which was responsible for tensioning of the belt.

He said it will take him about 2 hours to fix and told me to avoid driving. With kids and wife in tow, and evening setting in, I couldn't take the risk. My office was about a km from this spot. I let the engine cool down and drove like 200 m a time and would switch off the ignition to not let the needle go right to extreme and not let the red light flash. Will wait for needle to come back to lower than mid on the scale and start again. Got to office, parked the car in my spot and called for a cab to get to home.

So, need the gurus to advise; I hope I didn't cause any damage to engine by driving some distance whilst keeping the temp in check. Secondly, what are the damages, both parts and cost that I am looking at. This Scorpio is my weekend drive; parked for most of the week in basement. Last year August, took it to Leh and since then the car has done about 1000kms in 14 months. Very low running and basement temperatures may be the reasons too.

I drive a BMW and keeping the usual speeds I get on BMW, I guess I was flooring it today on the del-ggn expressway and may be the belt couldn't hold up.

Any advise will be helpful.

Regards
Sid

Quote:

Originally Posted by sid1509 (Post 3560022)

Friends,

need help. Today, I was out with my family in my 2009 VLX, 85k done. On my way back, heard a strange whistle sort of a sound when I switched ON the Low AC.

The fan belt is the cause. The scorpio model you have, along with all other modern engines have a fan belt which is taken around the pulleys they're meant to drive and then held in tension by a dynamic tension device (this could be a spring mounted pulley, hydraulic tensioned pulley, etc.)
On older engines, the belt used to be of the precise size and one of the pulleys in the system was either floating to adjust tension, or there was a static tensioning pulley held in place by an adjustable bolt or similar mechanism (Old 2600 Scorpios had a tensioning pulley with an adjustment bolt and the alternator was another adjustable pulley)
The temperature is rising because the water pump is also driven by the fan belt, as is the alternator, air conditioner compressor etc.
Anyways. Seems in your case the belt is loosing tension, since you're saying that there is nothing untoward in the engine bay. Your tensioner needs to be looked into, however getting somethings like that attended to, it's a good idea to get the belt changed with a new one. Being a rubber component it takes a hit in consistency when something goes wrong. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by m_upreti (Post 3559286)

Thanks axlerod, you are correct the brakes a functioning properly only the pressing pressure is increased. However, in neutral with foot off the accelerator the brake paddle is getting completely jammed as if the vehicle is in ignition off mode. Couple of presses on the accelerator activate the paddle to a few cms.

Have taken an appointment at the A.S.S. for Wednesday, however will check the stuff as per your suggestions tomorrow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by m_upreti (Post 3559286)

Spent an hour with the car yesterday, checking the vacuum setup. The edges of the tubings connected to the various components were in a real bad shape and almost all were leaking. So took a pair of scissors and cut of the edges and reconnected the tubings. The brakes are functioning back to normal now.

However there is 1 tube which I was unable to reconnect since I am unable to find a place where it came from. Tried connecting it to a connector on the air filter, but the car started giving dense blue smoke so disconnected it and left it hanging.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramkya1 (Post 3561391)

How to set the Mhwak dashboard clock, the steps? It has gone a tad slow! Just want to fast forward it, I think this was discussed here earlier, not sure. Does it have separate battery?

Press the Set Button till the clock starts blinking, press again to move to the minutes. Press the mode button to move the minutes.

No, there is no separate battery for the clock, if you disconnect the battery you will have to reset it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by axlerod (Post 3555784)

As expected. Abnormal rail pressure. It's happening because of contamination of your fuel system. First thing to suspect is the injectors because the pump mechanism on Common Rail systems is more hardy than the injectors.

As for the turbo, an oil deposit on the sludge return line leading back into the sump is NORMAL for the TEL turbos. The oil that you see is used to lubricate the thrust bearing (made of brass) for the CHS. It's like a very tiny stream of oil is dropped onto the thrust bearing from the top and it gravitates back into the sump after doing it's job.
It's advised NOT to tamper with the turbocharger as the CHS assembly is a very sensitive piece of machinery. After even minor handling the assembly needs to be 'balanced' by placing it on a high speed machine, which is not available with most local garages OR most authorised service centres for that matter. In the event of the CHS going kaput, the only options would be
1) To live with a turbo charger which is less than perfect and lacks the sweet sounding 'whistle' which engine enthusiasts have come to love
2) To get the turbo charger replaced with a new turbo charger which is high speed balanced by the manufacturer. The downside to this alternative is that this is a costly replacement (upwards of 30 thousand rupees probably)

Glad to inform you that the issue has almost been sorted out. It was an electrical problem, more specifically, a problem with the DieselTronic. After disconnecting the box, it worked fine. Upon connecting it again, the car refuses to start (it cranks, but doesn't start). Took the box to Racedynamics and they have asked for a couple of days time to sort out the issue. They say it might be because of a short circuit of some kind on the board inside. Been using two of these boxes on 2 of my cars for around 2 years (that's a lot of 2's stupid:) and this is the first time such a thing has happened. Hoping it gets sorted at the earliest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by m_upreti (Post 3560271)

However there is 1 tube which I was unable to reconnect since I am unable to find a place where it came from. Tried connecting it to a connector on the air filter, but the car started giving dense blue smoke so disconnected it and left it hanging.

Glad to know that your brakes are back up and running. After seeing the photographs, there IS a tube that connects to the air filter at the point that you've highlighted in the photographs.
There are two modulators, the aft one has a tube connection to the point on the air intake (for determining positive pressure). However it's difficult to explain like this which one. The modulator has three sections, the spoke leading forward on the modulator that can be seen in the photograph goes into the air intake.

Since the bulk of the problem is sorted, any mechanic having know how about the connections could do it for you in five minutes. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by hvkumar (Post 3563983)

This may be of some interest. My 2.6 Turbo Scorpio completed 400,000 kms on Oct 20, 2014, during a trip. Needless to say, running strong, original engine, good FE, great power & not a squeak extra:

Attachment 1302555

Read it on the forum a few days back. Congrats chief! 4 lakh kms is no small feat for any car. Feels great to see the Scorp perform so well for so long. Any plans of an upgrade? :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by hvkumar (Post 3563983)

Congrats HVK, This gives confidence to us to continue our journey with scorpio. I started to have a mind block that i have to replace it once it touched 100,000 kms but i really dont find any difference or feel of ageing yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by klassics45 (Post 3567361)

Yes. Engine feels as good as new. Clutch Plates run 1.5 lakh kms +.
Suspension is all gone kaput though, lots of maintenance work on that score.
Braking systems the worst part of the Scorpio, always feels like a running elephant.