[.anshuman]

Shocking! kk21, for no fault of yours, you will have to get a pillar chopped off to get welding done again, all this for no fault of yours. This is a serious issue, no amount of good work at service center might be able to make your vehicle as good as factory manufactured vehicle in terms of structural strength. Insist for the vehicle to be replaced. If nothing works, tweet Mr.Mahindra with the link to this thread.

[aseem]

I guess just accept the sound and keep driving is the best option unless you want to keep fighting for years like we have seen in the Skoda thread. Sell the car in a few years. As far as safety issues etc. I guess we all were raised in with 2 wheelers so car is still a whole lot safer.
Hope all turns out to be ok. Best of luck and many happy miles of motoring to come. In the meantime, just avoid one way roads with oncoming traffic and you should be ok!

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by aseem

I guess just accept the sound and keep driving is the best option unless you want to keep fighting for years like we have seen in the Skoda thread. Sell the car in a few years. As far as safety issues etc.

No buddy, the welding on that car are defective so it says defective chassis. You can't drive a car with defective chassis, it is like driving your family in risk all the time. How will a human be fine and do the daily jobs with a broken back bone?

Such sounds and issues CANNOT be accepted and driven around. M&M has to replace the car as re-welding such parts will not get the original strength to the structure at all.

Anurag.

[humyum]

Originally Posted by kk21

Hi Friends

Been an reader of the forum for a long time now, and finally got my membership approved today, on my third attempt! Its a shame that I am making my first post in a state of distress, but anyway...

I will be happy to provide more details, but to cut a long story short - after over a year of complaining to Mahindra ASS in Gurgaon about a tak-tak noise coming from the front left hand side of the cabin, the problem has finally been diagnosed as broken spot welds on the LHS A Pillar.

This problem has been there pretty much since the beginning - apart from various other rattles/squeaks/creaks - most of which ASS were able to rectify at some point or the other - but this problem took more than a year and finally a visit by someone from Mahindra Pune to get diagnosed.

Now They are asking me to allow them either:
1. Cut the pillar, re-weld the broken spot welds, then weld the pillar back and repaint etc. but no assurance that more welds wont come off in the future.

2. Change the entire frame of the car. for this obviously the whole car needs to be taken apart and then re-assembled at the workshop.

What should I do ? I am totally clueless about this.

Think about this logically, The chances of all the spot welds being wrong in your car are almost 0.1 to none. If Mahindra does not agree to replace the car, get only the A Pillar opened and the spot welding done again. Don't go for the entire frame replacement, the workshop won't do this as professionally as what the factory would have done.

I ll be fine. Don't Worry. Its not such a big deal !

[aseem]

Originally Posted by humyum

Think about this logically, The chances of all the spot welds being wrong in your car are almost 0.1 to none. If Mahindra does not agree to replace the car, get only the A Pillar opened and the spot welding done again. Don't go for the entire frame replacement, the workshop won't do this as professionally as what the factory would have done.

I ll be fine. Don't Worry. Its not such a big deal !

I agree. It would be just fine to drive a car with broken welds fixed by the showroom as long as they are willing to fix it and give assurance. Nothing should happen, to be on the safe side he should just avoid one way roads with oncoming traffic and not drive at night or dark road conditions. Best of luck and many happy miles ahead!

[kk21]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Shocking! kk21, for no fault of yours, you will have to get a pillar chopped off to get welding done again, all this for no fault of yours. This is a serious issue, no amount of good work at service center might be able to make your vehicle as good as factory manufactured vehicle in terms of structural strength. Insist for the vehicle to be replaced. If nothing works, tweet Mr.Mahindra with the link to this thread.

This is exactly what I feel - no amount of care at the workshop will be good enough. It is so painful just to think that I could be stuck with a car with so much body repair work done on it for no fault of mine. I just cant accept it. I will feel sad driving it everyday.

Originally Posted by aseem

I agree. It would be just fine to drive a car with broken welds fixed by the showroom as long as they are willing to fix it and give assurance. Nothing should happen, to be on the safe side he should just avoid one way roads with oncoming traffic and not drive at night or dark road conditions. Best of luck and many happy miles ahead!

...now I get it

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by aseem

I agree. It would be just fine to drive a car with broken welds fixed by the showroom as long as they are willing to fix it and give assurance.

I don't think M&M will give any kind of assurance/warranty for this job done. Moreover, if M&M says that this work will be carried out at their workshop then forget it. The workmanship is nothing to speak home about, if the workers can't do the welding properly at the manufacturing stage what will they do at the later part!

Originally Posted by kk21

I just cant accept it. I will feel sad driving it everyday.

No one can accept such issues buddy. It'll keep eating you peace every time you unlock the car. M&M must do something substantial and solve the problem ASAP before things slip-out of hand.

Anurag.

[Honda Monk]

I am also going to get a similar sound checked at BHasin's workshop day after.
I wish nothing of such sort is detected in my vehicle.

In KK's case replacement is the only apparent solution. Mr Mahindra should better respond with rational solution else it won't take much time people will lose confidence in the vehicle and eventually the brand which took so long to built.

[VSRK]

It is better to demand new one rather than driving with suspicious feeling every time sitting behind the steering. Every now and then, hearing new issues with XUV 500. I feel MM has to strengthen their quality department rather than experimenting consumers to test their product.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by aseem

I guess just accept the sound and keep driving is the best option unless you want to keep fighting for years like we have seen in the Skoda thread. Sell the car in a few years. As far as safety issues etc. I guess we all were raised in with 2 wheelers so car is still a whole lot safer.
Hope all turns out to be ok. Best of luck and many happy miles of motoring to come. In the meantime, just avoid one way roads with oncoming traffic and you should be ok!

Aseem it's disappointing to see as customers who are spending 15lakhs we should adjust and live with such issues in India.

Can you imagine the impending law suit if this was USA. A car's structural weld joints coming off.

Why should we Indians just accept this and have a car chopped up and welded for no fault of ours. What assurance can the manufacturer give that no other weld is faulty?

What if this critical A-pillar weld failure had resulted in the passenger side caving in during an accident. Weakest point collapsing.

It is because of this attitude that Manufacturers get away.

We need to whatever we can ensure that this type of issues is not covered up and we don't take it lying down.

I would push for new car replacement and if at all you need to pay anything it should just be the road tax for a new car. Car should be free.

[mayankk]

The OP would have been a rich rich man had this been Europe or westward.
I don't know about the people suggesting to accept the solution offered, but I for one would only take my other car on any journey that involved traveling less than a kilometer than take a car with this jugad fix.

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

I would push for new car replacement and if at all you need to pay anything it should just be the road tax for a new car. Car should be free.

Totally agree with Vid
If I am not mistaken Mahindra also sells the XUV in Australia. What would happen if a car in the export market had the same issue?

If this was else where in Europe, Australia, US the OP would have got a new car as replacement and the manufacturer would have to recall all the cars from the batch to verify the weld points.

Most manufacturers think (and are) getting away by giving us substandard quality and products because in our country we have no such thing called as consumer rights or even if we do they rarely work.

[kk21]

Originally Posted by Honda Monk

I am also going to get a similar sound checked at BHasin's workshop day after.
I wish nothing of such sort is detected in my vehicle.

In KK's case replacement is the only apparent solution. Mr Mahindra should better respond with rational solution else it won't take much time people will lose confidence in the vehicle and eventually the brand which took so long to built.

I hope it goes well for you mate and you dont have to go through this. with my car the noise becomes progressively louder as you keep driving it. Every morning when I start the car, the noise would be minimal, but as I kept driving during the day it keeps increasing. I frequently do Delhi-Bareilley-Delhi in one day - thats almost 600 kilometers of driving in one day over all kinds of roads - by the end of the day the noise becomes loud enough that it can be heard even with the radio on at a high volume.

Those are the days I can hear the tak-tak noise even in my sleep.

A car that I bought because of the comfort and peace of mind it seemingly promised for my long highway and mountain travels has "almost" accomplished in doing the complete opposite by giving me sleepless nights.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by aseem

I guess just accept the sound and keep driving is the best option unless you want to keep fighting for years like we have seen in the Skoda thread. ....

Originally Posted by aseem

...Nothing should happen, to be on the safe side he should just avoid one way roads with oncoming traffic and not drive at night or dark road conditions....

I sincerely hope you are joking.

Please note that this is a 15+ Lakh Rs vehicle that we are talking about and not some 150 Rs cheap plastic toy that you accept as 'bad luck' when found faulty.

About 'fighting for years like Skoda', fortunately from whatever little I have seen of Mahindras, they are pretty level-headed and not at all thick-skinned as Skoda.

[debuda]

It may be noted that spot welding of a car body is done in the factory by highly sophisticated programmable robots. The robots are constantly subjected to self-diagnostics and there are quality control checks for the welds. However, since it is not possible to inspect every spot weld individually, sample checks are carried out in every batch.



A typical spot welding robot.




Spot welding in progress.




More information on spot welding is available here. A technical paper on the effects of spot weld failure on dynamic vehicle performance can be found here.

As I said in my earlier post on this thread, failure of spot welds in a heavy monocoque body is a very serious matter and may warrant recall of the entire batch for inspection. I'd request kk21 to let us know :

1. How many spot welds have come off?
2. The exact location of these welds (post a picture if possible).

I'm keenly following this thread like many others.