[baby_antu]

Excellent work Saket Sir. The transition from LX to VXi is very cleanly done. Also that 16V Smart-i decal(is it from the Old Baleno?) is a nice touch.

You are lucky that your MASS is passionate, and is supportive in such endeavors. In NCR, cars like Zen and the 800 don't command such respect, and they don't even bother servicing them properly.

-Anant

PS: Impressed by the job they have done on your car, and the enthusiasm with which they have been maintaining Leoshashi's 800, I have planned to send my car(a 2005 M800) for restoration to M/s Maruti Automobiles, Ranchi.

[saket77]

Got this nice sporty pedal kit for the Zen from Maruti. Thanks to Shashi again for spotting and picking 'em up.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by sumitsinha0280

Kindly get the Michelins changed. IIRC, they are the same tyres which had cracking issue .
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...e-failure.html

His Zen got new rubber last weekend. More pics and his review should come out soon.



Regards,
Shashi

[saket77]

Sorry that I couldn't update this thread earlier.

Replacing the tires isn't a big news, but replacing Michelins with Good Year hi-miler tires could be.
After all, how many BHPians would replace premium tires to get back to medium hard compounds? That's blasphemy, isn't it?

Knowing pretty well that Michelins would win hands down when it comes to sheer grip levels, I still went for Good Years. This is only because I feel shortchanged by the representatives (read dealers) of Michelin as I sincerely believe that the previous failure was a manufacturing defect in the tires. My tires were among the first batches of XM 1+ ; made in Thailand which suffered strange identical failures. I got hold of same vintage tires in another car in my society and found identical failures on all 4 tires too. To top that, the dealership was totally uncooperative. Thanks, but you have had all the money that you would in my life. No more Michelins. It's all well documented on the forum.

Went for GY. Comes very reasonably priced for Rs. 2350/- a piece (much lesser than what I paid 5+ years ago for the outgoing Michelins) with unconditional warranty. I have driven less than 100 kms hence I am sure that the true character of the tires is yet to be discovered. I believe there might not be much to write about as these are medium compound rubbers. Grip is adequate, and the comfort factor is average. Road noise initially had gone down a bit compared to the older tires. I hope it provides a good balance between grip and longevity.

Regards,
Saket.

[saket77]

Another update:

Felt that the clutch cable needed lubrication and there was a feeling of the steering getting stuck at times. Needed to tackle these issues hence Shashi took the car to Maruti Automobiles. The clutch cable was lubricated and the steering column was lubricated which helped both cases.

However, during the general inspection before delivery, a couple of gear oil leaks were revealed. The culprit were 2 failed oil seals which were replaced. Some quantity of gear oil needed to be topped up due to loss by leaks. Total bill at Maruti was Rs. 590/-

The car was also due to alignment and wheel balancing after the recent tire change and the car was taken to Om Sai tires (bariatu) where the job was done. Total damages - Rs. 500/-

[chiranjitp]

Congratulations on the restoration (or refresh) & the subtle modification you have done like the grill from the carb Zen has further improved the looks. Among all the grills that the Zen ever came with, this grill is also my favorite. One suggestion from my side would be to get the waistline molding which came as a OE on the mpfi Zen VXi.

It seems that you have fitted power windows, how is the speed when the windows roll up? I have asked you this question because the power windows on my 2001 Zen VXi take a really long time to roll up.

Originally Posted by saket77

- Addition of rear high mount internal stop lamp (it wasn't a feature back in 2002!) Rs. 300/-.
Actually this one was shocking. The original fitment for Zen is a Suzuki Genuine Part (SGP) rather than MGP and it costs a mind boggling 3000 Rupees!!

This go me thinking since my 2001 Zen VXi had a high mounted stop lamp as OE. The cover on the HMSL reads TOKAIDENSO, so it seems that my HMSL is made in Japan.

HMSL





My car also does have a rear fog lamp as OE, back in 2001 there were not many Marutis that came with this feature. So I had a look at that too, this one reads KOITO JAPAN, so one more made in Japan part.

Rear fog lamp

[scorpian]

Great Work.
Really happy to see you restore your zen with such enthusiasm.

Out here in goa we are having no spare part support, authorized MGP part store refuses to order any parts, leaving us all in a sad situation. No amount of request,advance money has helped tackle the situation.

Wish you all the very best and happy times with your ZEN.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by chiranjitp

so it seems that my HMSL is made in Japan.

Even today the HMSL is SGP for this model of Zen. It was never localised. We didn't want to spend a fortune on the HMSL, hence went with the cheaper option: M800s HMSL which costs a meagre 10% of Zen's HMSL

Trivia: Zen Carbon's HMSL is Lumax made, but it doesn't fit the regular 5 door Zen for some weird reason. The back door looks identical.

My car also does have a rear fog lamp as OE, back in 2001 there were not many Marutis that came with this feature. So I had a look at that too, this one reads KOITO JAPAN, so one more made in Japan part.

That's a treasure buddy, and you should be really careful with the part as it's hanging low and can get hit in traffic.

Regards,
Shashi

[techn0l0gist]

Originally Posted by scorpian

Out here in goa we are having no spare part support, authorized MGP part store refuses to order any parts, leaving us all in a sad situation. No amount of request,advance money has helped tackle the situation..

Hi, I buy a lot of hard to find parts from them , if you go to the Ponda store they usually take an order with 50% advance unless the part number has been stopped or the rare part sells in a pack of 10 or so and you are not ready to buy the whole pack!

Also try going at around 2pm or so when there aren't too many customers. It helps if you have the part numbers(you can buy a parts catalog from them too!) directly rather than have them search at the store.

[scorpian]

Thanks for the info, i did go to ponda store to search for coolant expansion tank, but the same so not available and nor could be ordered, i was in tite spot as mine had cracked and i had to use of another zen till i could source it.

I am usually willing to pay in advance, however the margao store guys just tell say parts for zen are stopped and hence no order can be placed, may be they are just bluffing.i dont know if there is any way we could escalate this to avoid the issue of parts being available yet not being ordered.

Shall try again with the ponda store.

[saket77]

Hello all!

I think its time for a worthy update. The Zen completed 15 years on road. And many of you know that we celebrated the same with a great trip to Sikkim with the Zen!
The travelogue is here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...route-zen.html

Now since the car had completed 15 years and , it was time for re-registration of the same. I tried to engage an agent for the job - he asked for 15,000 rupees

By no means, the expense would come to this amount since the one-time life time tax was paid and it was just registration fee, vehicle inspection fee plus clerical expenses like smart card fee & printing fee etc.

I decided to go about this myself finally.
Documents & the process:

1. Fill up the one pager Form 25
2. Attach original RC, attested copies of valid insurance, PUC and invoice of the vehicle.
3. Attach a pencil imprint of the chassis number.
4. Copy of Aadhar of the owner.


I went to the RTO office first day and was informed that it was closed for Vivekananda Jayanti. Then went next day there with the form and set of documents and applied for retrieval of the manually maintained diary of registration record of the vehicle. Since, these are 15 year old manually maintained records, I was prepared to give it a few days or even weeks time. Came back home. Expenses on Day 1 - ZERO.

Next day was a Sunday and I got a call from RTO office that my records have been found! I wasn't expecting it the next day - leave alone on Sunday! GREAT! They asked me to note a number and quote the same on Form 25.

Day 2: Went to the office for second day with all documents and the quoted number on form - the lady on counter submitted my documents and asked me to come next day. Expenses - ZERO.

Day 3: Went to the office on third day - Today.
Walked to the lady and she said "no link sir!!" but asked me to wait. After a wait for about 45 mins, a slow link was established and she punched my data in the system and approved for tax payment to the higher ups.
Went to the other official as informed by the lady and he put his signature on the form and directed me to the clerk who would calculate the amount to be paid.

Went to the next counter and he calculated the amount to be Rs. 1999/- plus POS charges Rs. 35/- if paid through debit card. I made the payment through card - total Rs. 2034/-

I was asked to present my vehicle to the Motor Vehicle Inspector who would inspect the vehicle and give the fitness certificate, if passed.
Took the car immediately to the MVI, and he signed the fitness certificate after a short inspection.

So, the Zen passed the test!

I was directed to submit Rs. 43/- fee towards issuance of smart card so came back to RTO office to submit the same.

Once done, the entire bunch of papers were submitted to the RTO office for issuance of new smart card with updated data of registration date, which will be extended for 5 more years. As per the prevailing system in our city, it takes about 3 weeks for issue of smart card. Hence, I was asked to come after about a month's time to check the status/ collect the RC smart card.
Total expenses = Rs. 1999 + 35 + 43 = Rs 2077/- (against Rs. 15K asked by the agent)

Hopefully, I shall receive the new RC card in a month.

Lesson learnt: Getting your own job done at RTO is not as difficult as it is claimed/ made out to be; especially by touts and agents. Just keep some patience as these offices are not among the most organised ones to come across, but with some time and patience, things can be done.

Regards,
Saket

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by saket77

Lesson learnt: Getting your own job done at RTO is not as difficult as it is claimed/ made out to be; especially by touts and agents. Just keep some patience as these offices are not among the most organised ones to come across, but with some time and patience, things can be done.

It was a nice experience for me too. Thanks for involving me in this process.

Some pics:

Zen at my place, the previous night



Inspection in Process



Mission accomplished



Regards,
Shashi

[sumeethaldankar]

Good to know you got the job done for just ~2k. I had paid 4500 (3200 green tax + 1300 for the Motor training school guys who got the job done) for my 800. 15k for renewal is downright absurd.

[R2D2]

I had to pay 6K including all 'charges' to an agent to renew my Dad's (and now mine) 2002 Palio 1.6 GTX registration in 2016. Even that was a rip off but I didn't have the time to follow up at the RTO. 15K for the Zen is nuts.

[chiranjitp]

Originally Posted by saket77

Hello all!

I think its time for a worthy update. The Zen completed 15 years on road.

Lesson learnt: Getting your own job done at RTO is not as difficult as it is claimed/ made out to be; especially by touts and agents. Just keep some patience as these offices are not among the most organised ones to come across, but with some time and patience, things can be done.

Congratulations on completing 15 years with this brilliant car & I hope you will continue to maintain her in the coming years. We have 2 cars in our garage that are past the 15 year mark (99 Omni & 01 Zen). Both of them had their RC renewed twice in the last few years, Omni due to half engine change, 15 year renewal & Zen due to ownership change, 15 year renewal.

Each time we have completed the job without the help of any agents & in the process saved some amount of money. IIRC the re-registration cost was below 1k for both the cars, I guess different rates for different States. As you have already mentioned, if one has the patience then these jobs can be easily done without any external help.

In 2012, I became eligible to get a driver's license & hence advised my dad that we should hire a agent to help us in obtaining my DL. My dad firmly replied that he is not paying anything extra & if I want my DL I have to get it without the help of any agent. Finally I did obtain my DL on my own & I passed both the tests in the first attempt. The RTO is only 2 km from our residence.