[landcruiser123]

That looks scary and OP & family potentially escaped a life-threatening situation.

I really doubt 2 bolts sheared at once. They were either missing to begin with or someone at the factory/service center didn't do their job well.

[vishwasvr]

Glad you guys are safe and nothing untoward has happened. Just goes to show, that no process is foolproof. Just one careless worker's misdeeds can result in such horrible situations.

[fordday]

There are two brackets with screws to hold the fuel tank on either side of the exhaust pipe, as seen from the pics. Both of them coming off at the same time seems far fetching. Unless someone tinkered with these to do some other jobs and forgot to tighten.

[aniketi]

This issue has surfaced after 2000 Kms. I doubt if this issue was present from day one when delivery was taken else user would have noticed something for sure. In the photo, we can see fuel tank is down and almost touching ground. Someone should have noticed this from a distance earlier if that was the case. Chances are there that something has gone wrong at first service may be. Also there are chances that someone has done this deliberately.

Sad to see most people started bashing Tata over QC issues before all truth is not known. Not sure how but I think thorough investigation is necessary in this case by Tata and truth should come out. If this is really a issue from Tata, them this is very serious.

[rhsakarp]

Luckily, you noticed something was amiss and pulled over, the consequences of the tank touching the road while moving, would have been disastrous !

Did you manage to find out what the root cause was ?

• Were the bolts never there ?
• Were they removed for some reason during the service and they forgot to put back ?
• Have the bolts sheared off ?

[ASP007]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks to Saurabh Akhilesh Shukla for sending this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this page!

Holy moly, that hanging fuel tank! Thank god that everyone in the car was escaped without an incident. Reminds me of our Tata 407 pickup, which got it's most of the interior screws loose after one month! But not expected from a 20+ lakhs private vehicle in this age. Hopefully, one off incident and Tata would step in to instill confidence in the owner.

[AZT]

Harrier is one of those Cars that has been consistently popping up since it's launch on some thread or the other and it's mostly some owner complaining. It's a testament to the Tata PR team how they always manage to bury all bad news and still sell a car of that price.

[rijo_tj]

If this was a production assembly line issues, i don't think the vehicle would have covered 2000 kms without something drastic happening.

Or perhaps it could be a case of loosened bolt which very slowly and gradually came unscrewed after the ride of 2000 kms, though this is highly unlikely.

Cannot even rule out tampering of fuel tank by some miscreants while the vehicle was stationary.

[Guna]

Very scary and I have never heard about an issue like this before, even in an old car!
I have a question regarding the design itself. Shouldn't a part like the petrol tank be secured in a more 'fail-safe' way? Should it be left to just 'single bolt'? This is poor engineering IMO.

[Pashin]

Scary!

Did something happen during the service on 25th Dec 2020? Problem seems to be immediately post the service. Only way to find out is the service logs at dealer end which i fear by now may have been deleted.

[giri1.8]

Every maker cuts corner at some place or the other, sadly for Tata it's QC and staff training (personal experience).

What's worse, post this thread on FB and the sheep fan boys will accuse Teambhp being biased against Tata.

[srishiva]

There should be some plate or something below the fuel tank. Dont think its there in all other vehicles. Also, was there any vibration which could have loosened the screws. I hear someone saying shearing. But think it was just screws coming off.
Other owners should check their vehicles to make sure everything is in order. It will be good if the reason is found and published here early. Never ever had I heard of something similar.

[Gabbar010487]

Looks to me like a case of service centre trying to swap the hand brake wire with a defective one from a Demo vehicle while the car was in the service centre to get serviced and forgetting to reinstall Fuel tank bolts properly. A similar case of KIA mechanics swapping Head Unit from a Sonet to their demo vehicle was discussed in the forum a few days back.

[tarik.arora]

Originally Posted by Gabbar010487

Looks to me like a case of service centre trying to swap the hand brake wire with a defective one from a Demo vehicle while the car was in the service centre to get serviced and forgetting to reinstall Fuel tank bolts properly. A similar case of KIA mechanics swapping Head Unit from a Sonet to their demo vehicle was discussed in the forum a few days back.

Even I feel the same. This cannot go un-noticed from the assembly line>vehicle quality>road-test>plant PDI>dealer transit>dealer PDI>2,000 kms of usage. Something surely has happened during the first service and the service center can only answer this. The OP should involve Tata Motors and bring the dealer/ who-so-ever is responsible to task. This is a safety hazard and cannot be ignored at any level.

Unless the bolt loosened during usage (which means an assembly issue), there is no other way this can be explained without 'appropriate' involvement of the service-center.

[gururajrv]

Tata & Mahindra, really need to up their game in terms of sourcing quality supplies and implement stringent QC checks to increase safety in terms of the parts used in the car and not only the overall construction. I am glad the family is safe.

Was the service done anytime recently where the service personnel would’ve meddled with this by any chance?