[GTO]

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

I own a Tata Harrier XZA+ bought from Indrajit Tata Motors, Bhayandar. Its 2000 km driven and I had my 1st service on 28th Dec 2020.

I decided to go on a road trip with my family to Shirdi. On 17th Jan, we left early morning and at a few instances, we felt something is not right with this car. We stopped the car at a dhaba and checked. We were shocked to see the fuel tank nearly touching the ground!! What would happen if the tank touched the road while we were cruising at 100 km/hr.

The roadside assistance was horrible; my family waited at that dhaba for 6 hours. The car got towed and the service personnel told us that the fuel tank bolts were missing . Also that some inside fitting was loose and the handbrake wire was completely damaged.

There is no action or enquiry about whose fault it was, and no action has been taken so far. They have replaced the handbrake wire and put the original bolts to fit the fuel tank.

[akash_v12]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks to Saurabh Akhilesh Shukla for sending this information in.

Oh boy! Scary to say the least. I'm not very sure as to what would happen if the tank would hit the ground since I'm not aware of the thickness of these tanks, but I would assume that they are thick. But if by any chance, the driver would've continued driving for a longer period of time, the tank could've started leaking and the consequences could've been disastrous to say the least.

These QC issues in the V2 Harrier are still present - with BHPian LowFlyer23's Harrier having had water ingress on the passenger side and this gentleman's vehicle.

I believed for the past year or so, that Tata would've improved their overall customer satisfaction but this is just a symbol of how wrong I was.

[gkveda]

Oh my God, Is this a new car or a car that has come from 1st service? In either case, this is disastrous.

Multiple point of failures.
1. How did the car leave factory without proper quality inspection?

2. How did the dealer deliver car without checking?

3. Did the dealer do the PDI prior to delivery or just did post man job?

If the car had been to 1st or 2nd service, atleast then, this issue should have got caught. How did it escape?

What did the dealer's FIR say? Is there an acceptance of their mistake or blame is on owner of the car?

Really shocking.

[MCR]

Good Lord!!

This is a serious issue. Never have I seen something like this happen. With a huge tank like Harrier its imperative that manufacturers think about this scenario and design the clamps accordingly.
Not jumping ahead of the gun, but this looks like an assembly issue at the plant which went unnoticed during the PDI!
May be the plant guys "went for a cup of tea" at this crucial stage and did not bother to double check the fuel tank bolts.
If tightened properly, no way can these bolts fall-off. Its alarming how Tata cars can show a completely new and un heard of issue and scare away the prospective car buyers.

[Iyencar]

Good thing it's got a stunning design. That way when you look back at the car after parking it you can simultaneously check for issues.
Good god Tata, how are you coming up with more QC problems as the car is supposedly getting more niggles ironed out? Whether the error is with the dealer or the manufacturer this simply isn't done. The handbrake wire being "loose" and the tank bolts falling off are very different things and can't possibly be related. Dear Saurabh, if you are reading this, better have the dealer and Tata do a proper root cause analysis and have the car checked from head to toe. Then let them assure you in writing that everything is checked and okay. Will help to have this for future troubleshooting/ consumer court cases if needed.

[ashis89]

Seems like Team-BHP PDI checklist needs to be updated...

Include a step to conduct an underbody scan and x-ray machine examination of the whole car

Tata and its quality control never ceases to surprise!

BTW, if the bolt was missing, did the car run all of 2000 kms with such a dangling fuel tank?

[saikarthik]

Scary stuff! But the family is safe though they had to go through the pain.

Looks like the bolts were fastened in assembly as we can see some scratch marks on the bracket. If the bolts were removed during service (Why would they have to) and they forgot to fasten them, then its a huge blunder. But, I suspect the bolt had sheared off while running and its even more scary.

[Jeroen]

Phew, you got very lucky here. That could have been a very serious and potentially very dangerous situation. Very scary indeed!

Would be interesting to see if the bolt has sheared off or just came undone. If it has sheared off, you should be able to see parts of it still attached. But If I interpret your images it appears as if the bolt just became undone. Regardless, it should have never happened of course. Most likely it was not tightened properly.

I am actually a bit surprised to see a petrol tank being secured with just one bracket. Not sure how much fuel it can hold, but I would assume at least well over 50 liters. Which means this tank when full and with the various bit attached to it weighs in at well over 50 kilograms. As the contents are fluid it will slosh around as the car moves, increasing the loading considerably.

Having something with that kind of (fluid) weight secured with one bracket seems not appropriate to me?

Will be interesting to see, what Tata has to say about it.

Jeroen

[vishy76]

TATA and it's QC issues never cease to surprise. Over the course of the past few months, these are the number of issues that have come to light, some intermittent, some isolated some very common on the Harrier.

- False low engine oil pressure lamp (common)

- CEL in the automatic tranny equipped Harriers (known issue, usually occuring when the brake and A-pedal are pressed simultaneously)

- Steering hydraulic pump failure due to a leaking hose. The pump is starved off hydraulic fluid and gets damaged by running dry

- Leaky air con pipe letting water into the cabin

- Engine mount snapping off (Happened to a 2019 Harrier on the FB group)

What is more worrying is that 4 out of 5 issues have been reported on the 2020 Harrier. So in essence, TATA:

- Launched a half baked product in 2019 with major QC issues

- Only a year down the line, they again launched a V2 which they claimed sorted most of these issues out

And now, the Harrier V2 is facing these issues. Why does a car maker who has been in this business for more than 2 decades need so many chances building a niggle free car?

Originally Posted by ashis89

Seems like Team-BHP PDI checklist needs to be updated...

Include a step to conduct an underbody scan and x-ray machine examination of the whole car

Tata and its quality control never ceases to surprise!

BTW, if the bolt was missing, did the car run all of 2000 kms with such a dangling fuel tank?

There is a possibility that some of the bolts had been fastened incorrectly. Which meant they eventually came loose over a course of 2000km and fell off leading to this.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by GTO

Attachment 2118484

Very concerning issue, can't remember when I had last heard of it.
Lucky escape, TML can't just be silent on it, else they will earn a podium place currently led by Kia and followed by Hyundai.
Just thinking out loud here :

1. Is the black undercoat done by factory or the dealer ? asking this because the fuel pipe and the other cylindrical component don't even have any spray marks which would normally happen if an undercoat was done outside of the factory. Seems like a case of loose bolt from factory as the undercoat seems like factory job to me, looking at other images.

2. I may be wrong but seems like either the bolt was fastened after the undercoat or was loose before the undercoat because the black material seems to have seeped into the area which would have been sealed off if the bolt was present/tightened. As shown below :

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by vishy76

What is more worrying is that 4 out of 5 issues have been reported on the 2020 Harrier.

Even more worrying is the fact that 2 out of 5 issues are present from Dicor Safari/Aria days. It has been a decade and TML still has not found a QC process to catch the AC water leaking in the front seats. By the way, they are also on a decade-long quest to find a vendor who can provide them a steering fluid hose that won't break easily. You will find the same issues being mentioned in the decade-old Safari 2.2 issues thread.

[SS80]

Although it is shocking to see this kind of failure,lucky that they have given good (read strong) mounts for the exhaust pipe, you can clearly see the tank resting on the exhaust pipe (with the heat shield) and partially on the bracket.

Was the tank or fuel pump changed under warranty in the first service?

[Kosfactor]

It has 2 fuel tank straps - not 1, the only way it could have stayed in its place for sometime and then fallen down is if someone had lowered the tank for spraying something like an underbody coating (aftermarket?) is my guess.

This genius would have kept the bolts finger tight and forgotten it. The car eventually gets a full tank fuel and some rough roads would have gotten them loose.

[gkveda]

Did you get any updated information on this as to why the tank slipped down from the car within 2000kms and the resolution from Tatas or dealers?

[Lowflyer23]

Originally Posted by akash_v12

.
These QC issues in the V2 Harrier are still present - with BHPian LowFlyer23's Harrier having had water ingress on the passenger side and this gentleman's vehicle.

What?! I don't even own a harrier. Although I guess I did post something on that thread and am aware about the BHPian who faced the water ingress issue.

That said, however safe and good vehicles Tata might be making, they need to damn get some sense into the QC and After sales department. People appreciate Tata for providing safe cars but they can't create a mess behind the barrier of safety. Also I never recommended any Tata to someone who wanted peace of mind ownership, neither is the harrier on my profile my car or a car I admire (no offense to anyone), I just put this random image to complete my profile set up and get posting access to Team Bhp ASAP.