[vaasu]

Originally Posted by vikash49

Picked up a pair of Philips X-Treme Vision 60/55w H4 bulbs from my friend (Alpine Distributor) as they're also Distributors for Philips Automotive Lighting.

These bulbs are a direct fit and completely OEM spec. No relays, no heavy duty wirings, no ceramic holders, no heating issues at all. In fact you can replace them yourself, just like I did. No implications on the warranty either!
And to top it all, these just cost you 900/- bucks for a pair!

What do you say guys?

But I can see MRP Rs 600 on the packaging? And since it is officially imported by Philips India the price should still be Rs 600?
Guess 600 is price for one bulb?

[Ace F355]

Ah nice... Another Honda City joins in!

It is truly amazing to see how the City is doing well again, after the recent price revision; even though gasoline prices are rocketing through the roof!

Nice review Vikash49, enjoyd going through it. You also seems to done a little moving around already, to take care of City's weak points.

Tyre upgrade: Check! A must for any City owner. I had 205 cross section A Drives on my Civic earlier. I have said it before and I am saying it again, A Drive are the most VFM rubber out there for budget concious buyers. Look chunky and grip well. However, they aquaplane a lot (read: A LOT) and can make you uncomfortable if pushed even if slightly under such weather conditions.

Bulb Upgrade: Check! Another must since City's OEM light aren't that good.

ICE is not my thing in cars. However the HU looks sweeeeet.

Congrats and wish you thousands of blissful and happy miles on both your Hondas. Looking forward to the updates. Keep writing.

[vikash49]

Hi Guys,

Just back from a round trip to Shillong, a hill station that's situated at 4.5k ft abive sea level. Since we were total of six people traveling, we decided to take both the cars. This place is about 110kms away and is a 2.5hr drive one way.

Bhai's Jan 2011 Honda City S-MT with 5.5k on the Odo and my Oct 2011 Honda City E-MT with just 240kms on the odo.

The drive was through twisty state highways with some newly surfaced excellently sweeping corners, some broken stretches in between, and the rest being average state highway roads.

There were three adults in each car. We started with me driving bhai's car while he was driving mine. Later interchanged midway into the journey. Did the same on the return leg.

After the end of the journey we discussed the drive over a hot cup of coffee and here are the combined observations from both of us.

Bhai's Car car on OEM Tires
- Having covered 5.5k, the engine felt noticeably more refined
- Gear shifts were smoother too. No difficulty in shifting down from 3rd to 2nd as was the case on my car.
- Tyres were easily squirming when pushed on the faster corners
- Meter showed overall fuel economy of 13.2kmpl at the end of the trip
- Trip meter showed 229kms
- Scrapped the underbelly once.

My Car on upgraded Yokos
- Ride quality was considerably better than on Bhai's car. Specially over the broken surfaces
- Definitely more grip in the fast corners and absolutely no squirming from the tyres
- Much lesser tyre noise in the high speed sections
- Meter showed overall fuel economy of 12.1kmpl at the end of the trip
- Trip meter showed 221kms
- Underbelly did not grind doing similar speeds with similar load at the same point


Both of us absolutely could not make out any difference in power or torque between the two.

P.S. Since this was a family drive, we were doing average comfortable speeds and were not really pushing it.

[iashishi]

Originally Posted by vikash49

Hi Guys,
...
Bhai's Car car on OEM Tires
- Having covered 5.5k, the engine felt noticeably more refined
- Gear shifts were smoother too. No difficulty in shifting down from 3rd to 2nd as was the case on my car.
....

Was it always smooth in your brother's car or did it smoothen out sometime later?
Others like remingtonsteele had also reported this earlier. Can we get update on it?

I ask because even my car has the 3rd to 2nd gear shift problem. My car has done 2200kms and it still persists. However, I have noticed that it has reduced to first few kms after engine start now. After about 3-4kms,downshift to 2nd is smooth.

Did you notice anything similar?

[vikash49]

Please help me select one of these alloy wheels for my City which is running 195/65 Yokos.

[B103]

I upgraded ANHC tyres to Michelin Primacy LC (195/65 R15) yesterday. Though I tested with steering fully turned in both the directions, I could not test it with full load and hence was a bit nervous. Thanks for your post with tyre upgrade. Me too will be safe then ...

Congratulations on your new car. Wishing you a fulfilling driving experience ahead.

[W.A.G.7]

Originally Posted by vikash49

Please help me select one of these alloy wheels for my City which is running 195/65 Yokos.

Both designs are great, but personally I like the 1st design with twin 5 spokes. They would suit your City much better. O.T: Did you get the door handles re-painted, or are they still in the stock black colour?

[B103]

Originally Posted by vikash49

The pluses of this upgrade would be:

- Ground Clearance Increase of 13mm (195*.65) = 126.75 - (176*.65) = 113.75
- Better Dry/Wet Grip (195 profile vs 175 profile)
- Lower Road Noise
- Better Ride Comfort

113.75 mm is posing some questions marks in my mind. How would you relate this to the car's ground clearance?

This question because Honda specifies 160 mm as ground clearance in the web site: :: Honda City ::

A 13mm increase in ground clearance will take it 173 mm ground clearance!! SX4 base model has a ground clearance of 170 mm only.

[vikash49]

Originally Posted by B103

113.75 mm is posing some questions marks in my mind. How would you relate this to the car's ground clearance?

A 13mm increase in ground clearance will take it 173 mm ground clearance!!

113.75 mm is the height of the sidewall on the OEM tires, whereas 126.75 mm is the height of sidewall on the upsized tire.

So the gain in sidewall height is 13mm and this increases the ground clearence to 173mm.

All of the above is theory. Now the practical result is that my car has NEVER scrapped its underbelly since the upgrade I did about a month back.

My brother has the same car and traverses the same roads and very frequently scrapes his car!

[ar@v1nd]

@vikash, if I understand this correctly, a larger circumference tyre effectively means taller gearing, so shouldn't your actual fuel efficiency increase (unless your 195 profile tyres are causing higher rolling friction than the 175s, that is) ?

Actually if account for the 4.27% speedo error, your FE of 12.1 is actually 12.1*(104.27/100) = 12.6. Still your Bhai's City gives 13.2. His car is still 4.7% more fuel efficient than yours.

Any idea why this drop if FE is happening?

[palewar]

Thanks Vikash for such detailed review. Thanks to all the pain you took I won't need to test all that with my tyres

I own a Sept 11 Honda City and yesterday upgraded to 195/65/R15 myself.

Most recommended upgrade is 190/65/15 so was a little confused, but dealer is a friend and Offered to change them if I am not satisfied within 2 days. Will take the car around a bit and see how it feels.

But good to know that others find this upgrade work well.

Michelin was not available so went for Pirelli P7 instead. Have heard they are equally good.

What do you or other BHPians have to say about P7?

[vikash49]

I had ordered these T10 10 SMD LED Bulbs from Ebay..



Just installed them..







They look cool and are much brighter than the stock bulbs!

My son just loves them!

Originally Posted by iashishi

Was it always smooth in your brother's car or did it smoothen out sometime later?
Others like remingtonsteele had also reported this earlier. Can we get update on it?

I ask because even my car has the 3rd to 2nd gear shift problem. My car has done 2200kms and it still persists. However, I have noticed that it has reduced to first few kms after engine start now. After about 3-4kms,downshift to 2nd is smooth.

Did you notice anything similar?

Hi Ashish,

I asked bhai about the downshifting problem and he couldn't recall having faced any such problems.

Also, I haven't actually noticed this problem in my car either for a past couple of days... hope its smoothing out on its own

Originally Posted by B103

I upgraded ANHC tyres to Michelin Primacy LC (195/65 R15) yesterday. Though I tested with steering fully turned in both the directions, I could not test it with full load and hence was a bit nervous. Thanks for your post with tyre upgrade. Me too will be safe then ...

Hi there.. glad you found my post helpful... sharing knowledge and experiences is what this forum is all about!

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

Both designs are great, but personally I like the 1st design with twin 5 spokes. They would suit your City much better. O.T: Did you get the door handles re-painted, or are they still in the stock black colour?

Thanks mate. They are my favorite too.

BTW I haven't yet got the handles painted. Plan to keep them stock.

Originally Posted by ar@v1nd

your FE of 12.1 is actually 12.6. Still your Bhai's City gives 13.2. His car is still 4.7% more fuel efficient than yours.

Any idea why this drop if FE is happening?

Maybe its because mine was a brand new engine (read friction) with just 240km on the odo while bhai's engine had properly smoothed out having done 5.5k.

Originally Posted by palewar

Thanks Vikash for such detailed review. Thanks to all the pain you took I won't need to test all that with my tyres

I own a Sept 11 Honda City and yesterday upgraded to 195/65/R15 myself.

What do you or other BHPians have to say about P7?

Thanks Palewar.. glad that this thread was of help to you!

While I dont have any first hand info about P7s, however I've only heard good things about Pirelli in general.

BTW, have you practically noticed any improvement in ride quality / ground clearance after the upgrade?


Next in line... FOG Lamps!

While the Dealer wants 21k for the original Fog Lamp kit, I managed to find this Top Quality OEM Fog Lamp Kit made in Taiwan.

Ordered it from Ebay. Total cost 5.7k including shipping

[DeKay]

Hi Vicky,
How are you planning to install the fog lamps? I checked out the link and it says that the bumper needs modifications to install them.
Also, won't these affect the warranty?

[B103]

Originally Posted by palewar

I own a Sept 11 Honda City and yesterday upgraded to 195/65/R15 myself. Most recommended upgrade is 190/65/15 so was a little confused, but dealer is a friend and Offered to change them if I am not satisfied within 2 days. Will take the car around a bit and see how it feels. But good to know that others find this upgrade work well. Michelin was not available so went for Pirelli P7 instead. Have heard they are equally good.
What do you or other BHPians have to say about P7?

Cool, how much was the cost per Pirelli tyre? I heard that they are a very good Italian brand used by all Formula 1 cars.

Originally Posted by vikash49

113.75 mm is the height of the sidewall on the OEM tires, whereas 126.75 mm is the height of sidewall on the upsized tire.

So the gain in sidewall height is 13mm and this increases the ground clearence to 173mm.

All of the above is theory. Now the practical result is that my car has NEVER scrapped its underbelly since the upgrade I did about a month back.

My brother has the same car and traverses the same roads and very frequently scrapes his car!

I am using a City V-AT for the last 2 years with stock tyres and had the same problem. Scraping the bottom is prominent esp in full laden condition.

That is true. The calculation is tricky and mainly theory. I am feeling that the tyre upgrade to 195/65 R15 would not increase the car's ground clearance to 173 mm.

You may be able to check it since you have 2 City cars with different tyres at home. With the same tyre pressure on both the cars on a level ground, if you measure the distance from ground to the edge where you attach the jack on the cars, you can know the difference it had made.

And your new bulbs look great. As far as I know, I am the first one to replace the stock bulbs with Philips brand. However, soon after replacement, I noticed a line (indicating deformation) on one of the headlights. Nothing can be felt from outside so I believe the it is inside the plastic headlight cover. More than a crack, it looks to me like a bulged line of deformation. Because of that, I am not too sure if the plastic can withstand the increased heat generated by these new bulbs.

[B103]

Originally Posted by vaasu

But I can see MRP Rs 600 on the packaging? And since it is officially imported by Philips India the price should still be Rs 600?
Guess 600 is price for one bulb?

Vassu, See my post above on the impact. I am believing it resulted because of the bulb upgrade. Not 100 percent sure also.