[Shwet]

I am trying to get a sump guard installed in my Ertiga, however nobody in Gurgaon has heard of it or is at least willing to do the Job. Should I go to a local mechanic , denting shop ?
They might be willing to do it.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by PAS

Primarily due to fear of damaging /yellowing the plastic reflectors/cover sooner than its prescribed life.

Would have been my primary concern too, mainly due to my usage and driving patterns. I drive a lot at night, almost throughout the nights many times.

And I have the same 100/90 set up in both my cars, WagonR and the Ertiga. The WagonR has this since at least 2+ lac kms and Its not shown signs of any burning or yellowing. If one knows the limits of using this, there should be less to worry. I have seen insane upgrades like 100/130 and then you constantly drive on high beams; its exactly this what gets you!

And more than a lac on Ertiga and 2 lac on WagonR, still on healthy reflectors should qualify for good life, no?

Originally Posted by Shwet

I am trying to get a sump guard installed in my Ertiga, however nobody in Gurgaon has heard of it or is at least willing to do the Job. Should I go to a local mechanic , denting shop ?
They might be willing to do it.

Please visit a good fabricator first to get the guard done. Then visit any neighborhood garage to get that fixed.

Of course, before that you may have to visit to the garage to arrive at a template. Or may be check with arjithin and he should be able to give you the diagram for the same.

Maruti ASC will mostly likely not entertain this for you anyway.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Maruti ASC will mostly likely not entertain this for you anyway.

I feel it is a good thing to have this guard. But

1. Are there any fabricators in Bangalore?
2. Will installing this void any warranty?
3. Is it same for petrol and diesel ertigas?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

I feel it is a good thing to have this guard.

If you are regularly taking on very bad roads with full load or interior roads then you can. Else I personally never felt the need for one in mine although terrains like Leh-Ladakh and the roads there make it imminent.

1. Are there any fabricators in Bangalore?

Honestly, this is no huge task at all. Any fabricator will be able to do this if:

- He is smart to understand your needs and make one by himself
- He is good enough to execute what you are asking based on your drawing

In fact, 2 people who have got the guard fabricated are Rajain and arjithin and they did this from Bangalore only.

2. Will installing this void any warranty?

In reality, this will not. Mechanically this won't affect anything at all. It is just a guard below the engine oil sump to protect from it.

3. Is it same for petrol and diesel ertigas?

May not be because the Petrol and Diesel engine layout differs, so do their Engine oil capacities and hence the sump below the Engine.

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

If you are regularly taking on very bad roads with full load or interior roads then you can. Else I personally never felt the need for one in mine although terrains like Leh-Ladakh and the roads there make it imminent.

Honestly, this is no huge task at all. Any fabricator will be able to do this if:

Agree on this its not a huge task at all. Details on my install is here

I dont have any drawing as such, we made a rough cutout in cardboard first and then cut the sheet accordingly.

Few points to take care while fabricating sump guard
1. Sump is what need to be protected, you can leave holes on rest of areas
2. Do not block airflow to Engine from underside completely. Leave gaps
3. Do not use a sheet with lot of weight. This weight is coming in front of the front axle and has the potential to impact vehicle handling if its too much.
4. Leave at least 1 inch gap between sump and guard, and that 1 inch + sheet thickness is your net reduction on ground clearance.
5. Use nut bolt mechanism so that it can be easily removed during service time to drain oil
6. We initially planned to use Aluminum sheet used for truck bed fabrication, but found it lacking strength; hence went for 3mm iron sheet.

For the record - The sheet I used has a weight of 8Kgs and didnt feel any difference in handling

[Shwet]

"The sump guard fabricated did its job very well. It took most of the under body hits which would have been on the sump otherwise. It needed a straightening in between".

This also means that having a plastic sump guard is actually just an eyewash. If you had to get the metal one straightened then no plastic guard would have been able to survive. There are many cars with plastic sump guards and though some look thick its impossible to mimic the toughness of metal.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Shwet

This also means that having a plastic sump guard is actually just an eyewash.

Indeed and I really won't see that as a "guard". It may only help reduce wind/road noise and water entering from below into the engine bay area but that is exactly where it stops.

If you had to get the metal one straightened then no plastic guard would have been able to survive. There are many cars with plastic sump guards and though some look thick its impossible to mimic the toughness of metal.

Well, the metallic sump guards do their job well in protecting the sump from taking the direct impact. They bend too. It has happened in our case too. The guard took the hit, bent and in-turn bent the sump deforming its shape. Would it have been just the sump, it would have cracked resulting in some serious engine damage. This was in a Linea.

So, these guards can bend too albeit they still protect the sump and bend them as well.

[Rajain]

Hello

While on the conversation of a sump guard...I have felt this to be extremely useful...forget off roading or roads in difficult terrains a number of Bangalore roads require this now. In fact it is my considered opinion that all cars being released in India must have a sump guard. I had a Opel Corsa Sail for a number of years and it came standard fitment in that.

To the point of fabricator in Bangalore. I got mine done from Ranjith Auto Care in Koramangla. Neat fit and serves the purpose very well. It is of aluminium - therefore light and strong. Same material as aluminium trunks.

Just a few days ago a coconut came rolling to the road and hit the front bumper and then the underbelly. Small stones and pebbles have hit a number of times.

A neatly fit sump guard will take the initial impact and knock off speed from such projectiles.

Happy to share more thoughts.

Cheers

Rajain

[Yash98]

Originally Posted by PAS

I know miles and miles have been spoken about 90/100 set-up but till now i am unable to muster any courage of upgrading the bulbs to 90/100. Primarily due to fear of damaging /yellowing the plastic reflectors/cover sooner than its prescribed life. May be, I was little more worried about it than i should have.

I had upgraded the stock bulbs to Phillips XV within a week of getting my Ertiga, whilst that improved the lighting to good extent but still nowhere close to decent. No amount of adjusting the beam throw helped.

With not much options left opted for Hella 500FF driving beams this gives me enough confidence for those overnight drives. Later i tried putting in Phillips 100 watt bulbs in the Hella but didn't feel much of a difference compared to Hella 55 watt bulbs.

Having said that, i genuinely feel the upgrade to 90/100 should be worth a try before opting for Hella or the likes.

Regards,

Based on the recommendations of Parag, Arijith and other members on this forum, I too had upgraded the headlamps on my Ertiga to Osram 100/90. This was done from a local mechanic as Maruti is not interested in performing such work. I am happy to say that the lights have been working well and they also offer adequate illumination on all kinds of roads. The process of installing it is also extremely simple and there is no unnecessary fiddling with any critical parts of the car.

As for the reflectors getting damaged, like Parag said you must use high beams judiciously. Continuously driving on high beams will lead to yellowing of the reflectors even if you use 55W bulbs. But if you use it wisely you should be fine.

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by Shwet

This also means that having a plastic sump guard is actually just an eyewash. If you had to get the metal one straightened then no plastic guard would have been able to survive. There are many cars with plastic sump guards and though some look thick its impossible to mimic the toughness of metal.

Originally Posted by Rajain

Hello

A neatly fit sump guard will take the initial impact and knock off speed from such projectiles.

we cannot generically state that a plastic sump guard is just an eyewash; There are situations where a small stone or metal object can puncture the sump, say a stone hit at highway speeds. Like Rajain mentioned, a sump guard takes the initial impact. A plastic guard may even able to deflect the projectile.

The strength of the sump guard plays a major role in slow speed high impact situations, say a large stone under the body and whole 1.5 tonne vehicle weight is pressed against the guard and the stone. In such situations a properly fabricated guard absorbs some of the forces (and hence bending) and distributes the forces to the vehicle frame. if the whole weight was between sump and stone over a small surface area, the damage on sump will be high.

[PAS]

Originally Posted by Yash98

Based on the recommendations of Parag, Arijith and other members on this forum.

As off now, i am managing with the Phillips XV for daily runs, and happy with Hella for highways drives. However, would keep this as a option for DIY activity. I think Parag has already documented his upgrade DIY Project, so it would be lot easier for me and others to do it DIY way.

Originally Posted by Shwet

Something which I have noticed for some time is that the Tailgate of the Ertiga is paper thin.

So true, mine got a miniscule dent in exact same place you are referring to, but that was caused by my kids cycle handle bar.

Originally Posted by Rajain

While on the conversation of a sump guard...

I need to keep few spare days next time I am in Bangalore. I had asked many a shops here, in fact i had shown the pics as well but no body was interested in doing this in Pune.

[arjithin]

Few updates from my side.

Car is now at 63K km, did the 60K service recently and no major issues to report. I got a good deal from Amazon on 5W40 synthetic oil and carried oil for service this time.

The front left stabilizer end rod was weak (possibly from the beating it took during the Ladak trip) and was replaced.

One of the remotes failed last weekend. Replaced the battery and remote still doesnt work. Now using the spare key. It failed while I was outside Bangalore and when car was locked, So drove by unlocking with manual key and disconnecting the security system speaker.

Got the car a complete interior steam clean; now the car looks much better inside.

The front driver seat began to sink; got the seat height corrected by pushing a 12x12 piece of form at the bottom of the seat. see pics

[rahulb22]

I went on a 200 km weekend drive out of Bangalore city on Saturday on a 4 Lane highway and thought of checking the best mileage possible with an average speed in the range of 80 kmph with full AC. And this is what I got.



Of course, quite stressful to achieve this on a regular basis considering the quality of our highways and cars these days.

But really impressed with consistent performance of the Ertiga.

Cheers
Rahulb22

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by rahulb22

I went on a 200 km weekend drive out of Bangalore city on Saturday on a 4 Lane highway and thought of checking the best mileage possible with an average speed in the range of 80 kmph with full AC. And this is what I got.

Attachment 1690443

Of course, quite stressful to achieve this on a regular basis considering the quality of our highways and cars these days.

But really impressed with consistent performance of the Ertiga.

Cheers
Rahulb22

Yeah sure. I assume you have diesel ertiga. I have seen 19KMPL with my petrol ertiga with 2 people onboard and moderate luggage and light footed highway driving (a.k.a 80KMPH )

[nsbhagwat]

Folks, how is the performance of ertiga vxi AT powered by the K14B engine interms of fuel efficiency, low end driveability, mid range?

Also has Maruti improved the fit and finish? Having owned a Ritz in 2012, that car was plaqued with trim rattling.

Regards
Nikhil