Since I have been concentrating on the DIYs on the Polo GT TSi, got a lot of backlog in updating this thread.
The car has crossed 36,000 kilometers (it is nearing 37,000 as I write this), and is doing excellent with that explosive power and handling, except for a couple of things.
- I feel that the suspensions have become a little loose and make some noise. I had thought that this was due to the worn out tires. But even after changing the tires, I still feel that the car is not as tight as it used to be. Could this be because of the suspensions getting worn out? But the car has done only 36,000 kilometers. Would the suspensions wear out that soon? Or could this be something else like lose suspension mount etc.? I need advice from other Jetta owners on this.
- I hear lot of distortion from the audio these days. The sound is not as clean as it used to be. Could this be due to the speakers going bad? Do I need to upgrade the speakers to better ones?
Battery Change:
The battery gave up on 1st of January. I had gone with family to a friend's farm near Anaikatty, which is located a little away from regular roads. On the 1st of January, when we were about to return back the car would not start. In fact, the battery was totally dead. Even the instrument cluster was not powered up. I called VW road side assistance, and a flat bed truck arrived within 2 hours. The plan was to try jump start the car, and if it does not work take it on the flat bed to the VW dealership. I was fervently hoping that jump start would work as I did not want to see the car on the flat bed. Fortunately, jump start worked. The service guy said not to turn off the car till we reach home. Followed his advice and reached home. Once I turned off the car, it would not start again. This meant either the battery had gone or something was wrong with the alternator. As this was already a replacement battery for the OE battery that failed within 16 months, I did not want the battery replaced at the dealer. So, I called a local Amaron dealer and asked him to check if the battery would charge. If it does not charge, then we would replace it. He took the battery and called me to say that one of the cells in the battery had opened. This was completely matching the symptoms. So, got it replaced with Amaron Pro. Comes with a 60 month warranty (36 mnths replacement and 24 months pro-rated). Paid 8.4K including the exchange of the defective battery.
The new battery
Fixed inside the engine bay. As the battery is a little longer than the OE, it did not fit the battery cover that comes with the original battery.
Tires Upgraded to 225/50/R16 Michelin PS3 ST:
I had changed to Michelin P3ST 205/55/R16 straight out of the showroom. These tires were super silent, and at the same time offered very good grip. I was very satisfied with these tires. As the odo crossed 36,000 kilometers, I started feeling that the tires were not gripping as they used to and the road noise also had gone up significantly. The tires had also developed lot of cracks. I had earlier decided to upgrade the tires to 225/50/R16 Michelin Pilot Sport 3. A year back, there were issues sourcing these tires. But then Michelin re-introduced Pilot Sports in India. I called the tire dealer and he said he has stock of 225/50/R16 Pilot Sport 3 ST and the cost is 12K per tire.
Took the car to the dealer and they removed the older tires and that is when I found that the tires were from 2015 lot. I asked the dealer if he could get at least 2016 manufactured ones, but he said that Michelin will only import further stocks after existing stocks are cleared. I wanted to make sure that getting old stock will not affect performance. I checked with a couple of friends who have good experience with tires and they said there is no problem with 1.5 year old stock if fresher ones are not available. I believe Chethan_BG also had to go with older stocks, but he was satisfied with the performance. So went ahead and changed the tires to 225/50/R16 Michelin Pilot Sport 3 ST. The tires have a slight bulge, as the stock alloys are 6.5j. 7.0j would have been ideal. But as I did not want to spend on alloy upgrade and as there are many fellow Jetta owners who have good experience with 225's on stock alloys, I decided to live with this. Post tire upgrade, I feel significant improvement in grip, cornering and braking. However because of the problem I mentioned about the suspensions, I have not been able to fully enjoy the new tires.
The cracks on the old P3STs. Though the tires had enough tread depth to last another 3K to 4K kilometers, these cracks made them quite dangerous to uuse.
The 225/50/R16s
The treads are asymmetrical and quite deep. Maybe this results in the superior.
The bulge.
Insurance Renewed:
Got the insurance renewed from Bajaj Allianz. Last year I had paid 46.8K for an IDV of 13.8 Lakhs and 0% NCB. This year, for an IDV of 11.8 Lakhs and 20% NCB, they initally quoted 45K for the third year with Drive Assure Economy (zero depreciation, engine protector etc). After the first round of negotiation, they brought down the price to 43k. Though the IDV was down by 2 lakhs, and the there was an NCB of 20%, I felt, the reduction of 3K (46K vs. 43K) was too low for the third year policy. I asked what was the reason for this and the representative sent me a breakup of the premium. Here are some observations from this.
There has been an increase of 1.2K in third party cover.
Inspite of this 1.2K increase, the main premium reduced by 6.5K owing to the 2lakh reduction in IDV and 20% NCB.
The premium for zero depreciation was 1% of IDV last year and 1.4% this year. This resulted in an increase of 2.7K in zero dep premium. The representative said, as the age of the car increases, the zero depreciation rate goes high as well. Next year, it would be 2% of the IDV.
After another request, the representative reduced the final premium from 43K to 42.5K. I decided it was not possible to bring this down any further. So went ahead and renewed it. I know that I could get very competitive rates (atleast a saving of 10K more) with other insurers, but as VW has a cashless tie up with Bajaj and as my last insurance claim went very smoothly, I did not want to take any risk on this.
Third Year Service Due:
The car is due for third year service. Have booked an appointment for tomorrow morning. Apart from the regular mandator service, I am going to ask for the following:
1. Not to update the ECU software for the dieselgate fix. There are many Jetta owners who have complaned about loss of power and even got their cars remapped post update. Some owners have written that they do not find any change. And some other owners have mentioned that they were able to request their dealers not to update the software and the dealers obliged. I am going to try this. If I am unsuccessful, will evaluate how the car behaves post update and take a call on a remap after that.
2. Change the transmission oil. I think the transmission oil change is only scheduled for 60,000 kilometers. However another friend who drives an Octavia TDi DSG mentioned that he got the transmission oil changed before schedule and he found a massive improvement in the smoothness of the gearbox. I have a feeling that the gearbox in the Jetta has become a little rough and a transmission oil change may significantly improve the performance. Will check how much it would cost and then decide.
A couple of weeks back, gave a thorough wash and here are some pictures.
Will post an update once the third service is done.