Team-BHP - Toyota Innova: My Pre-worshipped Black Workhorse

Deepak,
Sorry for not accompanying you again to go DSK but at the sametime, it's good to know that finally your workhorse is galloping without any humming sound. I guarantee you now that you will be eager to munch more kms. in it. Will catchup again some other day to test drive your vehicle. That sound is stuck in my head and I too am trying to figure out if there is any sound coming from my car.
Kudos to the DSK team to get the things resolved and helping you by providing a service car.

I too hope to get my car re-repaired with same care. Fingures crossed.
Today if I had accompanied you, then I could have purchased a RH side tail lamp for my Innova but missed it, may be in my next trip I will get it replaced.

Meanwhile I am sharing few pics of my innova after replacement of the interior lights white LED's and the exterior parking too. OHC light remains the same as it was expensive and secondly they were unavailable at the shop.
The main headlamp bulbs have been upgraded to 100/90 Philips by installing a relay. Please note Deepak, its the same as you have on your workhorse. Here I have avoided the whites as I feel they are not good for the oncoming traffic and the other concern is that the white lights are not helpful during the monsoon season or on wet roads.
After the repairs i have yet not fitted the fog lamps as they cost 23k at the dealer end:Shockked:. Its too expensive compared to the larger headlamps which cost around 8k for a pair. It seems that the headlamps are localised ones but the type1 foglamps are exported either from Japan or Thighland. The local accesory shop owner has quoted me rs. 6500 for a pair. I need to check few more shops before finalizing on them.

Meanwhile i am attaching few pictures of my car to give you all an idea of how good it looks.

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Originally Posted by SHAHBAAZ (Post 3774703)

Deepak,
Sorry for not accompanying you again to go DSK

No worries mate. Since you had this sudden event in close family, I did not bother you much. Better luck next time.

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but at the same time, I thought it's good to know that finally your workhorse is galloping without any humming sound. I guarantee you now that you will be eager to munch more kms. in it. Will catchup again some other day to test drive your vehicle. That sound is stuck in my head and I too am trying to figure out if there is any sound coming from my car.

Our ears are so attuned to catch these unwanted noises, traits of true BHPians lol:. True, DSK Toyota finally did a wonderful job. I was bit apprehensive initially. Since the first bearing replacement did not eliminate the humming sound completely, I was wondering if replacing a second one could really address it. Fortunately it did. I had even asked Mr Pujari during trail run, if the sound could be from the differential, but he negated that. You are most welcome to have a test drive of my car. Infact initially I had planned that I would let you drive my car all the way from DSK to your home in case you accompanied me. Nevertheless I will offer you the test drive at the very next opportunity. At least from the short test run of your car that I took on 1st Aug, I did not find any unwanted noises. Now my BW is just raring to go. It is looking at the first opportunity to stretch its legs.

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Kudos to the DSK team to get the things resolved and helping you by providing a service car.

Absolutely agree:. I got the first hand experince of true Toyota Quality Service. The convinience car provided to me proved to be really useful. Picked up my daughter from school, did some weekend errands in it. Due to this car I even got the opportunity to drive an Etios. One funny thing happened Saturday morning. When the DSK driver and myself exchanged the cars, first thing I did was to slot the Etios in reverse and to my surprise I could not do that even after many attempts. There was a collar on the gear level which I lifted and tried again but in vain. Unfortunately there were no gear markings on the top of the gear lever (I think Etios had a sticker and markings are not engraved like the Innova). Finally I called up the driver. He said to lift the collar completely up and then slot it as if you were putting it into first gear and voila it worked. Later throughout the day I didn't have any issue reversing the car. I wonder why Toyota chose this design for the Etios. Is it the same on the Liva?

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I too hope to get my car re-repaired with same care. Fingures crossed.

I am sure they will take similar care of your car. In case you are not satisfied you can always give your feedback. I have seen no other company taking customer feedback this seriously. They are always striving to get a 10/10 score, which is very good from customer point of view.

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Today if I had accompanied you, then I could have purchased a RH side tail lamp for my Innova but missed it, may be in my next trip I will get it replaced.

You could have just told me and I would have easily purchased it for you. By the way what is the issue with your current lamp?

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Meanwhile I am sharing few pics of my Innova after replacement of the interior lights white LED's and the exterior parking too. Meanwhile i am attaching few pictures of my car to give you all an idea of how good it looks.

I have seen these pictures earlier and all the lighting arrangement really looks superb. I have to see it in person though. I may also try to replicate this in my car. Could you get the bill. break-up of your lighting costs?

Edit: Another disappointment with the Etios was though it was a top-end model (VD), it did not have power mirrors, leave aside auto fold ones. Each mirror had a stick inside to do the adjustments, which again was not very effective. Why Toyota, why have you done so much cost cutting on the Etios/Liva twins? Not sure if at least the latest versions in the market have the power mirrors or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AutoIndian (Post 3775060)

No worries mate. Since you had this sudden event in close family, I did not bother you much. Better luck next time.

Our ears are so attuned to catch these unwanted noises, traits of true BHPians .

Awesome way in which Toyota handled the situation to meet customer satisfaction. Happy that the issue with BW is solved now.clap:

I love the Etios's diesel engine.

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Originally Posted by SHAHBAAZ (Post 3774703)

Deepak,
After the repairs i have yet not fitted the fog lamps as they cost 23k at the dealer end. Its too expensive compared to the larger headlamps which cost around 8k for a pair. It seems that the headlamps are localised ones but the type1 foglamps are exported either from Japan or Thighland. The local accesory shop owner has quoted me rs. 6500 for a pair. I need to check few more shops before finalizing on them.

Meanwhile i am attaching few pictures of my car to give you all an idea of how good it looks.

I think it would be best if you get it fitted from a local accessory shop. No point in spending 23K on fog lamps. Which are actually of no use in India for the most part. FYI There is a difference in the holder locations in all the different generations of the Innova so ensure he fits one that complies with yours(1st gen).

In other news I have a installed a dashcam in my Innova. LINK

Also did you guys check out the Toyota online spares website? The spare part costs are mind boggling especially the Headlamp assembly(6k+) and Wing mirror(8k+) costs.

Though I think the clutch assembly costing about 9k totally is decent price.:D

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Originally Posted by Shanksta (Post 3778202)

Awesome way in which Toyota handled the situation to meet customer satisfaction. Happy that the issue with BW is solved now.

Indeed, I am the happiest person on this earth clap:. Now at speeds of 80-90 my BW sounds so smooth that I can't explain it in words. I think now 70-90 kmph is the sweet spot, when there is minimal engine and tyre noise.

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I would like to differ slightly from you please:, not on the cost of fog lamps but on its usage. Though we don't have fog in major parts of the country, the throw is quite useful in spotting the the pot holes, craters and gauging its depth. The dipper beam falls at some distance away from the car and also being at some height it creates a dark sport just in front of the car. This shortcoming is overcome by the fog lamps. I find them quite useful during my daily night drives from office back to home. Besides this during early mornings/evenings or when it is overcast, I drive with the fog lamps on. Also while taking a turn during night time, the vehicle coming in the opposite direction can hardly spot the indicator if the headlights are on. In such cases I switch off the headlights and keep the fog lamps on. Now the vehicle coming towards me can easily spot that I am taking a turn and would slow down to allow me.

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In other news I have a installed a dashcam in my Innova. LINK

Thank you for sharing and explaining the step by step procedure on installing the dashcam and routing the wires. Have posted a query on that thread, hope you can respond back to that.

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Also did you guys check out the Toyota online spares website? The spare part costs are mind boggling especially the Headlamp assembly(6k+) and Wing mirror(8k+) costs. Though I think the clutch assembly costing about 9k totally is decent price.

Refer the thread below on Toyota online spare parts

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...-launched.html

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Originally Posted by Manoj (Post 3770154)

One suggestion, I also faced similar humming noise from the from the front side, mine is 2013 model, ran 26K kms, after the initial 2500 kms I did the wheel alignment at a reputed tyre shop, and soon after that I started getting this noise. I took the car to different wheel alignment shops, and checked the alignment/balancing and all of them told that the mild noise might be due to bearing issue, and no issue in alignment/balancing, Being a new car which ran only 5K kms having bearing issue, I really got upset and took the car to Toyota service centre, and told the issue, what they did was cross checking the alignment/balancing, and did a tyre rotation as well, they confirmed that there is absolutely no issue in the wheel bearing. After this I didn’t faced the issue and I am doing the tyre alignment/balancing/rotation from dealer itself. Now it is almost 20K kms and didn’t faced the humming noise issue at all. I may be wrong, but what I observed is that the wheel alignment done from dealer/outside tyre shop have some differences, and if we do the alignment outside then it creates issue, especially for Innova, we also had a swift and we did the alignment from the same shop (not from the dealer) for close to 80K kms (every 5K kms once), and we never had an issue of any sort, but in case of Innova we faced issue, and with alignment from dealer it is working fine. Not sure about the exact reason, may be you can try the alignment/balancing from the dealer itself and try, this may solve the issue.

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Originally Posted by AutoIndian (Post 3770192)

Thank you for your suggestion. It is quite strange to know from you that the your issue cropped after doing the wheel alignment from a tyre shop and then resolved after doing the alignment/balancing/rotation from dealer itself. Let me be very honest with you, wheel alignment has nothing to do with the humming noise. If your wheel alignment is not correct, your car will drift either to the left or to the right when you lift your hands of the steering wheel. If you are traveling on a plain straight road with flat surface, you lift both the hands from the steering and your car keeps going straight, then your wheel alignment is perfect. If your wheels are out of balance then you may feel the vibrations at the steering wheel at particular speeds. In my case the car keeps going straight and I don't feel any vibrations at the steering wheel. So it is neither an alignment issue not a wheel balancing issue.

Issue is that I get a mild humming noise at speeds of 60kmph and above. Its frequency increases with the increase in speed. During my recent service the front wheel RHS bearing replacement was done and this has reduced the noise to a great extent, but it has not been completely eliminated. I was told that the rear LHS wheel bearing needs to be replaced. I suspect if the issue could be with the differential. Whenever I will get some spare time, I am planning to do one exercise. Jack up each wheel and rotate it independently. Get the ear very close to the wheel and observe for any noise. If there is any noise coming from any wheel then definitely the bearing of that wheel would need to be replaced. Ideally Toyota workshop should have done this exercise but I am not sure if they did it, hence I will have to give it a try.

I agree with Manoj, I have faced similar issue in my Baleno - the Maruti guys actually changed the bearings free of cost and the noise did not go away. It finally went away when the tire manufacturer agreed to change the tires under warranty @ 50% of depreciated price!

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Originally Posted by SHAHBAAZ (Post 3774703)

After the repairs i have yet not fitted the fog lamps as they cost 23k at the dealer end:Shockked:. Its too expensive compared to the larger headlamps which cost around 8k for a pair. It seems that the headlamps are localised ones but the type1 foglamps are exported either from Japan or Thighland. The local accesory shop owner has quoted me rs. 6500 for a pair. I need to check few more shops before finalizing on them.

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Originally Posted by Shanksta (Post 3778202)

So the original fogs have gone up 5k in these 10 years.

I have fogs installed from local shop for 4k. Should not even be as high as 6500 quoted.

As Shanksta says, Type I are definitely different fitments than Type II even if both look same externally. So you have to be particular to ask Type I only.

The after market ones are EUSE ones as in below:

http://shop.cardekho.com/fog-lamps/e...e-1~16577.html

If you want to procure the above, it is not a difficult DIY too :)

About usability, it would be misnomer to say these are useless.
These may not be true fogs so to say, but they are decently useful.
What these and general car fogs are supposed to do is light up near lower up-front and side portions which HLs cannot light up, it will light up about 170 degrees in total, which can show you immediate L-R roadside conditions in darkness.

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Originally Posted by AutoIndian (Post 3774632)

Gr8 and welcome to the club of pre-worshipped Innovas. You got almost a pristine Innova. Could you please share with us more details, how much did you offer and how did you come to know about this offering?

Prior to Innova I was riding Aveo, one of the most under rated car I feel. Look at this link for the snap and other details when i decided to sell.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post3370720

Coming back to Innova, I took this from one of my close friend. Actually I was involved in his purchase decision as well, initially he was looking to buy Xylo, some how I convinced him to buy this. He purchased this on January 2011. This is 2.5G, doesn't have rear AC vents, rear defogger, no arm rest console box compare to the recent G models. He had added the following accessories.

Leather seat cover from Imperial Inc (one of the popular in Bangalore forum). Spent around 45K
http://http://www.team-bhp.com/forum...bangalore.html
Sunfilm from 3M, Spent around 25K
Rear spoiler
Side foot steps / foot board
Rear bike guard and front guard
Audio system
Total, he spend around 1.2 lacs towards the accessories and maintained his ride in pristine condition, even all the cleaning he was doing by himself.

I have taken this when Odo was around 27000, less than 3 year old and got it for 9.25 lacs.
The only addition i did was, replaced console box(first pic) with armrest console box as in the pic. Placed the order(consists of 12 different part numbers) during my 40K service got it installed after a week, paid Rs 9500.

And on the maintenance side, apart from the regular service replaced fuel filter and cleaned fuel tank during 30k service. It was completely clogged because of some bad fuel.

Fuel Filter Change Labour - 240,
FuelTank Cleaning Labour - 1400
Fuel Filter - 824

Currently my odo is at 47500, battery and tyres are still running on stock.

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Originally Posted by kavu75 (Post 3779588)

Coming back to Innova, I took this from one of my close friend. Actually I was involved in his purchase decision as well, initially he was looking to buy Xylo, some how I convinced him to buy this. He purchased this on January 2011. This is 2.5G, doesn't have rear AC vents, rear defogger, no arm rest console box compare to the recent G models. He had added the following accessories.

I have taken this when Odo was around 27000, less than 3 year old and got it for 9.25 lacs.

Currently my odo is at 47500, battery and tyres are still running on stock.

Thank you for sharing the details kavu75. You really got a good deal and most importantly a genuinely well maintained car. Also even after the three years of ownership it had hardly clocked any mileage. I was not aware that the earlier G models didn't have the rear AC vents. Are the front ones sufficient enough to cool the whole cabin during summer? Have you given it a thought to retrofit the rear AC vents?

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Originally Posted by AutoIndian (Post 3779836)

Yes, We were having some confusion about rear AC vent during the purchase time. To get the model with rear AC, the quote was around 1.2 lacs more if my memory is correct. As I have mentioned earlier he did stretch his budget a lot (from Xylo to Innova). Later he put very good quality 3M sunfilm and very good leather seat. That made a huge difference.
I have taken many Bangalore - Kerala trips through Tamilnadu highway during summer which will be very hot, I am fine with cooling experience. Most of the times I am traveling with 5 people.
Anyway rear AC vent is there in my future wish list.

Kavu75
congratulations on your purchase. The car looks great. If you are aware of the seat cushion rate, then Can you please share it here.

Parsh,
I have checked a couple of accessories shop in our area for type1 fog lamps. The cost ranges from rs. 5.5k to 12k. I am a bit confused because the quality looks almost similar at first glance but the rate difference is large. Few shop owners said if I pay advance, they can place an order to get it in two days. That's something that need to be taken care of. If he is buying online in 4k and selling at 5.5k then it's waste of my money. Secondly as per the link you provided, the fog lamps are cheaper but I think I will never go online for such electrical parts. They fade up too early.
I am not in a hurry as the upgraded headlamps are taking good care of visibility.

Last night I crossed 71000kms. Another 1000 in 10 days running local and look forward for a long trip. :)

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Originally Posted by SHAHBAAZ (Post 3780071)

Nice Milestone you reached there. Happy driving :)

The rates do seem unnecessarily high. As I have seen, the after-market ones are definitely EUSE Taiwan branded and they are same. I will inquire with my source here and quote you how much they are. Keep to your patience and don't hurry, as such due to your headlight upgrade too.

You are right on the online purchases about these. I too won't purchase such things online. Although if you could lay your hands on it, grab it. But do get idea about it as to how they look and their fittings are.

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Originally Posted by parsh (Post 3780081)

For sure thanks. My last experience regarding online purchase was when I had ordered a set of headlamps for Palio. I used them for a month and then went back to the older ones. Did call snapdeal guys but it was waste. I still have them lying in my storage. On another occasion I had ordered a set of side mirrors. When they arrived, the quality of plastic and mirrors was too cheap. Finally I used it's bracket to my older mirrors and kept them as spare for future. Few of my friends too had similar experiences.
Kindly start sharing your experiences here so that we hijack AutoIndian's thread. lol:

Deepak, for sure you will be munching more miles than me. My office travel is only 34kms per day.. But weekends tend to have 100-200kms running.