[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by gkoneti

Hi pls find the picture of broken shell.

There are a few clips on that cowl and it should just slot into the base with some pressure. Are those clips broken?

If so, you can try a glue or buy that cover alone. Its a bit expensive at INR 1500 without painting. Let us know!

[gkoneti]

Thanks DeetJohn. Yes, those clips are broken and not gripping well and hence the gap. Somebody suggested a good plastic welding shop in Tankbund area in Hyderabad who specialises in broken mirrors. Let me see what he can do. I strongly feel, it is a deliberate act of Ford to have made this mirror with such fragile plastic.

[Chuckster]

Originally Posted by gkoneti

Thanks DeetJohn. Yes, those clips are broken and not gripping well and hence the gap. Somebody suggested a good plastic welding shop in Tankbund area in Hyderabad who specialises in broken mirrors. Let me see what he can do. I strongly feel, it is a deliberate act of Ford to have made this mirror with such fragile plastic.

Hi gkoneti,
I too feel that it is a deliberate act of ford. But I feel the intention was not to hurt the customer, but to help him. I believe it is designed this way so that, on impact the plastic part alone would absorb the brunt of the force and break off without transferring the force to the electronics underneath and saving the rest of the mirror or/and the door. The whole mirror would cost around 6k-7k.

That being said I feel that 1500 is a bit high for the said plastic part. I had my right orvm plastic part break off twice. The first time I was a able to reclaim it and they fixed it back for me after repainting it (cost around 300). The second time it broke off, it was run over by another car and broken to pieces and I had to have it replaced(cost around 1200, labour charge was waived off).

Looking at the pic, I feel the plastic cover can be pushed back into place as deetjohn suggested. Also I can see that a small portion of the mirror indicator glass has broken off as well, the right most corner. If you face heavy rains in your area this would cause a small amount water to seep into the puddle lamp and then cause dirt to accumulate in it which would then lower the brightness. Attaching a pic of my puddle lamp for reference.

Thanks.

[gkoneti]

Nice observation chuckster. I am aware of the chip off. Actually when the incident happened, it was lot more horrific. Have a look at the pictures. Inside the plastic shell, it is actually empty space. And there is no grave danger to the electricals. Not only the plastic shell, the clips that are there on the base are so flimsy and delicate, a small impact is enough to break them. Result: though your plastic cover is usable, it will not sit flush with base as in my case. So this is definitely a case of deliberate attempt to make quick money from sales of their parts.

In fact the moment service guy saw this condition of mirror, he just asked me to change the whole assembly without even trying to put the pieces back. I managed to put all back in shape with some effort.

Am going to visit this plastic welder and see what tricks he know on car mirrors.

[Chuckster]

Hi gkoneti,

Sorry, I can't make out from the pictures what could prevent the cover from sitting flush. Even if the clips are broken that should not be a problem since the cover should ideally be pushed back in from the front. Maybe the indicator glass has come a bit toward the inside and right thereby preventing the cover from sitting flush.

Anyways, I found this link which explains how to remove and fix back the plastic cover with pics for reference. Could you please have a look and check if this helps you? Also please post a pic of the inside of the plastic cover if you can.

http://www.fiestamk7.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=643

Thanks.

[Chuckster]

Hi gkoneti,

I am attaching a few pics of the interior of the orvm cover I was able to snap yesterday. This is from the 2012 pre facelift fiesta but I beleive it should be identical to the facelifted one. I have marked the set of clips in the pics. All of them are horizontal in nature and so need to be aligned horizontally and pushed back in. The top three slots if they are intact should go into the 3 gaps marked in your pic. Hope this helps.

Thanks

[deetjohn]

Went on a trip to Wayanad with family and friends two weeks back and it was great fun.

The roads are in top notch condition throughout and I had a lot of fun on the narrow twisty roads. We started at 4AM on Thursday which helped beat the traffic. And it rained till Calicut from BP Angadi and that was pure bliss. However, on return, we couldn't escape the congestion on NH17 from Calicut to Thrissur and it was a bit draining.

Some pictures:

BHPian ajaypjayaraj guided us till Calicut and even hosted us for breakfast at the KL 11 restaurant by the bypass. The food was really nice and it was so kind of him to arrange everything for us. We ended up spending well more than an hour talking about cars during that short meet. And needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

The machines!

The driven wheels exchanging notes!


The right rear wheel is resting on a bump and that's why its looking so awkward in this pic. And you can get a feel of the amazing road surface too.


The famous Thamarassery Churam Road. The way they have built and maintained the road is nothing short of brilliant. And that needs a brilliant photographer too. All the following pics by BHPian naveen.raju.




And you can see him with his kit in this photo below. Yes, the Fiesta was amazing fun on this road. Just point and shoot!


But the roads near to the resort was in very bad shape for the 500m or so. I knew this from Trip Advisor and was prepared for it. The photos below haven't captured it properly and it was horrodous to say the least. I jacked up the driver seat to the maximum height and treaded very carefully from stone to stone. The short first gear helped quite a bit but the tyres lost grip every now and then.

I had moved the girls to the Creta for this section and it was just me and the luggage in the Ford. The Creta was making minced meat out of these bad bits though. I did drive the big Hyundai through this section a couple of times during the trip and it was easy peasy. Both for the driver and the machine.



The Fiesta did very well too and didn't touch ground anywhere. I had my ears open on that section to hear any clangs or brushes and thankfully didn't hear anything odd. I confirmed this after coming back when I took the car to DBS for a wash. The lowest bits - the wind deflector under the front bumper and the engine guard, both were fine. So, you don't need GC as much as you think, you just need a bunch of good friends to cover your back. LOL

[gkoneti]

Dear John, splendid trip. From the pictures it is evident that you enjoyed the drive more than your resort. Think resort was an excuse

I would like to share my experience of city driving in Hyderabad. Ever since Hyd metro works started, all city traffic started to move at snail's pace. This is severely hampering My Fiesta mileage. I do not remember last time I used fifth gear in city traffic. Car is silent and comfortable. Tank full method showing a mileage of 13-14 kmpl for 100% auto AC at 25 degree Celsius. Your views please. Other Fiesta owners, pls do share your experiences as well. Thank you.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by gkoneti

I would like to share my experience of city driving in Hyderabad. Ever since Hyd metro works started, all city traffic started to move at snail's pace. This is severely hampering My Fiesta mileage. I do not remember last time I used fifth gear in city traffic. Car is silent and comfortable. Tank full method showing a mileage of 13-14 kmpl for 100% auto AC at 25 degree Celsius.

Not using fifth is not a big deal. Even, I don't get to use it much though I drive on roads with moving traffic. But, that doesn't affect the average much as the gears are long.

And TDCi doesn't like lugging at all. Use the right gears for the load and you will be rewarded with better FE and power as well.

What's the average shown in the MID? What distance do you cover each day through this congestion? How much time does it take? The FE depends on all that.

[Porschefire]

Originally Posted by gkoneti

I would like to share my experience of city driving in Hyderabad. Ever since Hyd metro works started, all city traffic started to move at snail's pace. This is severely hampering My Fiesta mileage. I do not remember last time I used fifth gear in city traffic. Car is silent and comfortable. Tank full method showing a mileage of 13-14 kmpl for 100% auto AC at 25 degree Celsius. Your views please. Other Fiesta owners, pls do share your experiences as well. Thank you.

The situation in Bangalore is no different my friend and I use the ORR to commute to office which makes matters worse. I get to use the 4th and 5th gears only in the morning as I leave pretty early but on the way back, it is B2B traffic with crawling speeds all the way for 28kms. I get similar FE as well which is appreciable as there is so much load on the engine especially in this heat with the AC on 100% of the times.
On another note, my recent trip to Tirupathi gave me an overall FE of 17kmpl. Of course, the car wasn't driven with a light foot plus it was loaded with 4 people and their luggage.
I'm in love with the engine and feel I cannot go back to driving mundane petrols again!

[gkoneti]

Hi John, MID shows 18.5 to 18.8kmpl. These days, because of school holidays, my travel is only to office and it is 20km distance to and from my house. Out of this, 15-18km would be drive with 1-2-3 gears. Mostly 1 and 2. While the car is good, clutch seems to be on heavier side. I often get left leg ankle pain. Any solution? Now that it is 6 months of driving it, still am not getting used to that. Is there a way to loosen up the clutch spring tensile strength. Thanks.

[PratikPatel]

Originally Posted by gkoneti

Hi John, MID shows 18.5 to 18.8kmpl. These days, because of school holidays, my travel is only to office and it is 20km distance to and from my house. Out of this, 15-18km would be drive with 1-2-3 gears. Mostly 1 and 2. While the car is good, clutch seems to be on heavier side. I often get left leg ankle pain. Any solution? Now that it is 6 months of driving it, still am not getting used to that. Is there a way to loosen up the clutch spring tensile strength. Thanks.

My wife's car (Fiesta 1.5L TDCi) which is normally used in the city gives about 12 to 14 kmpl, on the highway it gives around 19 to 20 kmpl. If you are driving for any length of time in 1st and 2nd gear do not expect anything more than that. Compared to this, my car (Fiesta 1.6L Duratec) if driven under similar conditions gives about 8 to 9 kmpl. So these are the general yardsticks, you are not going to get anything more or extra ordinary from these figures. Maximum you may be able to squeeze out another kilometre or so.

Now coming to your problem with the clutch. Yes, the clutch is slightly heavy. However, it should not cause the problems you are mentioning. While what I am about to suggest may sound a little ridiculous, please do consider it; you need to change the way you are using you leg to actuate the clutch. You have mentioned that you have ankle pain, this suggest that you are flexing your ankle while actuating the clutch. You need to use your complete leg to actuate while keeping the ankle stiff restricting reflex. This will allow you to use your abductors, adductors, hamstrings & calves (in short your complete leg) muscles and make the work easy.

Also a important point that most people tend to ignore. You need to adjust the seat in such a manner that you can comfortably use your legs and hands with proper leverage to drive. There is a relationship between maximum torque and muscle strength and the seat distance from the controls and your height.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by gkoneti

While the car is good, clutch seems to be on heavier side. I often get left leg ankle pain. Any solution? Now that it is 6 months of driving it, still am not getting used to that. Is there a way to loosen up the clutch spring tensile strength. Thanks.

Couple of good points from PratikPatel above.

And if that doesn't help, you can try the clutch from Aspire. Its noticeably lighter than the one in Fiesta.

[deetjohn]

Small update from today morning! And also exercised my right as a citizen.

[deetjohn]

Changed the engine oil at around 25,200 KM. I have come to realize that the Castrol Magnatec 5W-30 that Ford uses doesn't like to run 10,000 KM even though its claimed to be synthetic.

The engine becomes a bit rough after around 7000 KM. And I use all of the mid range once the engine is hot and ready and fresh oil do make a difference at higher revs. Besides, our harsh traffic and road conditions doesn't help either. I didn't realize this in the initial 10k as I had opted for a voluntary oil change at 2.5k during the first service.

The total cost of oil (3.9L) + filter + drain plug at Ford is around 1440 before tax and that's very much comparable to what MSIL charges for mineral oil. So, its not a huge burden to change oil at every 5k.


Now, some pictures from the service bay.

I don't think I have highlighted this before. Fiesta gets a polystyrene packing inside the rear bumper.


The engine guard is holding up well and the suspension has not let it down. Was glad to see no battle scars after it was washed post oil change.


New drain plug.


The drain' mouth is concave on the sump.


And it takes a bit of time to drain all the old oil due to that.


The Fiesta was checked all around and the stock brake pads are holding up fine. Love the feel once the engine gets a fresh dose of oil. Makes all the hassle really worth it.

Next up should be a tyre change. The Goodyear is hardly showing any wear and should easily last 50k or more. But I would really like to change them soon given how hard and noisy they have become. And the contenders are Michelin P3ST vs. Continental MC5 in the stock size of 195/60 R15. There is sweet balance between ride and handling now and I don't want to botch it up by opting for 16".