Re: Rubicon: Ford Aspire 1.5L Sports, now Wolf'd Done with a 950 kms trip to Velankanni and back over the weekend.
Odo stands at 175xx kms now and the car is going for its third service this weekend since there is another trip coming up next month before which I want to change the engine oil.
There was a peculiar behavior on this trip which I hadn't felt in city driving and I am not 100% sure if it is related to fuel quality.
I had topped up Shell V-power before leaving instead of the usual Essar diesel. I tried this since the previous full tank was Shell V-Power which worked well in city with increased fuel efficiency too.
During the drive, the engine was not too rough like some times before when the fuel was not of good quality, but I could see some extra smoking and as the fuel was nearing the half tank , I felt the fueling was going for a toss on low throttle position regardless of the rpms. When cruising at around 2500k rpms, I could feel a slight jerky feel from the engine. Also when de-accelerating, the engine braking felt quite strong which normally wasn't there earlier. The de-acceleration was something I felt when I removed the muffler and was felt for the first few kms after which I didn't feel it.
The change over happened when I stopped at a Essar bunk in the middle of the drive when the tank was half full and topped up. After which, the car was it's usual self and I was happy. Mixed a bottle of Cetane X too which I had carried for some smoothness.
On the return when the tank neared the half way mark, the same symptoms started again and this time the jerkiness was not felt much, but the engine braking was obvious.
I am hoping it is the fuel since I remember when the car was new and I started off with Shell, the engine felt very rough and noisy which changed when I moved to Essar. Once a full tank of Essar is filled and on the next trip, I can confirm it is a fuel quality issue.
Mileage was decent at 19 kmpl one way which included 60 kms of Bangalore traffic and maintaining around 2500 rpm on the highway which shorts bursts nearing 4k rpm. The second refill was showing 22kmpl on the MID which should translate to 19-20 in reality.
I tried a different route on the onward and return journey this time. The onward was a slight deviation on the last leg to avoid a bad stretch, but the return was a totally new route from Velankanni via Tranquebar, Sirkazhi, Chidambaram, Thirukoilure, Thiruvanamalai and back via Krishnagiri. So the only toll road I took was from Krishnagiri back to Bangalore.
Taking back roads and state highways in TN is always going to be scenic and it was no different this time. But unfortunately, the roads were not in great shape most of the way except for few stretches which were out of this world. Especially the stretch from Madaputtu to Thirukoilure (SH9).
Thiruvanamallai to Krishnagiri is 50-50. Some stretches are wide and well paved and the rest is pot hole ridden and narrow and is quite annoying since there is no sign boards or markers saying the good road ends and this was there in regular intervals all the way to Krishnagiri.
East Coast road between Tranquebar to the cut off to Vaitheeswarankoil was a very unlikely road for a main road connecting towns on the coast. The road was just wide enough for two cars to pass each other with deep edges on either sides with trees. A Baleno had gone off the road and rammed into a tree which I have a good feeling was loosing control once the tyres went off the edge of the asphalt. To save my outside mirror, I was keeping to the edge when my luck ran out and the front left slipped from the edge into a rut which resulted in a loud thud and shock that was quite scary. I was quite sure I had damaged something, thankfully nothing had. It was sound of the shocks bottoming out and the shock being transmitted into the cabin that freaked me out and my wife.
Took me 10 hours of drive time for 450 kms compared to the 8 hours with a stop onward, but taking a road less known is always a different experience especially if you want to enjoy the scenery.
Last edited by tharian : 18th February 2019 at 09:25.
|