[abhikb]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

It's been about 20,000 KM from when you removed the insect guard from the front grill - how is the internals holding up, do bugs/ insects bother you much especially during long/ highway drives?

Hi, they don’t bother much, I get the front portion washed once in a month or two. During raining season it does get a little dirty but nothing that much concerning.

[abhikb]

Weekend Off-road Session:

Had a good OTR session last Sunday with our team Tharstory and Thar club of Gujarat (TCOG). This was our first off-road session after the monsoon came up, had an active participation from fellow Thar owners. In total had a convoy of 20 cars which marked a good start to the season

Below are the photos of the drive:

[abhikb]

3 Years and 47,102 Kms completed:

Well have completed 3 years of ownership with the 3507, it has been a fantastic journey so far. It’s been doing daily drive,off road outings, trail and road trips.

In these 3 years have even spent 16-17 hours in a single behind the wheel, took some time to adjust initially but then once I got adjusted with the driving and seating position life is much more easier.

Luckily the ownership has been niggle free, only niggle which I have faced is the left ABS sensor which went kaput a few months back. Other than that have not faced any issues with it, the maintenance cost is also reasonable by far.

The first year was relatively less run due to COVID, since last 18 months the running has increased and is now at par with my earlier usage pattern.


Year- ODO-Yearly run

a) 1st Year- 14,044 Kms- 14,044 Kms
b) 2nd Year- 27,440 Kms- 13,396 Kms
c) 3rd Year- 47,102 Kms- 19,662 Kms

Service Experience:

People do complain about Mahindra’s experience and at times there are issues which do raise apprehension. However, I have had a satisfying experience, all my service and repair jobs have been done at Punjab Mahindra. They do lag in proactive measures at times but once the issue is reported they will put all their efforts to ensure the work is done on time.

That’s it for now, I am looking forward to many more happy years of ownership

[abhikb]

76th Independence Day Drive

We organized an Independence Day Drive for Thar owners across Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Surat. In all 75 Thar owners participated in the event which was also significant to mark 75 years of Independence.

This event was conducted under our TCOG (Thar Club of Gujarat), Mahindra team also extended their goodwill gesture by providing free merchandise for the participants.

Photos and videos of the event are as below:
(Photography has been done by bhpian petrolhead.fd)

https://youtu.be/0C00S3GRn5c

[abhikb]

50,000 Kms update:

Finally achieved the 50k Kms milestone with the 3507, big relief is that this ownership duration has been trouble free thus far. Right from the highway drives, to driving onto the path less taken, weekend off-road sessions, the thar has done everything without a fuss. The first year saw less usage and there has been a steady mile munching since then.

Below is the 50k Kms service update:

This service interval required greasing of hubs and no lubricant changes, though I got the gear oil changed since it showed slight traces of water mostly due to the water wading session in last few months. The service cost came a meagure Rs. 2800 for this one, other than that no abnormality or issues observed.

Front suspension squeaking noise:

The front suspension was making a squeaking noise when driven over bumps and potholes, upon inspection it came out that the front ball joints and jumpers have gone kaput, can’t complain on this either since the amount of torture it takes while off-roading and trail driving, it’s normal to go down in 50k kms.





Got the damaged parts replaced and the thar was delivered after spending couple of days at the workshop. The total cost of repairs came at Rs. 12,127 /- and the work done by the repairers is pretty satisfactory. The rear leafs have started to squeak under articulation and might have to change the bushing in a few thousand kms.

Off-road event:

Got a chance to be part of Roar To Explore off-roading event organised in Ahmedabad this month, full event report: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-e...t-gujarat.html (Roar to explore, Season 1 (2022) | Offroading event in Gujarat)

Below are the glimpse of the fun we had while doing the track trials and preparation.

[zalaps]

Originally Posted by abhikb

Finally achieved the 50k Kms milestone with the 3507, big relief is that this ownership duration has been trouble free thus far.

Congratulations! Wish you many more KMs of sheer joy!
Missed this year's offroad event. Hoping for next one

[abhikb]

Originally Posted by zalaps

Congratulations! Wish you many more KMs of sheer joy!
Missed this year's offroad event. Hoping for next one

Thank you Pradyuman bhai, the next one is still a few months away, do join in.

[abhikb]

Lights upgrade:

As many would know the stock headlights of Thar or for that matter the new Thar also is pathetic, a few months back I had upgraded the headlights to Osram H4 bulbs of 100/90 rating using a relay. The throw was good in city driving and also had sufficient improvements on the highway.

However, during rains the lights were still not enough to cater the requirement, after much deliberation decided to go for a cost efficient yet effective solution.

Purchased a pair of Hello Fog lights (Hella-300-F) from Amazon, Bosch H3 bulbs of 55W rating to be fitted into the same. These lights are to be supported with a pair of 3000 Kelvin amber colored spot lights.

The Hella lights were placed on the front bumpers and the spot lights to be placed on the fenders. The wiring was done through the bonnet and entered into the cabin using the same route as the windshield lights. Both the new additions get switched on from a switch placed next to the headlight leveler switch.

The entire setup costed about Rs. 2500 including fitting and everything, the result is pretty satisfactory although long highway run test is pending for now, however, I still have an option of putting up 100/90 bulbs in place of 55W bulbs if more illumination is required.

Attaching pictures for reference:

[soumobakshi]

Originally Posted by abhikb

Lights upgrade:


The entire setup costed about Rs. 2500 including fitting and everything, the result is pretty satisfactory
Attaching pictures for reference:

Where did you source the (Hella-300-F) from with an overall cost of less than 2500 bucks? In Amazon nothing shows up at that cost for Hella 300 F

[abhikb]

Originally Posted by soumobakshi

Where did you source the (Hella-300-F) from with an overall cost of less than 2500 bucks? In Amazon nothing shows up at that cost for Hella 300 F

Hi, there will be a correction (thanks for pointing it out), the lights fixed are Hella SS-FL-001 bought from Amazon.

Note to mods: pls correct the light model number in the original post to avoid confusion to others.

[abhikb]

Had a good off-road session last Sunday on Sant Sarovar river bed, once we were back on the tarmac, the clutch stopped working. The pedal became loose and started going all the way down without engaging.

Luckily, this issue happened after we were out of the river bed. Called up Punjab Mahindra SVC and asked if I can drop the thar at SVC and got an affirmative answer, they suggested to call RSA and get it loaded on flatbed. Since we were in a group, used a Thar 2020 and towed the 3507 upto SVC and got it parked for the night.

Next morning got a call from the SVC, turns out that the clutch cylinder pipe had leaked and needed a replacement, spare part was not available however the same was sourced from other service centers. The SVC guys handed back the Thar in couple of days, the total damage to the pocket came out to be a paltry Rs. 820.

[KkVaidya]

Originally Posted by abhikb

Next morning got a call from the SVC, turns out that the clutch cylinder pipe had leaked and needed a replacement, spare part was not available however the same was sourced from other service centers. The SVC guys handed back the Thar in couple of days, the total damage to the pocket came out to be a paltry Rs. 820.

You have the risk of breaking this again during off-roading. Permanent solution is to replace the Lower flexible hose from the Scorpio M2Di. It is a direct fit.
Below is the excerpt from one of BD's post
"Dear all - on clutch, this suddenly reminds me, the bottom clutch flexible pipe is prone to breaking in offroad condition, you can upgrade by using the Scorpio M2DI pipe with its banjo connection. I will give full details shortly."

The full details are -
clutch pipe layout - “Purchase the lower flexible clutch hose, banjo bolt and 2 brass washers of a "Scorpio M2DI" from an M&M dealer. Remove the small black hose and fit these parts in its place. The parts will fit perfectly. The thread on the banjo is the same as that on the slave cylinder. As the banjo offers a 90 degree bend by configuration, one can route the pipe away from ground level which is not possible in the small black hose as it has a straight inlet and has to enter the slave cylinder from the bottom side only. Use tie clips to judiciously tie the hose so as to provide smooth bends (minimum radius of 100 mm). Ensure that you have working clearance with the LH torsion bar. As a vehicle packaging engineer, I will want 10 mm here in dynamic condition (full articulation). Bleed the system and you are in business.”

[abhikb]

Originally Posted by KkVaidya

You have the risk of breaking this again during off-roading. Permanent solution is to replace the Lower flexible hose from the Scorpio M2Di. It is a direct fit.
Below is the excerpt from one of BD's post
"Dear all - on clutch, this suddenly reminds me, the bottom clutch flexible pipe is prone to breaking in offroad condition, you can upgrade by using the Scorpio M2DI pipe with its banjo connection. I will give full details shortly."

The full details are -
clutch pipe layout - “Purchase the lower flexible clutch hose, banjo bolt and 2 brass washers of a "Scorpio M2DI" from an M&M dealer. Remove the small black hose and fit these parts in its place. The parts will fit perfectly. The thread on the banjo is the same as that on the slave cylinder. As the banjo offers a 90 degree bend by configuration, one can route the pipe away from ground level which is not possible in the small black hose as it has a straight inlet and has to enter the slave cylinder from the bottom side only. Use tie clips to judiciously tie the hose so as to provide smooth bends (minimum radius of 100 mm). Ensure that you have working clearance with the LH torsion bar. As a vehicle packaging engineer, I will want 10 mm here in dynamic condition (full articulation). Bleed the system and you are in business.”

Hello Vaidyaji,

Good to catch up with you, I had seen this post from BD sir earlier also and the corrective action is under planning at the moment as suggest by him.

I am happy that I didn’t break anything unusual, as soon as the SVC guy called up and said the pipe connecting the master cylinder is damaged, I was like thank god !!!

[abhikb]

1500 Kms road trip with 2 Thars and 1 Isuzu:

Did a 1500 Kms road trip to the dunes of Rajasthan over the weekend, started on a Friday night post completion of work, had a company of a Thar 2020 and an Isuzu V cross.

This being the first overnight road trip for our little one, had to take care of our sleeping arrangements on priority. We put the bags in the floor space at the rear, then placed a pair of pillow at couple of places to support and on top of that a mattress, bedsheet and a pillow to complete the sleeping arrangement. We started from Ahmedabad around 10pm and drove through the night to reach our destination, Ayona slept peacefully through the journey and was rather fascinated with the arrangement made for her.

While going got a decent mileage of 14 kmpl with consistent speeds of around 100 kmph, on the dunes had a hard time initially but later on understood that momentum is the key. Most of the obstacles were accomplished in 4H, 2nd or 3rd gear, where stuck use 4L. Although it’s better to use 3rd gear as much as possible since the 2nd gear is too weak to hold on.

During the return journey we took the Sam-Munabao route, followed with Bharatmala road from Gadra till Bakhasar. This route is absolutely drivers delight as the Bharat mala road is freshly laid and there’s rarely any traffic on this route, you can easily cruise at 90+ kmph speeds all day long without any hurdles. For those who wish to explore the uncharted route and take a sight of an unexplored surrounding this route is best.

Although this was our second time on this route and the first one in a 4X4 , couldn’t have expected more out of this trip.

Next up, from Bakhasar one route would take us through Nadabet but the same needed permission to move, however, the GPS showed one more route through Mavsari. We enquired with the locals who confirmed that we can take this route provided we drive 4X4s. It was around 10pm, when we entered on this route and started driving on the GMaps route.

The road then ended abruptly due to an incomplete bridge over the luni river, it was pitch dark around and the safest bet would have been to go back and take a 100 Kms detour. Anyhow using flashlights we could spot a trail with tyre track over the river bed, listening to our instincts we drove down the river bed following the tyre tracks. It was pitch dark and only the area being covered by the headlights was visible, we kept following the tyre tracks and were out of the river bed in next 45 minutes. The best part was the night sky which gave a perfect star gazing experience, staying the in the urban cities we rarely get to experience such a beautiful sight.

From Mavsari we drive towards Tharad, had dinner and reached home around 3am in the night. It was a long day but each and every moment was worth spending out. Ayona (our little one) slept like a small bunny at the rear bed arrangement made for her.

For reference the route on the return leg was:

Sam-Khuri-Munabao-Gadra Road-Bakhasar-Mavsari-Tharad-Ahmedabad

[abhikb]

ECU remap update:

Got the 3507 remapped with Stage 1 tune from T8 performance. Over the years the slow low end torque had gotten onto the nerves and hence decided the bite the bait.

On paper T8 claims to offer a power and torque figure of 135bhp/290NM respectively. These figures are almost similar to that of the new Thar but the throttle response is slightly better due to CRDe having lesser weight than the new Thar.

The Thar now pulls up from 1500-1600 rpm and in gear acceleration is also better than before. So, primarily it’s much eager to catch up once the momentum is broken while on highways or hills.

It has been more than 4000 Kms since the remap and the issue with slow low end torque is addressed to a large extent.

In the meantime, also got two new pair of tyres for the front, same stock setup Bridgestone duelers HT 235/70/R16. The front tyres still had 50% life so shifted them to the rear, surprisingly the rear tyres have worn out faster than the front ones. Let’s see shall plan a tyre upgrade around 65-70k kms.

The ODO as of now stands at 57,656 Kms over a period of 3.5 years of ownership and the major service shall be at 60k Kms. With my new assignments coming up after couple of months, the monthly usage is about to rise with average running of 2-3k Kms a month.

Till then happily mile munching with this beauty.