[planet_rocker]

i am forced to enjoy "Uttaran" on colors. Slowly the serial grew on me and i enjoyed it everytime i watched (twice / thrice)

Well this is much more interesting - lets see if i can get my wife addicted to this thread

@ Lohith - give a small jist of what happened and what were the solutions - Recap is a must in all serials.

Take care and Enjoy the Adventure.

[lohithrao]

Originally Posted by gemithomas

oh! you seem to have bought quite a lot of adventure with your Fiat.

oh yea, i guess quiet a lot of it

Originally Posted by rupinder

lohith are you a script writer for balaji telefilms

hehe now i dont think thats a compliment

Originally Posted by planet_rocker

i am forced to enjoy "Uttaran" on colors. Slowly the serial grew on me and i enjoyed it everytime i watched (twice / thrice)

Well this is much more interesting - lets see if i can get my wife addicted to this thread

@ Lohith - give a small jist of what happened and what were the solutions - Recap is a must in all serials.

Take care and Enjoy the Adventure.

hahaha i cant stop laughing, happy that Adventure is competing with "Uttaran", hope some Fiat guys are also glued to this thread so that they can send me a new Advy for the pains i have taken heheheh

ohh yea i think thats a good idea, will do.

In the next episode:
What did Lohith find out?

1. Did the tyre go flat?
2. Was thier a engine malfunction?
3. Something to do with the accelerator cable?
4. DId the engine over heat?

Send your answers to 4545454543 and win exciting prices like worn out tyres, blown bearings, leaky suspensions and many more..

hehehee

[lohithrao]

we were accompanied by the rains as we started to descend the ghats and it kept us company allt the way down

It about 3ish in the afternoon ....

Took a short tea break, i was enjoying the drive this time thoroughly, with 3 adult passengers and loaded with luggage this car dint show any sign of tiredness.

Had just done few kms and it started to pour hard and as i was thinking that it will be fun driving in the rain car felt a bit sluggish and i just happened to look at the speedo console..

I see temp needle is above 70%.... first thing i did was to switch off the ac and started to look at the gauge and shockingly it started to climb higher and it was pretty quick. now i started to look for a shop or a safe place to park as we were middle of no where...

Managed to go a bit further and i see the gauge going towards 90% now i knew there is something wrong, though in my Adventure the needle crosses half mark quiet often but the moment i get a free road it doesnt take much time to go below half mark and even if i get stuck in a bad jam the needle has never crossed 70% mark...

Thanks to the heavy rains pulling off the road was not that easy as most of the place it was very slushy and now that it seemed risky i had decided to stop the car asap i was on a look out for a decent place to stop, approached a steep curve and a huge truck in front of me i could see the gauge about to cross the 90% mark and car getting sluggish, i had no choice to signal and get out of the road....

Just made it off the road and the car stopped, dint go to start it,. am in middle of no where now and its raining... lots of thoughts running in my mind...Will i be able to start the car? did i kill the engine? Why me!!!

Kept my cool, first thing i did was to call Vijay, the good old SA from Concorde. Vijay has been a wonderful support the day I bought this car, a true Angel. Its been many months since I visited concorde but this man is still supporting me ! kudos to him! he told me that it has something to do with radiator coolant. As the fan was working fine and asked me to check the level of the coolant. now i wait for the raditor to cool so that i can check the level of the coolant..

After 15+mins i try to open it slowly, i know it was a bit early but i thought will open a bit by bit and let the hot air go but as i opened i heard a slight grumble and nothing else... i took off the cap and moved behind nothing happened but a slight grumble again...
What i see, no coolant at all!!! i call Vijay again and he asked me to look for some leaks but none... by now it was very evident that about 4+ liters of coolant has leaked off...

Now the worry is if the leak is bad then it wont be easy, i need to keep filling and the worry 2 is where will i find water? remember we are in middle of no where

and the biggest worry was will the engine fire?

i stopped a guy on bike and asked him if there was a petrol pump/shop near by he told there is a small shop few mins of walk away...

luckily i was having 2ltr bottle with me and i started to walk, about 10mins walk and i find a small shop. the shop keeper was very helpful, i had to do couple of trip to the shop so that the radiator is full...

I was completly drained by now and i just wanted to be back home, last thing i wanted is to get stranded in the middle of no where.

Started the car in the first attempt the engine comes to life and we were on our way. kept an eye on the gauge till i reached home and the gauge never crossed 50%mark.

Back home i just wanted to get the car checked and was hoping that overheating has not hurt the engine.

Vijay had mentioned if the car over heats again or their is a power loss then we have a problem...

A good drive went bad thanks to this event and i was looking forward for the Monday morning

[nkrishnap]

Did you find any signs of coolant leakage from the cylinder head. Do check for that.

Head gasket can also be a culprit. But do check.

[lohithrao]

Krishna, luckily nothing of that sort. the culprit was "radiator coolant reservoir/tank cap". i was a bit skeptical first but post replacement of this cap have done 500+ kms and the level is same. so that means 4+liters of coolant leaked from the cap.

Was happy it was not a big issue and no damage was caused to engine as i had switched it off at the right time. but the "cap" aint cheap it is close to 500bucks.

Had asked to the TASS guys to drain the water and fill new coolant but while doing that they have forgotten to do the air out properly and within a km from the service station the gauge shot up. took the car again and they set it right.

[lohithrao]

Last couple of months both fan and radiator leak did spoil my mood but the drive made up for it.

Also for long i used to get kind of sluggish feel which was due to the accelerator cable setting, this got rectified very easily...

But now the tyres shocked me:(

[lohithrao]

I happened to notice some bruises and cuts on one of the front tyre and on a closer look all the 4 tyres had some cuts/bruises...

Now this was shocking as the Michelin XM1+ have just done about 16k+ kms and i dint expect it to loose out so soon.

Now that i have to change this pretty soon am wondering what will be the next change...

Bridgestone Turanza had proven itself and i trust these tyres a lot so this is a strong contender

Other day happened to visit MRF showroom and did see some tyres which looked tough and in 14 only that it was of 215, i guess this will be a challenge?

Also have heard that MRF's tyres tend to bend?

[lohithrao]

FOlks need your suggestions on couple of things:

Am thinking of changing the tyres, while Bridge Turanza tops the list am thinking of giving MRF a try...195/70/R14 is what the size am looking at, anyone has any inpurs on MRF please feel free to share.

Also just came to know have done about 5+ kms in last 8months which is a low usage but all of it is on the hiway and the car did take some beatings. so i was thinking of getting it services it this week while the SA suggested me to wait for couple of more thousand kms...

lastly am presently using cielina(synthetic) oil which is used in TASS for the fiats earlier was using Mobil. do you guys suggest me to stick with it or try SHell?

your inputs will be valuable...

[kvish]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Am thinking of changing the tyres, while Bridge Turanza tops the list am thinking of giving MRF a try...195/70/R14 is what the size am looking at, anyone has any inpurs on MRF please feel free to share.

I was reading elsewhere about pirelli citynet L6 with new tread pattern being available for this size. I am seriously considering that. My adventure needs new shoes very soon.

Originally Posted by lohithrao

lastly am presently using cielina(synthetic) oil which is used in TASS for the fiats earlier was using Mobil. do you guys suggest me to stick with it or try SHell?

your inputs will be valuable...

I used Mobil1 last time, and it is really really good. Engine is really smooth even after 15K in mobil1. Better to stick to the ones you have already used. Not to say Shell isnt good. Tried and tested is always comforting especially when other variables in reliability exist

[parimal_g]

@lohithrao

Stick to Selenia Oil, its the best at Price and you can change it at an interval of 1yr or 15k km no need to change in between.
About tyres, never used MRF so no comments but am sure MRF knows indian conditions better.Try searching in Tyre and alloys section.

[lohithrao]

Vish, thanks for the inputs, how you been was thinking of buzzing and finsing out how your Advy is doing, however we will take that offline

Agree, Mobil made the engine feel very smooth but Selenia dint do bad, i might stick to the same oil, will try to find out about the Pirelli but i guess am a bit vary about experimenting this time.

Parima, thanks for the inputs, makes sense but when i checked the oil from the "dip stick" the color has changed to almost black...hmm let me think

[lohithrao]

One more query to all the Palio 1.6 petrol owners...

In slow moving traffic or bumper to bumper kind the temp gauge goes up to 70-80% mark pretty quick but the moment i get some free road the gauge goes below 50%. now is this normal??

[thalavoy]

Lohith. The max temp my Adventure goes is about 45% mark (just less than the half way). Bumper to bumper traffic. After the traffic eases, it comes down to quarter or less mark.
If I see the needle at the 45% mark for a long time, I switch on the AC to get the needle going down.
Coming to this, I run into some other problem. (May be cool problem as against heat problem )
When I run on cold climate (as in early mornings on Bangalore chennai road or late evenings on forest roads), my 'check engine' (is it what is called? the red injector light??) comes on and the temp needle seems stuck at min mark. Restarting the engine makes the light go away. Should I ask the service folks to take a look? (I don't want anything to be touched if not required)
Sorry for taking the thread OT.

[planet_rocker]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

In slow moving traffic or bumper to bumper kind the temp gauge goes up to 70-80% mark pretty quick but the moment i get some free road the gauge goes below 50%. now is this normal??

This is not normal - get it checked. at max it should touch 50% mark, when the fan turns on bringing it to less than 50% mark.

But in B2B traffic - if you switch off engine and restart - the temperature needle will show temperature higher than 50% mark - but it should come down once the fan switches on.

Originally Posted by thalavoy

Lohith. The max temp my Adventure goes is about 45% mark (just less than the half way). Bumper to bumper traffic. After the traffic eases, it comes down to quarter or less mark.
If I see the needle at the 45% mark for a long time, I switch on the AC to get the needle going down.

Not required - switching on AC will run the fan at 2nd speed (high speed) - and it will bring the temperature down to about 25-30% mark.

Originally Posted by thalavoy

Coming to this, I run into some other problem. (May be cool problem as against heat problem )
When I run on cold climate (as in early mornings on Bangalore chennai road or late evenings on forest roads), my 'check engine' (is it what is called? the red injector light??) comes on and the temp needle seems stuck at min mark. Restarting the engine makes the light go away. Should I ask the service folks to take a look? (I don't want anything to be touched if not required)
Sorry for taking the thread OT.

it is called the Injector light IIRC and it shouldn't be the case. Get it checked. Reset the ECU by pulling the negative terminal - leave it for more than 30mins before reconnecting. see if the problem occurs again.

keep us posted.

[lohithrao]

thalvoy am a bit confused with your question:

When you turn the ignition key on(1st) the injector light glows for a moment and goes off this is when the fuel pump gets activated and even can hear a slight sound when its on. but for the first time when you turn the engine on the duration of this process is longer, after you have done some kms it tends to get shorter.

but as far as i can see from your query it seems to be normal to me...