Freak accidents keep coming.
Yesterday after coming back from a satisfied dinner, on entering my apartment the car left front side fell into the ground water tank sump opening.
The tank sump is usually covered and only in case of rains due to rainwater harvesting it will be connected with the drain pipe.
The watchmen in my apartment forgot to close it even after 1 1/2 hrs after the rains. The sump opening is located right at the entrance of the flat. so by the time i realized it was open the front wheel had already gone in with a thud.
I was petrified for a second. and then came to my senses and slowly reversed the car and the wheel came out. I though nothing had happened. then i heard some scratching noise. I could very well understand that it was coming only from the engine guard which had protected the engine and oil sump from my previous experiences.
there were no vibrations or nothing at all except the iron scratching the ground sound from the car. so slowly parked the car in the slot and inspected.
As expected the engine guard had given away in the left rear corner.
Today morning in daylight inspected the car and nothing major had happened anywhere else.
Bent down got underneath the car and inspected it. The engine guard was badly damaged. There was absolutely no damage to engine or anything under the hood.
tried to pull up the engine guard but it wouldnt stay. so i got some thick wires and inserted it into the hole in the engine guard and pulled it up and twisted it around the straight rod like guard for the exhaust from the engine tightly so that it wouldnt vibrate anymore.
Drove the car and the sound disappeared only to occur occasionally when car was scrapping the speedbreakers.
So decided to take it to workshop.
Didnt want to take it to TASS as they would make a mess of even a small problem.
I have had very good experiences with Bosch Car Care Centre , Vadapalani with my dads car.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/chenna...i-chennai.html
So took it there. the car was put on a ramp and was hoisted and inspected and it was indeed the engine guard which was heavily bent and beared the brunt of the injury
Horror to see that the bumper was was fastened to the engine guard by the OEM TASS only by 2 screws when there were 5 holes for screws to fasten up. Even the inner wheel cladding were not fastened up by the TASS properly and was loose.
Another surprise. Usually the engine guard in all lineas and puntos are removable but in my car only the front portion was fastened by screws the reat was welded to the frame !!.
Only then i realised that the Buggers in Concorde motors has welded the engine guard with the frame last time when the engine guard rattling had occured
What a cheap trick!!
Finally the bosch guys meticulously removed the engine guard from the weld using filer and welding machine. luckily no damage to the frame.
From then on it was just pure professional work. The welder was summoned and since the rear of the engine guard cannot be screwed back, i told them to make some arrangement so that they can make the engine guard removable as before.
The engine guard was straightened out and flat. A thick metal sheet was brought and a bracket was designed so that it fixes into the old screw slot perfectly. It was cut out and tempered with welding machine and filing. It was welded to the original engine guard and finally fixed to the proper holes it was meant to be screwed to.
To tell how professional the work was they even painted out the engine guard to black again
here are the pics
The welder and his tools
The bent and damaged engine guard
In the next two picture you can see the place where the engine guard was welded to by the buggers at concorde motors to arrest the engine guard rattling. They should have fixed the engine guard to the adjacent two screws holes. But the chose to do the cheap trick
An underview
One of the two steel brackets which was designed and cut out from the sheet to be welded to the OEM engine guard
The original goofed up welding place was cleaned and patched
Next two pictures show the brackets welded to the engine guard
Complimentary engine guard painting after fixing the guard, to make it look professional. this is what sets the TASS and professionals apart
Worn out front tyres of my car. Its been only 2 1/2 years and 38k kms on the ODO. I guess i have to change it soon
They took a test drive to see if there are any rattling and there was absolutely none!!.
The car is back to its status again. They charged me 750 bucks for it including the consumables, which i thought was VFM
This is the third time i am coming out smiling from the Bosch garage. 3 out of 3 times is excellent. These guys at the Bosch car care are extremely competent and skillful and They even take care of the minute details and also make sure the customers are happy.
Bosch car care you guys definitely rock. I had already created a thread in teambhp
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/chenna...i-chennai.html to give them an applause. now i am even more impressed. Kudos guys