[ByDesign]

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

I think I saw your car at Barfkhana Road to Filmistan around two weeks back.

It looks good.

Yep. That's me! I think on this particular day, my driver had taken the accent to office too, which is the light blue one next to my palio in the pic!

[ByDesign]

***UPDATE - 2ND FREE SERVICE***
@ 5800 km. Time - 6 months since purchase

Engine oil replacement + Oil filter + periodic maintenance (wheel balancing, alignment, etc. though I doubt it was all done, I wasn't there to supervise this time.)

Service center - Rama Motors, Okhla Industrial Phase II, Delhi

I won't comment on the service, though I can confidently say, if you want a more polite, less arrogant, more professional service job done on your FIAT in Delhi, take her to Elegant Motors, Noida. There were several issues with the overall experience. I don't wish to write it down here.

Total Cost - Rs. 2,414

Furthermore,

***TANK FILLED***
FE Calculation

Type - Diesel (Normal)
Fuel Filled - 40.33 L
Trip - 839 km

FE In City - 20.8 kmpl

She just keeps surprising me every time!

[funkykar]

^ Congrats on the 2nd service and sorry to hear about the service experience.

I have heard from many that after the second service, the performance of the engine really opens up. I tried hard to over take you on the 3rd service, I wasnt up to speed. Will try and overtake you on the 3rd.

[tanwaramit]

Saw you with your car today again. Gave you a thumbs up at the barfkhana-filmistan road signal in the morning.

[ByDesign]

Originally Posted by funkykar

^ Congrats on the 2nd service and sorry to hear about the service experience.

I have heard from many that after the second service, the performance of the engine really opens up. I tried hard to over take you on the 3rd service, I wasnt up to speed. Will try and overtake you on the 3rd.

The performance seems to have become less ba. Actually, the engine is a lot smoother now, but it's not flying like it used to. Turbo lag seems to have increased slightly. I'm not complaining though, I cruised at 130 kmph the other day without breaking a sweat. Felt like she was doing 80.
And no prob about the service macha. Good, professional and courteous service stations in India is still a far fetched dream.

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

Saw you with your car today again. Gave you a thumbs up at the barfkhana-filmistan road signal in the morning.

Hey that was you! KA number plate right? Are you Kannadiga?

[h14]

Hi ByDesign, seeing your bill amount, I guess you had used Selena. Correct me if i'm wrong. If you had used selena, are you gonna skip oil change in the next service? Also, both our MJD's completed the second service in december and were switched to selena. Both have crossed 8000kms now and feel really eased out. Also they deliver a consistent 17kmpl in the city.

[funkykar]

What is Selena by the way? Is it fully synthetic?

Also, what oil comes on the SDX from factory and whats the recommended oil to be used for the SDX.

I had my oil replaced my 2010 SDX when odo was 3k kms. Did it as a few friends suggested. I did not see any harm in doing it. I really did not bother asking what oil they put in. Its striking me now that I should have enquired.

[ByDesign]

Originally Posted by h14

Hi ByDesign, seeing your bill amount, I guess you had used Selena. Correct me if i'm wrong. If you had used selena, are you gonna skip oil change in the next service? Also, both our MJD's completed the second service in december and were switched to selena. Both have crossed 8000kms now and feel really eased out. Also they deliver a consistent 17kmpl in the city.

The service adviser was not very literate in the field of engine oils. He just wrote a price on the service slip. The price seemed high for the entire thing so I called Architect from t-bhp, who I always call in times of fiat needs .

Architect was the one who said the high charge of engine oil is because its synthetic oil, and that I should go for mineral oil, which is the oil they use in the vista 75 diesel. This is exactly what I told the service chap and he seemed extremely pissed off and just scratched out the 2600/- and wrote 1500/-. I don't know which engine oil they used exactly, but I'm guessing its mineral oil.

Please refer to my last post about my latest FE in the city. 21 kmpl is a fantastic figure, but I'm going to see if I can get a similar figure this time around.

The term you used i.e. 'eased out' is pretty much what I feel about my car now. She doesn't jerk around in first gear as much, and a LOT smoother in 3rd and 4th at the higher revs. The wheels do squeak now and then, I don't know why the hell this is happening. Its like a loud bearing rotating sound that vanishes as I accelerate and is audible when the car is rolling without acceleration. It also vanishes when I turn the steering to the right, by any amount. Sometimes there's just no sound at all. It just happens now and then. I've told the problem at both my first and second services, neither service center thought it was a big deal and didn't deal with it.

Originally Posted by funkykar

Also, what oil comes on the SDX from factory and whats the recommended oil to be used for the SDX.

Mr Architect, would you field this one for us?

[h14]

Selena is not fully synthetic, it is semi synthetic oil which is used in the Linea's and Punto's. Initially even I wanted to go for mineral oil since the Palio comes factory filled with mineral oil, but then when I asked the service advisor to use the mineral oil of the vista, he said warranty may be void if the oil used is different from that recommended! That is when I thought that there was no point in talking to these guys and went on to use selena.
Problem was that the SA never knew that selena was semi-synthetic!
@funkykar, how much were you charged for your oil change? If it was selena, you would have been charged around Rs2500 for oil and oil filter.

Note- FIAT recommends a change interval of 15,000kms for the selena.

[architect]

With mineral oil: service interval is 7,500 km.
With semi(?)-synthetic oil (Selenia): service interval is 15,000 km.

Recommended Service Interval for Linea / Punto: 15,000 km.
Recommended Oil: Selenia (a Petronas product, I think).

Recommended Service Interval for Palio Multijet: 7,500 km.
Recommended Oil: ????

For all those owners of Palio Multijets who are being forced to use Selenia in their engines by the TFASC, the question to ask your service advisor is that if they are using Selenia, the service interval should be 15,000 km. Will Fiat honour your warranty if you are servicing the car at 15,000 km instead of the recommended 7,500 km just because some guy at the Service Center convinced you to use Selenia instead of regular mineral oil?

My point is simple, as I explained to ByDesign that day: If you are forced to stick to recommended oil change intervals of 7,500 km due to warranty issues, I don't see the point in spending on mineral oil which is twice as expensive.

My Extended Warranty finishes before next service. I intend to switch to a 5,000 km service interval and change oil every alternate service only at 10,000 km and buy my own Mobil 1 synthetic. The only issue is buying 3.2 litres of oil, as I don't have space to keep the balance engine oil anywhere.

[h14]

Me too have the same woes of service interval as i've gone in for selena. So what I thought is to stick to the 7,500 service interval and at the same time, change engine oil only on every alternate service. These are my plans, let's see how i'm able to keep up to it.

[tanwaramit]

Originally Posted by ByDesign

Hey that was you! KA number plate right? Are you Kannadiga?

Yup, it was me, Not a kannadiga, but work got me there and led to the purchase of the car in Namma Bengaluru.

Seems like you take this route quite often, hope to see you around more often.

[Ravi Yadav]

ByDesign the car looks great on the alloys and Congrats on the 2nd service. Even , when i had gone for my first service the advisor had no idea which oil to use. I asked him to connect me to their service manager and to my surprise this guy had good knowledge about oils.

I got mineral oil and oil filter changed. The cost per liter was Rs. 214 and the oil filter was Rs 330.

[ByDesign]

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

Yup, it was me, Not a kannadiga, but work got me there and led to the purchase of the car in Namma Bengaluru.

Seems like you take this route quite often, hope to see you around more often.

Sure man, I'll keep my eyes open!

Originally Posted by Ravi Yadav

ByDesign the car looks great on the alloys and Congrats on the 2nd service. Even , when i had gone for my first service the advisor had no idea which oil to use. I asked him to connect me to their service manager and to my surprise this guy had good knowledge about oils.

I got mineral oil and oil filter changed. The cost per liter was Rs. 214 and the oil filter was Rs 330.

Thanks Ravi.

And yes, the prices were same for my 2nd service too. 330 for filter plus taxes I think. The car is running quite smooth now, and I'm hoping to cross 20 kmpl this time for FE!

[ByDesign]

Wish I could edit my last post, sorry about the double post.

Milestone achieved today!

***03-03-2011***

Cruised at 145 kmph and she was still going up!

The funny thing is, I had a rather long stretch of open road, and decided to give her a good push forward. Crossed 100 kmph in 4th, and in 5th took her till 115kmph. Now here's the surprise, from 115 kmph to 145 kmph, it hardly took any time at all! It's like the turbo kicked in again at these speeds. And at 145 kmph it looked like it could go up easily! I had run out of empty road by then so I had to ease out and slow down.

I'm real proud of my baby today! Had to get this on record. All stock specs and XM1+ 185/60 tire upgrades!