[karan1609]

The countdown begins: Have completed 4800 kms, and have already started jotting down all the points and will post a detailed review of the car along with several good and bad experiences.

Meanwhile, I have fitted the side bumper mouldings aka bumper corner preotectors and will upload the snaps soon. I also forgot both the keys in the car which lead to a crazy circus. I called the MOS but after repeated attempts and 4.5 hrs, the car's door still didnt open. I guess that is why they usually break the window instead of picking on the locks of the RITZ/A-star. Later, out of desperate attempts, he ripped open the quarter glass beading. The glass is reall solidly packed in it unlike my M800 where opening the quarter panel was an amateur's job! Out of desperation, I also went to the Police Station to check if they have a long metal scale; but it was of no use.
Later, I went to Autovista to get it fixed which costed me Rs. 195.
The MOS guy was a little rough and he broke the LHS front door beading apart from quite a few minor scratches.

[karan1609]

Since some time I had given a feedback to JK Tyres India via their webportal and was impressed by thier lightning fast response. I mailed them in the evening and received a call at 10.00AM the very next day! Super quick! It was the Dy. Regional Manager for Mumbai/West Zone who very patiently spoke and tried to understand the problem. We decided to meet at a certain time but unfortunately was not able to visit the regional office located at Ghatkopar. This was back in September, but was finally able to visit him today.
I was pleasantly suprised once again that I did not have to remind him of the problem or no background information once again. He requested me to come down and visit the Go-down/Head Office.
Upon visiting the Godown I was greeted by the Service Engineer and I quickly explained my problem. The problem areas according to me were:

1) Tread Chipp Offs on a particular tire
2) Very Road noise at ~90Km/hr and above
3)Wavy sort of marks on that particular tire

He explained that the chip offs were normal and cannot be avoided due to crazy bad roads, steel/iron gutter/manhole covers, glass, metal shards etc. that the car goes over. And to an extent I do agree, the leveling is poor, the paver blocks are badly laid, metal pipes, wires are open etc. I do not blame the tire company for that. I had earlier ripped my Bridgestones too no matter how much I avoided bad roads.

The main problem was the road noise. After some valid arguements with the service engineer and the deputy manager, the Dy. manager readily agreed to change all 4 tires FOC. The only cost I had to bear was the labor involved in dismounting and re-mounting the new tires, which came to Rs. 200.

Second, I call up my contacts at Autovista who agreed with the problem, and said that they will do the wheel balancing FOC too.

I am very happy with the resolution, sure, the new ones too are noisy, but the noise is quite less. Plus the older ones were manufactured in 1018 (meaning 2010 18th week) and the new ones are 1107 (2011 7th Week).

The deputy manager arranged for a visit to his godown, explained all the tire types, reason behind balancing, the ply designs, manufacturing process, specifications/emboss on the tires etc.
Infact, I had to rush to R-City Mall as my parents were waiting; the deputy manager not only showed my the best way to get there, but also called me up after 45min to check if I have reached! Pretty Impressive as I have not had such a good experience before.

The old tires had already run some 4900Kms as I checked the ODO reading today. All in all, it was a very good experience I had with JK Tire folks and I will test the tires on the Mumbai Pune Expressway soon! Hey that calls for another short write up! I promise to return with a bang with the 5000Kms experience with my A-Star.

[karan1609]

And infact I even told the Dy. Manager about T-Bhp and informed him about the numerous negative/positive opinions on our forum. This includes the experience one SX4 and a SWIFT owner had where the tire just burst. He said that he will surely do the needful as and when possible and noted down our web address.

Personally, I had a very good experience with JK Tyre's after sales service. Will see how these tires function in the long run.

[karan1609]

Just back from a test drive, I drove a good 20kms at a speed of 80-120 on the highway and glad to report that the tire rolling noise has reduced drastically and almost negligible on super smooth surfaces.
The ride too has become way smoother than what it was before. I reported and shared this the Dy. Manager at JK Tyre and he has requested me to keep in touch and call after 2000kms are over in order to keep him posted.

I also quite a lot of parts changed under warranty! Here is the list:

1) Headlight x 2 due to moisture formation
2) Rubber beading on all four doors; as the door beadings used to make crazy rubbing noise over rough patches. It is a little hard to close the doors as it requires pressure; I kind of get a feeling when I first saw a brand new showroom A-star and the doors wont close as the rubber beadings were brand new.
3) JK Tires x 4, and got free wheel alignment and balancing done at AutoVista
4) Wipers x 2, as the old ones were streaking on the first day itself

Am very happy right now, as the rubber beading noises, and the tires noises have stopped, thus making my ride smoother and quiter!

In future, I will also try out the yoga mat sound deadning/dampening in order to reduce the door panel/plastic panel sounds. Like mentioned earlier, most of the noises are from the panels which were opened in order to fit central locking and power windows!

[karan1609]

I have been reporting a issue in the last couple of posts, which is about a metal like sound which usually comes over rough patches and not over deep potholes. Well, I think I discovered and fixed what the problems is.

I dont really know however, what the part is called, but I guess the description will surely help. This black colored plastic part is situated adjacent to the radiator, and ahead of the exhaust manifolds and is very visible from the low slung grille. To be more precise, it is located behind the number plate. I discovered that this part had a loose nut/screw; this happened as the bumper was removed in order to fit the headlights. But apparently, the screws weren't fastened as they should have been. It turned out that the this part rattles not only by itself, but also when it comes in contact with the radiator outlet, which is made up of aluminium. For now, I have fastened the screws correctly and tried it over the same rough patches at a speed of 10-20km/hr (the idea conditions under which the sound came). The sound has disappeared!
Most of the rattles in my car are a result of poor refitting by the dealer it seems as the bumper was removed, the door panels etc were all removed in an insensitive manner!
Just to give you a recap, they replaced my car's
1) headlights,
2) rubber beading x 4 doors,
3) replaced tires x 4 @ 0% wear
4) fitted RD brand power windows
5) fitted RD brand central locking

I have gone ahead the fixed quite a lot of rattles with the help of two sided tape and foam inserts.

Unfortunately, while getting my rubber beadings changed, the guy was very rough with the removal of plastic clips. I believe he plucked out the clips with a metal screw driver, which had left light scratches everywhere. Though these are not visible once the door is shut, but why put scratches to begin with?
Same was the case with the Maruti On Road Service technician from Vitesse, who was unable to open the doors, he too left a couple of nasty scratches, and chipped off the paint at some places. The chipped paint was the joints between the main frame of the car and the body panels. These joints get exposed once you remove the quarter glass beadings. Luckily, I had some touch paint with me, so made sure that I touched it up. At places, he also bent the delicate joints, which I had to straighten.
All in all, it was some unnecessary exercise and an unpleasant experience as my car now has some light, but nasty scratches. It kind of makes me angry, once due to my mistake (as i left both the keys) and the second due to the stu$%^ untrained mechanic/technicial at MASS.

[adityeah]

Hi Karan. Your post (and this thread in general) has been very informative. I have also booked an AStar LXI, Desert Brown. I confess deciding on accessories is confusing. One doubt: The dealer says that MGA does not provide manual central locking, so we have to go for a whole security system thats costs (according to him) Rs.6450. What do you suggest? Thanks!

[karan1609]

Hey Adityeah, congratus dude! When are you going to get the delivery? Please do post some photos once you get it.
The central locking worked like this: I requested my sales person to fit my car with central locking (manual), so he assembled it using the spare parts of Nippon/RD, which includes the relay box, fuses, mechanicals, wiring loom, etc. These days, I dont think anyone opts for "manual" central lokcing alone, as the remote ones are pretty cheap.
I believe the one quoted to you, worth Rs. 6450, is the one with shock/vibration/ultrasonic sensors, which is one of the recommended ones. But it comes with pros and cons. Pros, that even if someone breaks the window, the alarm goes off (as in the one w/o sensors, your alarm wont go off if the persons enters through the window). The cons are that someone might fidgit or stand against the car casually, or a cat might just hop on and the alarm gets triggered. Now imagine a scenario where you have left the car unattended and have gone for amove and it goes off! or if it parked in a society compound and it goes off in the night. Of course, there are 2 sensitivity levels.
If possible, please ask your dealer to assemble the system using the spare parts, and he will still give a warranty for 1 yr, similar to mine. Or, there are some good systems from Nippon, Minda, Autocop, Xenos which are available for a much lesser amount, without sensors. By the way, what are you going to do about the other accessories? I have also shown how to add headrests to an A-star LXI, please do visit that thread.

[adityeah]

Hi Karan, I had been away traveling so could not reply, sorry. thank you for your response and wishes. I took the car delivery last weekend.
Thing is, as far as accessories are concerned, I got a very bad response/deal from Mandovi motors here in Banagalore. The guy told me that the option of the manual central locking is not there itself. He is not giving me much options/flexibility apart from 1 or max 2 choices in the accessories of each class. I asked for a music system, he told me the JBL basic one GT-X333 for Rs.6100 while the online 3 month old price of that is Rs.4900. After I confronted him and gave a bad feedback, he has come back and told me that he will give accessories at a special price.
I have got nothing at all done in the car, apart from power windows. I am confused whether to get all these things done by the dealer or from outside. As far as central locking is concerned, from the dealer, I do not have any choice but the Rs.6450 one. I am also looking for a basic music system (no CD/With Aux-in and USB) and optimum speakers (all in a budget of 9-12k). Please suggest something. I will soon post picture of the car. Thanks a lot for your response, again!

[karan1609]

In my A-star, I have installed Sony CDX 350GTs. It blends in well with the red dashboard lights, so I suggest that you stick to a HU which has red lights, ofcourse do not compromise on your taste for SQ just for lights. I suggest that you got for a HU which has USB as in the long run, it will be very convinient and cost effective. Frankly, it is very difficult to source loose blank CDs from stationery stalls as they mostly stock DVDs. So in the near future, they may just make it obsolete entirely. So USB is the way to go, plus its not that expensive either. Also, I would request that you send me a list of accessories, I can help you buy them at a very cheap rate from Maruti itself and also help you get the MGA remote Central locking at a very low price, of course all with bill and warranty as I know some people and then I can have it sent to someone you know here in Bombay.
I am very eager to see the snaps of your car!

[karan1609]

Just last week, a new problem cropped up. While picking up from a standstill, which obviously would involding accelrating, the silencer gave out a very rough note, which was quite audible, spoiled the smoothness while driving. But after a certain RPM, it would vanish.

I got it checked, and it turns out that the silencer assembly needs to be changed. The parts have been ordered, and am eagerly awaiting the arrival.

We did check to see if it was damaged during driving, but nothing could be spotted, no dents, dings, scratches etc.

So the silencer would be another addition to the parts that I have changed so far.

I was unable to provide a detailed 5000kms review, but as of now, I have reached 8500, so the review will happen once it touches 10000.

[karan1609]

Just returned from getting some parts replaced. IT was quite a horrible day today for me. Here it.

Opted to go to the MASS and getting the silencer noise fixed once and for all. I also lost a key so wanted a replacement. Waited for long hours and I was informed that the parts were preordered. The moment my car was jacked up a few inches way, the lights failed! The motors on the auto lifters froze! Waited for 2 hours. Meanwhile, the car keys got programmed.

Once the electricity was restored, the technicians were not available. Once the technician lowered/removed te defective silencer , the replacement part wasnt avaialbe in the stores as they could not locate it.

In the meantime, they sent my car for washing and vaccuming, where the two keys were in the car and the third spare key was inside too. It turns out that the car got locked automatically! All the three keys were inside!

Luckily, help was at hand, and the technician opened my car in a min!However in this ordeal, my weather strip was severely damaged (and i knew that more was damage was about to come). Upon opening it, the key with the remote lock wasn't there! My first feeling was, someone has stolen it. I raised hue and cry over it which resulted in a lot of chaos. As I has just ordered fresh keys, and had the ECU reprogrammed. Luckily, some one spooted 3 set of keys in the car and went and deposited it at the security desk.

While fixing the lock again, he banged the door agaisnt the auto lift's pillar, which resulted in a chip off of the paint at two minor places.

By this time, I was so tired, that I just asked them to touch it up than make it a serious issue.

The car was taken to the bay, and the work began! finally. The guy who was working under the car, kinda got injured while working! Unfortunately, the rough sound remains even after the replacement of the silencer rod + muffler. SO will have to visit them again.

I entered at 11 and left at 6.30! IT was one long day. All these months, my car has been damaged the most with tiny scratches here or there due to reckless behaviour of the technicians. They work in all these areas with screw driver, which spoil the painted surface!

I will add the pics of the scratches which make my heart cry!

[karan1609]

While investigating further, I the rough exhaust note kind of sound, as if the exhaust gases are not flowing freely, is coming from somehwhere near the exhaust manifold, or some place just below it.

In addition to this, I have a new rattle that has emerged from the engine area. IT is quite mild, but audible and keeps coming on small undulations (paver blocks) especially). I observed that after I turn the steering fully, and accelerate, I hear a sounf from near the rack; these two sounds may be related, which could be due to a fault steering bush. Not sure But will get it done during the third service. I hope this issue doesnt get to my nerves and spoil my drive.

[Shome]

I am sorry to hear about all the trouble you are going through. Is your car still under warranty?

Thankfully, I have had my A-star for over 2 years now and have not faced any major issues considering that I have already done over 38500 KMs. All the trouble i have had is with people banging into my car when parked but no manufacturing or use related issues. Only both brake calipers had to be changed at 33000Kms.

I guess mine would be one of the most run A-stars in this community?

[slicvic]

Originally Posted by Shome

I guess mine would be one of the most run A-stars in this community?

Right behind you at 31,000

I've not had any major issues either.

Ought to write a long term ownership soon.

[karan1609]

Yes, my car is still in warranty.

Btw, the the exhause sound has stopped. The guys at Zenito Auto Works (MASS), fixed it by adjusting the exhaust manifold.

I also upgraded to semi syntehtic Castrol Magnatec. I dont think it would be apt to comment on whether there is considerable difference yet in engine noise, smoothness, pick up, FE, etc as claimed by several others.

I have driven only ~40 kms since the oil change, so would like to give it atleast another 100-200 kms to wash away all the slush, if any, of the old engine oil. I did inspect the oil filler cap and the old filter, but could not find any deposits, slush so am quite relieved. However, I will keep you posted.

Currently, the rattle sound while going over the paver blocks does come from the front. Actually there are two of them. One is during slow moving, when drive alone, one when idling (may be a lose steel pipe hitting the side walls?), and one loud thud when I go over potholes in speed.

As far as I remember, I have gone over some nasty potholes at speed just 4 times in the last 8500kms. The car too is usually driven by me alone with nil cargo, so am sure that my driving skills are not the culprit here.