Getting my beloved TUV300 back in shape after the recent Chennai floods

The garages, service centres and towing services were already crowding up. Since our car was only mildly hit, I decided to take the DIY approach.

BHPian sathyasuri recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone,

I have a soon-to-be 8-year-old (in less than a week) Mahindra TUV300. Here is my narration of the ownership story (well, that was the original idea of this thread until the flood hit us) and its DIY work-in-progress (WIP) revival after it got mildly hit in the recent Chennai floods. I am posting this while the recovery is still in the WIP stage so that I can get guidance and some useful info on things that I encounter in the process from our experienced forum members.

Some background:

About the bond with the car:

To start with, we (the entire family) adore this car in spite of its many quirks and shortcomings. We call it the "Yaanai Kutty" (baby elephant in Tamil) mainly because it is black, chubby and quite brisk to drive.

I have a strange philosophy (maybe it is not just me), that got built up over years of driving, that life is like driving on the road. You see cars (people in real life) of different shapes (character of people) and sizes (capabilities of people). Some cars are smart, some are refined, some are flashy, some are calm and composed, some punch way above their weight, and some are underperforming, so you get the drift, right? In short, if cars were people in real life, then according to me TUV300 is like a reasonably good person who is mostly reliable, practical, forgiving and has a group of people who like him for what he/she is.

Let me get back to the topic, too much of overwhelming situations in a short span of a week make one philosophical.

From now on, I will try to keep it mostly pictures with minimal words...

The car on the day of arrival at our home - it is a 2015 Nov model. Being a T4+ variant, it came all black right from the factory in 2015 itself.

It had a few initial issues like the ones below:

• RHS front door noise
• Vacuum resonator retrofit
• Fuel pump recall
• Driver side seat belt replacement
• Steering pump and fuel filter replacement

Later it got retrofitted with the MLD as I was facing severe wheel spin issues while climbing onto my home parking on a daily basis.

Down the years some accessories were added, like a pair of fog lamps, Hella 700FF AUX lamps and recently an Android HU and it continues to be an all-black themed car.

It has taken us to different places and terrains reliably and without much difficulty.

Actually, MLD makes it very capable in bad terrains. It was able to negotiate this terrain without breaking a sweat. Sad that Mahindra didn't make a 4x4 variant.

The kids love it

One of its shortcomings is the lack of power, but it surely makes it up with its torque. So, it may not make it to places in good time but people (lots of them) travelling together in it end up having a great time

Wrath of nature

It has weathered some nature's furies including the previous 2015 Chennai flood, but back then it was still at the dealer's yard and was relatively safe as the area did not get flooded, but it did face the heavy downpour though. I followed our Tbhp PDI checklist and ensured the vehicle was safe to be picked up before registration.

During the Vardah Cyclone of 2016, these videos (clip 1 and clip 2)were taken after returning from an urgent Doctor visit during the storm.

Some spotting pics from Wapp gp friends

Random insights from me on the TUV300 that I posted in the TUV300 thread.

• Spiritual mates
• I think Mahindra took this from me and never bothered to credit me.

Recent Chennai Floods

The day started like this:

The water level rose pretty fast:

Meanwhile, inside the home, the Ground floor evacuation protocol was activated.

The night was spent like this

Aftermath: the water level marks

Recovery DIY:

The garages, service centers and towing services were already crowding up, and our car being only mildly hit decided to take the DIY approach. Also, I was confident (I hope that it doesn't turn out to be overconfidence) about the level of damage and felt that I could do a careful job of putting it back into shape.

The DIY process:

Started the day by sharing the vehicle pics and discussing with Ignite Garage's Raghav (I have been servicing it there since the 6th year) and an ex-Mahindra engineer (cousin). As they had advised I checked the oil, and all appeared good, cranked it and it started on the first attempt without any white smoke.

It coughed up quite a bit of this gunk though.

I let the vehicle idle for about an hour or so. Then took it for a drive for about 10 km, varied the engine speed so that the water in the exhaust path was dried and left the vehicle in the sun with the doors open to allow sunshine.

The following day removed the seats.

First, discarded the Rexine cover, I never liked it from the beginning, but had it only for practical purposes as my kids were very young back in 2015.

Then removed the mats and the dampening material underneath.

Used cotton cloth and sponge to remove the flood water that had collected in small puddles, it had seeped in through the door beadings or through the floor openings (?), I need to ascertain that.

The floor being sun dried with a bit of assistance from the fans.

The condition is as above right now, I plan to dry the mats for another day or two.

Considering my needs, the utility it offers, the bond my kids have with the car (they swear that they will learn to drive only in this car) and the usage pattern (it has done only about 64K KM so far) I plan to keep the car for some more years. I service it at Ignite Garage and had all the fluids replaced about 4K KMs back in Jul 2023, the underbody was 3M coated in 2016.

So, Tbhpians, please suggest a way to treat the minor rust, observed on the front side floor, would a simple spray paint suffice, or is some extra care needed? Do comment if an oil change or other changes/points that I need to take care of. Also, I plan to sound-damp the car and upgrade the speakers, should I go for dampening the floor as well since it is anyway bare open now or just go for the door dampening alone and save some cash for the future?

Actually, the car as such is relatively calm compared to many diesel hatchbacks and monocoque SUVs, thanks to a good level of bonnet dampening and generous firewall shields from the factory itself.

I wish to hear from the forum members about their experiences with such DIYs. Most of the aspects about the car are already in the Tbhp TUV 300 review thread and yes, I would be happy to share my experiences on some specific queries about the car.

Thanks for your time!

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