I was really concerned this time and was thinking had I got the right car or did the seller fool me into buying an abused vehicle with a lot of problems?
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Path to perfection and hurdles on the way
In continuation with my plan to change parts, this time I decided that I will tell FNG to order all parts and only then will the car be sent for the change so that the car would be sent in the morning and be done by evening or worst next day. The following parts I requested to be changed:
- Front suspensions and ball joints – I observed that the front looks a bit saggy as compared to the back. And one of my friend’s Storme owners had explicitly mentioned to me that the Storme should look very upright from the front. Hence I decided to get both the front suspensions changed.
- TVD – This time I was adamant that this has to be changed. And told them to get this ordered.
- Water pump – Since I had asked them to clean the radiator, I thought of getting the water pump replaced as well.
- Indicator Stalk – I find that the left turn indicators fail to engage sometimes and hence planned on getting these changed as well, however, they could not source this part.
- Left front power window slowness – The front left power window would slow down after reaching 75% of the way up. I had asked them to fix this as well.
- Rear door plastic cladding rattle – This was also to be fixed.
- Check Engine Light – Just a day ago the Check Engine Light turned on and I got it scanned and it threw the error for the low boost pressure. I also observed that the kick during pickup was totally gone and it behaved like a regular vehicle. They said they would check this and suspected a loose hose.
The parts were ordered and I was told to drop my car off on Thursday and would be done by Friday evening. I did the same and went to inspect in the evening as to how things are going.
Tragedy, Confusion and Resolution
Tragedy
On Friday I went to collect the car in the evening and the garage owner mentioned that the car is giving some problems starting. It would start once and would not start post that. The OBD scanner was giving immobiliser issues and they are looking into it.
Confusion
A key coder was called and he observed that the keys were not functioning properly and he coded another remote and tried and still the same problem and they all were clueless as to what is the problem.
The garage owner assured me that they will fix it the next day anyhow and give it to me. I was really concerned this time and it was a real low point where I was thinking had I got the right car or did the seller fool me into buying an abused vehicle with a lot of problems? But there was nothing I could do now so just waited and watched. Till date whatever changes I got done were all wear and tear parts, but a car not starting is a reliability issue and that was bothering me a lot.
Resolution
Next day I called the garage owner around noon and asked about the issue, he mentioned that they checked everything, right from the key to coils to BCM and now were checking if the changes they did yesterday caused this.
And then an hour later he calls to inform me that the issue has been identified, the guy who fitted the water pump did not adjust the timing post that and that was causing the issue. He apologised for the same and said that they are fixing it and will be testing it thoroughly before handing it over.
Attaching pics of a few things
The suspension kit has been replaced for the front entirely.
The sparkling clean radiator was taken out and sent to a guy who cleans them for a living. Looks good now. The garage added its own coolant and told me that let it run for a few hundred kilometres so that the plumbing is cleared and then will add the Tata-approved coolant in it. (Castrol Radicool SF-O premix 50:50).
The new TVD added. The vibrations that creep into the cabin when you lug the engine are gone. Although I don’t lug the vehicle, any vibration at let’s say 1100RPM on third gear, they are all gone from the body.
This joint was where the hose was loose. I suspect that is also caused by these mechanics only when they were changing engine mounts and they might have lifted the engine a lot higher than required causing this joint to loosen up.
Conclusion
Got the car back a few hours ago and here are preliminary observations:
- The alignment is out, which I will get fixed tomorrow but the steering play seems to have reduced. Will hold my judgement till tomorrow.
- No rattles in the interiors, they have fixed the plastic rattles very well and now the car is “soundless” inside.
- I have been facing vibrations coming from the underbody between 65-85kmph and they are still there even after the TVD change. Now I am 100% sure that this is an error by mechanics when they changed the central bearing of the propellor shaft. I will tell the FNG to fix it but this also proves that they are also not super experts on the Safari Storme.
- Turbo issue is gone and now the pickup is back. It was the loose clamp from the air filter to the turbocharger which was loose and flapping. They have tightened it and hopefully, it should be done now.
- The power windows now work just fine and the speed is good.
Observations
- Finding an expert mechanic for Storme is hard. I believed that the FNG will be good, but the recklessness shown by the mechanic has caused me to lose faith in them now. So will be looking for another mechanic for any other issue in the vehicle which requires fixing.
- Storme cannot be your vehicle if you have a single-car garage. For a person like me, who owns just a single car, reliability and ease of repairs and maintenance remain a very high priority. Though I am pretty sure that the Storme is pretty reliable but in case anything breaks, the vehicle will go out of order for a week. This is a very big blocker, but I guess this is the same case with any other manufacturer except Maruti and Hyundai who have all parts available in the workshops readily.
Next action items
With the truck becoming as good as new (almost) there are still a few things that need to be fixed that are on my target list next.
- Injector issue – We observed that there is a krr krr sound coming from the engine at high RPMs or if we are pushing hard and the turbo kicks in. The garage owner pointed it out to be an issue with the injector and told me to drop the car off for a day and that they will fix it within a single day. I plan on doing that this week sometime.
- AC Leak – The gas is requiring a recharge on a monthly basis so that also needs to be fixed. But I don’t want to give the car for a few days again and remain without a car. Also, I am praying that the issue should arise in the condenser itself and be fixed from there as anything else would require opening up the dashboard and all which I don’t want to do.
We are getting there, and I am positive.
Keyword: Used Tata Safari Storme: Hurdles faced while getting it back in shape