Honda Amaze VX i-DTEC Ownership Review

[vishnu vichu]

hai guys,
I have a 5 year old Honda Amaze I-DTEC, which has been doing well till last year. By god's grace my car has clocked 1,10,000 kilometers recently without any accidents. Overall I love my Amaze to the core, it has been a great companion till now and i intent to take this car an another couple of lakh kilometers . I have been servicing the car from Authorized Honda service regularly. But right now i am facing a severe issue, which started around 2 years before, @ 65,000 km . One day the car showed'Check engine light' during a ride. Stopped the car for a while and when resumed it didn't show up again. Next day visited the Honda ASC, they scanned the vehicle, and informed me that they are not finding any errors. They said, Honda scanning tool can detect only those errors, which are live in the car. They cannot detect errors, which are not showing currently. They gave me a silly answer that 'the software need to be updated, and they updated it ( later i understood from another ASC that it was bullshit !!!! ). Since no problem was shown after the service, i continued to drive , just before the 80k service, it again showed. This time, the check engine light was not disappearing after a while, it was staying longer than usual. But unfortunately, again before the service, the check engine light went off. The ASC again scanned and informed me that they find some error with the fuel pump . When enquired about the solution for this, they said,the company could replace the fuel pump free of cost, as i have taken extended warranty. But they could process it only if they find this issue, while it is with them. they also suggested me to take up a video of it , next time it repeats. After this service, the 'check engine light' didn't show up for some time... but again it showed at 1lakh kilometres during a city drive, I took the video and went straight away to the ASC. This time the check engine light was visible to the service advisor also... They started working on it. The car was in the service center for 3 days. Afterwards. they gave me a call and informed me that fuel pump neednot be changed completely and only a tube needs to be changed, and they will change it under warranty. They changed it and then there was no problem till last week. Last week it showed again .This time i was frustrated and the warranty was over too and the check light is ON all time and it doesn't go off as it had previously. . Since the honda ASC guys are just used to replacing the entire part, even without making 100% sure about the problem, i decided to take my car to a friend's workshop dealing with maintenance of luxury cars such as Scoda, M Benz etc. They did a scan and revealed and showed the code as P0193 - Fuel Rail Sensor : Input Fuel pressure abnormally high. Due to the check engine light, the car has lost its pickup.it performs so badly. Can you guys suggest me a rectification. I am based in Kerala.

Hi Sajith,

Where did you get it checked initially ? Peninsular or Perfect Honda ? I don't understand why they said they don't have the error codes logged in. Once the check engine light comes ON and goes it will be logged somewhere in the ECU that can be accessed for future references. At least that's how 90% of the car manufacturer's does. I don't know whether they are just messing around here.

If it was under warranty then why didn't you insist for a fuel warranty change other than some particular part ? Did you check the price of Fuel Rail Sensor ?

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

Addition to what Vishnu bro had said ,
Always there's history section when one checks the ECU log (A friend's verna , had this check engine light on , and normal scan didn't report any issues , only the history section had a cylinder misfire , and when it was deleted , issue didnt crop up ) Cylinder misfire can be attributed to many reasons , which are minor.

 

[Amaze Vicky]

Hi All,
Its been long time since I posted here. Thought would share some info on my Amaze. Had changed my stock tires to Conti comfort 185/65 r14. The comfort has increased and better stability of the vehicle is visible. Also changed my ICE Head unit upgraded to Sony XAV 3000 with android auto and Apple car play which does a perfect job. Have done 53k with mine...

 

[vishnu vichu]

Quarantine days and guess what, it's finally show time!

I have been really really busy around and was too lazy to sit down and update the thread, I know I'm such a lazy brat and finally it's time. I will start off from where I left and I have tons of updates pending on both cars.

84K on the odo and it's time for another set of brakes pads to go in.

Skimming the stock rotors for the last time. Have skimmed them for the first set of pads and now. Will change the rotors along with pads on the next change.

Almost done.

Voila ! :D

Brake pads price has been increased by almost 1K considering the 1st set of pads. I still remember paying around 2K for the first set.

Straight back to the service centre after a long drive, Washed the car soon after the brake pad change.

Total Bill.

 

[vishnu vichu]

An Unfortunate Incident.

Was coming back to hometown after a quick visit to my native. It was around 11:30 PM and was raining cats and dogs. It was a heavy downpour and the car was fully loaded. I was wading through water at times and I started to notice smoke coming from the right rear end. Stopped and to my shock, I was driving for the past a minimum of 10 minutes with a flat tire and it heated up pretty badly and what I saw was steam and not smoke. Stopped the car. Took my air pump and inflated it. Around 25PSI, I suddenly started hearing a hissing noise and it kept on until I stopped the pump and all the air was out. Tried to locate the leak and it was on the inside edge sidewall. This was one of my biggest fear, because it was late, I'm with my family and emptying a fully loaded boot at the night in drenching rain was something next to impossible. Anyway swapped the spare tire and started back the return leg.

Something pierced through the sidewall. I remember falling into a deep pothole filled with water, but this was scary.

Taking it to the nearest tire shop the next day.

Without the Lenso's, Amaze looks really sad.

The Yoko's were almost up for a change say like around 10K life was left. So patched up the sidewall since I don't want to get a new tire at this time instead I would change all the 4 if it successfully lasts till then.

All cleaned up.

Swapping it back. No problems whatsoever until now.

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

How much has yoko served till now (KMS?)
Is yoko more prone to punctures and side wall damage in our roads (Think I have asked this question before , still do say )

 

[vishnu vichu]

How much has yoko served till now (KMS?)
Is yoko more prone to punctures and side wall damage in our roads (Think I have asked this question before , still do say )

Yoko must have done easily around 40-45K kms. Not as puncture prone as a Hankook Ventus. I've got around 3-4 punctures max in this set and only one side wall damage.

 

[vishnu vichu]

90K Service Update:

Got the front grille painted to Chocolate Brown with a descent amount of pearlescent coating. It turned out to be exceptionally good. I didn't want it to go with the same dull black that I did on my rear chrome panel. Got it changed to this shade as well.

Exact shade :

That was a huge difference comparing the chrome grille

Yum!

After seeing this, I really regret that I haven't de-chromed it for these many years!

Car in for 90K service. I never trust the SVC car wash at all. One of the best place to get you car paint scuffed royally. So I usually wash up the car before I go for a service.

Car up for the service. Just basic service. Nothing major.

Final bill amount : 4922/-

In the mean time I was able to check out this thing. The new CR-V iDtec. The new gen CR-v is powered by a 2.0 L petrol with a CVT gearbox and a 1.6 L Earth dreams engine with a 9 Speed auto box. The overall feel of the car was indeed amazing. The 9 speed gearbox was mind blowing. The downshift on the paddle shifters were spot on whereas the up shifts take around a second delay. It narrows down when you're up the rev- range. What really is a let down is the 1.6 litre engine on such a humongous car. Considering the competition this one has the smallest engine. The car outperformed my expectations from such an engine.The gearbox is what that's doing the magic. You'll never feel under powered and there is a big wave of widespread torque to play around, but yes you'll definitely miss the turbo spools of bigger cc engines. The car was brilliant around a corner and there was very minimal body roll in comparison with it's competition. Only 5 seater version on Petrol available and Diesel have a 2WD and AWD variants.
On a wrap, at 41 L on-road Kerala, Honda will be having a tough time selling these in comparison with the competition and the oomph value package they are providing. No wonder you're not seeing much of these around and only 2 of the cars have been delivered till now in Trivandrum.

 

[deville_56]

Brio grille

 

[vishnu vichu]

Brio grille

Yes, maybe with the few mods that are on the way, a brio grille might look better

 

[Vishak]

90K Service Update:

Got the front grille painted to Chocolate Brown with a descent amount of pearlescent coating. It turned out to be exceptionally good

Looks killer !
Planning to do something along similar line but on a different colour though!

 

[vishnu vichu]

Looks killer !
Planning to do something along similar line but on a different colour though!

Thank you Vishak, Always happy to see you modding your car

 

[vishnu vichu]

100,000 KM Service Update :

Finally when the magic numbers rolled in.Another one from my garage to touch the 1L mark. En-route service centre.

The car being lifted for service, Yes tires are up for a change!

Engine oil being drained

Oil Filter removed

to my surprise, there was a very slight oil leak near the oil filter. A gasket failure apparently and it was changed.

this is where the leak occurred, it was just a mere oil leak and luckily we found it on the right time.

Coolant being flushed for the first time.

Right side control arm, which was due for a replacement was finally changed. Left side was changed before. Now both control arms are as good as new !

New control arm in place

Brake pads were almost done, changed!

I might have to get new rotors for the next brake pad change. These rotors are almost done.

another twinning shot!

..and the final bill amount was 13661/-. 4K rs for labour alone!

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

Which service centre is this bro?

 

[vishnu vichu]

Which service centre is this bro?

Peninsular Honda, Kazhakootam.