My Red Highway King: Mahindra XUV500 W8 Ownership Review

[mayankdixit]

Air Filter (of Engine compartment)Replacement in my XUV.

In the last oil and filter change, I missed changing the engine air filter. XUV has a wet type air filter. It's very messy as well "not-easy" type of job,if one wants thorough cleanliness ie. It has been very cold these last few days in my city,with temperatures dropping to a low of just 2 degrees.I somehow pulled myself up,promising to finish this job in an hour(yes an hour it takes).Its not a straightforward job like in Nexon or any other car I have had so far,where you have to just pull out and put in a new one,in under 15 min . In XUV the whole air filter compartment is all sticky and messed up with this glue like sticky substance. And it can't be cleaned by just wiping it with a cloth.That would have been easy,I tell you. Washing with water is out of question. So kerosene oil comes to the rescue. But it takes lot of time and patience,cleaning all the nooks and crannies of the filter compartment with sunlight fading away at 3pm itself. And the coldness all creeping up around me. I don't like working in this weather,with so much cold and no sunlight.Too many clothes on me hamper my easy movement and my bending and flexibility is decreased. Plus the good clothes get soiled if not careful.
All fingers turned black because of dirt + oil and glue used in the filter. I totally dislike wet type filtre,and dry type is so much more convenient and reusable after cleaning .

Some pics of the DIY

Air intake going into turbo

muck on the old filter

this is after cleaning the air filter base.Before cleaning it was very dirty and covered with mud and leaves etc.

its SOGEFI-MNR brand

air intake mass airflow sensor.

dirt and mucky old filter

new one is pricey

tools for the job

new and old compared

tools for the job

While the recommendation is 40,000 looong kms, I rarely wait for that long, and replace it earlier for the peace of mind. According to them I should never have had a single replacement so far in the ownership!!
Lets see how long this one will last?

 

[Nanofreak]

What a clean job, Doctor, like a good surgeon performing surgery.
Well done.
This oil soaked air filter is a very old technology? I remember seeing Ed China doing this(as detailed as you did) in one of Wheeler Dealer episodes in a 60's/70's car.

 

[Driveright]

Probably u can soak the old filter in kerosene to remove the dirt and reuse the same after spraying a fine mist of fresh engine oil on the filter every 5000kms for squeezing out more life from them

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

I don't agree to that , these kinds of filter are designed for one time use .

 

[bhvm]

Interesting discussion fellas.
Yes the Air Filter job in XUV is quite messy. They should learn something from my i10. 2 clips and its out.

The filter is oil bath. I think that helps it breathe better whilst lasting very long. No wonder K & N filters are also oil bath. The oil traps dust molecules far more effectively rather than paper which relies on restriction (smaller pores) to capture dust. I can feel the turbo Kick (breathe) far better in XUV compared to my Safari (Paper filter) although there are many more variables. This also gives it long Service interval. Although I think Mahindra's 40K recommendations is a bit ridiculous. I always changed it around 20k to 25k.

Earlier on in 2013, Mahindra used to blast compressed air to clean the filter at every 10k service. Now they dont touch filters anymore. Just replace.
Change in policy? Laziness? I dont know. But you can air them out.

About cleaning them with diesel and re-oiling. Thats a nice Sunday experiment. But I don't think it will be worth the hassle.

 

[mayankdixit]

I don't agree to that , these kinds of filter are designed for one time use .

Although I have done this in my bajaj discover filter,but its recommended to do this in the owner's manual.Clean by kerosene and reapply oil.

Probably u can soak the old filter in kerosene to remove the dirt and reuse the same after spraying a fine mist of fresh engine oil on the filter every 5000kms for squeezing out more life from them

Might work but ,Never ever recommended. I totally agree with VISHNUCARCRAZY here. I will relate a small but true story here.

Few years back I was in the Mahindra service center for my 4th service, standing beside my XUV, with bonnet opened up and being worked upon. Suddenly one Swamiji along with his 3 chelas in all orange attire and the paraphernalia, entered the service bay. It felt very odd, because I never expected them there and expected them to be detached from worldly matters and XUV and service and all. All the senior managers instantly rushed to them and pacified them to their satisfaction.
On enquiring from my SA I came to know that black XUV standing on the post just beside mine belongs to swamiji only. What happened,I asked ? I was told this story:
Swamiji asked his chelas to do the service at the ashram itself. Chelas took out the air filter,washed it thoroughly in petrol and wrung it properly. Lots of dirtiness must have come out of the filter along with all the important OEM oil from the filter which was not supposed to be removed in the first place. Then they put it back thinking all is shiny and clean. On starting the car the RPM shot up to 3000 and then to 4000 straight away. It kept on redlining without any accelerator input for quite some time. The Chelas couldn't understand what all was happening, and kept waiting for the RPM to come down, which it never did. Ultimately the engine compartment burst into flames!!
I ran to the black XUV and peered inside the engine bay and truly every plastic and rubber part was burnt badly. Swamiji had come to the service bay to personally see that work is progressing. He wanted timeline for the complete rebuild. Quite a costly and dumb way,if you ask me, to clean and wash the air filter at home.
I got scared to no limits. Will I do it to save time or money? No never ever,in thousand years!


On hindsight I Think this looks like diesel engine runaway.Or maybe petrol cleaned all the oil and resistance to air(which should be there by design) came down to zero,and therefore the RPM shot up.Or maybe petrol itself being inflammable caught fire somehow,because battery and sparks are nearby.God and maybe swamiji only knows what went wrong!!

 

[bhvm]

You guessed it right. It was a runaway. The problem I forsee is that chelas used PETROL to clean Filter. Now petrol gives fumes. Which are combustible. You can check project farm YouTube channel where he runs engines using fumes.

So the fumes were good enough to keep feeding XUV engine. Causing runaway. Over RPM and overheating.
I'm sure chelas didn't know how to handle a runaway either.

This is why DIESEL is recommended to clean stuff. It's safer and does not burn as easily.

I would personally even avoid K&N filters. As I've heard oil deposits getting sucked into Turbo due to over use of oiling. Just get the original one.

 

[VISHNUCARCRAZY]

Honda Activa's filter also comes with this kind of oil coat , and recommended replacement (Company fellas don't know ) , but I change every 5k-10k km interval (When even after dusting out with compressed air , if the dust doesn't go off , or I can feel that filter is completely dry off oil) .

 

[mayankdixit]

Finally My XUV got Fastagged!


I went to the nearest toll plaza for it where Airtell people were sitting and helping for Fastag applications

So the 8th year of ownership starts!! Look at the dates.This one is from right headlight .

I feel its same as the day I got it!

I Look at the stickers and I feel Nostalgia.None of them have come out despite repeated washes.

Clear cut dates written on the stickers make me feel good.

Simple stickers + Good lovable car = Unlimited Happiness

Old stickers still doing their job + old car still running as new = Unlimited Joy and Super contentment

 

[bhvm]

Doc, Congrats for the medal-
TAI-gers Awarded Through Medal System

And congrats for the Fast Tag.

 

[mayankdixit]

Doc, Congrats for the medal-
TAI-gers Awarded Through Medal System

Thank you very much.I went through it,and it was very pleasing to see!
Thanks to motivators like you who keep my spirits up and up always!!
And congrats to you too,for again getting the TAIger at heart medal!

 

[mayankdixit]

I am planning to blacken the front grille. How will it look, I am apprehensive.

 

[Driveright]

congratulation TAI-ger at heart ! the black will not be as impressive as the vehicle is in a darker shade already . Try matt black peel paint instead of glossy if you want to still try .If your not satisfied at lest the paint can be peeled off

 

[mayankdixit]

congratulation TAI-ger at heart ! the black will not be as impressive as the vehicle is in a darker shade already . Try matt black peel paint instead of glossy if you want to still try .If your not satisfied at lest the paint can be peeled off

Thanks for the tip.Will see what can I do.Good thing about peel paint is that If I feel uncomfortable with the modification I can reverse it.
And congrats for this @Driveright: The Automotive Samaritan

 

[deville_56]

Plastidip has something called metallizer, which gives it great anthracite like finish.