Tata Safari Storme EX: Ownership Review

[ilango[speed thirst]]

XUV motor was Rs.600 but the story was same as your. Have to persuade them to cover in warranty. It took 2 hours. LOL!

Xuv 500 shares the same model.
Same motor and connector model.

I never persuade anyone ! hence i didnt go to Tata Motors to report !

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

The vehicle went for its 3rd service. Odo at 15870 kms.

Generally the 3rd service is at 20000kms or 1 year. i follow the 6k kms oil change against the manual.
For people who change their oil for diesel engine at 15k or 20k kms as per manual , a minute silence prayer for you all. Some bloke at TATA made a superficial study !

The bill was Rs5022/- which includes oil change , oil filter, Diesel prefilter , all three wiper blades.

Time taken to service this was 3 hours without the water wash. I never opt for waterwash to save my car.

Next i had a feel that a hazy kind of thing arise if I use the wiper during drizzling times. Apart from that its all clear!
Did a Nano coating myself at Home. Chemical used was proklear Nano coating from amazon.in. The result were good. The Hazy things are all gone and the windshield is super clear. However if a strong light is very near to the vehicle , i feel the light image as scattered. Same source is at distant it is perfect. Strange but not so annoying as the source of light need to be very near to the windshield.


As I type this , I have got a very minute suspension noise like the one we used to hear in a leafspring overloaded bus. Its very minute noise and stops for a day if I do a underbody water wash.

Didnt mention this at the 3rd service as i dont want them to mess my car !!!

In 2 weeks, vehicle will be completing its first year ON ROAD.
Insurance was renewed 3 days back costing 32000/-

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Its one year with this fella today!
Enjoying! ..

3 free services over. 16900odo now.

 

[Iron Rock]

Ilango, never too late, but congratulations firstly, looks like i missed your party!
You paranoia with tata service is very understandable :)

17k in an year is awesome and i agree with your oil theory, it starts deteriorating after 7-8k - i usually change in my case at 10k as am on synthetic and its freaking expensive.

will be regular on the thread from here, have plenty of safe miles!

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Thank you "IRON ROCK"

A brief not so good update.
During a reverse , i hit a tree branch and the rear windshield broke. The tree was far away but the branch had taken a U turn at the top and drown downwards and some one had cut it. covered over by leaves.

Since it hit the edge the glass cracked instantly. also causing dent.
Glass was not at stock in service center. Left the vehicle at Monday evening and took delivery at Saturday.
I had a urgent trip of 200 kms and it was done on Monday morning with the broken glass!
It seems it will hold up for many more kms.
Paint work is OK, But the Body shop here just has the paintbooth as a special equipment. They didnt have even a puller and it was done is exact same way how a local tinker would amend them. Negative points for not having proper tools at this modern age in TASS . However the end result is OK.

As you see the dent is small and a puller will help to almost normal shape and then a paste work will solve the dent. BUT TASS made a small hole at side to push the dent from backward. welding / cutting all the process was done. Being in a company that deal with body shop equipment too & previous experience in body shop garage - i never agree this process at authorized service level. Last pic is after the job completion.

The interior was horrible with dust and they cleaned it up with a worst polish making it sticky and even worse. I spent about 2 hours to make it okish. Still the polish is greasy at some places. Terrible cleaning job.

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

After about 6 month a brief update on the beast!

First the good part , then the bad experience with the vehicle due to manufacturing fault and inturn that was made worst by TASS.

I know many would be interested to read that first! In one sentence - Customer is taken lightly atleast in My country. Manufacturer forget that business means customers who pay --- rear PAY their money to buy their product since they had/have faith

Car is at 30240Kms as of today.
Have did a Pondicherry Rajasthan trip of 5600km in total and in each fill the fuel efficiency was 15.xx , only once it was 14.5 and same way only one was 17.8. Astonishingly the 17.8 was pune Mumbai stretch!!

Since this was considered as LOOOONG trip , nothing else within the state and neighboring state is considered Lol

all the 30240 Kms , the car was fun to drive.
No mods or whatso ever is done . changed only the oil at 25400 kms with shell CI 4 15w 40. This was not done in TASS and oil filter was not changed.



Ok the interesting part that many waited!
1. On the sierra group some asked the engine bay pic and that time i found an oil seepage near the exhaust manifold start. It was so minute that it looked just a mark from previous service. Cleaned that area and in about 200 kms found very very minute thing in that area and that seems oil!!!!

informed TASS and left at garage.
Each day they would say they are checking with TATA person .. The TATA person seems deaf and dumb . after 7 days they gave the car back after their test.
oil was not reduced . No loss in pick up or behavior of car. Turbo was certified normal at this point by check up. They asked to drive more to find the leak ! meanwhile they get TATA directions.

it went to 2 weeks and no answer from them. I left the safari again to TASS at this point and asked them to give back with the correction and not lame reasons.
2 weeks past again and same answer. Twitter and FB with mails to ids found on internet had helped. They had pressurised TASS to solve.. so that means their deaf and dumb tata employee was not questioned or asked or whatever .

I had clearly given them again in writing it seems engine problem and need new engine or any repair work only at tata plant and not at their TASS. i'll take to PUNE at my cost and still no reply from any one the " customer support" or any support.

atlast they concluded the problem with the 2nd thing that i said. A month before ( yest 1 month has run , read again ) i has said this seems turbo or valve problem in head.

they accepted the valve problem and new head was ordered. I was keen on getting complete new head atleast if not new engine and not to be repaired locally by lathe job. Solution can be local lathe job with new valve and stem seal. I didnt buy this car brand new to do local job.

again after 2 weeks head arrived and in 2 days the vehicle was returned ! Drives smoothly.

did this get over . NO many more to continue . till then enjoy some pictures.

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

The engine oil leak ( cant called a leak but a minute seepage ) which could turned a disaster by the time end of warranty was solved with new head.
so oil leak / seepage is not found and the car was returned and driving smoothly.
i cleaned the engine bay myself and also pointed out few more oil stains in block side which they said it must have come during fixing and I cleaned it myself.


Good thing was after the escalation noise , my car was parked inside the floor neatly wrapped and covered by plastic sheet fully. I has questioned them about keeping windows open dust collected in one month etc. this was done from 2nd week and for next 2 weeks

Next power steering hose was always wet ! reservoir was overfull from delivery but didnt leak. they suspect the cap and hence cap was replaced from test drive vehicle and kept for observation. Over filled oil was also removed.

again the reservoir was wet and complete set was ordered and when it landed in 3 days i left to TASS and it was change.

Not again -- read further !


On a routine inspection i found rear shock was leaking. It was about 21000kms and again same thing. spares came in 5 days and 6th day It was replaced.
I said if by your policy say to change only one , i'll pay for the other . TASS changed both the rear shocks in FOC . Good gesture by TASS to a humble mad me hahaha.


Leaking stops ! Not again.. Same way near about 27000 kms i found fresh oil stains in rear part of gear box.
Again to TASS gear box removed and completely cleaned and they said gear box is fine and so it the gear box oil.
It is said to be old engine oil stains and the under body ( engine and GB only) was petrol washed and given and everything was spic and span !

During the routine check(28700kms) again near the same spot of the gear box oil stains were found and taken to TASS and they said they will look on and since the GB oil was not reduced nothing to worry and kept driving as i needed the vehicle. after a week i left to TASS and they decided to change input shaft seal as they suspected it strongly.
After mid of the day they call that shaft seal is OK and it was some packing . they changed that returned the car.

Hope so all the leakage / seepage is stopped at least from now on.
Also i am planning to go for extended warranty for next 2 years


If you read again you will find all these can even by termed minor and comfortable if TASS and TATA ppl though from customer side. why do you investigate on the leaking engine instead of giving me a new engine and take the old engine to your study.! Did i pay for your research work ?

Engine head replacement could have done in a weeks time instead of 6 weeks time if they had though and executed from customer perspective.
other spares i consider it as a delay , though power-steering hose , shocks dont move regularly they must be stocked in the TASS. all these took 3 to 6 days time to arrive .


yesterday cleaned the whole underbody and still the vehicle is in observation mode. LOL . hops so no.








All these things flow away when you are back to driver seat.
Recently colleagues and myself went for a hills drive 900 kms and the spirited driving gave 12kmpl. and every one were first time in a safari. all uniformly accepted the comfort and 2 ppl who regularly travel in innova said its better than innova in comfort. No offence innova owners. our company has 2 innova and still the old innova is good at comfort than the new. also for its durability . it stand as 4lak kms and the power windows work as day 1 and nothing changed in that.

recently did a water wash and UV wax with 3M.
THe job done was so good. They cleaned each and every corner of the vehicle so good. Wheels were sparking. the cost was 1505/- .
Vehicle has some water spots which is visible only if we wipe with damp cloth. need to polish and wax sooner. May be on completing 2 years on November!

speed is masked well in this vehicle. However rear window has wind noise above 90kmph which has increased a bit over the last 10000 kms. Audible feebly only to rear passengers.

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Sunday drive of 380 kms , with a slight heavy foot drank up about half a tank of fuel.
Roughly about 12 to 13 Kmpl. Not bad

I dont have FE meter - No MID

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Update 1st oct.

On routine check I found good amount of oil trace bottom of the gearbox bell house.
Irritated , and next day being sunday left the vehicle at the dealer.

Parallel , our member Varun also felt bad and he mentioned this to some one at TATA. Got a call with the the dealers GM on line. the so called TATA person was a funny man.

he said he was responsible for a area and additional support spl for Safari. (Biggest JOKE)
He was defending his company as if i was planning to file a consumer case on him. utterly idiotic behavior at middle of sunday noon.

Clearly mentioning him that i am vexed of this vehicle showing leakage sign again and again and they cooly keep saying reason after reason instead of either replace car / engine/ gear box . nothing was replaced. just promises of checking and correcting fault .


Monday the gearbox was removed and its said there is no leak anywhere. I was called for inspection myself. Checked in and out there is no leakage. OK if so where the oil came from?

Dealer Logic. There is a drain hole in head. If it was cleaned old oil stains may have washed out and the drain hole is above this bell house. The leakage area that i show is not complete oil. its mix of something else too.

The logic seems acceptable since 1 month back of this episode, i cleaned the entire engine head etc with APC and pressure washed them.


So now i have below two option to accept.
1. the dealer logic is correct.
2. the leak was sealed before i was called for inspection and acted as there is no leak anywhere ( coz previous gearbox oil seal repair work error if any )


All the times the performance of the vehicle was same. Yet to inspect the vehicle underbody after the service.

Since it was already time , did the 4th free service with them.
cost was 4965/-
Oil and oil filter was billed.
Airfilter need not replace as i replaced it 2 months back.
coolant was not replaced as it was OK . it was running on new coolant since head replacement. approx the new coolant has run 14k Kms and 9 Months old.
Brake oil was not replaced as it is said to be OK by them though i insisted to replace because of age.
AC belt was also not replaced citing the same reason.
Doors were lubricated by me with good amount of WD40 and slightest grease.

ODO during service was 33960Kms, Age of the vehicle is 20 Months. 4 services done.

 

[bhvm]

Update 1st oct.

On routine check I found good amount of oil trace bottom of the gearbox bell house.
Irritated , and next day being sunday left the vehicle at the dealer.

.

Well,
I am also seeing trace of oil at the bottom of gear bell housing. Its not much. Does not drip on the ground. But entire bell housing appears blackish wet & Sticky. Total quantity might be just a few drops.

I asked TASC to check this. Found nothing. He just tightened the drain plug.
So far I have been asking them to check gear oil level at each service (have done 3, quite closely spaced). No dip in oil level so its good.

I need more info on this theory that there is some drain stuff on top of GB. I need to check it myself.

http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...-blue-elephant-my-safari-4x4-review-mods.html

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Check the underneath asap. Stitch in time saves nine. But another saying " why touch it when its not yet broken" esp for Tata's Lol

BTW , update is I check the vehicle underbody after 20 days , 991 Kms to be precise.
same oil strain and i felt it was fresh. Also oil film near the oil filter.

This time i found the oil filter was changed design. Earlier it was long. Now its small & it was also mentioned in the Invoice as , oil filter storme small new.

SA and Manager were cluless and requested one day to inspect. No idea why was it not done last time. May be they believed their own logic ? Or is it really old stains unwashed.

Asked them to wash it properly . Manager himself instructed the washing guys the areas. Washing guys asked the gear box location numerous times to me also to the manager. Based on their IQ during that time I feel they never touched that area with that care previously.

Tata approved and supplied soap solution sprayed. rinsed with plastic brush. Again sprayed and pressure washed. they did all these without removing the underbody cover stating that not required. Bending the plastic cover and deforming it.

: Front underbody cover in metal is already rusted and in its verge of breaking.

Next day i was geared with tools to open up the underbody covers. Surprised to find the previous day cleaning to be REALLY clean . haha.

50 kms done after washing. and odo is 35050 today and vehicle still in observation mode.


All i can say is Thank you TATA in keeping me so engaged with the vehicle.


Those planning to buy TATA - Buy only if ................ ( we have about 7 Tata vehicle in total and 3 are currently with us)
a. You are mechanically strong
b. You dont bother about silly production mistakes or quality mistakes.
c. You have patience to visit TASS and allow them to open the car numerous times even when the vehicle is just 10k kms old.
d.as a second car in budget ( tiago tigor etc) if you have another car to chauffeur you around if this in service.

TASS is full of innovative engineer who thinks they are saving you money ( for old vehicles) and of course lazy regional support. street support , area support all sort of support who just blow their horn in phone and nothing works out other than mental pressure haha.

If anything fails , once its ok to open up and check preliminary . But these guys with engineering marvel will do research at our cost .

Alternative is , But tata and forget TASS & WTY.
Spares available and fix out ourself with peace of mind.

35000 kms , lot of roads and memories .. and in each beautiful memory with the vehicle there is a small hic of the leaks that i am facing this year ! Hope so it is over after this cleaning.

 

[Nanofreak]

Congrats ilango,

Although very late to your party, written that is, have been following your thread though.

Have bought a first time diesel, story as under, do you recommend oil and filter change@6k km, for this? have completed 2k km.

http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...anta-bulous-etna-orange-tata-nexon-xma-d.html

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Thanks & Congrats and happy motoring with nexon.

Yes follow early oil change. You can change them in TASS.
Also ask them to inspect the complete powertrain and do keep a watch.
DO not run excess of 10k kms without oil changes. keep 10K kms as the worst limit.

 

[Nanofreak]

Thanks & Congrats and happy motoring with nexon.

Yes follow early oil change. You can change them in TASS.
Also ask them to inspect the complete powertrain and do keep a watch.
DO not run excess of 10k kms without oil changes. keep 10K kms as the worst limit.

Thanks for your heads up, will surely follow your advice.

 

[ilango[speed thirst]]

Update
35270Kms after "observation mode" seems dry !

Have shifted back to lowest possible seating position from last week. The change in seating position is somewhat different and i am slowly starting to enjoy that. !

May be in a couple of months may visit the 3M stores to have a shining body to remove the watermarks which is visible only to peculiar eyes lol.
Quoted about 6900 and some 10% discount is applicable.

In about 2 weeks the car will turn 2.