Hey guys...I am back to post my first impressions et al!
After driving close to 100kms I decided to get some preliminary checks and all the oils changed. I headed to Swami's garage off the Kmangla 100 feet road. Started from home (Sahakar nagar ) at around 10am and reached the garage, some 25-30kms away, at around 11am via outer ring road which as usual wasnt as free as Id like. Then, as I reached the garage saw some 1940's CJ 640 (as written on the dash badge) getting some work done on the radiator. Spoke to the owner who promptly informs me that it is a govt provided vehicle to maintain road side transformers. The dude was a nepali so got chatting with him about naxals and current napali situation etc for a bit.
Swami assigns a friendly kid called Sunil at task, he quick sneaks under my jeep and starts draining all the oils- engine oil, gbox oil, front and the rear diffs. I had already picked up 6l of Shell Rimula for the engine and castrol gear oil 140 grade. The engine drank almost 6L and the rest drank close to 6 & 1/2. Man, these mechanicals are such thirsty for oil but so harsh in their ishtyle, makes me wonder if there is any corelation at all...hehe!!! BTW, the engine oil was in pretty good state but the rest looked nasty, glad I got em all changed. It feels relatively smoother now but not too much.
After a fill up job and re torquing of drain bolts I requested Swami to have a look at the rest of the things, he checked the air filter, steering joint, power break fluid and the rest and said Im good to go. Im gonna have to go back to him some time this week to get the exhaust back to stock state, this one wont do.
I also got my 4x4 L lever loosened up a bit as it was fairly jammed. Didnt get a chance to test its movement as I was driving on tarmac continuously after I left form the garage till I reached home an hour or so back. I am asked to move the lever with some force the next few times to help it loosen up further.
I drove all the way to HSR layout to another garage where a clpse friend of mine was getting his '01 vtec serviced (now for sale). We decided to gobble some mutton biryani at moghul garden and split. I drove all the way from there back home... with rains and and all woah what a journey
Now the good and the 'live with it' parts of this Jeep as per me;
Goods;
1. Crazy torque, takes off in any gear!!! 3rd gear is good to move from stationary...amazing!!!
2. Object of admiration for the onlookers with subtle smiles and HIs coming my way every so often. Hehe, makes me smile back so many times, hehe.
3. Cops almost ignore you each time when they are set to catch the drunks and the not so drunk... They just pretend oblivious to the jeepers presence I guess as informed by so many already.
4. AWESOME FE, looks like Im getting atleast 14-15kmpl, that is respectable for a 23yr old diesel
5. Great braking, big booster power.
Now the 'Live with it' bit;
1. Vibrations variety of noises- grinding and whining and straining galore...coming from slick, low slung street tuner cars where only the exhaust note is to reckon with this feels like tractor. LOL. But I am told my Jeep is far smoother than so many out there so I guess it just needs getting used to. Second opinions should help though...
2. Heat: engine bay heat sneaking into the driver cabin plus the plastic soft top is an absolutely NO NO in this season. Everything gets HOT...and with no AC or fan- its a furnace in 10mins during noons. Wondering how to help my self here. Firewall looks fine but too much heat entering the cockpit
![Frustration](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Frustration.gif)
3. Mild leakages: water trickling in from the the center of the wind shield, soft top etc. I gotta search each of the those lil holes and araldite em. Already got 2 tubes...hehe!
4. Rust spots here and there...gotta get em all touched up soon.
5. Top speed only 80kmph with these bigger tyres, noise gets too violent post 80
So far so good, wil keep you all posted, lot more to come. Planning a private OTR at some friends farm
@Khan Sultan: Yes this is the same Jeep the mech was asking me to transplant a MDI into. I was referring to Shekhar, so sorry I meant "respected Jeepers in Karnataka not India, pardon my typo". BTW, I heard him say that he has a different set of jeepers that he OTRs with these days, though a bit rarely due to time constraint. Just 5-8 Jeeps each time to seriously hostile terrain...