[Sai Teja]

Hi guys, this is Sai Teja here, posting for the first time on this platform. To give you guys a bit of my background, I am a recent graduate of Automobile Engineering(B.Tech) from a so called "esteemed institute" in Chennai. Sorry, just couldn't hold myself from taking a few potshots at them. So, speaking about the relevant things, we own i.e not me but my father, a 2006 Hero Honda Passion plus and a 2017 Baleno delta. Obviously not an exciting garage, but I hope that it doesn't matter as what makes us be here is our love for these machines and the excitement they give us, whatever the size and segment they belong to.


The story of my internship dates back to December 2021. It was a requirement by our institute's curriculum to have worked in a real environment for 15 days and produce a legitimate certificate as a proof of that. So, me and my friend Bunty (not keeping him anonymous, we actually call him that way) got a bit over-enthusiastic and decided to work for 30 days. The time of November in 2021, not being too far away from the then recent lifting up of covid lockdown, made many service centers reluctant to allow us be a part of their setup. One might wonder why we weren't trying to get into something like a genuine manufacturing plant. The limitations of our location in Andhra Pradesh and heavy restrictions imposed during those days forbid us from being a trainee at any genuine manufacturing facility. At last we ended up at a NEXA showroom situated alongside the Kolkata-Chennai highway in the outskirts of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, and there begins our Internship, a very fancy word for what we were going to do in the upcoming month- sweat all day long, smelling the obnoxiuos diesel and it's fumes along with the scent of petrol at times and return home with greasy and oily clothes. I still wonder sometimes that Internship was too fancy a word for the work we have done, but nevertheless it helped get a few cars back on the road.

On the very first day, me and bunty were assigned to work under two technicians. Both of those technicians were young, under 30 but they have been doing this work for the past 11-12 years each. The first job which I assisted on was the replacement of the steering rack on a 2016 Baleno. The early Baleno's did have a problem with the power steering system, which we ourselves have encountered with our 2017 model. However, I don't remember Maruti Suzuki issuing any recall but the service centers were surprisingly willing to change the racks when any issue with them was noticed and that too for free of cost. The issue of this power steering involved a noticeably heavier steering and squeaky noises from column at times. The noises could often be mistaken for poorly assembled interiors of the marutis, but the weight of the steering makes the driver to pin point the issue. So when I asked for a bit of detailing regarding this issue which we ourselves have been plagued with, the technician informed me that the assist motor was at times delivering bit too much torque to the rack, which grinded the gears on the rack and the advisable fix was to replace the rack (advised by MS india). After the disassembly of the older rack from the car, I tried to get a look of the older rack but it wasn't visible as it was well shielded and wasn't easy to break apart either. The new rack was fitted and the car was now good to go.

The most pathetic thing that I noticed there was the theft of petrol. When we arrived there, only one of the ten technicians was doing that. Unfortunately, I caught him doing that on the second day, only to watch him do so for the next one month unable to complain due to my inferior role and the begging we had to do to get to work there. So on that day I simply asked him how was he doing it, to which he replied something like only he had managed to do it pretending to be a genius, but he didn't explain what he was exactly doing. I always thought that the fuel injected systems are comparatively tougher to steal from as it would involve tampering with some electric circuits. Still curious (with no other intentions), me and my friend went to the technicians we were assigned to ask about how he managed that, thinking it was a common practice for them for to steal some. And to our surprise no one else knew about how to do it or how we was managing after all. We later came to know that he never took no more than a litre of fuel as it barely corresponds to any change in the indication and in the case that if there is any and the customer is vigilant enough to notice it, he would simply say that those were idling losses.

So, the question we asked our technician didn't create any ruckus, but everyone got to know the trick and now all were stealing in mass. And we stand guilty for for this misadventure of this unjustified curiosity. Here's how it is done, so save yourselves (only for suzuki built vehicles) - the fuse box underneath the hood situated adjacent to the battery and in close proximity to the left upper strut mounting, has an array of fuses among which one of them belongs to the fuel pump. This fuse would be removed and by-passed through some small wires when in ignition off condition. After the wires were put into terminals of the fuse, the fuel line form the low pressure pump to the high pressure pump was disconnected and was put into a bottle. When the ignition is turned on the fuel just rushed into the bottle and in no time filled it up. The Open spaces in the engine bay due to the smaller engines enable for a relative ease of stealing, especially the Suzuki cars that have K12M units (baleno, swift etc) and the 1.5L brezza, S-cross, ertiga and XL6, the open spaces in engine bays allow to place a one gallon engine oil container exactly beneath the fuel line. The only car that was packed completely underneath the hood was the S-cross 1.6, which even by then was discontinued from production, and it was indeed a nightmare to work upon with very spaces even for the wrenches. My level of detailing may cause this post not to make it up to guys, but anyways I decided to share so atleast you can take a few measures of your own to prevent this. The theft of fuel was finally caught when on the penultimate day of our internship, an S-cross entered with nearly a full tank of petrol, which due to a few scheduling issues was passed on to work on among 3 technicians. The things that unfolded that day are quite funny. So the first guy works on the brakes, replaces engine oil and steals one litre of fuel, the second guy replaces cabin air filter, engine air filter and the wipers and steals another litre of petrol, while the last one worked the battery, terminals and audaciously stole 2 and a half litres of petrol. We on the other side who were watching all of this unfold, were thinking of what to tell them, whether to say that this one's quota is over or steal less!! That's too much. However, as it was the penultimate day we stood there helpless in embarrassment. And the next day the customer noticed quite a dip in the gauge and "boom" there came the crackdown from the management. I hope that it has stopped since then, but I may never know.

This was just a brief part of my whole month of internship, which I thought would provide a few insights in how measured you should be with the service centers. Although the others stories of my internship don't have anything to do with such malpractices and could be informative to some of you, I will stop it here. I look forward to any constructive criticism and valuable feedback on my writing and opinions on whether I should write about my other experiences too

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Sai Teja

This was just a brief part of my whole month of internship, which I thought would provide a few insights in how measured you should be with the service centers.

I wish I could thank this post more than once!

It's simply awesome that you got to actually work on vehicles, unlike the majority of us on this forum who basically google, or watch mechanics work on our vehicles and then give gyaan on the forum.

And thank you for sharing the experience of petrol theft at service centers. Sad that this happens, I guess one of the manifestations of labour- the people who do the actual work- being paid so badly in our country.

Hope Maruti takes note and cracks down across service centers.

Again, awesome first post! Thanks for sharing.

[shankar.balan]

Well done! Great post with high quality info.
The mind boggles just to imagine what sort of example is being set at these dealerships to fresh young smart engineering interns like you all. Thankfully you youngsters are if good character, well grounded and well brought up and you have a good sense of right and wrong.

[PearlJam]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

I really thought that stealing of fuel was a thing of the past. Just like stealing of footwear from outside public places have by and large stopped due to relatively better economic conditions.

BTW, you have a nice and unique way of writing, from the heart, that keeps the readers engrossed

[MC@1986]

Appreciate your interest to choose joining a dealership to learn some technical stuff. During our Engineering days, we used to visit a TVS service center voluntarily to understand the repair process. Hope you find yourself in an Automotive Company (assume you are already working in one of those).

All the best buddy. Cheers.

[chandrda]

Long back, I always used to keep petrol at a minimum level before giving the vehicle for service in MASS. When I switched to other brands, completely forgot about this practice as it was not so prevalent in other brands.

I haven't had a Maruti for sometime now, but my friends who own Marutis keep complaining even now about petrol theft when their cars go for service. I used to wonder how the mechanics manage to steal in between the tight turnaround of cars being serviced. How can they manage to open something without any one noticing.

Thanks to your post, a lot of my doubts are now cleared and I will inform my friends and ask to them to put a tamper proof tape on the fuse box.

Regards

[srvm]

Thanks for the wonderful, eyeopener of a post

I suspect this happens not just in Maruti ASS but in most service centers. People with dubious integrity exist everywhere.

But I cannot contain myself from this remark:
So for 6 months/12 months period, it is 'Kitna deti hain?' for Maruti owners.
And during the regular service, it is 'Kitna lete hain?'

[pritanshchandra]

Great Post, I am currently conducting Internal Audit of MG Dealers Pan India with my team. Dealership(&Service Centre) Business is very nasty, a lot of ways to cheat customers and the company (MG India in this case), much more than we can imagine or have come across. Being Vigilant is extremely crucial in today's times.

[poised2drive]

Hello & welcome !

It is always great to see someone from your city on the Tbhp!

And I think your flair for writing is wonderful , though you could break up the story into smaller and more number of paragraphs for ease of reading.

On your experience of getting your hands dirty in a Workshop is almost a dream for many Bhpians (not for me, though ).

I always felt the Service industry in India lacks professionalism and instances like these only reinforce those feelings !

[Spaced Out]

Originally Posted by Sai Teja

This was just a brief part of my whole month of internship, which I thought would provide a few insights in how measured you should be with the service centers. Although the others stories of my internship don't have anything to do with such malpractices and could be informative to some of you, I will stop it here. I look forward to any constructive criticism and valuable feedback on my writing and opinions on whether I should write about my other experiences too

Thank you for this post. Your writing style is welcome. Its like a buddy narrating an incident over a drink. Welcome more posts.

I am not surprised at the theft. Strongly recommend fellow members to take time out and get the car serviced under supervision.

At the last service, I saw a Honda Amaze that had come in with leaked engine oil. The technicians were busy with other cars and did not notice that the cleaning staff - who were busy machine cleaning the floor - took it upon themselves to move the car around so they could clean under it.

The floor in-charge only noticed when they were moving it back into its place (after having turned on the AC as well) and started yelling at them. Felt terrible for the poor owner whose car was seeing some serious rough usage and glad that I took the pain to stay through my servicing.


The trade off is that I never get the car cleaned up by them in order to shorten the time spent in the service center.

[saitvsk23]

I can relate to this thread more than ever.

I recently graduated my bachelors in Automobile Engineering from a reputed "deemed to be university" in Andhra Pradesh, and shortly will be leaving to the USA for pursuing my masters in Automotive and Mobility Systems Engineering.

I did my internship from a reputed Mercedes Benz Customer Service Centre here in Hyderabad. I had joined them in Jan 2023 and ended my internship in May 2023, as the minimum time stipulated by my University Regulation was 4 months or 120 days. The dealership has been flawlessly operating here since the last 8 odd years. I have had a wonderful time working with the technicians over there. They possess a wonderful skill that allowed the company to use them efficiently. I had interacted with many maintenance technicians, diagnostic technicians, and systems technicians. Many of them were filled to the brim with extensive knowledge of these Benz cars, as a result of their extensive and exhaustive training at MB Pune and GEC (Government Engineering College) Barton Hill.

I had zero mechanical experience because of the covid lockdown, and had only theory knowledge by watching YouTube videos. I had wantedly opted to work as a Technical Trainee under a certified technician. I had basically learnt how to perform A and B-Type services on these Benz cars. I had experienced almost all the types : A, B, C, E, S and G Class Vehicles. Even the V-Class vans too. I got to work on a C300, LWB S-Class Sedans, and at times would be allotted to work on GLE's or GLS's. A few GLA's, GLB's and GLC's here and there. Tons of C-class and E-Class Sedans. This being Hyderabad, the big SUV's were very common to spot in the workshop. I got to experience, diagnose and service these luxury cars. I never even had a random thought that I would be seated inside a Benz one day😂.

I am still very, very thankful for all the people who have helped me have a good time at that dealership, mostly by my guiding technician. He was almost like an elder brother to me, and helped me understand the processes and procedures to be followed while servicing a car.

While temporarily working under a systems technician, I really understood what a Benz is truly made of. Modules. Lots and lots of control modules. Perhaps this is not a new thing for everyone to know, as everyone here knows that these individual modules are the backbone for Luxury German Cars. I had a great time learning how to diagnose these modules using their XENTRY Diagnostic tab. This is just pure automotive magic. Generally resetting these would help lose the error, but if not then a replacement would be ordered. Their own logistics system, which is used to haul parts from all corners of the world is just flawless. Literally flawless. Any running (currently produced) part you order, you would get it within 10-20 days. No excuses like "saar there is backorder on parts we cannot source it, sorry saar". We once had a 240D from the early 1980's brought to our dealership for a routine service. It took them under 1 month to order consumables like air filters and other filters. There were days when we handled parts which were sourced from Mexico, Spain, France, Japan too at times.

I had got to experience all kinds of their infotainment systems, MBUX being the latest. the MBUX wasn't my cup of tea though. The previous infotainment system was flawless. Apple CarPlay was amazing. I didn't know about Android Auto as me and my technician, both of us had iPhones to test them. Wireless charging was good too. The Burmester speaker setup with Surround Sound enabled on the higher models (occasionally E-Class and mostly S-class) was just harmony to the ears. Instrumental tracks felt like concerts.

This one being a Mercedes dealership, it has strict work quality control levels.
Any kind of shoddy jobs are not accepted at all. No last drop of any fluid is wasted. Be it fuel, engine oil, transmission oil, brake fluid and coolant. Fuel is never touched. Infact if the fuel is critically low, there were cases where fuel was filled and the customer was billed accordingly. All the useful fluids are carefully collected and stored. The burnt and used oils are carefully disposed by collecting into an oil drainer and emptying it. Every job is carried out by the approval of the customer themselves.

But honestly, after working here, I have gained so much respect for all the technicians. Their blood, sweat and tears go into keeping us comfortable, all while they are paid peanuts, as compared to the service advisors.

And now, a few pictures from my time working there, for your viewing pleasure.

[anjan_c2007]

Extremely well narrated, eye witness account of what murky things go on backstage, exposing the underbelly of the ASC's keeping everyone, but the mechanics and their brethren privy to such happenings.

I am sure many more ASC's (or even non ASC's) of other brands may be victims of such delinquent employees, especially because "sharing of such sensitive technology" can be most welcome on WhatsApp groups and via. chats to instantly proliferate crossing all geographical boundaries.

You have though not stated your experiences with diesel Marutis that could also be coming into the NEXA ASC. If its only petrol that is getting pilfered, maybe it could be to top up the fuel tanks of the workers commuter bikes, with some more enterprising ones either selling or donating ( with vested interests mostly) the excess, pilfered fuel to relatives or family members.

[speed400]

Originally Posted by pritanshchandra

Great Post, I am currently conducting Internal Audit of MG Dealers Pan India with my team. Dealership(&Service Centre) Business is very nasty, a lot of ways to cheat customers and the company (MG India in this case), much more than we can imagine or have come across. Being Vigilant is extremely crucial in today's times.

I reckon tbhp will be interested to hear your experience with this, unless it's confidential information of course

[veyron_head]

Thank you for this fantastic thread. I really thought stealing fuel and stuff in dealerships are a thing of the past. Last time around, I got my Ecosport serviced at Ford, my large decathlon umbrella in the boot was missing. I am still not fully sure and wouldn't blame the dealership, but I cant think of any other place where I might have missed it. Though this thread is about nexa, it has definitely taught me a thing or two on what I should do when i leave my car in the service center next time.

[pritanshchandra]

Originally Posted by speed400

I reckon tbhp will be interested to hear your experience with this, unless it's confidential information of course

It is confidential ofcourse, above all things I, and the team are under legal boundations but I will be giving some cues to fellow BHPians later sometime after we close the Audit. It may help the "woke" bunch of us from getting scammed by the greedy Dealers.