[NishantShankar]

Good morning TBHP Fam,

My name is Nishant and i'm a HR Professional from Bangalore.
The love for automobiles was handed down to me by my father right from a very young age. I currently ride a Duke 390, Suzuki Samurai and an Impulse that i purchased off an INRC rider, it's a work in progress but i manage to take it out for trails every now and then.

The real love has always been for cars. I was gifted a Zen VXI on my 18th birthday, still have it. It is now my mothers.
3 years back i picked up a Honda City Type 2. It was a 2000 1.5. This is when i started working so i had a little money to spare to spend on the car. A body kit, paint, wheels, CAI, Exhaust, Lowering springs and some interior work. Loved the car, served me really well and was definitely a head turner. Learnt a a lot working on this car, it's a great car to learn the fundamentals.

A couple of months back, i came across a great deal for a Petrol Premier Padmini Dulexe. It was a 1994 model and had all the paperwork and was in great running condition. I just had to pick it up. The previous owner even handed me a small note book where he had hand-written every service done to the car, right from 1994! The car is mechanically very solid, i use it 2-3 days a week and it's a feeling that i just cannot put to words.

Now for my latest addition. I had visited my hometown, Kochi in July for some personal work. I met a friend there who had picked up a Laura VRS. He's done a stage 2 tune along with some minor mods. I drove it for about 4-5km and by the end of it, i knew what i had to do once i get back to Bangalore.
I have never ever felt that way in a car, it was a feeling that was stuck in my head day in and day out.

Came back to Bangalore and the search began. Saw a bunch of cars that were either not up to the mark or way too pricey. This is when i began looking beyond Bangalore. Found a nice looking car in Pune, spoke to the owner and booked my tickets.

Initial impressions were great - had the service history, had run less that 50k Kms, no signs of any accidents. Got the car appraised and diagnosed at AJ Performance in Pune. Car checked out great, except for the few random error signs that popped up. They said this was because of the voltage fluctuations caused by a weak battery. Drove back the next day, the car was perfect. Again, random error signs kept popping up and it was never the same one. I was almost sure that this was due to the weak battery.

Made it to Bangalore, the car was such a joy to drove. Pune to Bangalore in around 9 hours.

Got a new battery the next day, unfortunately the problem persists.

More on this later. I have very less knowledge about VAG cars and would love some help on how i can fix this.

Happy to be here, excited to get to know all of you.

[RahulNagaraj]

Hello NishantShankar,

Welcome to the forum, glad to have you on board!

That's one heck of a garage in terms of both cars and bikes. Why don't you start off with the ownership experience of the Laura vRS and Premier Padmini.

Would also love to read more in detail, about the upgrades and modifications made to your Honda City type-2.

Looking forward to your posts on the forum.

Cheers!
Rahul N

[IamNikhil]

Welcome to the family, Nishant! That's an eclectic collection you've built. Great to see. Hope to have you participate in multiple threads in coming days. Welcome again. Cheers!

[hari.rajanna]

Welcome to the forum! After years of being a mute spectator, i registered and became a member last week. Looking forward to a great time here.

[Bibendum90949]

Hello Nishant,

Welcome to the forum. I liked the way you fell in love with VRS and seemed to have hunted down one as fast as the tacho needle in VRS . Look forward to hearing more on that. What's the latest on error codes.

Have a great stay here.

Cheers,
bibendum.

[NishantShankar]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! So excited to get to know all of you.

Here are the list of mods that i had on the City -
> Magnaflow Valvetronic Exhaust (can be made as silent as stock with the press of a button), built at FRK Racing
> Custom De-Cat Downpipe from FRK Racing
> K&N RU 4950 conical intake
> Custom intake plumbing by ProRace Customs
> Tripple S Lowering Springs
> 15" XLR8 Black Alloys on MRF ZVTV tires
> Original MoMo Corse Competition steering wheel
> AutoMeter Sports Comp 2 RPM Gauge
> Pioneer Head Until with Aux, Bluetooth and USB
> Original Stanley Leather interiors
> Custom metallic black 3M Paint
> Custom body kit, Front & Side Splitters, Spoiler and Arch Extenders
It was a great car, had a great run with it.

Attaching some pictures of the bikes as well.

Now to let you all know about my journey with the Laura so far.
The car has had two owners but run less than 50k genuine KMs. Picked the car up from Pune where i spent a good amount of money and time to get it appraised and checked end to end. The garage did a great job and shared a report with me. The only areas of concern were worn out clutch plates and a weak battery.

Made the purchase, drove the car to Bangalore. Around 100 kms into the drive the instrument cluster chimes went on, the needles went to 0 and a bunch of warning signs popped up. I stopped, put the car off and then it just would not crank! Luckily after trying for 10-15 minutes, the car came on. With no warning sighs. My assumption that this was caused due to a voltage fluctuation caused by the weak battery. Started again and during the drive the lights and chimes came on atleast 8-10 times. No loss in power.

The previous owner has no idea why this is happening and said he thought it happened due to the weak battery.

Got home, got the battery replaced. Unfortunately, this did not solve the issue. The car drives without going into this mode for a while and then goes in and out of it. Very frequently.
There are even times when the car won't switch on due to the red warning signs.
Got the car checked by a private mech, the issue did not happen the two days that the car was there. Then i took it to SKODA TAFE. Which turned out to be a nightmare. That's a story that deserves a thread of it's own!

Finally Skoda checked the ECM, it was fine and said that it could be the gateway that has an issue. Ultimately, they were not able to diagnose the issue.
I am taking the car to another mech tomorrow and am hoping that they are able to diagnose.

Skoda experts, i would really appreciate your inputs here. It's been a month and i am unable to use the car.

Thanks for taking the time to go through this!