[F150]

Originally Posted by Racer_X

The service interval is 10k for diesel Swifts right??

Yes 6 months or 10,000 kms.
MF has set a personal limit of 5000 kms. I too do the same.

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by Racer_X

The service interval is 10k for diesel Swifts right??

Yes that is right. I set the oil change interval to 5k since I feel 10k is too long an interval to have on normal mineral oil. 5-7k would be ideal in my opinion for a long life and healthy engine.

[Racer_X]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Yes that is right. I set the oil change interval to 5k since I feel 10k is too long an interval to have on normal mineral oil. 5-7k would be ideal in my opinion for a long life and healthy engine.

So are you saying that only oil change is done at 5k interval and regular servicing is as per manual which is 10k.

i am nearing 15k on the odo and planning to get the oil changed, but not sure if it is correct to get the routine servicing done during that.

Please advise.

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by Racer_X

So are you saying that only oil change is done at 5k interval and regular servicing is as per manual which is 10k.

i am nearing 15k on the odo and planning to get the oil changed, but not sure if it is correct to get the routine servicing done during that.

Please advise.

Yes you got it right. Only oil + oil filter change at 5k kms and routine service at 10k intervals. Get your routine major service at 20k kms. Where are you getting it serviced btw?

[fuel_addict]

Isn't the (free) service interval for diesel Swift every 5K km? Can't imagine changing only the oil but not getting the car serviced. I clearly remember the 1st 3 services are scheduled at 1K, 5K and 10K km respectively which gives it a 6 month window between services if you exclude the first service. Thereafter, if I am not wrong, the recommended intervals are every 10k km for oil change and regular service.

There seems to be a lot of confusion on the oil change intervals too - mainly because some Swifts are using mineral while the new ones post the VIN cut-off use synthetic oil. I think the safe oil change interval is 5-7K for mineral oil and 10K for synthetic oil. And I am referring to diesel Swifts only.

[F150]

Originally Posted by fuel_addict

There seems to be a lot of confusion on the oil change intervals too - mainly because some Swifts are using mineral while the new ones post the VIN cut-off use synthetic oil. I think the safe oil change interval is 5-7K for mineral oil and 10K for synthetic oil. And I am referring to diesel Swifts only.

Team,

There is no confusion, the oil change interval has always been 10K post the first service, irrespective of whether it is mineral or synthetic. People have been following the same on the old swift for years.

The new swift might be running a slightly different tune and the power figures have remained same, i don't see the logic behind MSIL's suggestion for synthetic oil.

Few enthusiasts change the oil at every 5kms, out of the personal interest. It is not that mineral oil is good only for 5-7K kms.

[fuel_addict]

Originally Posted by F150

Team,

There is no confusion, the oil change interval has always been 10K post the first service, irrespective of whether it is mineral or synthetic. People have been following the same on the old swift for years.

The new swift might be running a slightly different tune and the power figures have remained same, i don't see the logic behind MSIL's suggestion for synthetic oil.

Few enthusiasts change the oil at every 5kms, out of the personal interest. It is not that mineral oil is good only for 5-7K kms.

I would personally not want to use mineral oil for more than 7K km especially in a diesel vehicle considering driving conditions in metros. Even in petrol cars, I am skeptical of anything above 7K on mineral oil. Again, to each one his own. People are known to stick to the same oil for 15K km too without any noticeable short term damage to the engine.

[F150]

Originally Posted by fuel_addict

I would personally not want to use mineral oil for more than 7K km especially in a diesel vehicle considering driving conditions in metros. .

There are many users on the forum who followed the 10k oil change plan.
Highest kms run swift owned by epicenter.rulez changed oil only every 20k kms. Mind you it is mineral oil. His swift ran 2 lakh kms.
There can be personal preferences, like 5k or 7k.
Mineral vs Synthetic is a discussion for a different thread.

I am trying to convey that people have been using mineral oil with a 10K interval for change and no reports of failure have been heard of due to this interval

[saurabhdadhichi]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Yes you got it right. Only oil + oil filter change at 5k kms and routine service at 10k intervals. Get your routine major service at 20k kms. Where are you getting it serviced btw?

Congratulations Moralfibre on completion of 18.8K Kms!

OTF question, after running for almost 20K kms, how are the interiors holding together? Any special thing to mention on the NVH levels now?

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by F150

The new swift might be running a slightly different tune and the power figures have remained same, i don't see the logic behind MSIL's suggestion for synthetic oil.

The only reason I could think of is that the engines are sourced from Fiat. There could be a possibility that MSIL wanted to get some uniformity across all Swift's instead of maintaining two different sets of oil change instructions across its model range.

Few enthusiasts change the oil at every 5kms, out of the personal interest. It is not that mineral oil is good only for 5-7K kms.

Honestly, in our driving conditions even synthetic oil is good for just 10k kms.

Originally Posted by fuel_addict

I would personally not want to use mineral oil for more than 7K km especially in a diesel vehicle considering driving conditions in metros. Even in petrol cars, I am skeptical of anything above 7K on mineral oil. Again, to each one his own. People are known to stick to the same oil for 15K km too without any noticeable short term damage to the engine.

I agree with you and here's a superb post by team-bhpian SS-Traveller to this effect. post link..

Originally Posted by saurabhdadhichi

OTF question, after running for almost 20K kms, how are the interiors holding together? Any special thing to mention on the NVH levels now?

Thank you. Surprisingly there are no rattles in the car and the interiors have held up well. I am quite pleased with the build quality.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by F150

I am trying to convey that people have been using mineral oil with a 10K interval for change and no reports of failure have been heard of due to this interval

There is no doubt that minerals can be used for 10k too . Its not that the engine Will fail . Whereas the mineral oil starts losing its effectiveness at say 5k kms the synthetic Will be more stable

My personal experience. Ever since I changed to delvac 1 fully synthetic engine oil I have experienced the smoothness of the engine note even at 8k kms . But with delvac mx, the engine used to become gruff after 5k kms. Not to mention the ability to pull from 10kmph in 2nd gear,which was impossible with the mineral. All these ,along with the feel good factor has made me to stick to synthetic oils

[manishalive]

Moralfiber,

What happened to your brake issue, did Maruti were of help. I got a VXi last week and the only sore point I feel is Brakes.

[moralfibre]

My car crossed 25,000 kms on Saturday while I was negotiating non-existent roads on a drive from Pune to Harihareshwar and back. The car absorbed all the beatings of poor broken roads very well.

It was time for my 5k interval oil change. So I went to Sai service this morning without an appointment as the service staff had politely refused to accept the car for an oil change in the afternoon citing an overload at their facility. I had a problem with the diesel filter not being replaced at its scheduled 20k interval as well and it continued to play on my mind.

Reached the workshop at their stipulated opening time of 8:00 am and the service advisor said he won't be able to start work on the car till 9:00 am when the parts store opens. What's the point of accepting cars so early then? I told him that I'd hang around at the service station and since it wasn't a scheduled service I wouldn't mind the car not being washed either. He clarified that they don't wash the car unless requested by the owner.

The SA started making the job card and my instructions were quite clear:
- Replace engine oil + oil filter
- Replace diesel filter.

The estimate provided was a whooping 5k! I was quite surprised and then he started his usual talk about a circular from Maruti, etc. I argued that he needs to double check the circular as my car was manufactured in 2011 and doesn't fall in the VIN series for switching to semi-synthetic oil. Moreover, I asked him to check if my car ever had semi-synthetic oil in any of it's scheduled services. The SA wasn't convinced and continued to argue with me. I requested for a copy of the advisory issued by Maruti and he finally gave in.

The car was parked in the service bay and no one attended to it until 9:35 am. Finally a mechanic changed oil and oil filter. He dismantled the battery to access the diesel filter and had a tough time in getting the part out. The diesel filter element is no longer replaceable. The new Swift has a redesigned filter assembly and I have already provided a detailed description of this change in this post

The car was ready at 10:50 am. The final bill was Rs. 4,678/- for the work mentioned above.

Post service drive:

The car feels much smoother after an oil change. The diesel filter replacement was done as it was mandatory as per schedule. I was told by a couple of mechanics that the filter lasts without any issues upto 40k kms. I didn't want to take any chances with this.

The FE has been always over 15kmpl in city driving with 100% AC. Speaking of which I realize that I have never driven this car without the AC. My brother in law sat in the car the other day and complimented that my car does smell new even after a year of ownership.

The brakes continue to be a sore point about the Swift. Maruti has managed to provide ABS on all variants of the Ertiga which is a good move as the new Swift and DZire continue to have mediocre brakes.

There was a faint diesel smell in the cabin after the filter replacement. Perhaps it was due to some diesel that dripped out of the pipes while the old filter was being replaced.

Some statistics:

I continue to log data in my iPhone app for every gas station visit. Here are some interesting statistics from the last one year:

Total Fuel expenses: Rs. 66,356/-
Expenses per day: Rs. 191.23/-
Cost per km: Rs. 2.57/-
Average fuel cost: Rs. 44.74/L
Average range: 781.9km/Tank
Average fuel economy: 17.38kmpl
Total diesel consumed till date: 1,483.06 litres
Average running per day: 72.3kms

3,944.9 kg of CO2 released.

[moralfibre]

31,000 kms update:

An assignment took me to the US for a month. The car was idle for the entire month of November. My better half loves her 800 and only started the car once for a 10 km drive to keep the battery healthy. I returned in the 1st week of December and drove past the 5k service interval I've set for myself.

The 30k service interval involves cleaning of the EGR, Intercooler, oil and oil filter change. Initially I was apprehensive if the IC really needs to be cleaned or not but friendly mod Jaggu advised me to go for it. Eddy reconfirmed it and I gave a go ahead to my service advisor. This was the first time I did not hang around in the showroom to see the service come through as I have been terribly busy on the work front.

Dropped the car off to Sai Service at 7:30 am on 28Dec'12 and did the usual round of explaining the service advisor that I want mineral oil and not synthetic. Filled in the complaint list:

- A distinct shudder when turbo comes on in 4th and 5th gear.
- Boot lid doesn't open from inside.
- The SA recommended cleaning of the IC but I told him to hold on to it until 11:00 am.

I was assured that the car would be ready by 4:00 pm but it wasn't. I kept in touch with my SA through the phone. Gave them the benefit since I delayed responding as well.

Reached the service station at 6:00 pm and the car was ready. Since I hadn't supervised this time, I chose to take a test drive before settling the bill. The car felt ok and I thanked the SA for a good job. EGR cleaning really opens up the Multijet engine. Seems like the service plan is well laid out by Maruti. The harsh idle had vanished. Fresh engine oil makes the car feel much more quieter and smoother.

There was a queue to get a parking slot and the SA suggested that I clear the bill and he'll park the car for me. Returned 15 minutes later to see that the car was back in the service bay. On enquiring I found out that the car made some noise when the engine was shut off. He suspects that the intercooler wasn't secured tightly. And truly it was, the top side bolt head had sheared off and the welded nut on the front frame was holding the other half off the bolt threads. I was worried. This cannot be taken out easily and I had to drive to Bombay the next day.

The SA assured me that he'll have it fixed in 30 minutes. They took the car to a gas welding shop and broke the welded nut using a gas welding torch. It was sad to see welding marks on the front frame (although hidden). I told the SA that he'll have to get it painted and restored to factory condition during my next service. He was apologetic for what had happened and said he'll ensure that they weld a nut back in place and paint the area around the top mount of the intercooler. I did not make a big noise about it because the SA was upfront and proactive in inspecting what had gone wrong despite me as a customer not noticing it. Secondly, his team stayed back late to work on the issue and did not do a make shift arrangement to fix it.

Drove to Bombay and the mileage had considerably improved on the trip. I was happy until on the way back the MID started showing a steady decrease in FE despite driving as normally as I did. Turned out that the rear right tyre had a minor puncture and was leaking air. Got the spare tyre on and fixed the punctures at Darshan tyres in Viman nagar. Unfortunately even the spare tyre had a nail in it. Must say that the attendants at Darshan tyres are very professional as against any roadside tyre repair shops who are out to fleece the janata.

Some useful data and graphs:

Complete expense analysis till date on the car (updated till 31,xxx kms)



km/day chart:



km/L chart:



Rs/L chart:



Rs/Km chart:



And places where I have filled fuel or serviced the car:

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

...
Some useful data and graphs:

Complete expense analysis till date on the car (updated till 31,xxx kms)

Attachment 1040459

km/day chart:

Attachment 1040460

km/L chart:

Attachment 1040461

Rs/L chart:

Attachment 1040462

Rs/Km chart:

Attachment 1040463

And places where I have filled fuel or serviced the car:

Attachment 1040464

Thanks for the charts. What app are you using?