[arun_josie]

Drive to Karaikal:

This was a solo drive to attend an event in Karaikal and to visit few friends on the way at Attur. The drop in fuel price came at the right time too.

As usual, I refueled on the day before the drive and checked the tyre pressure as well. The start was later than my normal standard due to staying up late to watch the F1 qualification the night before. I started around 5:30am. I expected more traffic as it was the end of the Diwali weekend. But thankfully, it was less.

It started drizzling as soon as I crossed Hosur, with occasional burst of rains. I had planned to stop at Attur for breakfast but due to the late start, I decided to stop at Thoppur A2B. To my surprise, it was closed that day( maybe a Diwali holiday) and hence I went back to my original plan of stopping at Attur for breakfast.

I crossed Salem in no time and as suggested by narayans80 in the Karaikal route/queries thread, I stopped at Ramas Café for breakfast. It has a huge parking space and food was good too. After breakfast, I entered the Attur town to meet my friends and then proceeded ahead after an hour long break.

I have never driven this Attur - Veppur - Virudachalam - Chidambaram route. Not sure if the recent rains made a difference but its lush green everywhere, a refreshing scenery to drive. Beyond Attur, it was 2 lane roads all the way till Karaikal. I loved driving on this route, some never ending straight roads and some nice curvy roads as well. I didn't get right opportunity to click pics as it was raining throughout the drive.







Stay at Le Arul Park:

This is a new hotel. It was very neat and clean, spacious rooms and the service was very good as well. More importantly, it had good secured parking space. I paid 1900/- including breakfast as complementary. The breakfast was good too.

Karai Lakshmi Mess:

Being a beach town, I was interested to try sea food. So, I did some google/youtube search and found this place. This place is open for Lunch between 12PM – 4PM. They don’t serve breakfast nor dinner. This is a very simple and small place but food was very delicious. I had fish meals and it tasted more like a homemade meal than restaurant made. I loved the food here.

Return drive:

Return drive was via Ulundurpet as I had to drop a friend there. The route was same till Virudachalam and here we took a right towards Ulundurpet. A 3-4Kms stretch before Ulundurpet was in a bad shape with too many potholes.

Clicked this during the return,





After dropping my friend, I took the Ulundurpet – Attur – Salem highway. This highway is a mixture of 4L/2L stretches. And, on the 2L stretches they have put this Flexible Spring Post all along to split the lane. So, if you are stuck behind a slow-moving truck, you have no choice but to follow them till the 4L starts again. I came across such stretches multiple times. They have done this probably to reduce the accidents but at times people were entering the gaps between these posts and using the other lane to overtake. This looked too risky.



I reached Attur around 5PM and from here the traffic was on the heavier side. Crossing Salem took some time as I entered the city during the peak traffic hours. I stopped at Thoppur A2B for refueling and an early dinner. The fuel efficiency came to 18.08 Kmpl (full tank to full tank), the MID number is almost same too at 18 Kmpl. This refueling is after close to 800 Kms which is highest for me till day. This was especially because of no COCO pumps on the Salem – Karaikal stretch. I prefer refueling in COCO pumps when on the highway. The fuel price in TN was costlier than KA by 6rs.



Traffic was less between Thoppur and Krishnagiri beyond which it increased. It took more than 5 minutes to cross the Attibele toll.
It was a pleasant drive through a new-to-me route with great scenery. A very refreshing drive!

Here is the overall trip details, the fuel efficiency @ 18.3 is very good. Since it was raining all through, I didn't go beyond 110 Kmph. Mostly the speed was in the 80-100 range.

[adneeraj]

I envy the efficiency you are getting man!
Mine occasionally jumps up to 17.5 odd while on the highways before dropping back to the 14-15 kmpl range in the city limits.

Lush green fields, soothing photos and a car that stands out in every frame.

Can see your car is close to the 80k mark. That's a good mile munching for a 3 yr old
Wishing you many more happy miles, Arun.

[AniChaudhuri]

Lovely pics. Great to see your Scarlett delivering such decent mileage. I usually get similar numbers when I drive spiritedly. Drive in a leisurely manner between 80-90kmph, and the diesel is capable of delivering more. But then driving a 2.0 diesel with 170 horses @80kmph on long drives wouldn't be fun, no?

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by adneeraj

I envy the efficiency you are getting man!
Mine occasionally jumps up to 17.5 odd while on the highways before dropping back to the 14-15 kmpl range in the city limits.

Originally Posted by AniChaudhuri

Lovely pics. Great to see your Scarlett delivering such decent mileage. I usually get similar numbers when I drive spiritedly. Drive in a leisurely manner between 80-90kmph, and the diesel is capable of delivering more. But then driving a 2.0 diesel with 170 horses @80kmph on long drives wouldn't be fun, no?

Let me tell you that during this drive it was raining + this was my first time on this two lane route, so I maintained a cautious speed which helped get a better fuel efficiency. Otherwise, I usually get 14-17Kmpl while maintaining higher speeds. And driving at 80-100 on the highway is very boring and its tough to maintain that speed for a long time.

[arun_josie]

75,000 Kms Service @ PPS/MPS, Hosur Road, Electronic City:

This one is the first major servicing as it includes the timing belt replacement. The timing belt needs a replacement every 75K. Apart from the regular servicing, there was no major complaints to be reported.

Standard service includes replacement of Engine Oil, Engine Oil Filter, Cabin Filter, Air Filter, Fuel Filter along with the Timing Belt replacement.

I updated the Service Manager two days in advance just to make sure that all the required parts are available and he confirmed the availability immediately. He asked me to come early by 8:45 AM so that they can attend my car straight away. I was told that their load has increased these days and it is better to be there early if one plans to stay and get the car serviced.

Service reminder on the MID, 273 Kms short of 15K Kms and 77 days to 1 year. This is probably the longest duration between services for me, took close to 10 months.



I was there by 8:45 am and mine was the first Jeep that day. After preparing the job card, by 9:00am they put Scarlett on the service bay.





Front brake pads after 23K Kms, this is the second set.



Old Vs Fresh oil



Parts for timing belt replacement



The old timing belt still looked good. The technician did a thorough check but couldn't find any damages. However 75K Kms is the mandatory replacement schedule.



Cabin filter



Air filter, the old one was in a bad shape.





After all the required replacements, Scarlett was put on for one final check. I didn’t ask for wash.



Now it’s good for another 15K Kms.



Rattling issue:

I do have a minor rattling issue on the front right side door (has been there for a while now) but it is intermittent and difficult to replicate. We went out for test drive on some bad and rough roads but this rattling sound never happened. It doesn’t irritate me much though. So, we left it as is.

Another rattle I hear is from the dashboard. This is again very rarely occurring noise.

Clutch:

Clutch condition is good and I don’t see any issues during gear changes as well. It is not light as new but I don’t feel any difficulty while applying the clutch. The service advisor didn’t raise any concern either.

Suspension:

Regarding suspension, since last two weeks I have started hearing a mild ‘Krrr’ sound (like the one which comes when ABS kicks in) intermittently while taking mega speed breakers at more than normal speed. I thought it could be the bumper lip touching the surface but it doesn’t look like that. No issues while taking medium size speed breakers at higher speeds. During the service they inspected the suspension parts but couldn’t find any issues. Will monitor this further and take to service center if required.


Brake disc/pads:

Brake disc and the rear brake pads are still on the stock and they didn’t require any replacement. Front brake pads were replaced at around 52K Kms.

Wheel lug nuts:

Its a known issue with these cap type lug nuts that if the cap gets miss-aligned then it is difficult to remove it. This time 3 had issues and hence got them replaced.

Billing:

The service was done by 12:00 PM and the final road test and billing took another 45 minutes. No complaints on the time taken for the servicing or the quality of work done. They were very good.

The final bill is 26,733 /-. This doesn’t include the Wheel Alignment and Balancing

After this servicing, I drove directly to Madhus for Wheel Alignment and Balancing. Not much waiting and they did a good job.



Scarlett with Nikhilb2008’s Octavia vRS and RSUDARSANAN’S BMW 320d. He had come there for a puncture and it was nice meeting him after long time.



Service cost till date,



After from the above maintenance, the tyre replacement costed me 36,900/- This was at 51,180 Kms

ODO Share graph.



Here is the fuel efficiency chart, normally it ranges between 12-17 Kmpl. And the MID figure almost matches the full tank method calculation.



Below graph is based on the overall average FE number calculated after every refill.



Some numbers on fuel refills, fuel price



Days taken to cover every 5K Kms, the usage has come down lately, mainly because our drives have come down since the pandemic.



After a wash.



Looking forward for another trouble free 15K Kms .

[PrasannaDhana]

That is one beautiful car

Surprised to know Jeep mandates timing chain replacement at 75k km. Feels a bit too early to me. Regarding the rattles, any car from any brand will develop them, given the usage we put them through.

Looking forward to 6 digits on the Scarlett.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Surprised to know Jeep mandates timing chain replacement at 75k km. Feels a bit too early to me.

For a chain the interval may be longer for obvious reasons that it remains lubricated all the times. However, with belts, the wear is faster and the material itself (rubber) can develop cracks. I have hence seen intervals for belts are shorter than the chains.

[Pancham]

Super update. How much did the timing belt cost you? Looking at the total service cost it seems to be around 10K?

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

That is one beautiful car
Looking forward to 6 digits on the Scarlett.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Surprised to know Jeep mandates timing chain replacement at 75k km. Feels a bit too early to me.

My previous car Linea had a 60K replacement schedule, initially. Later after a design change to the timing chain, they increased the interval to 90K Kms. Yes, I felt that it could be little longer than 75K Kms for Compass, but then this is a very critical part so there will be a risk attached with a much longer duration schedule.

Originally Posted by Pancham

Super update. How much did the timing belt cost you? Looking at the total service cost it seems to be around 10K?

Timing belt and related parts + labour charges came to 12K

[sharan_si]

Thanks for putting this detailed info, when your say rattling, is it loud rattle or its vibrations while going on bad patch ?

[mohitchalla]

Loved the post and the well maintained vehicle. I too get the alignment/balancing at independent shops as I believe they work with much smaller tolerances.

Wishing you happy and safe driving!

[rakesh_r]

Very well documented indeed. Good to see that Jeep has mandated Timing belt replacement at 75k or 5 years (i presume). Surprisingly in my case for my Scross 1.6, Maruti has not at all mentioned anything on Timing Belt replacement which is strange considering this being a very crucial part. The International service manual mandates replacement at 75k or 5 years. Since mine has crossed 75k and breached the 5 year time frame, I will be voluntarily getting the Timing belt replaced, have requested the service advisor at Sai Service, Hinjewadi Pune to procure the required spares.

[Baddychat]

Congratulations on racking up 75k in 2 1/2 years even with the pandemic induced lock down. Thanks for continuing to maintain this ownership thread the way you have been doing all this while.
Wishing you thousands of safe and happy miles ahead !

[mytbhp_turbo]

Extremely well documented ownership report, Thank you for sharing.

I am actually taken back by relatively low maintenance cost.

That Front brake pad change at 52K ( 7264 with Break Fluid ) included labor charges as well ? Brake disc are still in good condition is really good to know, might be due to your higher highway usage ?

[RAHS]

Hi Arun,

Great going, Jeep Compass looks smashing in Red color Well maintained vehicle

BTW, do you still stay around Bannerghatta Road? I remember meeting you in a car wash point during your Linea days. May be about 3 years back. Hope we cross our paths again!

Cheers,
Raghav