[Samurai]

What new skid plates? I am talking about the plates I put in March last year.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by Samurai

The rotation was done regularly Jaggu, but the OE tyre has very less life. The road conditions in my area reduced it even further.

What i meant was the left to right swap during alignment which is in X pattern since these are not directional tires. This helps to bring down the road shoulder effect.

And more than OE these are imported rubber made for Japan (mostly) and will not last half as much in Indian rural conditions.

[R_R]

@Samuraisan: Any updates on your tyre change?

[Samurai]

Since Last month, GV has been racking up lot of miles. After driving 20,000kms in 2.5 years, I have driven 2500kms in the past 30 days. And not a complaint from the GV. Consider this, I am yet to face a single problems since my purchase. The only part changed so far is the tyres. I am not including consumables like oil, filters, etc. How precious is that?

Originally Posted by Samurai

So let me say this right away, I won't promise to keep this car clean and gleaming like my former black beauty. This one is going to be a grunt, the bigger brother of SX4 (the man).

Hmm, this one turned out to be true for a different reason. The GV gets cleaned everyday at office, but in hard water from the borewell. Therefore, now GV has a yellowish tinge all over.

Originally Posted by R_R

@Samuraisan: Any updates on your tyre change?

My tyre saga was not a good one: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-...cceptable.html (18 months old Michelin LTX AT2 - How old tyres are acceptable?)

I never got to replace the old tyres Michelin gave me since the supply was not there for months. Then I gave up on replacing them.

[Jaggu]

Samu the hard water issue can be easily rectified by giving it a 3M treatment. Do it along with your next service after the monsoons and she will look like she is just out of the showroom.

[sudev]

:-)

Consider this, I am yet to face a single problems since my purchase. The only part changed so far is the tyres. I am not including consumables like oil, filters, etc. How precious is that?

Peace of mind and ready for anything any time - Priceless.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Since Last month, GV has been racking up lot of miles. After driving 20,000kms in 2.5 years, I have driven 2500kms in the past 30 days.

Since 20 days I have added almost 2K again.

Now, none of these are high quality GQ kind of roads. I am mostly driving in twisting roads and GPS is just going numb on me. The GPS has many times given up navigating. This saturday I decided to take a few breaks and shoot some snaps along the drive.

These are Coorg roads:

Even my HTC Touch2 automatically knows where we are, despite not having GPS feature.



The road between Ammathi to Polibetta








The main street of Polibetta



On the Polibetta-Tittimathi road, yup GPS is clueless.











Couple shots from previous drives on the same stretch.





Then of course the Mysore-Mandya district, they too are beautiful in their own way. I guess not many of you have seen or heard how these places can look if you pause and look around as you drive along. So here we go.

The stretch between Hunsur and Tittimathi













The stretch between Yeliwala and Srirangapattana

[Torqy]

Beautiful pictures, Samurai. Love that "going to rain" look.
Was that the E-3 or E-500?

-- Torqy

[sudev]

OMG!! Gods own country?

What happened to wheel cover?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Torqy

Beautiful pictures, Samurai. Love that "going to rain" look.
Was that the E-3 or E-500?

-- Torqy

E-3 + 12-60mm

Originally Posted by sudev

OMG!! Gods own country?

No, this is in Karnataka.

Originally Posted by sudev

What happened to wheel cover?

After upgrading to 235/70R16 Michelin LTX AT2, it didn't fit.

[condor]

sudev : OMG!! Gods own country?

No, not God's own country.

One State, Many Worlds. Karnataka.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by condor

No, not God's own country.

More like disowned by god, now owned by mine lords.

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Since 20 days I have added almost 2K again.

Now, none of these are high quality GQ kind of roads. I am mostly driving in twisting roads and GPS is just going numb on me. The GPS has many times given up navigating. This saturday I decided to take a few breaks and shoot some snaps along the drive.

These are Coorg roads:

Even my HTC Touch2 automatically knows where we are, despite not having GPS feature.

Definitely agree with you, I have used the Tittimathi route on quite a few occasions and with the onset of the monsoons its simply a scenic drive.

[Samurai]

Yesterday I traveled from Bangalore to Manipal without paying toll at any place. That's a rare thing. My route was Bangalore-Mandya-Srirangapattana-Elivala-Hunsur-Piriapattana-Kushalnagar-Kudigee-Somvarpet-Shantalli-Kundalli-Handalli Koodige-Bisle Ghat-Subramanya-Gundya-Dharmastala-Ujire-Beltangady-Naravi-Bajagoli-Karkala-Manipal.

These are the good stretch, I didn't bother getting down to take bad roads shots this time. I have covered it last year.





Phew! It took 12 hours due to numerous photography breaks. The 30Kms between Somvarpet and Handalli Koodige took 1hour, and the next 30kms to Subramanya took 1.5 hours. I was following a bus in Bisle ghat, it was amazing to the speed the bus could maintain in that totally destroyed road. I have finally seen a bus doing offroading. I also forded a waterfall in Bisle and a flooded bridge near Dharmastala. Driving in monsoon is really fun if you have a SUV.

Now for the bad news. Like most BHPians, I am very sensitive to even a slight unfamiliar noise coming from the car. While driving on the Bisle Ghat cow trail, I felt a dull unfamiliar noise sometimes on bad terrain, but very silent on good roads. As many of you are aware, I drive very regularly drive between Bangalore-Manipal over really bad roads. And I don't pussy-foot around the potholes, I smother them in decent speed. Some might think it is abuse, but SUVs are supposed to take that in their stride. So far GV has withstood all that over 25K of mostly bad road driving. Not a single mechanical part has been changed until now.

Yesterday evening I dropped the GV at Abharan Motors, Udupi. My regular SA who used to handle the GV has been transferred to the newly opened Karkala branch. Now I had to deal with a different SA. We went for a trial and I couldn't demonstrate the dull sound no matter how much I tried, I didn't miss a single pothole, but no luck. Sometimes, this self healing property of GV drives me nuts. Anyway, at the end of the trial I asked them just examine everything in the suspension system just to be safe.

Today morning I got call with the following info:
1) Tie rods on both sides have too much play, needs to be replaced (roughly 2.5K each)
2) The bushes on the lower arms on both sides are gone. Both the lower arms need to be replaced (6K each).
3) Stabilizer link bushing is also gone, the link needs to be replaced (1.9K).

Looks like if the bushing is gone, the whole assembly needs to be replaced, not just the bush.

Then I asked them to show the parts to their DGM Nagaraj Kamath, whose advice I can really trust. He was the one who built the skid plates for the GV in 2008. He used to be part of Rally support teams in the 90s and understands vehicles that undergo extreme stress. When I called him later, he advised me to go with items 1 and 3, but he felt the lower arms can wait, it still has lot more life. It can be looked into if the sound gets bad.

Therefore I will be replacing some mechanical parts for the first time on the GV. They don't have any of the parts, everything has to be ordered from the factory stock. It might take 3-4 days before I can get the vehicle back.

[lohithrao]

Sharath, lovely pics again, please pot other pics too

ouch! so you start with a bang, but dont you think that these parts have given up pretty soon?