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-   -   The First Grand Vitara on Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/30922-first-grand-vitara-team-bhp-48.html)

To reset throttle body - read elsewhere in how to reset ECM. It is important at end of step 2 to start car without any pressure on accelerator and let it idle for a minute of so.

Agree with "sudev"ji ; the engine must be allowed to idle for a few minutes after this job is done.

We did not clean the manifold - just wiped as much area as we could reach using a cloth dipped in petrol.Even that is not necessary.

The throttle body came out sparkling clean after the exercise ; could not shoot a pic as mobile ran out of steam.

Today as I took off to Udupi for some shopping, I was acutely aware of the odometer being very close to the big milestone. So I kept a constant watch on it.

Finally it turned over to the big number as I returned, just short of my home. So I stopped and took a quick snap with the mobile, just in case. Once I reached, I took out my real camera and snapped couple more. As I type this, the odometer is still showing the following:



Out of the 12 cars I have owned since 22 years, this is the first car I have driven for 1 lakh Kms. It is also the most reliable car I have ever owned, with zero breakdowns in almost 8 years, despite the bad terrain it regularly encounters. It will complete 8 years in November.

This is how it looks at 100000kms... parked at the same home to which it newly arrived in November 2007. Most of the water service is handled by rain.

@ Samurai,

Congrats on the milestone. It indeed is a reliable car. In spite of our being the 4th. owner it is working without a hitch.

Finished the running repairs for balance replacement parts. I am posting the bill, as this is the main reference thread for all GV lovers. And sorry to Samurai for my excursions into his thread!!

Congratulations Sharath.

My Fortuner completed 100K km a few weeks back. Still purring along.

These 4WD Japs keep going on and on :)

Congratulations on the new milestone Samurai! For the past one month I have been following yours and Sudev's thread like a mad stalker. So, after checking "11" Grand Vitaras (including BHPian Sachin's GV), finally got a 2007 GV AT with complete service history and 92K kms on the Odo. Just got it serviced from Vitesse and I am extremely happy with the vehicle and the decision to go for it. Thanks to you and Sudev for putting up such detailed ownership reviews. Will be putting up an initial ownership report and all other "adventures" I encountered while hunting for this beast once back from a long pending roadtrip. Here's a teaser till then

Welcome to the club Hulkbuster...would be interesting to see detailed off road experience with AT.

Ah this and sudev ji's thread seems to have convinced a lot of us to go for the GV :-). I brought home a 2009 2.4MT White GV today, thanks to guidance by sudev and oxymoron. 39k miles on the odo and the car is as good as new.

Most GVs I have seen so far have had a black interior, this one has a beige interior. Don't know how rare that is but does make the car look spacious/bright.
Great car, the only thing that makes me a little sad is that now I have to let my Civic AT go, to make space for this one. Now, that is another good solid car that can hold its own against most of the new cars on the road.

Wow, two more Vitaras join the forum. clap:

Wish you both a great run, mine has been great. Do reveal the price if possible so that others can get an idea.

Welcome to the club to both of you. It is nice that the Grand Vitara tribe on the forum is increasing.
In Pune 3 of us are in regular contact & have formed a whatsapp group. Mine is an AT while the other 2 are MT. All 2L models.
We will be doing some drives over the coming weekends & I will post pertinent observations re the difference between AT & MT.clap:

After completing the change of the steering link rod all obvious loose parts & joints had been taken care of. Went for a quick day trip to Mahabaleshwar. The steering shake at 45kmph had vanished only to be replaced by steering wheel shake at 75-80 kmph. Also it was quite random. True to form it occurred only a couple of times on the return trip. Also noticed that the problem started whenever I was accelerating or braking on a curve at those speeds. Slowing down would remove the shake. Even in the worst instance the vehicle did not wander and kept on the proper trajectory.


Showed it to the service manager at Chougules. He could replicate the problem. They have identified front caliper, old front diffcase oil or transfer case as possible causes. Leaving the vehicle on Tuesday for detailed check-up. Will update once we find out the root cause.

So enclosing an interior shot of the GV, the exterior is pretty much the same as Samurai's. I love the interior color, the challenge is to find a new stereo with the same olive/cream color scheme. Everything I have seen so far has black panels. I am surprised/shocked that the factory stereo doesn't even have aux-in.

GV and no aux or blue tooth is really a throwback. But I was told by a friend that he could hook up a aux port by using some wires. Never went for it.

@sridhar-v Shake while braking gently could be result of improper / imbalanced / worn discs. But not while accelerating. Again IMHO I would say transfer case would be a remote possibility. Can you describe the problem a bit more?

The main observations regarding the problem is as follows:-

Vehicle is 2007 2L AT.
1. Problem starts occurring only after the vehicle has been driven for 10-15 kms.
2. Previously the shake used to occur at 55 kmph. After changing the RH steering ball joint & link rod the speed pattern shifted to 45kmph. Now after changing the LH link rod it has started occurring at 75-85 kmph.
3. Currently the problem occurs when accelerating or braking, in the speed band, particularly if one is on a curve.
4. Shaking also occurs in cases where brakes have not been applied.
5. The steering wheel shakes 10 degrees on either side. However the vehicle does not wander.
6. The shake is also felt in the brake pedal if one brakes during such episodes.
7. After an episode of shake, slowing down and/or braking eliminates the shake.
8. After one period of shake it does not always repeat when similar driving conditions appear.
9. All wheels have been balanced and alignment done. Rear tyres are new, front ones are 8-9 months old. Same type and size. Geolander G92s.
10. The problem occurs mostly on the outward leg of the trip. If the vehicle is kept stationary for some time before the return trip, then the shaking problem rarely occurs, or occurs with reduced intensity, on the return leg.:Frustrati.

Have given the vehicle today for complete check-up. Did a long high speed test drive with their Technical Advisor. We indulged in high speed runs, mild braking, hard braking and shifting between neutral & "D" to check for play. Also did a lot of side to side hard swerves to see if there was any steering play.
According to the TA :-
a) There is no steering play.
b) There does not appear to be any play in the transmission or drive shafts.
c) Front brake cylinders do not seem to be the cause as shake also occurs without braking.
d) Main suspect candidate declared is the front brake discs and pads. They will be checking run-out etc and reporting back. TA feels the possible imperfection is resonating at the speed band.

When replacing the head unit you will need to use a Fascia Trim Surround for adapting to the 2 din slot. I ordered mine from Aliexpress. It is black in colour.

To match the colour you will have to paint this with MRF Vapocure or some equivalent paint. It is not be advisable to do any spray painting on the actual stereo head. Possibly a brush touch up od the plastic edges could be done.

Cool man, quite strange to not have aux port. I thought all Vitaras had it. Initially I had also thought of changing stereo but i am really happy with the sound quality at the moment so would stick to it for sometime.