[sagarpadaki]

Yaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnn!
Its been more than a year since i updated my thread.And felt its high time i update this thread with the performance of the car till this point of time.Over the past 1.5 years our faithful i20 covered 20,000 kms over highways,village roads,no roads,craters ,you name it! An now the ODO stands at 32,000 kms.

The car has been a workhorse. It has taken us to various destinations safely and has never given any trouble.Took everything in its stride happily!

Whenever we travel out, its usually full boot+3 people.Ocassionally its full boot+4 people.Even when loaded to the brim it has never felt under-powered.Runs like a horse.Hits a ton effortlessly and can cruise all day at 120+ .But i dont take it above 100-110 kmph .Only short bursts of 120+.On highways ,at 100 kmph, the rev needle is lazily ticking at 1800 RPM in 6th gear and has oodles of torque to accomplish any overtaking effortlessly even when fully loaded.The turbo whistle which can be heard when everything is quiet inside cabin and more prominent during cold nights on highways is music! I just love the feeling when the whistle gets loud as the RPM climbs. Feels like a jet fighter taking off! Highway mileage hovers aound 17-18 when fully loaded and a mixture of 4 lane and state roads. On full 4 lane roads it crosses 20 kmpl and can easily give 22 kmpl if driven sanely at 110 kmph. A full tank range of 900 kms!(Bangalore-Pune in one tankfull ).City driving remains blissful and effortless.The Engine has truly opened up and the power delivery has improved.Also the diesel clatter is almost non-existant on the inside unless you rev up!

A few noises have cropped up on the center console when going on rough roads.And a left pulling problem even when the alignment is proper. Have to get the balancing done on Road force machine @madhus soon to get it rectified.
Tyres are stock acellere's which are ok. Too noisy at anything above 80 kmph. Planning to change them at 40,000 kms. They are wearing out and should hit the treadwear indicator in another 15,000 kms.

Got the second paid service done last sunday @Advaith motors in Rajajinagar.Service experience was good.The left front power window motor makes a wierd noise when rolling up.Also the driver side AC vent adjuster is broken.Both will be replaced under extended warranty next week once the parts arrive.The break up for service is as follows


First the labor charges

Paid Service - 1085
Consumables - 175
Brake-bleeding -250
Coolant Replacement-250
BrakePad replacement - 275

Parts-

BrakePad front - 1600 odd
BrakeFluid(500ml)- 140 odd
AntiRust spray-90 odd
Coolant(1500ml) - 300 odd
EngineOil Filter- 300 odd

Total came to 4800 Rupees

Had carried my own Engine Oil- Mobil Delvac 1 (5 lts can). Also changed headlamp bulbs to Philips Xtreme Vision since one of the older Philips Xtreme Power fused off! The engine oil costed me Rs.3850 and the bulbs Rs.900.So the total service cost comes to around 9800 Rupees.

[amitpunjani]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Yaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnn!
Its been more than a year since i updated my thread.And felt its high time i update this thread with the performance of the car till this point of time.Over the past 1.5 years our faithful i20 covered 20,000 kms over highways,village roads,no roads,craters ,you name it! An now the ODO stands at 32,000 kms.

The car has been a workhorse. It has taken us to various destinations safely and has never given any trouble.Took everything in its stride happily!

Whenever we travel out, its usually full boot+3 people.Ocassionally its full boot+4 people.Even when loaded to the brim it has never felt under-powered.Runs like a horse.Hits a ton effortlessly and can cruise all day at 120+ .But i dont take it above 100-110 kmph .Only short bursts of 120+.On highways ,at 100 kmph, the rev needle is lazily ticking at 1800 RPM in 6th gear and has oodles of torque to accomplish any overtaking effortlessly even when fully loaded.The turbo whistle which can be heard when everything is quiet inside cabin and more prominent during cold nights on highways is music! I just love the feeling when the whistle gets loud as the RPM climbs. Feels like a jet fighter taking off! Highway mileage hovers aound 17-18 when fully loaded and a mixture of 4 lane and state roads. On full 4 lane roads it crosses 20 kmpl and can easily give 22 kmpl if driven sanely at 110 kmph. A full tank range of 900 kms!(Bangalore-Pune in one tankfull ).City driving remains blissful and effortless.The Engine has truly opened up and the power delivery has improved.Also the diesel clatter is almost non-existant on the inside unless you rev up!

A few noises have cropped up on the center console when going on rough roads.And a left pulling problem even when the alignment is proper. Have to get the balancing done on Road force machine @madhus soon to get it rectified.
Tyres are stock acellere's which are ok. Too noisy at anything above 80 kmph. Planning to change them at 40,000 kms. They are wearing out and should hit the treadwear indicator in another 15,000 kms.

Got the second paid service done last sunday @Advaith motors in Rajajinagar.Service experience was good.The left front power window motor makes a wierd noise when rolling up.Also the driver side AC vent adjuster is broken.Both will be replaced under extended warranty next week once the parts arrive.The break up for service is as follows


First the labor charges

Paid Service - 1085
Consumables - 175
Brake-bleeding -250
Coolant Replacement-250
BrakePad replacement - 275

Parts-

BrakePad front - 1600 odd
BrakeFluid(500ml)- 140 odd
AntiRust spray-90 odd
Coolant(1500ml) - 300 odd
EngineOil Filter- 300 odd

Total came to 4800 Rupees

Had carried my own Engine Oil- Mobil Delvac 1 (5 lts can). Also changed headlamp bulbs to Philips Xtreme Vision since one of the older Philips Xtreme Power fused off! The engine oil costed me Rs.3850 and the bulbs Rs.900.So the total service cost comes to around 9800 Rupees.

Hi Pal,

Thanks for the review. How did Hyundai A.S.S allowed you to carry your own oil? To best of my knowledge A.S.S don't allow any oil from provided by the customer.

Also could you please let me know, which Anti-Rust did you use and i am planning buy one as well.

Thanks

Amit

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by amitpunjani

Hi Pal,

Thanks for the review. How did Hyundai A.S.S allowed you to carry your own oil? To best of my knowledge A.S.S don't allow any oil from provided by the customer.

Also could you please let me know, which Anti-Rust did you use and i am planning buy one as well.

Thanks

Amit

The Anti rust spray was for lubricating the seat height adjuster which had become hard. Even after the spray the adjuster is hard! Have to follow it up.

HASS does allow you to carry your own oil. Only once i have used oil from the HASS. Rest , i have carried my own. And Delvac 1 is far superior to any oil the HASS use.You just have to sign a declaration on the job card that you are brining your oil oil.

[amitpunjani]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

The Anti rust spray was for lubricating the seat height adjuster which had become hard. Even after the spray the adjuster is hard! Have to follow it up.

HASS does allow you to carry your own oil. Only once i have used oil from the HASS. Rest , i have carried my own. And Delvac 1 is far superior to any oil the HASS use.You just have to sign a declaration on the job card that you are brining your oil oil.

Buddy,its real shock to me that HASS allows to carry the oil. I don't think many people are informed about the declaration.

Any idea if MASS also allows consumers to bring their own oil? Perhaps other members could throw some light on this.

Thanks

Amit

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by amitpunjani

Buddy,its real shock to me that HASS allows to carry the oil. I don't think many people are informed about the declaration.

Any idea if MASS also allows consumers to bring their own oil? Perhaps other members could throw some light on this.

Thanks

Amit

Well there are some HASS which dont allow or make a fuss about it. For example Blue Hyundai,Bangalore is very fussy about carrying your own oil. They use the same shell synthetic oil for both petrol and diesel! Also synthetic oil change at them is priced @ 1200/ltr. This amounts to 6000 Rupees for 5 lts. That is daylight robbery for a oil that is not suited for diesels!

[guyfrmblr]

Good to know that you are enjoying your i20. Thanks for updating the thread. I see very few i20 owners regularly updating their threads.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Also the driver side AC vent adjuster is broken.Both will be replaced under extended warranty next week once the parts arrive.

We both are on the same boat. My front passenger AC vent adjuster was broken and they agreed to replace it under warranty yesterday. I had updated in my thread. They said it'll take around 2-3 weeks for the part to arrive.

Had carried my own Engine Oil- Mobil Delvac 1 (5 lts can). Also changed headlamp bulbs to Philips Xtreme Vision since one of the older Philips Xtreme Power fused off! The engine oil costed me Rs.3850 and the bulbs Rs.900.So the total service cost comes to around 9800 Rupees.

I have to try this for the next service. I had come across very good reviews about Mobil Delvac 1. Even my 5th service costed almost 9K yesterday. The labor charges are very high these days.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by guyfrmblr

Good to know that you are enjoying your i20. Thanks for updating the thread. I see very few i20 owners regularly updating their threads.

We both are on the same boat. My front passenger AC vent adjuster was broken and they agreed to replace it under warranty yesterday. I had updated in my thread. They said it'll take around 2-3 weeks for the part to arrive.

I have to try this for the next service. I had come across very good reviews about Mobil Delvac 1. Even my 5th service costed almost 9K yesterday. The labor charges are very high these days.

I updated this thread after more than a year!

The AC vents are flimsy and break off easily. I have got almost all vents replaced under warranty till now! If it happens after warranty then i will ask the mechanic to open up the vent and fix the adjuster with fevi-kwik. Permanent solution.

Yes, labor charges are pretty high these days! How many kms has your i20 done?And is this your fifth paid service?

[guyfrmblr]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

How many kms has your i20 done?And is this your fifth paid service?

Yes, its the 5th service (2nd paid service). My i20's odo reads 40150 km.

The roof antenna's base is also broken. Will be fixing it with Araldite as its not covered under warranty. The entire antenna assembly costs around Rs 2000.

[sagarpadaki]

Its been 34 months since we bought our beloved i20! And we intend to keep him for a looong time for sure. So what was needed was a mid-life upgrade. I am not too much of a cosmetic guy. For me what is under the hood matters! Hence the usual cosmetic stuff were out of the window. Dad did not want to spend on alloys and the tyres have some 5-6K life left.

Sometime during January, i casually mentioned to my father about the RD box and how it improves the performance and driveability inside the city. i20 is no slouch. Its got THE best engine in the hatch back segment in India. But its a beast only after the 1900 RPM. Till then its a kitten! And a royal pain in the back negotiating Bangalore's B2B traffic.Since the car is a daily drive for my father, i kept egging him for the RD box and finally he agreed! Time to start my side of the action.

The news of the dual channel box from RD and its advantages over single channel were discussed extensively here.But there was no concrete info on its availability timeline for the i20. Had almost decided on a single channel box and even talked to a dealer near my home about the price. Then, thought of giving a call to RD themselves. Called them up and had a talk with Binoy about the availability of the dual box for i20. He said its about the connectors and suggested me to come over to check if they had a connector to suit the 6 speed version of the i20.

The team at RD were busy for the full of feb and and i kept bugging Binoy about when i can come over there. Finally on March 2nd, me and my dad hitched a drive to the RD workshop in Jakksandra. We were greeted by Binoy and later introduced to Karthik and Chetan. Karthik had a quick look at the engine bay and the went to see if they had a matching connector in stock. Luckily they had ,so the box was fitted and off we went for drive with Karthik at the wheels and one of his colleague monitoring the stats on his lappy. After a couple of kms around Jakksandra, the tuning was complete and Karthik asked us to go for a drive . To be frank, i did not feel much difference immediately when i drove but my father said he felt the difference after a couple of kms and was happy with it. So we finalized on the box.Since RD are not dealers , they cannot sell the box to customers directly. So we purchased the box from one of the dealers in Kormangala.

After driving with the box in P1 mode(80%) and P2 mode(20%) for 1000 kms(by me) and the other 2000 kms by my father here are the observations-

The car is definitely peppier to drive than before.The RPM rises quickly and reaches into the turbo zone earlier than before.The low and drive-ability has improved a lot and is lot easier to drive inside the city! On a short spin on the NICE road i observed that the in gear acceleration has improved quite a lot! While P2 mode is better than P1 , i haven't felt that much marked difference in the power increase. Dunno why! The city mileage has gone up by ~~ 1 kmpl and the car is a hoot to drive now! The ADSL technology works and the car adapts to your driving style.

Overall , a happy customer of the RD box. The guys at the RD are real professionals and know exactly what they are doing! And ours was the FIRST i20 to be Dual-channelised from RD!

[sagarpadaki]

Tyre change update.

The stock Apollo had done 37,000 kms and had a couple of mm of tread left. Also one of the tyres had two puncture near the side wall . Since monsoon has almost come in we felt it is the time to change the tyres.

Went to Madhus along with my father today morning and was happy to see Nikhil . Had a talk with him on what would be the suitable tyre size. I had decided with the MRF ZLO in 185/70-14 before going to the madhus. But Nikhil advised us that the 70 side profile Will be risky as in it can scrape the wheel well when undulations are encountered when travelling at high speeds on the highway. Point noted , because, Whenever we travel the boot is always loaded to the max and with four people on board the rear was already sagging very close to the tyre. So didn't want to risk a blow out at high speeds. Decided to stick with the original 185/65-14.

Nikhil then showed us different options in the selected tyre size. We were shown continental eco contact, Michelin xm2, Yokohama A drives and C drives, Apollo acellere. Didn't want to go for Apollo again since it came as stock and we had already used it.

I was bit skeptical about the C drives because of the soft side walls. But then According to Nikhil, among the tyres shown only C drives had a grip and comfort which is more than the other 4 that were shown.Rest four were more or less the same in terms of grip and comfort. So bit the bullet and decided to go for C drives in stock size. Paid 4400 bucks for each tyre. Brought 5 tyres . Plan to use these for 50,000km since the Apollos were replaced pre maturely.

Will update about the c drive experience as time passes.

[guyfrmblr]

I somehow missed your RD box update. Glad to know that you are happy with the performance. I have few noob questions regarding the box:

1. Is it plug and play type like Petes? Can it be removed easily before going to service centers?
2. Does the engine note changes after the installation?
3. What was the damage to your pocket?

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by guyfrmblr

I somehow missed your RD box update. Glad to know that you are happy with the performance. I have few noob questions regarding the box:

1. Is it plug and play type like Petes? Can it be removed easily before going to service centers?
2. Does the engine note changes after the installation?
3. What was the damage to your pocket?

1. Yes , it is plug and play. 5 mins to install/ remove
2. No change in engine note
3. 26,000 Rupees.

[Chitta Pradhan]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

1. Yes , it is plug and play. 5 mins to install/ remove
2. No change in engine note
3. 26,000 Rupees.

What about your experience post tyre-change to C -drives? My Verna 1.6 CRDI does have some turbo lag below 1500/1600 rpm. Do you think RD Box will reduce the lag? Your FE increase in city is just icing on the cake. Has there been any increase in highway FE as well?

I have read some where that RD box increase the engine sound, but it seems your experience is just the opposite. My car has now done 33k & is under warranty till Sept-2013 ( it's a sept-11 model). May I plan for box in coming September? Will solicit your advice. Also which one will be better among RD & Petes. Does these boxes reduce engine life by any chance?

I have driven a friend's i-20 CRDI with 5 gears prior to purchase of my car. The acceleration was terrific after 2000 rpm. I did a top speed of 160 kph. That car too had weak AC which was the only thing about the car my friend was unhappy about. That time it had done around 35k. I could not notice any rattles in his car. By Sis's Swift DDIS ( old model) rattles all around at 25k. Speaks a lot about the build quality of Hyundai.

Wish you lots of enjoyable moments with your i-20.

Thanks

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

5 mins to install/ remove

Depends on the positioning of the connectors. Definitely not as easy on the Punto 90HP. My hands can't get proper access to the connectors, let alone properly pull them out.

However - the good part is that RD team has been helpful till date- and I visited them to get it removed before taking the car to the service center. Will be taking it back to them again for putting it back. Good thing then - that FIAT has 15k service intervals!

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Chitta Pradhan

What about your experience post tyre-change to C -drives? My Verna 1.6 CRDI does have some turbo lag below 1500/1600 rpm. Do you think RD Box will reduce the lag? Your FE increase in city is just icing on the cake. Has there been any increase in highway FE as well?

I have read some where that RD box increase the engine sound, but it seems your experience is just the opposite. My car has now done 33k & is under warranty till Sept-2013 ( it's a sept-11 model). May I plan for box in coming September? Will solicit your advice. Also which one will be better among RD & Petes. Does these boxes reduce engine life by any chance?

I have driven a friend's i-20 CRDI with 5 gears prior to purchase of my car. The acceleration was terrific after 2000 rpm. I did a top speed of 160 kph. That car too had weak AC which was the only thing about the car my friend was unhappy about. That time it had done around 35k. I could not notice any rattles in his car. By Sis's Swift DDIS ( old model) rattles all around at 25k. Speaks a lot about the build quality of Hyundai.

Wish you lots of enjoyable moments with your i-20.

Thanks

The tyres are changed just yesterday. They have not even run-in yet. Will definitely update this thread once they are scrubbed onto the tarmac properly.

Yes the RD box will help reduce turbo lag, in the sense, it will put the engine into the turbo zone faster than the stock.So you can enjoy the immense pleasure of having your engine in the peak turbo zone. I would recommend it highly. Highway mileage has increased by almost 1.5 kmpl. This inspite of ripping the engine @ 3500 RPM in each gear. This is in P2 mode.

I would say go ahead and put in the RD box now itself. Go for the dual channel one. Before going to service just un-plug it. It hardly takes 5 mins for hyundai diesel cars. Why wait for so long when you can enjoy the car now itself? You will not turn back once you have installed it!I can assure you that! RD dual channel box is definitely better than Petes. Besides RD is a home grown company who have made a really good product in the DieselTRONIC. Does help them if you support them by buying their products instead of going for international brands. Regarding engine life, it will have a very less impact on it. So don't worry.

My car is has only one rattle coming from the center console. Otherwise the car is completely sound free

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Depends on the positioning of the connectors. Definitely not as easy on the Punto 90HP. My hands can't get proper access to the connectors, let alone properly pull them out.

However - the good part is that RD team has been helpful till date- and I visited them to get it removed before taking the car to the service center. Will be taking it back to them again for putting it back. Good thing then - that FIAT has 15k service intervals!

I told 5 mins keeping i20 in mind. Ofcourse on some cars it will take more time to fix/ remove it. Point in case is the ford diesel which has connector at the back which is not easily accessible.

Yes, the RD team is very good. Very down to earth and friendly.Most of them are snobbish or arrogant.There are many examples on this forum itself. Rarely you find tuners these days who are as amicable in interacting as the team at RD is . .