Re: One last wish | Restoring my father's 1995 Maruti Esteem Following up on my previous post on this thread.
I still remember November 2005 , with me as driver and my cousin along with me. Both first time drivers, it was my first day learning to drive our 95 esteem and within 15 minutes of driving --since i had superficial knowledge of how cars work and could imagine what happens when we turn the ignition key on till the time the exhaust gases come out of the exhaust-- i broke the left front glass of 95 Esteem which is alongside the headlight. Nevertheless, that was the only regret and the only mistake committed while learning to drive.I persevered and from learning license to permanent license , 95 Esteem played its part.
Once I got my permanent license then once-twice a month me and my cousin used to go to NH1 , Karnal Haveli and in all those moments loved the way she behaved until you are past 80 km\hr and then she exhibited handling problems which would make anyone run away from the vehicle. Alas, couldn't blame her one bit as it was not her fault. The accident , which i insinuated in my last post here had did the damage internally. It had maimed her and I wouldn't blame her one bit.
Anyways, after 80 km\hr it was as if you are trying to steady the course of a fast moving boat on water!. Above 80 km\hr any rights - left would actually move the rear of the car in that direction , and then one would have to turn the steering in opposite direction to steady the car. It was scary sometimes but it was fun! On top of that the shoe braking , push hard , and wheels would lock , loved those wheels locking moments as well. Its ironic, I loved all those weird handling problems, wheel locking moments, interspersed with a car overheating instance on the same highway when instead of pulling over, i was trying to find gaps among the little traffic we had on those days on highways , with a kind of a logic running in my mind, that if my car would just find open spaces and stay above 60 kmph the heat exchange would happen fast and thus avoiding breakdown. At that moment my attention constantly switched from eye on the road to the temperature gauge needle.
The trick worked until i reached Delhi and then the car broke down!.
Then one fine day , again on my usual Delhi-karnal-Delhi excursions , I could feel performance degradation coupled with car turning off as if someone manually turned off the car the moment we slowed down the car. one thing I always had in keep my mind while driving our Esteem was that i had to keep my improvising cap on, because one never knew what our beloved Esteem would throw at us! Anyways, came back and got it checked with our preferred mechanic and 'lo and behold' what we found. Engine oil mixed with coolant !! It seems head gasket was blown or something as oil was mixing with coolant. The previous inference was drawn by the MASS people , as they were the ones who opened engine and performed an engine OH. 2-3 weeks down the line and the car was back for use and I continued to use it , once taking it to Manali as well.
At the end of 2008 , the car under body gradually showed signs of rust to an extend that one look under the carpet , front left passenger , one could see portions of rust along with a small hole. only then My father decided to finally let go of the vehicle. By this time I was already driving Opel Astra extensively, and rarely I picked up esteem.
There were 2 parts of our 95 esteem experience , one pre accident experience which my father, mother and more importantly my twin brother-sister would know better. As I was always in the passenger seat all that time . The other experience is the post accident experience , which I loved all the time as other than driving this car , the learning that were imbibed by me when its comes to improvising , was worth it. I cherish it to this day. Last word , I never blamed our 95 Esteem for all its post accident blemishes, it was not her fault.
Thanks to the creater of this 95 Esteem thread, as without which I would not have found an avenue to share my experience of 95 Esteem. |