[ramnaresh_2000]

Paytm Fastag Update:

Just like everyone in the forum using Paytm fastag, I was unsure if it will work after 29th Feb'24. Many reports and news articles suggested that it will work, but again theu said I cannot recharge after 29th, why live in so much uncertainty? Ordered my HDFC Fastag, the process was seemingly easy, everything was done online.

Applied from their website, video KYC was done. Received the new Fastag within 2 business days of ordering via Bluedart.

Closed the old Paytm fastag from their app, got the refund, transferred the amount to my bank account and removed the Paytm app. Bye bye Paytm, you have served me well, especially during demonetization and Covid lockdown.

Now comes the painful part of removing the old Fastag. Being OCD person, I did not want the old fastag to leave marks or glue residue. Followed below steps

Step 1: Remove the old fastag, I was successful in removing only 50%, rest was stuck to the windshield. Tried to scrape with nails, but no luck, the glue was strong.



Step 2: Leave the vehicle in scorching sunlight for 1 hour.

Step 3: Keep below items handy

• Microfiber towel
• WD40 spray
• Razor shaving blade

Lord Ganesh idol to give you strength and courage



Step 4: Spray the WD40 over the Fastag from inside, scrape the Fastag slowly (make sure you do not cut your fingers in the process ). Scrape with light pressure from the edges. As you scrape, spray little bit of WD40.





Step 5: Make sure to clean the windshield as you progress, to ensure no scratches during the scraping. Continue scraping until the complete residue is gone. Clean the windsheild with microfiber cloth.



Step 6: Wash off the microfiber cloth with detergent soap to remove any glue residue from it.



Like it was never there, old Paytm Fastag gone, hello HDFC Fastag





Step 7: Pat yourself on the back for 15 minutes well spent.

[ramnaresh_2000]

My monthly tyre and trim maintenance activity:

Every once in a month I give my car tyres and trim a nice wash and polish. This helps in keeping the vehicle look new again. Most underrated part of car cleaning activity is tyre polish and trim polish. Regular tyre and trim wash can do wonders to your cars look if done regularly.

Products used:

• Microfiber cloth
• Car Shampoo (any brand)
• Bucket of water
• Trim restoration liquid
• Tyre polish

In my case I was out of tyre polish, so used leather seat polish. Results look the same.

Before wash:

All the brake dust on alloy wheels make them look older than they actually are.







Step 1:

Wash the tyres, alloys and trim nicely with soapy water and microfiber cloth. If you have a tyre brush, well and good, else good old hand wash is fine.



Step 2:

Wash again with plain water to remove any shampoo residue.

Step 3:

Let it dry for 10-15 minutes, then take very little amount of tyre polish or trim polish and apply all over the tyre and trims evenly.







Step 4:

Clean off any excess polish on tyres, trim or body (this attracts a lot of dust).

End result is a brand new looking tyres and car. These are 2018 manufactured tyres, just FYI.



1 hour of sweat and hard work paid off well. Happy with the end results.

Day 2:

Take a wet microfiber cloth and wipe off all the dust accumulated on the polished areas. This ensures clean look for another week or two.

[Gotcha]

You don't have to take so much trouble. Just use 70% isopropyl alcohol wipes or doctor's alcohol swabs on the old sticker before peeling to loosen it and then wipe once again with a new swab after peeling to remove the remaining glue. No razor blades or WD40 required.

Originally Posted by ramnaresh_2000

Paytm Fastag Update:

Now comes the painful part of removing the old Fastag. Being OCD person, I did not want the old fastag to leave marks or glue residue. Followed below steps

Step 1: Remove the old fastag, I was successful in removing only 50%, rest was stuck to the windshield. Tried to scrape with nails, but no luck, the glue was strong.

Attachment 2572560

Step 2: Leave the vehicle in scorching sunlight for 1 hour.

Step 3: Keep below items handy

• Microfiber towel
• WD40 spray
• Razor shaving blade

Lord Ganesh idol to give you strength and courage

Attachment 2572561

Step 4: Spray the WD40 over the Fastag from inside, scrape the Fastag slowly (make sure you do not cut your fingers in the process ). Scrape with light pressure from the edges. As you scrape, spray little bit of WD40.

Attachment 2572562

Attachment 2572563

Step 5: Make sure to clean the windshield as you progress, to ensure no scratches during the scraping. Continue scraping until the complete residue is gone. Clean the windsheild with microfiber cloth.

Attachment 2572565

Step 6: Wash off the microfiber cloth with detergent soap to remove any glue residue from it.

Attachment 2572566

[amit_shimla]

Good to know information. I switched from Paytm to Kotak fastag (even though from the core of my heart I wanted to stick with Paytm and hoping for a solution for them) however, mine came out simply with a small pull and left behind no mess at all.

[VinodDevil81]

Originally Posted by ramnaresh_2000

Paytm Fastag Update:
[*]Razor shaving blade
Scrape with light pressure from the edges. As you scrape, spray little bit of WD40.

Never use metallic instruments like razor blades for scraping on the windshield or painted parts.
You might have successfully removed the fastag with that blade, but in my opinion it was too risky.
Because a metallic blade would surely leave slight scratch marks on the wind-shield, no matter how much ever lubricant you use.
Instead, you could have used a plastic tool called "spudger", which comes as a part of most mobile and laptop repair kits.
It is available on Amazon.
I successfully removed a fastag using just kerosene and a spudger only, and it was very easy.
Plastic spudger is sharp like a blade, and serves the purpose, but being plastic, it won't scratch the windshield.

[sagaranjos]

Originally Posted by ramnaresh_2000

Paytm Fastag Update:

Now comes the painful part of removing the old Fastag. Being OCD person, I did not want the old fastag to leave marks or glue residue. Followed below steps

Step 1: Remove the old fastag, I was successful in removing only 50%, rest was stuck to the windshield. Tried to scrape with nails, but no luck, the glue was strong.

Iso Propyl Alcohol (https://amzn.to/3T608A0) did the trick for me.
And now I am removing sticker residue from all over the house!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX7aqHyXjls

[squarecut]

While browsing my mobile, I came across this topical post. Then I realised that I used to be a regular visitors of this forum before I got busy and forgot all about this forum.

I bcame a member of this forum in 2007 and my last visit here was in 2012, and here I am after a gap of 12 years !

I think removing the fasttag is not all that difficult that this post makes it out to be.

My initial fasttag used to be of Axisbank. The balance of the fasttag was over while my car was going from Gorakhpur to Bhopal during february 2022. I was unable to top up the fasttag because the registered mobile number had temporarily gone out of order. So my daughter who was driving got a payTM fasttag from a toll booth and stuck the payTM fasttag. Removing the Axisbank fastag took her moments.

Now that payTM fasttag is no longer working, I got myself HDFC fastag. Today when I went to the local post office where my wife had some work, I tried to remove the payTM fastag while my wife was in the post office. I tried to peel the fastag. The portion that faced me came off cleanly. The part containing RFID has glue in it that is a little more stubborn. I used my fingernail and those sticky parts also came off cleanly without much effort. There was slight marking left which would have taken another few seconds to remove , but then my wife returned and so I postponed the leftover task of removing the sticker fragmant for later.

All this took me less than three minutes and the balance work would not take more than another minute.

The tools needed- my fingers and nails. Time taken- less than five minutes. Result, no marks left in the windscreen

So this task of removing the fasttag has been done twice in the car, once by my daughter in 2022, and this time by me in 2024. It is a non issue really.

[Kar_Om]

I took following steps to remove Paytm Fastag from my car windshield:

1. Rub microfiber cloth dipped in hot water on the Fastag, assuming that it will loosen up the glue.
2. Try to scratch any one corner of Fastag using fingernail and peel off the Fastag which will leave sticky material on the windshield.
3. Start rubbing the sticky material from its borders using fingers, which will avoid any scratch marks on windshield.

[Drdriver]

Originally Posted by ramnaresh_2000

Paytm Fastag Update:

Didn't need to spray too much of WD40 either. If you run the blade perpendicular to its edge, you can scrape off the whole glue patch in 5-6 rounds. Very detailed and functioning hack. Thank you so much

[ramnaresh_2000]

I have started noticing tar marks on my Compass lately. Very tiny black dots marks on all 4 doors. It was not bothering me until last few months, they were more and more marks. No matter how much shampoo I used, they were not going away.

I bought this Tar and Bugs removal spray on Amazon after doing some research. It costed me some 450 bucks. The results were good, I wouldn't say it worked 100%, but it was able to remove 80-85% of the Tar marks. Maybe regular usage will give better results.

I followed below steps after reading instructions on the can.

1. Wiped all doors clean with a damp microfiber cloth
2. Let it dry fo few minutes
3. Sprayed generous amount of spray on all 4 doors
4. Let it sit for 40-60 seconds
5. Wiped off the spray
6. Repeat again on places where the tar is still stuck

Happy with the overall results.

Tar Marks on the doors, I am using a 3 years old smartphone, not sure if it captured the details properly.







Sprayed generously



Work in progress, you can see the Tar melting gradually









Final results

[Cresterk]

Decent results. A tar and bug spray should be on everyone's detailing arsenal.
Also an iron remover and a water spot remover.

Just don't use standard tar removers on ceramic coated cars, they will ruin the hydrophobicity.

[ramnaresh_2000]

After 5 years the rear wiper gave up, I used it very rarely, but 5 years is a good life on OEM wiper.

Ordered one in Amazon 399 bucks. Reviews were decent, so went ahead.

The damaged wiper



Remove the cap, just spread the cap both ways with your fingers and pull it upwards



Now fold the rear wiper in 90 degrees angle and pull it



The rear wiper pulled out



The locking mechanism



Now install the new one and press it back, put the cap back.



Installation is pretty straight forward, took hardly couple of minutes. Happy with the outcome, the fit was good, just like OEM part. Not tested yet, hoping the performance is good.

[vattyboy]

The quality of the wipers on a Jeep is truly exceptional. In my experience, they have consistently lasted for over 3 years without any issues. I've found that the price of Jeep wipers is comparable to those of Mercedes, and rightfully so, considering the longevity and performance they offer.

[ramnaresh_2000]

On 25th Jun, I took my Jeep Compass for its scheduled service (5th year or 75k kms serive) because it had been jerking a lot during initial start-up. It still had 30 days left for service, but only 186 kms till I hit the 15,000 kms milestone since last service.



Booked appointment via Jeep Life app at Mody Jeep (Moosapet). Handed over the vehicle at 10:30 AM. The only issue I was facing was the initial start-up jerks with loud noise. The service advisor informed me that the engine mount needed to be replaced, which would cost ₹15,000. He mentioned that it is normal in Compass which are 5 years old (someone please confirm), the engine mount has a rubber inside which hardens and then breaks as it ages, design flaw? The initial estimate was ₹46,000, including general service and timing belt changes.

I recalled that I received an Whatsapp message from them that they were offering 20% discount on WA and WB, 10% on labor charges and 5% on spares.



The SA obliged, but the discounts will be applicable only at the end and not during estimation. I was fine with that, and asked them to remove fumigation and AC cleaning charges which were like 1,500 bucks. I handed over the vehicle, SA confirmed that timing belt changes need a lot of time and delivery can be made next day only. I handed over the vehicle and left.

After an hour I got the initial estimates, I approved it. During the service, they also found that the front disc pads were nearing the end of their life and needed to be replaced, which cost an additional ₹9,500. I asked for photos, to my surprise they sent me a link, when I clicked on that link it routed me to below page. Nice utilization of AWS services from Amazon.

I felt like there was some life left on the break pads, posted the pictures in my Jeep Whatsapp group and few confirmed that it still had 4 to 5k kms life left. I was not comfortable driving it like that, hence went ahead with break pad changes as well.















Later received another link for engine mount charges, approved that as well. Next day got a call from SA that the vehicle is ready and I can collect it. Went and verified the bill, made the payment and left. I need to get used to the new break pads, they are biting quickly.

Along with the engine mount changes, the final bill came to ₹69,000, but after a discount, it was reduced to ₹66,000.







I'm happy to report that the heavy jerks during start-ups are completely gone now!

The SA also mentioned that battery may need to be changed soon, upon checking the volts it was showing a healthy 14.2v on running. I was not sure, need to get it checked with an expert. The battery was 2 years old.

Next up is tyres, I have my heart locked on Goodyears AT tyres, but brain says to go with Yokohoma HT. The cost is same for both. Another 44k plus TPMS another 3k.

PS: My wife is pissed at me because I did not get her a new iPhone, but spending a bomb on my Compass. She even said that her iPhone would have costed a lot cheaper .

[ramnaresh_2000]

I often keep my engine bay clean, and always check for any rat droppings or bites. Lately have been busy/lazy, today was shocked after checking after almost a month.

Looks like salt water cleaning by service center folks has created white salty layer on my black plastics.



Cleaned the engine bay neatly with some car shampoo and damp cloth, gave it a nice coat of Turtle wax trim restorer. Voila, now it is sparkling like a new engine bay (well almost).



Before and after shots, day and night difference.



Cleaning the honey comb grill is a nightmare. Any simple/quick solutions?