[Tuisha110HP]

Originally Posted by sen2693

Great review!

The stock lights that you replaced, were they Xenon projector lamps?

Also, does it not void warranty to do so?

Thanks Sen. Congratulations on your purchase.

The stock lights are H7 halogens in both projectors and the high beams. I replaced them with xenons/ HID kit.

The answer to the second part of the question is precarious. It totally depends on service centers. Though technically it may void your warranty. However, the setup is totally plug and play. If say for example, I have to claim something in warranty which is related to electricals, I can remove them, fit in my original halogen lamps and they wont be able to track any changes done ever.

[Tuisha110HP]

ODO at 17800 kms

The car has been performing really great. I recently did make a Delhi- Siliguri Trip again and this time around, I took a break at Gorakhpur The driving time was again flat 24 hours and the car performed beautifully.

The car has seen lots of country side and highways after the last service.





During my stay at Cooch Behar, West Bengal, I did make a quick visit to Darjeeling. The roads were awe-inspiring yet frightening. I did return back to Siliguri the same day. Gorged on some delicious momos and picked a few bottles of bamboo shoot pickles as well.









The car never ran out of breath on the hills even though the car was loaded with 4 passengers. If you are not stopping, you wont need to shift to first gear ever.

Few good pointers:

a) No niggles or issues faced during the entire trip. Touchwood.
b) This car is a mile muncher. You can cover long distances without getting tired.
c) The mileage is incredible. I got 21 kmpl with 4 passengers and boot loaded to the brim.
d) I recently did a high beams swap as well. Fitted the new Osram lasers 150%. The throw and coverage has improved by around 30% and I dont think I am going for any upgrade in near future.
e) For my kind of driving, the brakes performed well. However the feedback changes a lot after some hard highways breaking. Also, I am getting the infamous steering judders which I think is inherent in Skoda genes. Have to get the disks and pads checked.

Few Questionable Pointers:

a) I still get a clunk noise from steering column whenever the right tyre falls on uneven road undulations. More on this in coming post.

b) After a couple of long drives, when I turned off the ignition, I heard a peculiar noise from engine bay like "GRRRRRR" Not the usual fuel pump sound, something very rough and goes away after 3-4 seconds. Have to take it to service center to check out what can be the issue. Kindly note that it did happen only twice : Once after a 300 kms continuous driving and once after getting stuck in traffic for more than an hour.

Looking forward to hearing any leads or solutions on the said issue from BHPians.

I kept the twist for the end. Not every story ends in a good note. Especially when our highways are filled with idiots pulling off paranormal activities at own free will. Trailer to next post.

[Tuisha110HP]

One fine morning, while I was travelling back to Cooch Behar, West Bengal from Darjeeling, had to witness the unfortunate accident.



I was there waiting for a train crossing in a railway junction. A truck rammed into me while stopping and there it was. The boot of my beloved car had a huge dent and it changed its demographics. I was so angry and frustrated. However did swallow that and moved on. Thought of not creating a scene as it would not have yielded anything positive. Glad how the car took the impact. Compared to the sound of the impact, the actual impact was minimal and the inside of the boot was not deformed at all.

After I came back to Delhi, visited Aryaveer Skoda. They were super helpful with the claim process and gave me the vehicle back in flat 3 days. The boot and the camera were replaced.

Overall bill was close to 43K out of which I had to pay around Rs 2600 (Rs 1500 file charges and 5% for salvage value of the old part). The overall experience was nice. I would rate the paint job maybe 8/10. The color matching was perfect. But when closely looked into, you can find 3-4 pin holes in the paint which I thought of ignoring.

Since I was getting the boot replaced and painted, thought of getting the lip spoiler as well. A small gift from my side for the impact it took. The lip spoiler was for Rs 4500 and the ASC where kind enough to get that painted for Rs 1000 as they were anyways painting the boot. Otherwise the total cost would have been around 7k.





Now, it was time for the annual ceramic coating maintenance at Detailing Devils, Pitampura. The car had developed a lot of unavoidable swirl marks and got some scratches as well during the first year of ownership. The guys did a good job of removing as much as they can and restored the shine to a great extend.





I did order a Turtle Wax Ceramic spray and got that sprayed as well since all the dirt and scratches were removed. Found it to be very easy to use and enhancing the shine and smoothness of the coating. Overall a very nice product.

[Tuisha110HP]

Originally Posted by Tuisha110HP

ODO at 17800 kms

b) After a couple of long drives, when I turned off the ignition, I heard a peculiar noise from engine bay like "GRRRRRR" Not the usual fuel pump sound, something very rough and goes away after 3-4 seconds. Have to take it to service center to check out what can be the issue. Kindly note that it did happen only twice : Once after a 300 kms continuous driving and once after getting stuck in traffic for more than an hour.

Looking forward to hearing any leads or solutions on the said issue from BHPians.

The strange "GRRR" sound was there and it started appearing more often than before when I used to switch off the ignition after driving for about 30-40 kms non-stop. Something similar to BHPian Sachin_CS' car.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ml#post4842863 (My Skoda Rapid 1.5L Diesel DSG. EDIT: 2 years of ownership and 40,000 km up!)


It was not the usual fuel pump sound, but something very loud and annoying. I tried to capture the sound and uploaded it in the below link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqunR08n22U

This time around, I had to speak in details with a few technicians to make them understand that it is the vacuum solenoid which is making this noise. The TECHNICIANS were kind of not ready to understand how can a vacuum solenoid can give up in just 18000 kms. But then my service advisor is a great chap and asked me to keep the car for the day and they will drive it to confirm. Next day, I got a call from ASC stating the part was indeed faulty and was in its initial stages of going kaput. Hence it was making that sound randomly and not every time I switch off the ignition. They replaced the part in warranty and delivered the car to my home. Overall experience was 8/10. Two marks deducted for lack of attitude /knowledge in technicians in acknowledging the issue and making it sound like the issue is normal and I should wait till I start getting the sound everyday.

[ATTACH=ARYAVEER_DEL02_001_2021-2022_000223.pdf]2152087[/ATTACH]

[Tuisha110HP]

FE Retrofit's Pathetic Customer Support:

The car has been running niggle free *touchwood*. Crossed 22000 kms.

During of the highway drives, my right side low beam's HID kit flickered and went kaput. I checked the cable and found it to be burnt. Thank God, for averting an untoward incident.

https://youtu.be/4DoprdKJeRw

FE Retrofit , a good retrofit brand as what is being claimed by a few showed true colors and again re-emphasized why we need to trust only trusted manufacturers. They had a few contact channels, which eventually dried off. Now they basically deals and supports customers through Instagram and FB.

https://feretrofit.com/

As you can see from the chat history, I have been trying to get a response from them, no support whatsoever. I refrain from putting out negative publicity for any product, I am left with no choice as I cant keep driving at nights with just one headlight.

Just to add to my worries is that fact that connector from the ballast/IMP ignitor to the bulbs are completely different from all brands and I have to replace the entire unit if they dont send across the connector to me.

[sachin_cs]

Hi there, I was casually going through your ownership thread and when I read about that Grrr noise from vacuum solenoid, I was about to type a reply but upon scrolling further I realised that you have already gone through my thread, I'm glad that I documented it and it helped you in a way.

And I'm really happy to see your beauty munching miles and also slightly envious that I have not yet been to hills in my car

Wishing you happy miles with one hell of a car, we are the lucky ones who picked up that 1.5 tdi before it was discontinued.

[Tuisha110HP]

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

I realised that you have already gone through my thread, I'm glad that I documented it and it helped you in a way.

And I'm really happy to see your beauty munching miles and also slightly envious that I have not yet been to hills in my car
.

Hey Sachin, thanks a lot for documenting the issue in this forum. ASC were reluctant to admit the issue. You wont believe I even shared your vehicle number to them and asked them to check in their database. Then only they reluctantly admitted to keeping the vehicle for further checks.

Oh yes! the car runs beautifully in hills. Good roads and twisties is what this car LOVES

[sachin_cs]

Originally Posted by Tuisha110HP

You wont believe I even shared your vehicle number to them and asked them to check in their database. Then only they reluctantly admitted to keeping the vehicle for further checks.

That's really annoying thing about VAG warranty claims, having replaced few parts under warranty I have learned that they have a lengthy warranty claim process, first you put a complaint then they will report it to further higher up in the hierarchy and once they approve then only it is replaced. I had a mixed experience to be honest, my vacuum sensor, glovebox lid rattle were taken care of very well but then arm rest rattle was not honoured, in the end I solved it myself.

Going by your thread, I also realized that I should update my thread as recently I got her serviced and my odo stands at 43k.

[Tuisha110HP]

24000 KMS Update

I drive more on highways and there is some spirited driving indulgence every now and then. The feel from the stock rotors and pads were bad, not terrible though. I decided to try on the best sports/ street pads from EBC- the yellow stuff brake pads.

Bought them from Autopsyche, Gurgaon for 8k INR and did cleaning of rear drums as well. I am using the pads on stock rotors. The run-in of the pads as per EBC is an extensive affair and certainly exhaustive. Completed those religiously.






Here are my observations:

Positives:

a) Feel wise, way better than stock pads.

b) The braking distance has definitely reduced.

c) There were some fine lines on stock rotors which were causing some
brake judders in steering wheel. Happy to report that the bed-in layers removed all those imperfections and the rotors are as clean as possible.

Negatives:

a) I feel the stock rotors cant dissipate the heat from the rotors as effectively as needed, maybe because of the high friction nature of the pads. After some hot braking instances, the braking fades. I am assuming it is due to stock rotors. Planning to go with EBC slotted disk once I am back to Delhi.

b) These are advertised as low dust pads. Somehow I see the just a little less dust on alloys as compared to Stock pads. So you can take that statement with a pinch of salt.




Coming back to the car, the pick up and mileage has dropped a little. Maybe the car is due for its service in 2k kms and already covered 13k kms in a country like ours.

Observations:

1) The vacuum solenoid issue which cropped up sometime back and the part was replaced, I see the same noise cropping up albeit very occasionally and noise levels are very minute.

Thread to the issue:


2) When the right tire goes over potholes, there is a clunky noise from under the steering column OR from right side suspension. This is persistent since ages and a few visits to ASC didnot help either. As per them, everything is good.

Leaving you all with a couple of pictures from one of morning drives to Jaigaon and Phuntsholing border gates.

[COMMUTER]

Originally Posted by Tuisha110HP

FE Retrofit's Pathetic Customer Support:

The car has been running niggle free *touchwood*. Crossed 22000 kms.

During of the highway drives, my right side low beam's HID kit flickered and went kaput. I checked the cable and found it to be burnt. Thank God, for averting an untoward incident.

I had been following their marketing swing for a few years now but have never been able to bring myself to spend the exorbitant amount they are charging for parts that are available for change from foreign websites.

It would be better for you to get rid of the whole setup and get a hella LED bar.

For extensive night driving which at times lasting all night long in any weather condition,nothing beat the halogens in oem or aux.

[Tuisha110HP]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

I had been following their marketing swing for a few years now but have never been able to bring myself to spend the exorbitant amount they are charging for parts that are available for change from foreign websites.

Very true COMMUTER. Unfortunately, I have been bitten by the same marketing gimmick of theirs. I should have any day trusted a renowned brand where escalation matrix exist or even a local accessories shop would have provided a better support. Once I reach back to Delhi, will figure out the solutions. As of now, my car is blind in one eye.

[COMMUTER]

Originally Posted by Tuisha110HP

Very true COMMUTER. Unfortunately, I have been bitten by the same marketing gimmick of theirs. I should have any day trusted a renowned brand where escalation matrix exist or even a local accessories shop would have provided a better support. Once I reach back to Delhi, will figure out the solutions. As of now, my car is blind in one eye.

If I am in your place, I would swap both the lights with a pair of 55w bulbs with a good relay for now. It is very hazardous for the lights to be left defective.

[Tuisha110HP]

Originally Posted by COMMUTER

If I am in your place, I would swap both the lights with a pair of 55w bulbs with a good relay for now. It is very hazardous for the lights to be left defective.

Hey Commuter,

Yes, you are right. I have visited a local accessories shop and negotiated a lot to give me a wiring harness. Unfortunately, the wiring harness wont fit in as the bulbs are different. Had to replace the entire wiring unit including the bulbs as well to connect back to the existing wiring.

[COMMUTER]

Originally Posted by Tuisha110HP

Hey Commuter,

Unfortunately, the wiring harness wont fit in as the bulbs are different. Had to replace the entire wiring unit

Good. Please do keep updating on the developments. Do consider a discretely slim LED bar too.

[Akash86M]

Hi, did you manage to update ur headlight kit? If so, please suggest the name. Thx