5 months & 10000 kms with my Jeep Meridian 4x4: Observations so far

The rubber insulation on the door are a cause of squeaks on bad roads which is very annoying in an otherwise silent car.

BHPian shashankjain16 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

10,000 km update:

So, I managed to clock 10k kilometres in a matter of 5 months, a new record for my car ownership. A lot of it has to be credited to the sheer driving pleasure of this car and the comfort level it offers. I have been to Dehradun, village roads of Rajasthan, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and everywhere the car has performed flawlessly. Just last week I did 400km trips on 3 consecutive alternate days without fatigue. The only destination left is the mountains, which we are planning to visit pretty soon.

And, luckily, the car has been niggle free so far.

As I have gotten more used to the car, I have got a few more observations to share:

The AC is good, but you have to keep the blower at high speed to let it cool the cabin. If the car has been parked in the sun under the scorching heat of 45 degrees, it will take 20-25 mins to cool the entire cabin. But once done, it will be chill and very comfortable.

My average in the last few trips has been 11-12km/l. AC was running at full speed, the car was loaded with 3-4 people, there were frequent hard accelerations, and highway runs were at 120 km/hr constant speed. Above 100, the average is less. The best is between 80-100. I even got a 15.8 average in summer. So, it really depends a lot on driving conditions. Driven correctly, the car can give a really good average.

The glass area and visibility is worse compared to my Duster. The windows are smaller and even the windshield area is not that great. I will miss the views of the mountains a bit I think.

There haven't been any new rattling noises so far. In fact, some that were coming, in the beginning, have gone away. The rubber squeaking issue popped up again which I have fixed with a bit of DIY described below.

I have also applied these double-sided tape + transparent tape + some grease on all 4 door latches to prevent metal cracking noise on bad roads.

Fixing the squeaking rubber issue:

As mentioned earlier, the rubber insulation on the door are a cause of squeaks on bad roads which is very annoying in an otherwise silent car. During my 5k service, I mentioned it and they fixed it to some extent. But the issue came back again after a few days.

I wasn't in the mood of visiting SC again so, I got into fixing it myself. The fix was easy - proper lubrication.

Silicon-Based Lubricant:

I ordered a spray lubricant from Amazon and sprayed it on all the door seals. Car was silent again. But after a few days, the sound was back. I realised that silicon-based lubricants don't stick long. Repeated ingress/outgress wipe away the lubricant applied and noise creeps back in.

Applying Silicon Spray.

White Lithium Grease:

Next, I tried White Lithium Grease . I applied it again on all doors. This time, it stuck, in fact, a bit too much, so it jammed the doors a little and force had to be applied to open them. I removed a lot of it by scraping rubber with a wooden spoon. After a few ingress/outguesses the door opened as before and the grease stuck well. It has been 5000 km since, and the noise hasn't crept in.

Few things to keep in mind before you try this solution:

• User surgical gloves (I had a few left over from the covid era) to apply grease. Otherwise, your hands will stink for days.
• Apply a very thin layer of grease. It sticks well and extra will only cause issues in the door opening.
• Some of the grease will stick to the metal part of the doors. Don't worry, and don't wipe it.
• I read online that White Lithium grease reduces the life of rubber and plastic parts. I still went for it as the rubber seals are inexpensive and I can get them replaced without a major cost.

There was one more source of squeaks in one of the outer panels of the doors, which I fixed using silicon spray.

The outer panel which was causing noise.

5000 km Service:

My first service was done in April's first week. It was mostly general checkups, lubrication and wheel alignment/balancing. I opted for WA/WB as the car wasn't dead straight on highways. The total was around Rs 2800.

During the feedback call, I said that the cleaning could have been better. It was casual feedback, but they took it pretty seriously. I receive multiple calls about complaints and the service head offered free cleaning at the time of my convenience as a compliment. It was a nice gesture.

DEF Refill:

Hearing horror stories of non-recommended DEF causing issues, I have decided to get DEF refilled from SC only. A few days ago I got it refilled after almost 4500 km. The tank gobbled up 10 litres of it. It cost around Rs 1100.

PS. I don't have many pics of the car right now, but soon there is going to be a trip to the mountains, where hoping to capture a lot of pics with the beast in it's natural habitat.

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