Issue I reported year ago is yet to be resolved by Tata service centre

Coming from a Swift Dzire diesel, I was enjoying my new Tata Altroz petrol. But only after 7 days of ownership, I encountered this issue.

BHPian CannedShroud recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Just got back from the Tata Service Center. My warranty is ending at the end of Jan and they still haven’t been able to figure out an issue that was raised since week 1 of delivery. I am posting here to know if anyone else has faced a similar issue or can help shed some light. Any help or input will be appreciated. Thanks a lot. Here we go.

Context

I own a Tata Altroz iTurbo XZ+. I took the delivery of the car 1 year ago (on Jan 24th 2022). Everything was great. The delivery process was amazing, and the team and dealer were very helpful. I was completely in love with the car (and still am), coming from a 1.3 JTD Diesel (2008 Swift Dzire) the rev range from the 1.2 petrol engine brought a smile to my face even though I did not push it hard due to engine break-in period.

Fast forward to a week into ownership of the car, I was heading out for a nice night drive over a straight with a slight uphill gradient, allowing the engine to stretch its wings a little in 3rd gear.

Issue

About halfway into the climb, the engine completely loses power and enters LIMP ME HOME mode. It switched back to city mode, limited revs to around 2k and had the check engine light on. I calmly pulled over and shut it off. Waited a few seconds and restarted the car. It came back on just fine but had the Engine Check light on.

DTC readings

The next day Tata sends a rescue unit to test the car and check for any DTC errors. The system read error P016a (torque-power sensor reading out of range). The technician said the error was memorised by the ECU and was not a straight-out failure of a component. He then proceeded to test drive the car at various speeds/RPMs in both modes. Everything checks out fine. We move on. Now over the time of owning the car, the same issue has happened to me quite a few times. I am closing in on my warranty end and I need this sorted out before I have to pay for the fixes.

What I know/suspect

Engine torque power estimate calculations happen at the ECU level with readings from the MAF sensor with correspondence to the Accelerator pedal positioning. I had not done any changes to the Intake system until recently when I opted in for a free-flow conical air filter instead of the stock box. The issue also seems to occur usually when the car has a very small mix of fuel (91 and 95 RON) from the same pump.

Because I cannot accurately recreate this issue, it is very hard to present it to Tata, on my recent trip they cleaned my spark plugs due to some misfire the system caught and also blatantly blamed my air intake setup. To which I have gotten to sparks cleaned and re-gapped under them and had them switch back to the stock intake for diagnosis sake.

But as the 24th Jan is approaching, time is running slim at my end and they cannot seem to be able to find anything wrong with the car.

I also had planned a remap and some other changes which are canned for now. Please do shed some light on this, I would be glad to hear any insights or any inputs from fellow BHPians.

Here's what BHPian red_nemesis had to say about the matter:

The Altroz comes with a standard warranty of 2 Years or 75000 KM. Unless you are past the 75K mark, I think your concern regarding the warranty is not valid. Your standard warranty should end in January 2024.

Here's what BHPian SavoyWalrus had to say about the matter:

If the dealer is not providing a solution, raise it up with Tata directly. Although the dealers are lax compared to other manufacturers, Tata seems to respond swiftly to issues and the dealers then take your complaint more seriously. I did that for my key which accelerated the response.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.