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Road trip in our Kia Seltos diesel and a drop in the coolant level

20th August 2024, 12:05 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

The service centre assured me that a leakage check was not necessary as a leakage would have drained the tank and the system completely.

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Coolant scare and a short albeit long drive

Coyote stayed under covers for most of the last 4 weeks. I did do a brief wash and wax session before putting him undercover. For a weekend trip to Nagarhole - Bandipur, we took my brother's Honda City instead.

Since rats had been visiting my car off late, I kept checking the rat-kill cakes regularly, placed near the tyres/underbody. One day, I popped the bonnet open as well for a quick survey. While rat presence was not seen, I observed the coolant level was near the 'L' mark on the tank. Was it leakage or some other issue? The coolant level was near the 'F' mark when Coyote returned from the service center. The temp gauge had remained at the usual 40% mark during the Vijayawada trip. And I hadn't checked it in between, until that day.

I called up Epitome Kia immediately and Goutham, the Service Manager offered to send someone home later that day to top-up the coolant at my place. Or if I could drive up to the service center then, they can do it immediately. He said after the old coolant is flushed out of the radiator and a new one is added, it can take some time for the coolant to circulate through the radiator and hence, the coolant level comes in the tank. This is normal and a top-up will take care of it. I went to the SC the same day and they added about a couple of hundred ML pink coolant. They assured me a leakage check was not necessary as leakage would have drained the tank and the system completely. Made sense!

A bag with naptha balls can be seen as well

1 day in Hyderabad!

We had a wedding to attend in Hyderabad, a city where I look for a reason to keep visiting. It was on Sunday, yesterday. I did some research and figured that a bus ride on Friday night out of Bangalore and a return flight on Sunday night from Hyderabad would be the most practical option. Wife was on board. So we opened the laptop, selected the bus and flight options, entered the details and were at the payment page when something didn't feel right.

After a pause, she asked if we could drive down instead, on Saturday and return on Sunday. Came as a surprise for me but who am I to turn down such an offer? So the payment page was left to expire and I called up my friend to inform him of our changed arrival timings!

So the day before, Saturday, we started around 4:45AM and reached Lingampally by 12:55PM. Apart from one stop for breakfast and another for diesel, we went uninterrupted. Pleasant cloudy weather throughout without any rains.

Some brisk driving this time

Went to a couple of places later in the evening and then called it a night.

Yesterday, after attending the wedding at Tirumalagiri, we left the place by 2:30PM. Took me an hour+ to traverse through the city before hitting the Bangalore highway. Unlike the day before, it was very gloomy with occasional light drizzle. By the time it was 4PM, it started raining and the rains accompanied us all through the next 500 kms. Had dinner at Pista House Anantapur and reached home by 12:20AM.

We both had decided that we would change out of the ceremonial dresses and into something comfortable before driving back but we barely got a chance to step out of the car with all the rains. Drove back as is!

We saw a black Defender and my wife was too impressed by its lights. She started clicking the car all the time it was following us until it overtook and disappeared

Tea break after Kurnool, followed by refueling

And dinner

No respite from rains

But they made the drive beautiful

The both of us were expecting this trip could be very tiring and we might have made a mistake by changing the plans. But no! We loved every bit of it and arrived fresh after covering 1300 kms in 2 days.

The car doesn't look like it has been driven through 500 kms of heavy rains. I guess the Meguiars Ceramic Wax job kept it slippery from all the muck. This was the first long drive in heavy rains after several months and Continentals continue to do a very good job to keep the car planted.

My wipers continue to give up every 6-9 months! The passenger side has been streaking since some time. I might finally look for something aftermarket although these OE ones are not too expensive.