| Preface
In Parts-I to IV of this 'series', I shared with you some of my thoughts
and decades of experience about Buying new/used Cars, kind of Accessories
to avoid and limits of 'Customising' one's car that one can go to.
With this info in the
background, let me share with you now the pitfalls one can come across
while operating and maintaining one's Car - as the true 'ownership experience'
of any make/model begins and ends here.
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1) On using the 5th Gear
The 5th gear
is essentially a cruise gear and in most cars, one can comfortably get into
it at speeds ~ 50 kph. It ‘relaxes’ the engine by ~ 20% and
affects the fuel consumption accordingly. However,
there's no point in getting into the 5th gear unless one can ‘sustain’
it atleast for a km or two. Otherwise, one will be shifting up and down
between 5th and 4th all the time, thus not only wasting more fuel than
saving BUT prematurely wear off one’s Clutch, if not the Gear Box
too in the process.
2)
Abnormal Coolant loss
This is one of the most common maladies that confront a car owner at some
time or the other. Apparently, there IS a leakage somewhere - either external/more
common or internal/less common.
While external leakages are easier to locate - visually - such as droppings
on the floor beneath overnight - the internal ones are more difficult
to detect for a layperson. However, one can look at the condition of oil
on the dipstick and if foaming or emulsification of oil is noticed, it
means coolant is getting into the oil circulation system as a result of
an internal leak some where in the cylinder head/gasket.
The other way round will be when oil starts getting into the coolant system,
when it can be seen floating on the coolant in the radiator neck when
opened/cold first thing in the morning before starting the engine. However,
in such a situation, the coolant levels in the overflow bottle will tend
to go up and not down - as will be the case in the previous situation.
The third possibility of an internal leak is when coolant starts getting
into the cyl/combustion areas and thus gets thrown out as steam via the
exhaust system. In such a situation, one can feel water/coolant droplets
if one were to put one’s palm a few inches away from the tail pipe
of not so hot an engine and revv it up a bit.
In any case - internal or external – well-equipped Garages have
a Gadget to test the cooling systems for leakages.
So if you
can't detect/fix an external one yourself, you'll have to visit such a
Garage for the test and if internal leakage is confirmed, your cyl head
will have to be opened for possible repairs and head gasket replacement.
3) Head Gasket Damage/Replacement
If as a result of abnormal coolant loss, an engine does end-up overheating,
there're 50/50 chances of its Cylinder Head Gasket getting damaged - depending
upon the duration and extent of overheating it had to withstand. And when
that happens, the Aluminium Alloy die-cast Head suffers 'distortion'.
Therefore, it needs to be 're-surfaced' at a reliable m/c shop BEFORE
re-installation, to ensure the gasket won't leak again. A Garage with
long-term customer satisfaction in mind will always do this check before
just replacing the Head-Gasket.
However, the drill doesn't end here. Having got it re-surfaced and/or
a new Gasket installed, after running it with fresh coolant as above for
about 500-1000 kms, the Cyl Head must be suitably 're-torqued' to the
OE recommended levels of tightness and thereafter, repeat the exercise
every 20 kkm along with tappet clearance resetting.
If all this is done, which seldom is even on new cars, there's every good
chance that a head gasket will not leak again during the entire life of
an engine - provided of course if it doesn't suffer another bout of overheating
due to extraneous reasons.
4)
On ‘Re-Booting’ an ECU
Quite often,
one experiences erratic engine performance such as jerks and over-revving
while shifting gears, may be even at idling, for no apparent reason. Car
owners often experience this after their cars are returned to them after
a service/engine tune-up job.
This happens
on Cars where their engines permit some adjustments like idling rpm/ignition
timing and after having done so, the Garage fails to ‘re-boot’
the ECU to make it remember the ‘new’ settings. Most times
it can be set right ‘DIY’ as follows
i) Bring
the Car to a ‘park’ after it has achieved it working temp, as
evident by the Radiator Electric Fan having come on at least once.
ii) Let it idle thereafter atleast for one minute, after having sw’d
off all Electrical loads/Accessories. Switch off the Ignition as well now.
iii) Wait for 5-minutes.
iv) Disconnect the (-) Terminal of the Battery and wait
for another 5-minutes.
v) Reconnect the (-) Terminal and start the Car as usual.
vi) All ‘on board clocks’ and other ‘memory’
devices such as music systems etc will require resetting at this stage.
vii) Wait for at least 10-secs after the engine fires before taking off
– to enable the ECU to ‘initialise’ fully.
viii) This/(vii) above needs to be followed EVERY TIME
you start the Car for the first time in the morning before taking off.
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