The Grey Skid – Chevy Beat TCDi LS (December 2012)


Thread Starter #423

deville_56

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January 2023 - Miscellaneous Updates

Hits 80k km.

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Peaceful morning.

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Never miss clicking in a well-lit parking lot.

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Caliper shimming. Chevy dealer used to do it at alternative services. FNG didn't add one during boot replacement. Caliper made a rattly feel on imperfect roads and road reflectors. Thought of trying myself. Two bolts to remove the caliper, which holds the caliper pin.

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Have to free up the piston to remove the caliper from the holder.

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Don't let it hang on the hose.

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Caliper pins and boot. ₹950/each with boot, if replacing.

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Shim sheet, ₹20/sheet. Basically copper sheet.

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Cut to required width and add the required thickness.

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Insert the sheet into the hole.

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Maruti (TVS Girling) caliper grease. Last pouches in my stock.

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Check for free movement of caliper pin without play.

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Install everything back. Pump the brake before driving off.

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The OE rear windscreen washer nozzle fetched from the scrapyard.

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Primered the drill hole edges as @bhvm suggested.

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Plugged the gap in the hole with glue stick.

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Boot lamp also from the scrap hunt.

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Removed the bulb holder.

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Clean.

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Added 9 x 0.5 W LEDs.

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Stock location.

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Marked the location.

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Masked for the "professional cut" [lol]

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Dremel 3000.

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It slipped and made a scar. Not as easy as the DIY videos, at least for inexperienced like me. Old knife cut would've been cleaner.

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Installed. How to get distracted with DIYs, the 10-year-old forgotten crimped speaker wire, now an eyesore.

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Dug the bin.

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Made a clean plug and play cable. Removed the old wire and taped the exposed part.

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Back to the boot light. Needed a lot of wire. Boot switch was inbuilt to the lock as posted previously. Needed to route wire all the way to the boot bottom.

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Connector in the boot lock.

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Took ground and fed to the switch. Now, we got a switched ground.

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Fed the positive to dome light. Success.

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Final outcome.

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Some scratch removal. The moron-made full-body-length scratch. It would disappear each time with rubbing and polishing, but reappeared.

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Tried to source 3200 grit, which the body shop guys used, which was available as big roll only. Settled with 2000 grit.

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Sanded gently, not to cut deep into the clear coat. Applied a thin layer of automotive clear coat with pointed brush where the scratches were too deep before sanding.

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Removed the haze with 3M compound.

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Outcome.

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Nice DIY. Doesn't shimming have low life? When run on bad roads again, doesn't it shred into smaller bits and get coiled inside the boot? For Swift , I usually replace pins 10-15k kms depending on starting of sound. Every 5kkms, I usually use TVS Girling grease it.
 
Thread Starter #425

deville_56

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Longevity is a debatable topic. Lack of lube might cause damage over time. If I am not wrong, there will be wear in caliper side as well and replacing the pin won't work over time. Shimming has been the regular practise and even during ASC visits, they never insisted guide pin replacement and did shimming, even recently by the Maruti ASC, considering Estilo pins (kit) were dirt cheap.
 
Thread Starter #426

deville_56

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February 2023 - New Head Unit, another impulse purchase

Once in a while someone around would ask suggestion for headunits and it was my job to search one for them. Likewise, I was searching for the cheapest branded Android Auto. Saw this Pioneer DMH-A4450BT on Motorogue. Retail price was ₹25990 and they were selling them for ₹17500, less than the best price in town. On similar items, there was the same unit listed at ₹14500, but an opened box. Sent the info across all potential takers in the circle and none of them were interested. Couldn't let that go. Pinged the seller directly about the condition and they replied promptly, stating opened for installation for a customer, which didn't happen and everything intact in box and a 2-year warranty from date of sale. Fell for it. Ordered right away.

Sent via Professional Couriers, which was delivered in 3-4 days.

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Some extra care.

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The box. It's got wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and 50W x 4 power output and individual front/rear LPF.

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First glimpse of the HU.

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Shallow mouthing depth. March 2022 manufactured.

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Rear ports. Single 1.5A USB port. Dual USB desired. Individual sub-ports for RCA/video output, aux, reverse camera input, and steering controls.

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Warranty card.

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The mic.

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Main connector.

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Reverse gear and parking brake signals go into them.

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RCA/video out connector (10 pin). Got 3 RCA outs of 2V with a dedicated subwoofer control in menu.

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The bunch for steering controls, mute and reverse camera inputs (6 pin)

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Lastly, the aux in (4 pin). Nobody use them nowadays, connected it just for the sake of not losing it.

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USB cable, should be around 1 metre. HU doesn't support USB hub per manual.

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New model remote control, bigger and better than older model, but who is going to use them.

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Frame, pretty useless. Inside dimension is for some other bigger HU.

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Old, perfectly working Pioneer MVH355-BT.

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Old vs new connectors. Power input and audio outputs are same, so can operate without rewiring directly.

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Main difference being the additional wires for park brake (light green) and backlit (orange/white). Park brake input needed to play videos and backlit input needed to switch light/dark modes/dimming.

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On the other side, there is an extra wire for reverse gear input (violet/white) and the remote wire relocated (blue/white).

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Install complete.

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Face panel needs a bit of trimming to fit.

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Coupler to OE connector had a few flaws. Red and yellow were ulta-pulta.

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And didn't have provision for backlit, which the OE connector provides. Removed an old pin with orange wire from an old connector and added to the coupler, got exact colour match.

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Swapped the red and yellow and mated them with the Pioneer connector, soldered and sleeved.

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First boot. Sound output was awful comparing old HU or any standard and the excitement was gone.

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Checked software version by intuition and compared with latest version on manufacturer site and yes, there was an update available.

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Downloaded and updated instantly.

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and the issue was sorted out. They could've done that from the factory. They missed out their sound retrieve function, which added more clarity. Display don't have the blue hue in real. Touch is capacitive and response is good. Side panel for power, volume, menu, and voice assist is on the LH, which needs extra effort at times.

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All done and dusted with the trimmed faceplate. Did wrap the facia in piano black, but the top part didn't go well, so removed for a later attempt.

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It would play videos from USB and supports MKV format. Connected to park brakes to make sure no one asks or plays them in motion. Display quality is okay, just HD and no match for IPS panels of less-known generic Android HUs. Bought a 10-inch Sony HU for a friend, which is even disastrous with HD on bigger screen.

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Radio displays song tags. There is a flaw with the radio. No control when Android Auto is running. To change channel, have to go to home screen and select radio, do the stuff and then return to Android Auto screen. A bit inconvenient when navigating. Could've added a floating navigation button for next/previous/pause.

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The Android Auto screen. I chose Gaana as default player. Google Maps take up the majority of the screen.

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Home screen. Android Auto icon gets enabled when USB connected to AA enabled handset. Yet to try CarPlay, none of iPhone guys got a Lightning to USB cable.

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Some apps supported by AA. YouTube not supported.

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Player without split screen.

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Gets notification preview from messaging apps. Keyboard disabled when driving, but replying with voice assistant works flawlessly.

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Light mode

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and dark mode. These automatically switches with backlit by default, can be switched manually.

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Main settings menu.

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System settings submenu.

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Claims to support most Japanese cars without an adapter.

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Basic radio settings. No option for 5-10 KHz step selection for FM. Steps 5 KHz with manual tuning.

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Backlit settings.

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Only 5 colour selection for the side panel. Chose white which looks like blue matching the car's stock backlit.

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Wallpapers are just generic Pioneer stuff. Didn't bother to look since HU will be running on AA 90% of the time, rest of the time with the radio.

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My favourite part, audio and EQ settings.

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More focused to the front as the rear makes more bass and irritating for rear passengers.

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My favourite part of my favourite part, the crossover. Tried all the ways to cut off the bass from front speaker with previous HU. It killed the feel. Initially set front HPF at 125 Hz, now set at 250 Hz. Crystal clear mid and high from front speakers.

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Thirteen-band equalizer. Presets were not great, not even the Todoroki they boast of. Went the old school.

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Volume can be individually controlled.

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Speaker level dB settings.

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Always sets loudness to high. Bass boost can go up to 4 with deep bass without jarring the rear speaker with LF cut off from front. Set down to 2 to for the comfort of the rear passengers.

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Comes with Bluetooth 5.0. Basic Bluetooth settings. Bluetooth disabled when connected to AA.

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Reverse camera settings. No camera for the time being.

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Apart from AA, there is screening mirroring option, which is the most horrible part of this HU. Connects with a Chinese app, Autolink, which won't work most of the time. When it works, it gets confused with landscape/portrait modes and/or won't play audio. Not clean mirroring interface like Chromecast, just mirrors the full screen of phone in phone's orientation. No option of what to mirror.

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Pressing the side menu enables soft volume up/down.

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Voice assistant works flawlessly without training. No physical keyboard while driving. Takes commands like navigate or play some specific song works beautifully.

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Soft touch of power button turns off display instead of standby/muting. Long press turns off the power. Menu button works as mute with long press.

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Thread Starter #427

deville_56

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March 2023 - New Front Shocks

Korean invasion.

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Visit to FNG for front suspension strut replacement, which was leaky for some time, but working fine, which was killed by my BIL, who never slows down on bad stretches and potholes. Asked the mech for Gabriel shocks, but he suggested Monroe, but ended up getting the former as the other one was out of stock. Replaced mounts, strut bearings, boots, and PU bumps.

Parts

Front Strut Assembly (RH) - Gabriel AM-G23109 - ₹ 2,122.00
Front Strut Assembly (LH) - Gabriel AM-G23110 - ₹ 2,122.00
Strut Mount with Retainer - Gabriel AM-G101151-1 - ₹ 664.00 x 2
Front Strut Kit - Sona Mandhira GMF7119 - ₹ 634.00 x 2
Strut Bearing - ₹ 80.00 x 2

Labour - ₹ 2,000.00

Total Bill - ₹ 9,000.00

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Went straight to Wheel Tech for a proper alignment. They charged ₹ 450.00.

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Road test after alignment.

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Thread Starter #428

deville_56

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March 2023 - Updates

Ponkala Click

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Bought a rearview camera for the new head unit. Hated the bumper cameras. Got OE like mount one.

Sonilex SL-CCM2228 - ₹ 850.00

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The camera.

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Power in and signal out on camera side.

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Power connector to connect to reverse lamp.

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Video signal and reverse gear signal in a single coax cable. Got enough length for a sedan.

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Hole saw for the mounting hole.

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Connector for the HU.

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Reverse gear signal input in the main connector.

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Had to make the hole a bit bigger for the camera.

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Perfect fit.

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Drawing wire.

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Connected to reverse light.

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Testing.

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Cleaned the muck.

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Adaptive guiding lines.

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Spec sheet and instruction manual.

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Washed.

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Found this cute dust bin at a nearby shop. Ford had the same in their accessories with blue lid and Ford logo. Fits in cup holder.

Cello Kleeno - ₹ 199.00

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Blooming golden shower.

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Messy on the car.

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Thread Starter #429
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May 2023 - New Wiper Blades - Valeo

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Bought Valeo First frameless blades from Boodmo. There was 15% offer on them.

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22" and 16" Beat not listed in the compatibility list.

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MRP ₹ 473 and ₹ 288 respectively, ₹ 402 and ₹ 245 after discount. Shipping ₹ 70 for pair.

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Comparing with old Eagle pair. Lasted 2 years and 4 months. Was wiping well, but the plastic parts started disintegrating.

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Valeo clip.

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Old Eagle clip. Different from generic Chinese ones.

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Installed.

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Adjuster for hand brake. Needs a deep 10 mm socket. Lever had too much travel. Make sure wheels rotate freely when brake is released.

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