5 issue-ridden months with my Altroz diesel: Spends 83 days in workshop

Multiple service centres were not able to diagnose the issue properly.

BHPian ps_abhijith recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My brother (Sarath P Nair) owns a Tata Altroz Diesel, which is now 2 years and 4 months old. He previously had a Tata Tiago (2017) which he exchanged and upgraded to the Altroz diesel in 2021. He had a very pleasant ownership experience with the Tiago, and that was a driving reason to upgrade to the Altroz.

The car was fine and the ownership experience was relatively uneventful and hassle-free. All the services were done as per the recommended schedule, at authorised Tata SVCs. My brother is a civil engineer and uses the car primarily for his work, which includes long commutes over the highways. Thankfully, he has never had any issues with the emission system, like forced regeneration etc. Apart from minor oil leaks and the laggy head unit, he had no other issues till last May.

03/05/2023: While he was driving from Kottayam to Trivandrum for work, the check engine warning light came on and the car went into limp mode. Once he stopped the car, it refused to start and he had to wait a while for the car to start. The car was still in limp mode, so he took it to the nearest SVC, Trivandrum Motors, Anayara, Trivandrum. The car was under warranty at this time. They kept the car for a day and diagnosed the issue as a minor emissions warning, cleared the error codes and did a forced regeneration. The car was handed back and he was charged rs 100 for this.

11/05/2023: The same issue reappeared while he was at Kottayam, and took the car to the nearest SVC (MK Motors Pala). They kept the car for 2 days, and returned the car after clearing the error code without any explanation, but mentioned that all the issues were resolved now.

15/05/2023: This is the very next day after receiving the car back from MK Motors, the car outright refuses to start in the morning. All kinds of warning lights were on the console. Called up the same SVC (MK Motors), and technicians were sent to his home, but they were unable to start the car. The car was taken to the service centre on a flatbed. He was informed after a few days that the high-pressure Diesel pump was having issues. Since the car was under warranty, they ordered a new high-pressure fuel pump, and we were told it may take a few weeks to source the parts and resolve the issues. We had requested them to check the injectors, as we read about similar issues (injectors being stuck open, clogged injectors etc). However we were informed that the injectors were in pristine condition, and it was just the high-pressure pump that needed to be changed. He was offered a loaner car during this time frame. The car was in the service centre for 38 days in total, and he received the car back once the high-pressure fuel pump was replaced. We were assured by the service centre that there are no other issues with the car as of now.

With all the issues he was having, he wanted to extend the stock 2 2-year warranty and paid the full amount for the same to the same Tata dealer. After a few days, he was told that his warranty extension was rejected by Tata, mentioning that his car had had two accidents previously, and hence the warranty could not be extended. The amount paid was returned. My brother had two accidents with the car.

For both of the above incidents, all repairs were carried out under insurance at Tata service centres only. We tried to challenge their decision to not extend the warranty, but the customer care was not very helpful here, we were just told it was standard Tata policy. The warranty ended on 30-6-2023.

4-09-2023: The same issue reappears after just 2 months. The car was taken to Luxon Tata Kottayam, who checked the car and returned the car mentioning that there was nothing wrong and that they had cleared the error codes. He was charged rs 80.

7-09-2023: While he was on his way to Trivandrum, the check engine light returned, and the car was taken to Trivandrum Motors. They kept the car for 8 days and returned the car mentioning they had fixed everything, he was charged rs 1180.

23-09-2023: Same issue again. My brother was really fed up with this, the majority of his time was now being spent just taking the car to and from multiple service centres. He gave the car to Mk Motors and told them he would accept the car back without a clear explanation of what was going on. Below are the events after that:

The car has been with the service centre for 23 days now. Every time they wanted to do a long road test, my brother had to pay for the diesel expense for the same. My brother was not offered a loaner car this time. On the 23rd day, they finally tested the injectors and then called up my brother and said all 4 injectors were damaged and needed replacement. They gave him an estimate of 75k. We were all this while talking to Tata customer care too. We requested Tata to replace the injectors under warranty as the original issue started 5-6 months ago while the car was under warranty, and it was the Tata SVCs who were not able to diagnose the issue properly. This was rejected. We requested a replacement under a goodwill gesture at least. The same was rejected too.

The last offer from the SVC was that they have 4 injectors with them, they are not brand new. They can offer these to him for free, but there will not be any bill/warranty or assurance on the life of these injectors. We rejected this offer and asked them to return the car as we handed it to them 30 days ago.

Summary:

• The issue started 5 months ago while the car was still under warranty, multiple SVCs were not able to diagnose the issue properly.
• The car is now 2 years and 4 months old, and Tata is recommending my brother spend 75K on the car after having the car in the service centre for 83 days in total over the past 5 months.
• The sheer incompetence of service centres in properly diagnosing an issue is unacceptable. Not sure how Tata trains the service centre technicians.
• Customer care though reachable and sympathetic, there is no real help to the customer from here.

The questions we have now:

At the moment, we have asked for the car to be returned with what they claim are faulty injectors. My brother plans to have the injectors checked with a Bosch workshop and see if they can be repaired/serviced. If not he plans to source the injectors directly and have them replaced outside the SVC. He is also planning to file a complaint with the consumer court for the same issue, and all the trouble he has faced during the past 5 months. Any advice/recommendations on the same is welcome.

We have decided to list our experience here on Team-BHP so that existing customers as well as prospective customers for Tata cars could have an idea of what going to be their experience if something goes wrong with their car. We believe the issue with injectors is not a one-off case and might be common with Nexon / Altroz diesel. I am not attaching the series of emails between my brother, Tata and the service centre over the past 5 months here because it will be too much, but to anyone who doubts, we do have all the communication in emails as well as bills.

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