Santro fails me in middle of desert

[LLL]

Car: Santro Xing
YOP: 2003
Km: 48700

Took my family to a jaipur visit on saturday. It was a hot sunny day with temps hovering over 40. AC was at full ballast and i was doing 80-120 on the highway. Approx 140 kms from my place in S.delhi and 13 kms from kotputli, engine suddenly lost power. I tried to change to a lower gear and that wouldnt work either. I allowed the car to roll over to the shoulder and parked there. Then i checked the coolants, any leakeages and all was perfect. The engine temp indicator was also normal. However the engine was extremely hot and i allowed the car to cool down for 10-15 mins.

I tried to crank the car and it wouldnt start. After about 10 mins more, the engine came to life. From there on, i drove at 60 kph speed with AC off to jaipur.

On sunday, we started back and drove steady speeds of 80-100 without AC and everything worked smoothly. So i am thinking that culprit is the AC.

I recently had my Ac serviced and radator flushed. I will check the coolant levels again today when the car is in cold condition.

[mtnrajdeep]

When I was taking delivery of my SX4, the service guys who were explaining the cars features told me that on long drives, if I continues to drive nonstop during the run-in period, there were chances of the engine shutting down if it detected the ECU to overheat. Not sure how if this is correct though

[dadu]

Seems like a problem related to adulterated fuel or something in the fuel lines. Did you fillup at jaipur ??

[ramkya1]

Hai LLL,

I love Santro for the reliability, had it for 4 years, did fantastic duty. Was very economic to maintain, never had a problem, except change of battery after 3 years. Have taken it from Ahmedaabd to Dlehi, Chandigarh, Shimla, Kufri, chail, Delhi and back. It even climbed up to the Hanuman temple @ shimla without protest, on a full load!!!!!!!! Many of the other big cars were groaning. The A/C was very effective.

Must have been the adultrated fuel or damaged a/c condenser.

I had to change the entire a/C conderser once, cost me 6+ K on insurance. Due to no cooling, I took it to Huundai, it was found to be compleately bent in, bang in the middle on the front side. I was surprised, there was no accident!!!!!!!!

The watchman at our car park said a Honda city had backed hard into my front bumper; there was nothing visible mark on my fibre bumper. Being fibre it had bent in, the radiator got bent in and out of shape, the fibre glass fender sprang back to original shape without damage, with only a small scratch mark!!!!!!!!!!

Check this out.

Happy Driving,

--Ramky
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[hvkumar]

Could be an electrical overload, fuse or relay problem. Check and clean fuses, relays. I also had a peculiar problem in my Matiz of a power-shut-off at high speeds thanks to a defective cable which used to get short-circuited. Don't think there is any problem with engine.

[LLL]

Originally Posted by dadu

Seems like a problem related to adulterated fuel or something in the fuel lines. Did you fillup at jaipur ??

Yes, i had filled up here in delhi from my trusted pump and then on the way back from an HP pump. Its a definite possibility...

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Hai LLL,

I love Santro for the reliability, had it for 4 years, did fantastic duty.

Must have been the adultrated fuel or damaged a/c condenser.

I had to change the entire a/C conderser once, cost me 6+ K on insurance. Due to no cooling, I took it to Huundai, it was found to be compleately bent in, bang in the middle on the front side. I was surprised, there was no accident!!!!!!!!

i love santro too..especially for city driving. Its really peppy and very easy to maneouvre in tight spots.

How do i check if the condensor is damaged? I just had AC svced. Also, i used the AC for 30-45 mins to test the engine heating on the way back and AC was cooling effectively and car didnt heat it. I guess it wasnt a real test as AC ran for 45 mins max.

[Jaggu]

If the temp were normal and the ac also was working fine, i dont think AC is the issue then. Can be an overheated fuel pump though.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Can be an overheated fuel pump though.

Jaggu, I thought it was only for Amby those days...

[rks]

Originally Posted by LLL

Car: Santro Xing
YOP: 2003
Km: 48700

Took my family to a jaipur visit on saturday. It was a hot sunny day with temps hovering over 40. AC was at full ballast and i was doing 80-120 on the highway. Approx 140 kms from my place in S.delhi and 13 kms from kotputli, engine suddenly lost power. The engine temp indicator was also normal. However the engine was extremely hot and i allowed the car to cool down for 10-15 mins.

I tried to crank the car and it wouldnt start. After about 10 mins more, the engine came to life.

On sunday, we started back and drove steady speeds of 80-100 without AC and everything worked smoothly. So i am thinking that culprit is the AC.

I recently had my Ac serviced and radator flushed.

I had a slightly different problem after AC service. I am certain that the Hyundai service guys (National Motors, Bandra-Kurla complex, Mumbai) set the gas pressure too high and the AC is cooling excessively. If AC is run at full blast (blower set at 3) on a hot afternoon, there is a humming sound from the engine, the car starts to move jerkily because the AC goes on-off every 2 secs or so. With AC blower set at 1 or 2, there is no problem as long as the car is moving at good speed. But if car slows down or stops (e.g at traffic jams or signals), I manually switch off the AC as the humming sound appears and AC again starts to misbehave (frequent on-off).

I am certain that the AC is overloading the engine in my case (even though temp indication is normal) because gas pressure is too high. That might be the problem in your case. You can keep AC blower at minimum and as long as you are moving fast, there should be no problem. If you are idling at signals, keep a watch on the AC behaviour and engine sound.

If your fuel pump was misbehaving, the car should have stalled/jerked upon acceleration, rather than coming to a dead stop. I had this problem once, probably due to bad fuel. I suspected AC also, and did AC service among other things; and the Hyundai guys managed to mess that up too. Anyway now I use Speed 97 and nurse my AC along. No problems so far. Will do another AC service at Sanjay Hyundai next time.

[SuMo]

Hi LLL

I think its the engine which got overheated. May be your temp indicator is not working right. Have this one checked. Recently one of my relative's Maruti 800 had a problem of engine overheating and temp indicator did not warn this and result was engine seized.

So I think you must get your temp indicator checked for proper functioning so that in future there is no problem becuase of this, if at all it is not working right.

All the best
SuMo

[blueband4u]

Hi LLL
Even i had exactly the same problem with my 99 model santro.i took off from chennai to kodaikonal and i drove at 100-110 kmph speed range nonstop for 375 kms . after that range while overtaking a Long truck i noticed the engine dropping the pickup required to overtake the vehicle.immediately i slowed down and took a 10 minutes break.i didnt do anything like opening up the front bonnet and checking etc.i just left as it is...and after 10 minutes i started and i felt the car behaved well now exactly like i have started it in the morning. At that moment i thought maybe the car loved me so much that it would have thought i need a break as i am driving continuously for 375 kms without even a single break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but yes if you take regular breaks for long distance travels our machine will also get charged up just like us.my suggestion would be don't drive long distance with Ac on for most of the time because you are not only putting extra load to the engine but also you might get less mileage.use the Blower instead of A/c and make sure u let in fresh air instead of recycling the air in the cabin.I dont mean that u use only blower all the time but use A/c only for short time like 40-45 mins per hour travel and use the blower for the remaining 15 minutes.Try this next time u take your car for long distance.i am sure u will get even a better mileage and also u won't strain the engine much.

Cheers

[smsrini]

It could be a bad thermostat, that tells the ECU to cutoff without displaying proper temp on the gauge.

[tsk1979]

When a car overheats, it does not happen suddenly.
First the AC cuts out. It was a hot day, so before this happened, did you notice AC giving hot air for some time?
If not, then its not heat problem, but Fuel delivery issue. It can be due to overheating FP(if your fuel line has blockage this can happen).
Another thing to check is the Air filter. Was it very dusty? When was the air filter last cleaned?