Swift Diesel ! Maruti Wonder Or Blunder ! Read on!

[vijaythacker]

hey, glad to see your baby back with its all problems sorted out, take a good time out with her and enjoy your drive.Kudos to bhp team to stand together for each others.

[humyum]

Well, Problems dont seem to be leaving my swift alone i guess!

The hard shifting is back, its very different this time.

When the car is started for first time in the day, anything less than 0 kmph will not make it go in 1st. In traffic when you come to a crawl and its too slow for second and needs a 1st gear I have to stop the car, put it in first and then i ll move.

This happens for 5 to 7 kilometers after which it frees up. Also If I drive around at high speeds the gearshifting is butter, upshifting, downshifting everything is like super smooth.

In traffic crawls is when gearshifting seems to be giving trouble, Also i have realised that when i start the car for the first time in the day with the clutch pedal depressed and then release the clutch pedal in neutral, i get a 'dunk' sound from the clutch with the rpm needle going a minute fraction down for a second. Also the clutch feels super smooth when the car is shut, picks up weight after i start and after some running again becomes smooth.

Gearbox oil was changed at 12 thousand km as a trial to the hard shifting problem before. Clutch was bled again at 13500 km. The car stands at 14200 km now and is up for service in another 300 km as i had given it for service at 9500 before.

I have drive a friends Dzire Vdi which has done 5300 km till now and the feel of the gearshifts and clutch is way better than mine. It feels like how everything is meant to be and something seems wrong in mine.

Also under moderate hard braking i get a 'dunk' sound. I dont know from where its coming. It was gone for sometime and now its back.

I am going to ask Vitesse to open the entire clutch assembly and check.Phew i hope they relent.

@GTO,Jaggu,Team-bhipians I dont know what to say now, really, What do u suggest the course of action ?I am at loss of everything now !

[sanagg1]

God help this guy !
he is been to so much at least now give him a break. I request all Mumbaiker Bhpian to let him go to a competent service guy. Sometimes I feel( only feel no offence dear) many of us are directly or indirectly connected with auto biz, those of us, have mercy on poor guy show him the light.

[shantyrocks]

Originally Posted by humyum

Also i have realised that when i start the car for the first time in the day with the clutch pedal depressed and then release the clutch pedal in neutral, i get a 'dunk' sound from the clutch with the rpm needle going a minute fraction down for a second. Also the clutch feels super smooth when the car is shut, picks up weight after i start and after some running again becomes smooth.

!

Is it really required to depress the clutch while starting the car?
I dont do it.

[Jaggu]

I think its best to depend on Vitesse now, without having first hand account its very difficult to pin point the issue :(

[dilipkumar7278]

Swift manual suggests depressing the clutch before starting....
Cheers
Dilip Kumar

Originally Posted by shantyrocks

Is it really required to depress the clutch while starting the car?
I dont do it.

[janitha]

Originally Posted by dilipkumar7278

Swift manual suggests depressing the clutch before starting....
Cheers
Dilip Kumar

Vista manual too recommends fully depressing clutch while starting. I had been doing the same for several years with my previous Uno too.

[vid6639]

Most of the points you mentioned refer to driving style. You need to change your driving style else problems will continue.

Gear shift not slotting easily I face in my Lancer and Alto. I start up the car and do a 1 to 5 gear slot routine twice after which drive slowly on a cold engine till everything becomes smooth again.

While driving in heavy traffic heavy use of clutch heats up the plate and causes loss in friction. This means the clutch will slip and will give problem shifting. You just need to be more gentle in traffic. I do the same in both my cars.

You need to understand what the car wants and what style the car is happy with and adapt accordingly. You cant force the machinery to behave how you want, that will never happen.

If you go to the Alto thread everyone has complained of jerking with the AC but noone finds it too much of a bother as it is a trait of the Alto. Everyone has changed their driving pattern to minimise the jerk as much as possible.

[humyum]

Originally Posted by vid6639

Most of the points you mentioned refer to driving style. You need to change your driving style else problems will continue.

Gear shift not slotting easily I face in my Lancer and Alto. I start up the car and do a 1 to 5 gear slot routine twice after which drive slowly on a cold engine till everything becomes smooth again.

While driving in heavy traffic heavy use of clutch heats up the plate and causes loss in friction. This means the clutch will slip and will give problem shifting. You just need to be more gentle in traffic. I do the same in both my cars.

You need to understand what the car wants and what style the car is happy with and adapt accordingly. You cant force the machinery to behave how you want, that will never happen.

If you go to the Alto thread everyone has complained of jerking with the AC but noone finds it too much of a bother as it is a trait of the Alto. Everyone has changed their driving pattern to minimise the jerk as much as possible.

Vid, I have had this car since around 7 months now with around 14 and half thousand kilometers on it so the before and after difference is quite noticable since I drive it everyday for around 25 to 30 kilometers.

Start the car and let it idle with the clutch released for around a minute.

The roads I drive, the traffic it not continues, its stop and go for 30 to 40 % of the drive which warrants 1st gear and the route has been same ever since i got the car.
Traffic has never been heavy in which I contniously need to slip the clutch or have to move around for kilometers in 1st and 2nd gear.

F1Fan and me meet up regularly and when we do , we test our cars and we met up today on the highway near kanjurmarg. I test drove his car and he test drove mine.

His car has a heavy clutch, heavier to mine, his clutch actuation is at the end of the clutch travel while mine is way inner side. My clutch is way lighter than his, maybe because mine is only around 2nd half thousand old and his is 10 thousand run clutch as my cars clutch,pressure plate,flywheel and cover plate were changed at 12000 km.

Now coming to the hard shifting part, He drove my car and his observations were exactly like what i mentioned, Shifting out of gears is hard and shifting into 3rd requires effort like something is brushing past in the shifter and needs to be pushed in.

Happens in 3rd 99% of times, 5th is smooth, 4th is smooth. Its like the gearshifting in 3rd is hard and gearshifting out of 2nd and 1st is hard as well as putting into it.

and the comparo was with his Dzire which has done 10000km and mine is 14500 km both Diesels.

So if driving style was the culprit, it would be with me and he would not feel anything is wrong with the car right ?

We are planning to go to Vitesse on saturday with both our cars, so lets see what happens.

[f1fan]

Originally Posted by humyum

Now coming to the hard shifting part, He drove my car and his observations were exactly like what i mentioned, Shifting out of gears is hard and shifting into 3rd requires effort like something is brushing past in the shifter and needs to be pushed in.

Happens in 3rd 99% of times, 5th is smooth, 4th is smooth. Its like the gearshifting in 3rd is hard and gearshifting out of 2nd and 1st is hard as well as putting into it.

and the comparo was with his Dzire which has done 10000km and mine is 14500 km both Diesels.

So if driving style was the culprit, it would be with me and he would not feel anything is wrong with the car right ?

We are planning to go to Vitesse on saturday with both our cars, so lets see what happens.

Yup, Agree with humyum on this. I did a test drive of his car yesterday and noticed that shifting in 3rd was most difficult. It feels like the gear lever is rubbing against some metal piece inside. 4th and 5th were fine. 2nd gear was bad but not as bad as 3rd.
As he mentioned we have been meeting regularly and I never noticed this during our earlier drives as his car used to have smooth gear shifts.
Lets see what Vitesse has in store for us tomorrow

[JVH]

Originally Posted by f1fan

It feels like the gear lever is rubbing against some metal piece inside.

Have you guys checked the gear lever bracket? My Palio was facing the same problem and the gear bracket was the culprit. When it was replaced, the clutch-gear combo became butter smooth.

[humyum]

Back yesterday from Vitesses, They never realised what the problem was, the service advisor said the lag in 3rd gear was the syncros engaging and they could never feel the metallic rubbing. For them the gears engaging were proof enough of everything is fine.

They changed the rubber bushings which are present where the gearbox connects the linkages, things seemed good when we went for a test drive and while comin back home on the Sion Flyover, VOILA the same same hardshifting 3rd is back. In Traffic 1st is sometime a problem. 3rd gear is 99.99% all the time goes in with a rub.

JVH@ I told them about the bracket, but they just rebuffed it saying, its fine.

Now i am not going to any service station anywhere in the world till a maruti engineer is present.

I never thought i would say this, but this is my last maruti car ever.

[humyum]

Some good news, I decided to take matters in my own hands, i had to find the root of the problem whatever it could be.

Opened the pastic farings, one below the gear lever and the other surrounding the gear lever. Was exposed to the entire shifter assembly.

Got a small bottle of WD40. Shifted to 1st and sprayed the WD40 on the ball area on the behind, Shifted to 2nd and did like wise to the ball area on the front and that way the entire thing was in WD40 in all the gear moments.

Then the springs, the shift mechanism below and all the moving parts.

I somehow sensed the shifter to be culprit as the ball and the metal around it could be the source of the rubbing at particular angles and hence the gearshifting going in with the rub. Maybe because of the weather the ball must have expanded a bit and causing it to rub.

Did some shiftings and things seemed to be improving,

Today morning,with fingers crossed went around traffic and voila the 3rd gear hardness reduced to like almost none, Pottered around in traffic for an hour and things seemed to be improving with every shift.

Now the acid test, I used to shift with my thumb from 4th to 3rd when everything was fine in the cars in the earlier days. Did that a consecutive 10 times from 4th and surprise surprise it went in everytime minus any resistance.Phew

Loving the gear shifts, WD40 i think is a temperory solution as the maruti guys should ideally replace the shifter assembly, I have a bottle in the car of WD40 as standby and the next time the shifting becomes hard, i know where the fault is.

Although Vitesse was pro active, they are not car ethu's. For them a shift is perfect as long as it goes in the gear and syncros are fine.

I will speak to Mr Collins at vitesse regarding this when i give it for service, although i am scared of letting anyone touch anything as i cannot live with an imperfect car for even a day and it keeps rotating in my head all the time.

[fast_elegance]

hey humyum, so you found a solution on your own. thats good news!! Its best to diagnose the car yourself as you cannot depend on any of the so called specialist mechanics. It is you who drives the car all the time and only you can know whats wrong with it. 1 time test drive on the stretch by any mechanic will never be able to make out the problem as precisely as the driver himself. Best of luck humyum and happy driving.

[vijaythacker]

hey thats a good news and you found out urself which i suppose you would in that case cause mind games keeps on coming until we have sorted that thing out of car.