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Hello,

I have a second car which is a Wagon R. About 2 years old and under 25K kms. Basically bought for the wife as a run about for local purposes. Parked most of the time in the Building.

I have had a strange thing happen with this car.

The locking knob that is there on the door..the thing that you push down to lock the car....does it have a name?

Anyway...the first one on the drivers side door one day lost its top....it cracked and the top portion came off.

I unscrewed that one and swapped it with the rear door one.

Now my rear door one, which is on the driver door has started cracking.

I will try to post photos to explain things better.

Has anyone had this happen to them?

Venkat

This is the first time that such a strange thing is reported.I have a feeling that the top portion you have mentioned is over tightened.Or some one is tightening the top portion maybe kids.Check for rattling of the top portion too.Maybe some attachment inside the door which holds the lock in place is loose.the rattling can cause the crack too.
ram

@Venkat: Its nothing dude. Just cheap plastic. I've had a Wagon R for almost 4 years now and have replaced a few over this time. Stop worrying!

Usually the OEM ones use quite good plastic.

Its bcos of overtightening or bad plastic.

Even me when I had WagonR. I had replaced this around 4-5 times. These are made of PP (in some cases Talc Filled). If it is not talc filled, then these tend to become brittle over the years of usage and will break. But this part is not costly and can be easily replaced. Hence nothing to worry about this.

Just wondering - Did you ever have a situation where you locked yourself out with the keys inside and had to rely on a roadside mechanic with a lengthy metal rod ? That might cause damage if done incorrectly.
But again, Maruti is known to cut costs by providing cheap plastics. A brand new SX4 which my cousin bought had the courtesy light knob break off 3 days after he bought it.

hmm, I've got the new version of wagon r vxi released last year. Its done about 20K kms in 15 months. Very rough use, so its got a few rattles, but haven't had knobs breaking yet.

As someone mentioned, it must be a cheap plastic or overtightening.

It could also be a case of slightly less quality batch of those knobs. Anyway, if this is a problem after 2 yrs of ownership, you've got it good so far.

Not exactly. I had the door lock knob replaces once, as the top of it came off. Think its mainly due to the plastic and the thickness (or the lack of it) of the plastic knob.

Hi Venkat ,

I owned a Wagon R for 3 years , now own a scorpio ( i just could not wait ) . The parts mentioned in Wgon R are just average standard parts hence it is good to be replaced when a problem . I must say this to all Wgon R owners , it is great car and i have driven to farthest loactions and have she has never let me down .

Heat and over tightening are also a big factor for the knobs breaking off.

Cheap quality of material used well never came across this its sounds strange, driving a santro since the last ten years still the locks and knobs are as good as new

Folks,
Thanks for the responses. I think the answer is cheap plastic. My Honda of over 10 years never had any problem like this. My Maruti 800s were good for about 8 years.

I do not know if the Maruti folks have a customer feedback mechanism where this product quality issue is dealt with and resolved.

Venkat

May I ask what a courtesy light is?

Courtesy light is actually the technical term for any light (car interior light or the refrigerator light) which switches on when the user opens a door.

Venakt ,

I am not too sure about rectification but am sure that Maruti takes customers pretty seriously .. You can log on to the website and complain .. I am sure it will result in a quick response .