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-   -   Maruti to fix oil leakage in 6K Altos (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/86222-maruti-fix-oil-leakage-6k-altos.html)

Maruti Suzuki said on Wednesday it is fixing an oil leakage in the engines of 6,000 Altos produced in April that causes starting problems in the small car, less than a year after more than 1 lakh units of its flagship export model A-Star were recalled for faulty fuel pumps.

The company has asked its more than 800 sales network centres and nearly 2,740 service workshops to check and repair the affected Altos, but a spokesman played down the episode, saying it is not a recall. “The vehicle, if affected, may show some starting problems. This can be easily repaired at the workshop," he said.

The country’s biggest carmaker sold 64,500 Altos between April and June. Maruti could not ascertain yet the number of cars that face the problem.

The company also ships Alto to Nepal and Sri Lanka. The A-Stars were recalled from November 2009 from India and export markets such as Europe, Australia and North Africa.

Experts said problems in Alto erupted after the company tweaked the F-series engine that was upgraded to meet Bharat Stage IV emission norms that kicked in April.

"The engine comes with some design changes incorporated in its core structure, which could have led to this problem. It can affect the pressure in the engine and also impact car’s performance," said an auto expert, preferring not to be named.

Maruti to fix oil leakage in 6K Altos-Automobiles-Auto-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

Good to know that the car companies are waking to the fact of quality and acknowledging the issues openly and fixing them.

@rkg, I am sure it is!

However, Maruti needs a stronger QC if they dont want to spoil their good reputation in the market.

I remember someone quoting in another thread about MSIL having the best QC among all the manufacturers in India. I hope he takes a look at this thread!

Is this the April 2010 batch which has been reported to have the problems? I guess BHPians who have brought the car during the said period would be able to highlight more if they have recd intimations from the dealers regarding the same.

This does not deviate from the fact that MSIL so busy in meeting production targets and falling market share must have surely looked the other way as far as Quality is concerned:Frustrati. May be the royalty payment to Suzuki as reported in one of the threads is one of the reason for the failure in adhering to the quality norms.

I haven't had any issues with oil leak or any problems in starting too. Mine is Nov 09 model. Upon enquiry with Bimal, Mahadevapura they are clueless about the issue as usual. Cant believe, they are still talking about the fuel gasket replacement which was called for long ago.

@RKG what you need to understand is that Maruti is being proactive here. They have identified a potential problem and are asking the owners who could have been affected to bring their cars in for a check up to the nearest MASS. In case of Tata, it works the other way around. The onus lies on the owner to find out the defects and then report it to TASS and then keep hoping that something will work out in his favour. There is a world of difference between the two.

You make something wrong and sell it to customer and fix them later, and some people call it "proactive". Whether it is TATA or Maruti, these type of "fixing" is unacceptable. Few months back it was A-star and now Alto. Better Maruti concentrate more on their QA. Otherwise they will face tough days a ahead. Competition is so tough in the small car market in India are there is less chance of making these kind of mistake and survive.

Report say that this issue happened due to tweaking of engine to meet BS IV norms, other hand they say they are not sure about the total number of cars affected. Something fishy there...!!!!??

Hope this quality issue is not life threatening and they are able to fix it soon.

What else do you expect them to have done? Brush it under the carpet like Hyundai did for the i10 and i20 for the cable fault ? Replace it only for those customers who come asking and hush up the matter. Hell no. They put their foot down and accepted thier mistake and are rectifying it.Even Mercs and BMW's have recalled their cars, so its not a new thing. Please don't compare oil leakage with cars catching fire unless the car actually caught fire due to the oil leakage, which has not happened. What matters is how you deal with the situation.

If "fixing" is not acceptable you are most welcome to drive around with what you got, just don't blame the manufacturer if something goes wrong later on.

^^

Hope you read my post full. What I do not understand is just because of other major players recalling millions of their cars, this issue is acceptable? Ha ha that is really a funny justification!!!

I hope you know the real 'application' of oils in an automobile. I have seen a Toyota corolla engine bay catching fire in front of my eye due to oil leackage.

Guys,

It is not about it being a Maruti or a Tata or a major player. Hell, even Toyota which is a brand to own today had recalled its faulty cars sometime back. I guess it is all about they response you get from a company when something like this happens.

My own personal experience for example is mentioned here http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...-my-swift.html

Now you tell me, which company would have done this for any customer with a 04 years + vehicle which is out of warranty.

You are saying that if the manufacturer has found some defect in the product he has sold to you and wants to rectify it, that's not acceptable to you. I would be grateful if you could enlighten me on what better could be done in such a situation.

It depends on where the oil leaks from and where the leaked oil goes to. Just because you saw a Corolla catch fire due to oil leak, does not mean all cars leaking oil should catch fire. If you go by that logic, almost all Ambys, Padminis and Mahindra jeeps must have been burned down by now.

Which is exactly my point. How the manufacturer reacts to the situation is what ultimately matters.

Honestly, this will not even leave a scratch on Maruti's well earned reputation.

Prevention is better than cure. My answer is better QA, right from the design stage. Did you read the report above? Experts says that it is happened due to BSIV changes and they are not sure about the total cars affected? Give me a break... There is some thing called Engineering change process in any companies, Arent they following that? Or they do not know how many BSIV cars sold?


Are you sure about this Alto leakage? So please dont jump in to any conclusion just because you love/like/own Maruti. I can give you many examples like that in different applications, not only automobiles.

Imagine if this issue was something like accellerator issue in Toyota. Forget Company's (any) reaction, will you support them same way you did above?

100% agreed. But if something has gone wrong, at least let them fix it.

Yes, and I don't believe that report completely, beacuse on one hand they say 6000 cars and on the other they say don't know how many. It should probably be read as how many out of those 6000.


What I am trying to say is that oil leakage does not necessarily mean that the car should catch fire. Oil will leak even if you have a blown gasket. So till we have an example of BS IV oil leaking Alto catching fire, we cannot equate this to Nano/Merc catching fire.

Definitely not. Toyota decided that they were very wise and could not be caught. What they did was they brushed the issue under the carpet knowing fully well that their vehicles had an issue. Serves them right. Maruti on the other has openly acknowledged some BS IV Altos are having oil leakage problem and did not wait for some customer to come running to them with the issue. That is why I supported them.

Automobile industry/market in India is on a growth path and are still low comparing to the other major global markets. These type of recalls are not good for the industry and we should never encourage them. We want Indian companies to grow big and become global players, but should not bench mark those "global biggies" in RECALLS.