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:eek:
Had my first scrape on the left front bumper
Courtesy: A boulder on the roadside at a tight corner :Frustrati
Have to find some way of polishing the bumper. (Please give inputs)

Sorry to hear that. Try buffing it with some polish/trim restorer. Most of these marks should disappear. I usually cover up these minor scratches using it.

A little too late. But, better late than never. IMHO, it was stupid on Maruti's part to launch S-cross without a petrol engine option.

Finally, took the Delivery of my 1.6 Alpha in Urban Blue. Extremely Pleased with the Car. Will definitely write an ownership review, once the car is driven for a while.

Brilliant choice of alloys and tyres there mate. Matt anthracite looks better than the black ones in my opinion. Tyres in 225's would have filled up the wheel arches nicely though. Keep revving :)

My first post here! The thread has influenced me the most to buy the s cross 1.6 and now I am a proud owner of the delta version

Just wanted to describe something which happened during my recent outing in the s cross. Wanted to know your thoughts on why this may have happened and any precautions to be taken going forward...

Recently went on a 2500km trip in my s cross 1.6 delta. It was a trip like pune - nagpur - pench - tadoba - shegaon - ajanta - nashik and back to pune

I was driving towards shegaon at a speed of 70-80 km/hr. The road is a single way state highway. The only issue with the road was the edge of road surface runs a good 3-4 inch above the ground throughout the 50km road. So whenever a big trailer etc came from opposite direction the wheels (front and back of left side) had to get on the surface/ground and then again on the road once I passed the trailer etc....Now I was travelling at 70-80km/hr and because of the vehicle coming from opposite direction I had to take the wheels on the ground (remember the 3-4 inch between the road surface and ground) and after that in the same speed I brought it on the road....but all of a sudden the steering lost control and the car did a zig-zag 3-4 times....also i had stumped the brake but the vehicle did not stop...it was so insane that thoughts were running in my mind to steer it towards a tree etc. just to stop it....fortunately after 3-4 zig-zags it stopped. Luckily there was no vehicle from either ways and we got saved else would have been a fatal accident.

Now my question is why did this happen...?
1. Is it because of the speed (70-80) with which I got the car to steer from ground to road surface (where there was the 3-4 inch height difference running throughout)
2. Or improper tyre pressure ( I checked and it was high at 55 in the front left wheel...all other wheels were ok)

The loss of steering control and no response to braking remain my biggest worry...do i need to get things checked?

55 psi is definitely an abnormal tyre pressure.
Failure of brake system is an area of concern and you must get it checked at the earliest. In my opinion even with an abnormal tyre pressure the brakes should have worked.

Wow! You were indeed very lucky that time!

The cardinal rule of getting off the road is to bring the speed to a minimum. Always remember that the stability of the car is only due to the traction between the tyres and the road; no road = no traction. If you get on and off the road at speeds of 70-80 kph, with a surface height difference of 3-4 inches, you not only damage the car and the wheel alignment as also run the big risk of having an accident due to loss of traction.

Therefore, bring the speed to a minimum before getting off the road, then drive along that way to find a suitable place where the difference in surface heights is less abrupt (more gradual slope) and get back on road.

Also remember that brakes won't work in absence of traction.

Hi spitiloop,
Happy to know that you are safe through the incident.

One question: when the car took zig zag turns, was it your inputs (after first zig zag, you might have given two three alternating steering inputs by reflex, each input intended to be the corrective action for the previous one)? Or it is that the power steering took alternate fast turns on its own?

This is a "loss of control" situation of a short duration. Lower car speed will surely help, whatever be the cause.

Secondly, do not bring the car on the road suddenly. Do it carefully at slow speed with most possible steer. This will avoid sidewall damage to the tyres. As you will discover from a separate thread, the sidewall damage has potential to render the tyre useless even if the tyre is new or there is enough groove depth.

Yes got the braking system checked and all seemed fine to the service advisor

To answer to Rahuls question: yes it were more like reflex corrective actions to the steering
The puzzle to me is 3-4 inches height difference didn't seem much to slow down...I though a vehicle like s cross may be able to handle that....definitely I was wrong

As rednikhil said may be a case of loss of traction

And tks for the advice guys...lesson learnt!

I would slow down a Fortuner for 3-4 inch height.

Hi spitiloop,

Happy to hear that nothing bad happened.

I would suggest, if you anticipate such a situation, it is better to slow down. Because, with one set of wheels on tarmac and another set of wheels on mud, your vehicle will not behave in the same way as you expect it would. Add on to that, a high speed and a height difference of 4 inches between road and ground, it becomes even dangerous. Try to avoid such manoeuvres.

Drive safe.

I would slow down further or even stop to let bigger vehicles pass, not for the fear of loosing control but to protect the tires. You never know what is there off the tarmac, you can easily damage the sidewalls or get a cut that could ruin your entire trip.

I think S cross uses 205/60 R16 tyres. The sidewall height of this tyre is 4.84". So, one needs to be careful about the 4" - 5" shoulder of the road. Otherwise the alloy wheel / rim will take a hit.

If the tyre does not loose contact with the ground, it shall not loose the traction, unless there was sand or small pebbles beneath the tyre.

Well there was a time when I used black wax polish (not the liquid type) and a lot of elbow grease on the bumpers of my 800 to retain the black look which worked surprisingly well. Whether it works or not in this case remains to be seen but if you are at loss for things to try out it may be worth a shot. lol:

Drive on,
Shibu.