[Sheel]

The steering wheel of my Swift ZXi+ had gotten hard over time and never self centered. Since, this car never sees the highways, it never bothered us much. A friend drove mine & commented, that there definitely is an issue with the steering wheel. My driver took it to the ASC yesterday, asked a contact to escalate it and was told the steering rack assembly needs to be changed. Part is NA. So, waiting it out.

[chembilath]

I had my 2015 Dec Ciaz steering column and steering gearbox replaced under warranty, exactly on the last week of warranty expiration in 2019 December. To get that done, I had to go through a lot of e-mails with Maruti, higher officials taking my car for test drive and multiple visits to the ASS .

They tried to reject my claims every time, but I kept my nerve and kept on bothering them with mails, calls and they finally got it replaced after 6 months.
You have to push them really hard if you want it replaced

[SidR]

Originally Posted by chembilath

I had my 2015 Dec Ciaz steering column and steering gearbox replaced under warranty, exactly on the last week of warranty expiration in 2019 December. To get that done, I had to go through a lot of e-mails with Maruti, higher officials taking my car for test drive and multiple visits to the ASS .

They tried to reject my claims every time, but I kept my nerve and kept on bothering them with mails, calls and they finally got it replaced after 6 months.
You have to push them really hard if you want it replaced

My car is out of warranty as well and Maruti is not keen on replacing Steering wheel column as goodwill. It would be great if you could PM me some contact details (email IDs) of Maruti higher ups that can be looped in.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Part is NA. So, waiting it out.

I was informed that the part has arrived. Got it changed. Attaching a copy of invoice.

[himanshumor]

Originally Posted by GTO

Doesn't Maruti have ONE steering expert who can step in & fix this for all their cars? Why are they selling thousands of defective cars each month?

Looks like Maruti is working on this issue but still not very serious !

I personally hate the inconsistency more than the steering problem itself. I can see this issue is still present in most Maruti cars but sideways it has been resolved in many others at the same time.

Below is a friend’s 2020 Ignis Alpha where this problem is 85-90% resolved from day 1.

https://youtu.be/U6HmFDD9cUs

I have a 2017 Ignis zeta in the house where Return to center action is absolutely zero or “Sticky” as mentioned by Ashish Mishra in his post!
How can Maruti make the steering return to center action work on few cars (with varying percentage of return) and not work on many other cars at the same time?

Hopefully Maruti brings in consistency first and then firm resolution to this fundamental steering issue!

[Sarath219]

I own a 2020 Swift VXI and i recently started feeling the self centering issue. whenever i take an U-turn or any turn for that matter, the steering doesn't return back to center, also it happens while changing lane. My daily driving shuffles between Glanza and Swift. i can feel the Glanza steering is returning to center while the swift doesn't. Spoke to few people in extended family who owns a maruti and they say it's how it is and it's actually normal. As others have mentioned in this thread i do not get any tak tak noise from steering wheel.

Should i be concerned? Because i started driving the swift more recently because it's more fun to drive than the Glanza. Please advise!

[amvj]

Originally Posted by Sarath219

I own a 2020 Swift VXI and i recently started feeling the self centering issue. whenever i take an U-turn or any turn for that matter, the steering doesn't return back to center, also it happens while changing lane…i can feel the Glanza steering is returning to center while the swift doesn't. Spoke to few people in extended family who owns a maruti and they say it's how it is and it's actually normal. As others have mentioned in this thread i do not get any tak tak noise from steering wheel…!

If the noise is not there, then the service centre guys will not entertain. Mine is 2017 Baleno and facing the same issue. I checked with service centre and they mentioned that if the noise is there, then they might replace the parts. However, on my car there is no noise while steering wheel turns. It could be due to Maruti's cost cutting or something only they are aware of.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by Sheel

My driver took it to the ASC yesterday, asked a contact to escalate it and was told the steering rack assembly needs to be changed. Part is NA. So, waiting it out.

Does the new steering rack return to centre after taking a U-turn or it is the same as before?

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by amvj

If the noise is not there, then the service centre guys will not entertain. Mine is 2017 Baleno and facing the same issue. I checked with service centre and they mentioned that if the noise is there, then they might replace the parts. However, on my car there is no noise while steering wheel turns. It could be due to Maruti's cost cutting or something only they are aware of.

I had the same experience. The service center absolutely refused to do the repair because even though all the other symptoms were there the Tak Tak noise was absent and absolutely required to get the repair approved. My car is in the last year of warranty and I'm going to raise a stink with Maruti and at the very least get an assurance of repairs once the warranty is over

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Does the new steering rack return to centre after taking a U-turn or it is the same as before?

Yes, it does re-center post a turn, no issues with steering wheel as of now.

[Sarath219]

Originally Posted by Sarath219

I own a 2020 Swift VXI and i recently started feeling the self centering issue. As others have mentioned in this thread i do not get any tak tak noise from steering wheel.

Spoke to the service manager and he was very understanding about the steering issue. Test drove my vehicle, even though there was no noise while turning, the service manager agreed that the steering is unusually hard. Had to leave the car overnight at the service center and the steering column was changed under warranty. Thanks to the understanding nature of the service manager.

[WhiteSierra]

Hi everyone,

I want to share my 2012 Wagon-R K series steering issue here, if anyone faced similar issue and have a fix, kindly help me. My Wagon R had a perfect, feather light steering wheel which always automatically returned to center on its own after taking a 'U' turn, all this changed after I changed the lower arms at M.A.S.S.

Sometime in 2019 I took my Wagon R to Mohan Chandra wheel alignment center (It is a very famous Wheel Alignment center and tyre shop in Hyderabad and are known for their genuine work for the past 30+ years) as part of routine maintenance. I was told that there is a 1 degree deviation in Right side lower arm, and it needs to be replaced. Apparently, for bigger cars like Fortuner, Innova, Qualis, Safari, etc, they use jack to straighten it, but for smaller cars, replacement of lower arm is only the solution. The worn out / out of shape front right tyre is reason for the same, as per them. ODO reading was around 43,000 kms then.

In few days time, I took my Wagon R to our regular Maruti authorised service centre, Varun Motors, Begumpet, behind shoppers stop. I was getting all my periodic maintenance services done from this dealership ever since we bought the car. During 2019 annual service, I asked my SA to change the defective lower arm, he told if lower arms are changed in pair, then it would be effective, otherwise one side will wear out faster and one would wear out slowly, and wear out tyres unevenly, I was convinced by his explanation and got both of them changed. Here starts the problem, the steering felt very heavy during the delivery. I questioned my SA the reason for heavy steering, he told "since tyres were worn out due to driving on damaged lower arm, and after replacement of lower arms, the steering will naturally feel heavy, after you change the tyres, the steering will become light again". I was convinced with his explanation and left.

Fast forward to 2020, most of the time our Wagon R was idle due to covid related lockdowns and restrictions, we did not use the car much. But got the regular yearly service done. As we did not use the car much, we did not change the tyres either and did not ask the service center about the stiffness in the steering during annual maintenance.

In 2021, we started using the car regularly, so I changed the out of shape, irregularly worn-out stock JK Ultimas to Yokohama Earth 1 tyres of the same size and specifications. 145/80/R13, along with wheel alignment and wheel balancing. Despite changing the tyres the stiffness has not gone. I have an OBD-2 scanner, hooked up to OBD port and checked for any EPS related errors, it did not show anything, even on the instrument cluster there is no EPS warning. So EPS issue is ruled out.

I gave for yearly service again in 2021 and they also did the 50 K kms service, the ODO was at 50,300 kms during the service. This time my regular and known SA was transferred to some other branch and has moved from service department to true value. I spoke to him on phone and he directed me to his friend, another senior SA at Varun motors, Begumpet. He did a good job on couple of other issues I had with the car and sorted almost all of them, except for this heavy steering wheel. I asked him solution for this and he said since the lower arms are fairly new (~7k kms old), they will become loose and smooth after some wear and tear. I was not convinced as I already covered 7 K kms, but did not have any option and returned home. The other option he gave me is to replace the steering rack. But there were no symptoms related to it, like any sound or vibrations coming from the rack. Only the steering wheel while trying to steer is on a heavier side.

Now in 2022 the MASS representative called for our regular service, our Wagon R current ODO is around 55,000 kms, it did just 5k kms after the last year's service, but the steering wheel heaviness is still present, the steering wheel doesn't return to perfect center after taking a 'U' turn. The fun of driving an EPS car is gone as we are used to only hydraulic power steering vehicles in the past. The car feels on par with Innova's hydraulic power steering, but nowhere close to Maruti's EPS.

P.S: I got my front suspension thoroughly checked by an FNG and MASS for any leaks in shock-absorbers, worn out bushes, tie rod ends, ball joints, any play in drive shafts, stabiliser bar, wheel bearings, and all other components. Every component is visually okay according to them.

Kindly suggest what might be the issue and what should I ask for when I go for this year's annual service.

[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by himanshumor

Below is a friend’s 2020 Ignis Alpha where this problem is 85-90% resolved from day 1.

I have a 2017 Ignis zeta in the house where Return to center action is absolutely zero or “Sticky” as mentioned by Ashish Mishra in his post!

How can Maruti make the steering return to center action work on few cars (with varying percentage of return) and not work on many other cars at the same time?

Originally Posted by Sarath219

I own a 2020 Swift VXI and i recently started feeling the self centering issue. whenever i take an U-turn or any turn for that matter, the steering doesn't return back to center, also it happens while changing lane. My daily driving shuffles between Glanza and Swift. i can feel the Glanza steering is returning to center while the swift doesn't.

I own a 2021 Swift, and able to feels some sort of steering return mechanism built in. The steering wheel pulls back/ returns un-naturally, like something is pulling it back. It doesn't feel natural, from the geometry of suspension and steering. Have two Balenos in my family from 2017 and both have this non-return issue. However, my friend who bought Baleno in 2019, has return similar to my vehicle.

I am aware that such return mechanisms (and programming in Steering ECU) are provided in vehicles from other OEMs as well. So, it may be posible that Maruti has adopted something similar, though in facelifted versions or new launches. This mechanism upgrade may not be possible in the older vehicles already on road.

So, I tried to map the launch timelines :
Jan 2019 - Baleno facelift
Jun 2019 - Glanza
Feb 2020 - Ignis facelift
Feb 2021 - Swift facelift

BHPians please confirm if you have non-return issue after these launches.

Also, in the new Baleno launch, this bare-minimum improvement was given as a feature.

Link to post (2022 Maruti-Suzuki Baleno, now launched at Rs. 6.35 lakh) by BHPian volkman10.

[Sarath219]

Originally Posted by AutoNoob

So, I tried to map the launch timelines :
=====
by BHPian volkman10.

Haven't really thought about it this way. But i can confirm that my 2021 Glanza doesn't have this problem. Guess you are spot on!

[Mortis]

Anyone have the contact details for the Mumbai representative of Maruti Suzuki or whatever position that person is in to follow up on this and getting my defective AC compressor replaced under warranty because the service centers are not cooperating