[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by saisree

This is not the case with my 2009 F10D Wagon R. It center aligns itself and have never faced any issues making a U Turn.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Never faced this in my WagonR F10D nor in my Ertiga. Self return/Centering always happened soon after making that U-Turn and car gaining momentum.

The old WagonR with the F10D was fundamentally sorted and never had this issue. This problem is with all the newer cars, especially those on the Heartech platform. Older cars were fine.

[warrioraks]

Since Maruti wants to specifically target customers upgrading from 2 wheelers. My guess is that this feature is one of their attempts to make such customers feel at home

[techn0l0gist]

i have this same problem with a 2016 wagonR and similar issues have been there in newer cars . The steering is vague, and will not self centre and sometimes will not assist, i have tried a few times to highlight the issue during the initial services , but it wasnt something the MASS was able to fix or resolve! Since it was just an annoyance and the car worked fine i didnt follow up with Maruti.

Trying to get this resolved by replacing column and following up with the service center (and them messing something else that is working) is not really my kinda thing so i left it as is !

But if anyone can contact Maruti - please tell them that whoever tuned/designed/manufactured their EPSs has done a pretty bad job!

[PaddleShifter]

Originally Posted by DaptChatterjee

At the higher speeds, self-centering ability gets much better. It starts to kick-in at 25/30Km/sec speed and at above 40/50 Km/sec, it hardly needs any manual intervention. Unfortunately, we (at least most of us) take U-turns at lesser speeds which means we got to do the centering ourselves. Like many others here, I have got used to it but do consider it as a dangerous design fault.

I would like to add a particular example here regarding one of my Senior who bought herself a Baleno petrol in November 2018. As she did not know how to drive, I had done all the test drives with her sitting on passenger seat to experience the ride quality while I enjoyed the test drives as a driver.

Since I was the one driving her car home after delivery, I could clearly appreciate the non centering steering but remained silent since I had failed to notice any such behaviour during the two test drives earlier.

Few weeks later when she learnt how to drive, she called me to her office and asked me regarding this non centering issue to which I had no reply.

What I observed was that Baleno didn't center after 90-120 degree turns (taking right/left turn or navigating a medium roundabout) while driving at say 25-35Kmph. This is the most dangerous steering behaviour, especially for a novice driver. Here the car has sufficient speed to cause an accident due to oversteer.

Non centering at U-turns is more related to inconvenience rather than danger.

I guess this issue never gained much attention since most people adapt after a few weeks so it ceases to be an issue. Even my senior in the above case was driving with precision like Lewis Hamilton after a few weeks.

I appreciate the forum's role in highlighting such flaws in cars. Hopefully manufacturers will get motivated to improve their future offerings.

[abhi9044]

I remember our 2015 WagonR having this issue. The steering won't self-centre at low speeds. Only if the speeds were above 25kmph, it would try to turn back to the centre position.

But after the car's 4th service when the alignment, balancing and wheel rotation were performed at MASS, it has solved the problem somehow. The steering is now always eager to self-centre irrespective of the speed (Provided that the car is moving).

[Kosfactor]

Self centering is not dependent on the power steering, although it can enhance it or mess it up.

But...an EPS can think (falsely) that you are going straight and hold the steering steady without self centering as well.

My Ex - Tata had this problem with Nano GenX that I owned briefly, the self centering action can be too aggressive (it grabs the steering away from my hand) or sometimes it just holds the steering steady without self centering. The power steering`s brain is perhaps thinking that its correcting for the crown of the road and holding the car steady, in reality its just stopping the steering from coming back to the center. Nano in its part had incredible steering angles that puts drift cars to shame.

Anyhow it was 'reset' to resolve the problem, my guess is that the reset process is some maneuver for the steering ECU to self learn or something.

Considering the Maruti models are not reserved only for India, the chances of steering geometry not allowing the steering to come back is very less, also considering it has MacPherson strut front suspension, it should self center.

There were some steering system replacements in warranty when the vehicle went in for service as happened to my friend`s 2018 Ciaz a few years back, remains to be seen if the problem is reappearing.

[DaptChatterjee]

Originally Posted by DaptChatterjee

At higher speeds, self-centering ability gets much better. It starts to kick-in at 25/30Km/sec speed and at above 40/50 Km/sec, it hardly needs any manual intervention.

Do read them as Km/Hr rather than Km/sec

[RavSam]

The current Ignis (The one with Jeep Compass like grille) steering does self center. It was in the pre-facelift perhaps that the issue was there. I was aware of this issue before purchasing my MY2020 Ignis and hence I think it's fixed.

[amvj]

Steering on my 2017 Baleno is pathetic. It does not return center and one has to manually rotate the steering. Which is incredibly annoying and one cannot make faster turns in a roundabout. Sometimes this is dangerous too as I do tend to over correct it. I learned my driving lesson on an Indica and its steering was 1000 times better than the Baleno.

Recently, I checked with the service center whether it is a particular issue on my car or it is the "feature" of the car. Service center technician mentioned that newer Marutis' are like this and the owner have to live with it.

[Gansan]

I have not noticed any such issue with my 2009 model Alto. Nor with Wagon R / Ritz from around that year. I did not notice anything amiss when I drove a 2017 Baleno a few times either.

But I have noticed in my Alto the steering will return to centre only if the turn is sharp enough, such as turning from a side road in to a main road or vice versa / taking a U turn. If it is a gentle and sustained curve on the road, the car will continue to track the curve even if we take the hands off.

But even though the steering self centres by itself, I mostly don't let it and find myself manually correcting it.

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by fordday

Exactly. The caster angle offset in the suspension/wheels causes the steering or more appropriately the wheels to return to centre.

Interesting. Would the castor angle offset torque of the wheels be sufficient to counter a servo?.

Originally Posted by fordday

Not having it in a car is blasphemy.

That's also what i think, but the number of posts which report the same issue speaks for itself.

[NiInJa]

I drive a 2019 Ertiga and my car's steering behaves just the way I expect it to. It does self return to center, I can tell this as it happens every time I take the car out of my parking space. There are two 90 degree turns I have to take at it starts turning back to center as soon as I release it. The same does not happen to my Dad's S-Presso which we all know why. Although, I must add that it is not as super quick as the Fiat Linea that we owned and does require a little nudge but I never considered it bad or a deal breaker. It weighs just about ok, though not in the leagues of VWs or Fiats.

The OP might be having some genuine issue with his car, but don't understand this fuss about Maruti's steering wheels in general.

[Vibhanshu]

Maruti knows. They just don't think it's a problem. It's by design! And I know whats going on anyone's mind while they read my post. But it's true. The largest auto manufacturer of India doesn't get what a "normal" steering system is.

I ran in to same issue when I purchased Ignis in 2018. They sent 2 guys from Gurgaon (Maruti R&D). The 2 gentlemen were from 1) Chassis R&D. 2) QA.

Both said -
R&D guy said - This is how we designed it.
QA guy said - looks perfectly fine.

When I asked them about return of steering, he gave some nonsense about mechanical system and it's burnishing. Total BS I'd say.

A Nexa executive told me that new Balenos have an extra sensor to solve this problem. And it cannot be retro fitted. Again, some BS. Ideally caster angle should take care of it.

Either ways, me and my wife have clocked about 20K Kms so far in our Ignis. Still same. No improvement.

[neil.jericho]

I feel bad for the gentleman who wrote in to the forum and shared his frustrations with the vague steering of his Ignis. Unfortunately, this is how the car is designed and it is exactly the same on my Mom's car as well. I had posted the following on the 31st of May 2019 on the Ignis thread. Link (Maruti Ignis : Official Review)

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

I havent been a fan of the Ignis from day 1 for the following reasons
- The steering feel is appalling to put it mildly. It is absolutely disconnected from the road and I am sure those big arcade car games I played as a kid had better connected steering systems than what the Ignis offers. Try taking a turn with some speed and the car's steering feels completely lost and you actually have to keep struggling with the car to get it to hold a planted line. Drive an under powered but well weighted Fiat Punto through a bunch of corners and then jump into the Ignis to do the same. You will pull your hair out in frustration at Maruti's lack of interest in dialling in any steering feel at all. If you want your parents to have a nice, easy to drive around 100% city runabout, the Ignis might be it. Oh wait, that's exactly the use case in my family as my Mom uses it to drive to the hospital and back every day. So its an easy car for her to drive but definitely not for me!

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

After 150 kms in 24 hours, I still dont like the little Maruti. I really cant think of doing the 550 km drive from Cochin to Bangalore in this car on those wide 6 lane highways as the gearbox would drive me insane. I cant even think of taking it to say Valparai which has twisties in plenty because the wonky steering will make me want to leave the car there and trek back home. I really cant think of using it in the city because I cant overtake anybody without the slow AMT making me regret it.

The AMT is something that people can live with in the cities. But the steering can be dangerous and I have asked many people who were very interested in booking the Ignis, to firmly stay away from it, only on account of the poorly calibrated steering.

[YD14]

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

-- First Part (Normal behaviour) --

While this (steering not centering) is not engineered the right way, a new Maruti user may find it more of a problem. But once you drive the car for 7-14 days, you get accustomed to the car behaviour (atleast I did).

Secondly, it is only at very low, parking speeds where this behaviour is more apparent. At higher speeds, the steering returns back like normally expected.

I can second those observations in my second gen Swift Dzire. While the high speed behavior of the steering is rather sorted out, at slow speeds the steering is heavy and requires a lot of effort to turn and to center back.

I would like to add another observation of my own. At speeds above 30kmph, the steering remains dead at center position and slowly turning the wheel in either direction by small angles (like 5-10 degrees) has very little effect to car. Turn it faster by the same angle and the car changes direction abruptly requiring correction. Though it is toned down at higher speed of say 80kmph so it is not dangerous, but the jerk and required correction are annoying. Those who have driven the car for long enough (like my father) do not notice it, but that is no excuse to provide poorly calibrated steering.

For a person like me who lives in remote areas where petrol pumps look like these, Maruti knows they have a guaranteed customer.

Attachment 2109906

That's not fair! This is the worst looking petrol pump in Pauri. There are better ones in the town.

But yes, we have nothing other then Maruti. No manufacturer other than Maruti has any presence here and even the authorized service center of Maruti is good for nothing other than parts sourcing. Those who own other brands either make the 300 km round trip to Dehradun for every service or go with the independent shops and see their car's condition deteriorate.