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-   -   Why the heck will Maruti-Suzuki not fix its defective & dangerous steering behaviour? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/232123-why-heck-will-maruti-suzuki-not-fix-its-defective-dangerous-steering-behaviour-7.html)

After reading multiple posts in this thread and after my previous post here, I again drove our Wagon R , Qualis, Innova, Crysta and cousin's Ford ecosport back to back. I previously complained that our Innova's hydraulic power steering is heavy in a related thread (a topic on older Innova's heavy / tight steering), but to my surprise the steering wheel self centered perfectly. All the steering wheels of the cars I've driven centered perfectly after taking a U turn but I had to correct the steering wheel of Wagon R. Looks like this is a common issue of Maruti Suzuki cars. :Frustrati

I did not know that Maruti does not sell cars with a self centering wheel. The older models with a hydraulic power steering had them I think. We take so many mechanical features for granted and never check them while buying a car. Maruti chose to cut costs in this area because most customers won't bother to check this.

It existed in our 2011 AltoK10 as well.
The extent of it returning to center was less.
It would return to center but it was off by ~15 to 25 degrees.

In case a movement of steering is made by 15 to 20 degrees from center, it would not return.

As the car was driven on hills, it required manual intervention to correct it. Eventually it became a habit but felt odd after driving other cars.

I hate the steering of my first gen Alto k10, period. Not only does the steering feel vague but totally lifeless and I hate it to the core. Turning on near standstill is like operating a non PS unit. In terms of self centering, i started noticing it very recently when I drove the car for 7 months. Whereas on my Scross, i felt it pretty effortless to steer but not exactly the best in the market.
Many owners of the SCross 1.6 reported "stickiness". The whole steering assembly was replaced free of cost on goodwill to all the vehicles that belonged to the defective batch.

Does anyone with some amount of industry information have any idea why Maruti does this? Cost-cutting or faulty manufacturing or something else?

I took a testdrive of an old carb Zen last year with an intention of buying it, the steering was super zippy and definitely selfcentered. After that I testdrove a 2016 Eeco. The steering felt like an old rickety Punjab Roadways bus steering. 2 Alto type 2s. A 2004 lxi had a good selfcentering steering, a 2012 lxi had a non-selfcentering one.

So it's definitely not a case of Maruti messing up with bad QC or some thing similar. I want to know their rationale.

You're probably right. My experience of driving on curves and changing gears is really low.

In my GenX Nano, self centering is not happening, thought that's the way it was designed. Being previously used to self-centering steering, found this behaviour quite inconvenient and dangerous, but gradually got used to it.

Happened to my GenX as well , wheels had to be aligned and then the steering was 'reset'. It appears to a common problem after reading this thread.

I was vividly reminded of this sunson thread.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...up-driver.html

Maybe sunson wasn't exaggerating after all?

While replacing front tyres, the tyre guy said that the front right wheel bearing needs to be changed, asked me to come again after bearing replacement, for alignment. Is the non self centering related to that?

These cars seem to have an active return feature, where in the EPS enhances the return to center (upto 95% or so) as well as ensure that the steering does not go to the other side off center when a drive over corrects it. When the alignment is off, this feature does not work and it returns slowly as you gently accelerate out of a turn.

And I thought I’m the only one on this planet who can “feel” this issue while driving our Ignis. It’s a rather subtle thing which very few drivers can feel and understand and Maruti’s whole concept of being number 1 in India is based on same theory which is keep giving whatever crap to Indian customers, just keep running costs low and our products will sell.
I would go to an extent of calling this steering Dangerous for driving as personally many times my brain thinks I have straightened up the car but in reality, it’s heading for the divider or that friendly innocent scooter wala riding next to me!

I thought about my own car from Maruti, since I drive a lot in twisting ghat roads. Then recalled it is a CBU from Suzuki and has Hydraulic power steering. No such issue in Grand Vitara.

The issue is limited to newer generation Maruti vehicles. As I had also mentioned earlier, both my cars don't exhibit this behavior while a new WagonR I drove simply refused to self center.

Definitely could've been an honest miscalculation as we kind of take return-to-center action for granted.

I used to watch driving lesson videos on YouTube where the instructors demonstrated how the steering corrects itself after a turn. On busy junctions, initially I myself had quite a few near-misses while learning to drive in a driving school Alto 800, thanks to steering miscalculation. Thank god the instructor saved my bum those 3/4 times. I switched the learning car to an old 2004 Santro and it had a wonderful steering. Also I felt kind of unsafe in the new Alto.

Before reading this thread, I honestly felt the social media ostracization of Maruti was paid off by rival manufacturers to some extent. But now it's quite apparent they give a rat's bum about the safety of their passengers.