[vnabhi]

Touch wood, my WagonR is 7 years old and I've not faced this problem. However,I have been facing 2 problems from the 3rd year (20 K on odo onwards):-
1. Niggling sound from tie rods when driving slow in higher gear.
2. Creaking sound when I turn the steering full right for a U turn (drive shaft sound, from my earlier m800 experience).
Issue number 1 has been 'set right' after every annual service, but recurs within a few days. I have learnt to live with it.
Issue number 2 needs around 4K moolah, so I've been avoiding for the past 4 years. However, I'm surprised that a new car with 20 K on the odo could develop a drive shaft problem. My M800 got this problem only when the odo showed 50 K.

[shajufx]

I think after reading this, I should switch off my HU and Amp and listen to the engine and tires while I take my wagonR out. With the sub and professional damping, I may not hear even if the tire goes off the car, unless it nose-dives into one side !! Thud thud and tik tik outside the body will be less powerful than the Boom Boom from inside !

A.S.S and M.A.S.S are totaly useless when it comes to issues like WagonR's notchy gear or any such body/engine related stuff ! After 3 services my gear is still in the ancient era. MASS charged me Rs.500/- just to start my car with their battery after my friend kept the headlights ON over an hour and discharged car battery by mistake. So, I have stopped giving good marks on any Maruti reviews or service centre feedbacks.

[mnhegde]

Just had my vehicle's third service done. Had purchased my tallboy from true value so still under warranty. Almost 20k on the ODO. Changed all types of oils in the vehicle, body wash done, nuts and bolts tightened, greasing done, everything is fine. took my vehicle for a drive with service advisor. The problem "THUD THUD" surfaced suddenly. The advisor says "THATS NOT A BIG PROBLEM SIR!. THIS SOUND EXISTS IN ALL WAGON Rs". what the ????????. I am wondering whether in future to buy any maruthis or not? I even requested them to change the suspension if needed. but again the same "NOT A BIG PROBLEM SIR, DONT WORRY" answer. Is it time to change the Service centre???? or is it the same allover??? This sound "THUD THUD" is the only problem am having with the vehicle. It appears on rough roads as well as on road humps.

[humyum]

Thud thud while going over bad roads is also a sign of a weak steering bush!!

[mnhegde]

@humyum : A weak steering bush? Where is that located ?? Will replacing it with a new one solve the problem??

[mdesai_1981]

hi guys, maruti has got a lot of ratlling issues i had e maruti 800 very delicate piece.. i think except for swift and sx4 all their cars were quite delicate.
anyways i wanted to know how much quantity of engine oil goes in a mpfi wagon r? is it 3 or 3.5 litres? i could'nt get it from the manual and my friend is desperate to know the spare part dealer gave him 3 litres jar hge said its good enough for it

[DCEite]

Dear o dear! And i thought I was the only person getting this thud-thud sound front the front left wheel! Though this problem crops up occasionaly once in 10 days. Bad roads or good roads, doesn't matter.

Though mine has started only recently after having completed about 40k. Surprisingly, there is NO RATTLE (oapart from the front left thud thud) on my car yet.
When i showed my car to Pasco, Gurgaon, he said its normal for WagonR's and there is no cause to worry yet.

[eddiedsouza]

Originally Posted by crashdrive78

Ed: - do u feel the road jerks and vibrations on the steering wheel while u drive? if yes then u might be looking at the troubleshooting that i did. suggest the MAS guy to put in another steering assembly from a spare vehicle (which does not have the problem) and then check if that resolves the problem. If yes, then you know the solution . Am sure its not the tyres coz i have exceeded the 40k and had no issues.

Hi crashdrive... :-) Sorry, this time it's my turn to apologize for the delay... Thanks for the reply...

What I did finally was to go to another MASS where I (slightly) knew the works manager and requested him to please do me a personal favor and see what the matter was with the car, because it was getting real bad.
He did.
During the test drive itself he told me "Possibly your wheel rims have gotten bent; the steering itself seems ok" and took the car into the service area and put it up on the lift.
Came back 10 mins later to get me from the cust lounge where he'd advised me to sit... he said "just go take a look at your tyres; the mechanic will show you what the issue is... it IS the tyres"
Sure enough, it was. The OEM JK tyres had been horribly deformed - like chewing gum (!!!) on the tread area, and one had even been deeply worn away. Another had its sidewall kind of twisted in and then back out. I obviously could not observe the tread problems myself at home, and the twisted sidewall was on the inside of the wheel, not visible to casual inspection.
Works mgr advised me to replace the worst-off tyres ASAP. However, with work pressure and all it dragged on for about a week - till one day, driving slowly on a rough patch of road in town, one tyre blew out!
So that was when I got the two bad tyres off, replaced with better-condition ones from the front, and put MRF Zigmas on the front. Now, though the rear are still JK, the drive is smooth and trouble-free once again (though I am now having some problems with starting off which I think is due to worn clutch plates).

So the advisor at the first MASS was actually correct; but since he didn't *show* me and explain the problem correctly, I dismissed it as a bunch of lies... :-(

Anyway, the next MASS was another branch of the same dealership, and I had gone to them complaining the first branch did not fix my problem or explain it properly - so they didn't charge me a penny

Thanks for sharing the info, guys!
Cheers
Ed.

PS Apologies for language I used in my previous post; I received a PM from the Admin to mind my language, so am apologizing if I offended anyone.
Ed.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

eddie, please make sure that even the tyres are not hitting some place inside the wheel well. Try looking at the car from underneath when it is parked; if necessary, use a good torch, and try with wheels fully turned. Look for "clean" rubber, as opposed reddish/ off black rubber caused by dust / dirt on road.

[eddiedsouza]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

eddie, please make sure that even the tyres are not hitting some place inside the wheel well. Try looking at the car from underneath when it is parked; if necessary, use a good torch, and try with wheels fully turned. Look for "clean" rubber, as opposed reddish/ off black rubber caused by dust / dirt on road.

Oh, dear... now you have me worried!
Thanks for the suggestion - I'll do that and see.

Of course, I had my tyres rotated regularly, so the fact that the bad tyres were at the back when one blew doesn't mean they weren't abraded when on the front... I'll take a look and see if I can detect anything, though the inside wall of the tyre is tough to see - wheel well too small.

I don't have a stereo installed (cops are fining people here in Goa who're blasting stereos in small cars, I've heard) so I suspect I would've heard some grating or other noise... but perhaps not. Anyway, will look if I can spot anything like this - thanks.

Cheers
Ed.

[crashdrive78]

Looks like most of us have this 40k problem, and if anyone observed it in this thread, the start is always the left side.

eddie :- i would still suggest that you observe the car while going on bad roads. you never know when the sounds might come back

For me, i got my problems back after completing 1500km of fixing it, and this time i have Falken 165/R13 new ones with alloy wheels on it. I have decided that i am gonna live with the problems and not try to fix it anymore. Maybe i will pick this when i build my own custom garage []
if anyone else gets a permanent fix to the noise problem, lemme know and i might try the same garage, but at this moment i will let it run till it fails.

[eddiedsouza]

Originally Posted by crashdrive78

eddie :- i would still suggest that you observe the car while going on bad roads. you never know when the sounds might come back

For me, i got my problems back after completing 1500km of fixing it, and this time i have Falken 165/R13 new ones with alloy wheels on it. I have decided that i am gonna live with the problems and not try to fix it anymore. Maybe i will pick this when i build my own custom garage []
if anyone else gets a permanent fix to the noise problem, lemme know and i might try the same garage, but at this moment i will let it run till it fails.

crashdrive - LOL! The WagonR, like most Marutis, is a torrent of noise when on bad roads... It was on the smooth roads that I detected my problem, since I was used to a smooth ride on the smooth road - and the bumping and thumping was very much out of the normal experience. To date, thank God, I have had smooth driving and no recurrence of that alarming episode... haven't yet done 1500 km on the new tyres, but it is silky smooth till now - except on bad road, of course, when I have a twinge or two of anxiety about whether the old problem is resurfacing. But in my case it really was the tyres; I was regretting not having my camera with me to just take a snap of the tyres after they were dismounted from the wheel... horrific, the sight was...

Sorry to hear you're going to suffer the problem till a failure point :-( It shouldn't be that way... but all the best in your drives!

Cheers
Ed.

[Desperadoxx]

Hi Guys, I was just searching through the forum to collect some information on suspension problems with Wagon-R. I have started hearing funny noises from the front suspensions while driving through bad roads.

If you have fitted extra double big horns in your car, eg Roots Vibrosonic or similar kind fixed under the hood, the normal place the techs would fix it would be on a clamp fixed to the right suspension bolt. There are chances that if there is insufficient gap between the horn and the engine bed ?? (Black hard rubbery material around the engine), when you drive through gutters or small depressions, the horn would knock against this bedding and makes a nasty THUD THUD noise. No amount of suspension change or repair is going to solve this problem unless you bend the clamps and provide at least 2-3 inch space between the engine and the horns. This had happened to me, and I thought I would share this info with other wagon R owners.