Maruti Alto: AMT makes the car suddenly "jump" ahead 20000km Update: (This is becoming a part ownership review of sorts!):
My Alto K10 AMT odo now stands at approx 19450km and its been 2 years of ownership - as you can see, we've driven the car close to 10K km per year which is decent. The AMT juddering problem has reappeared with the replaced clutch as well. Its been close to 10000km since the clutch was last replaced and like clockwork , the juddering is back - and this time with a BANG! Details below...
When the car is in 1st gear in D or M mode, and I release the brake pedal to start the creep function, the car moves ahead with a massive jerk. The entire engine compartment judders and shakes like its gonna fall off its mounts and the car makes this frightening "ghad ghad ghad ghaddddd" sound. You can relate this to a person learning to drive a Manual Transmission car - trying to get a hang of the clutch in first gear. That inexperienced left foot lifting up too quickly, yet holding on to the clutch causes a jerky "jump" that we have all experienced in our learning days - the AMT is doing exactly this when the car moves from a standstill and is trying to creep. It lunges forward wildly!
Worse still, once this jerk is done, the AMT feels like it has engaged "half" clutch and is still slipping the clutch to move forward and when I try and brake (instinctive reaction to the "Jumping Start" and the lunge).... the brakes feel spongy and don't bite in initially and after the clutch slipping is complete, the brakes find their bite and BAM! I've stopped the car like some emergency braking maneuver.
Its hard to explain this in words but its like holding a running person's shirt and you get pulled with him - you feel the pull initially and get pulled with him, but you are still slowing him down - just not enough to make him stop. Then suddenly you get a better grip and pull him harder and he stops dead in his tracks like he hit a wall or something.
In stop and go traffic, this entire jump-creep-brake=> jump-creep-brake=> jump creep brake cycle takes a toll on my nerves and it gets very very frustrating to drive, quite the opposite feeling when one is supposed to have while driving an Automatic.
I took the car to the scheduled 24month/20000km service in the last week of October and complained of the same juddering and jumping issue. The SA, as expected, didn't do anything about it and murmured something like "yeah its common but we've taken a look at it". After the service, the AMT Jump became more and more aggressive and at one point, I almost hit a bike in front of me when the car pounced like a cheetah - in the 1D gear after a traffic signal turned green. I was trying to brake but the AMT and the TCU had a mind of their own and kept lunging forward. Thankfully, the brake bit and I came to a sudden halt, only to be honked by the impatient people behind me. Again, thankfully, no one rear-ended me.
Another issue is that the reverse gear feels like its on steroids, or is powered by rocket fuel. Engage the reverse gear and allow the car to creep slowly is what one should (and would) expect but surprise surprise - it moves like a rocket! Reversing is so fast that if one is not aware that the car zips back so quickly, they can really hit something/someone and cause serious damage.
So, I went back to the service station with this problem and the SA had another person (probably a senior floor mechanic) take the car for a spin. I was sitting in the passenger seat and was explaining the phenomenon to him. During his drive, he experienced the AMT JUMP too and was quite rattled by how the car lunged forward at a U-Turn, while he almost hit vehicles coming in the other lane, into which he was merging. He agreed that the Jumping in the first gear is a problem and he also noticed the 2nd gear judder.
We came back to the service station after our test drive and he spoke to the SA who had worked on my car. They went in for some discussion and later, my SA came and told me that he will be reporting this to Maruti and they would wait for more technical assistance from Maruti Suzuki themselves. This is because the Clutch has already been replaced once and the second time replacement would raise questions and hence, they wanted to involve Maruti Suzuki.
So, I was told to wait on the issue and that I will be contacted by the SA when Maruti Suzuki gives them a go ahead for another clutch assy replacement, or calls in the vehicle for further inspection.
So that's what I am doing right now - just waiting for the SA to contact me (its been close to one week now) and hope that some solution is offered to this mess called AMT.
This has been so frustrating that my fellow passengers ask me why I'm driving like a cabbie (no offense to cab drivers) with constant stop-go-stop-go-stop-go kind of aggressive driving. I try to explain to them that its not me but somehow, they don't seem to understand the full story. |