Team-BHP - Issues with WagonR
Team-BHP

Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)
-   Technical Stuff (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/)
-   -   Issues with WagonR (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/2912-issues-wagonr.html)

One of the greatest problems concerning my Maruti WagonR is the reverse gear..it is very difficult to engage and requires repeated tries... but if i am lucky it may get engaged in one shot.... otherwise its a big big problem... sometimes the reverse refuses to be engaged when the engine is off.. so i have to switch on and pray to god .. because my gear lock is applied in the reverse gear..

the second issue is the ground clearance(~165mm)... the underbody repeatedly scrapes even not so high obstacles....

anybody facing a similar set of problems with this or any other car in this segment..??..

I used to face the same reverse gear problem in Omni. Although i am not sure what the cure is but here is what i used to do to get into reverse gear easily. Put the car in first gear and roll it forward a couple of feet and then engage the reverse gear.

About the ground clearance problem, this issue has been done to death in a couple of other threads here. I could put the link here but i dont know how. But the gist of those discussions was:
1. You can go for a tyre upgrade but then ur speedo reading will go for a toss.
2. Or, put spacers to increase ground clearance but then the handling at higher speeds will go for a toss. WagonR already being so tall, i would say this is a no no
3. Go reeeeeeal slow on those obstacles. And turn your wheels so that the car goes over them one wheel at a time. Chances of car scraping the speed breakers gets reduced.
Anything i missed out, fellas?

Cheers
Amitoj




I may be wrong but i think the prob lies in the fact that the reverse gear is not a synchromesh, meaning that the the speeds of the turning parts are not synchronised to match each other. Another reason why reverse gears cannot be engaged while the car is in motion. Try that and the gears will give out a grinding sound.

Some cars might not have synchromesh even on the 1st and 2nd gears. *

Quote:

Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] ]what i used to do to get into reverse gear easily. Put the car in first gear and roll it forward a couple of feet and then engage the reverse gear.

That's bcos the teeth on the gears maynot be slotting into each other perfectly, moving the car forward helps solve that problem. Another thing you don't wanna do is put the car into reverse (on a slope), press the clutch and let the car roll until the reverse gear gets locked, as you might have a tough time shifting it out of reverse, happened to my Wagon R once and we had to push the car up the slope to disengage reverse.

Shan2nu




just de clutch while engine is running and then try shifting to reverse after starting, check the gear linkages adjustment and also clutch play, it will take a some time for a new gear box to bed in, so be patient if its a new car

Yes the reverse gear is not synchromesh...it seems that is why you are having problems with it...but does it become ok when the car has warmed up??? If so then i think its normal have seen this in other cars as well. Double clutching like jaggu pointed out will help as well.

Drifter

some years back ,i had read a similar problem with M1000's having similar problem.and dunno who (ODorACI) had replied,but the naswer was that as the engine gets hot,i.e after driving for about 1/2 hour,the flow of the transmission oil to the reverse gear is lessened,so u feel it getting hard .

The thing is.. this reverse gear problem is only specific to WagonR... Santro and Indica users never complain of such problem...
wonder why a company like Maruti does not do anything about it.....:O

Quote:

Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] (dceite @ Nov. 26 2004,20:50)]The thing is.. this reverse gear problem is only specific to WagonR... Santro and Indica users never complain of such problem...

I had an indica and it use to have trouble getting into reverse when the gearbox was cold.

Drifter

Mods: Please take note. If you find it worthwhile, feel free to delete the first couple of lines and start this as a new thread. If it doesn't meet your standards, apologize. Would like to meet your expectations going forward.

This is my first thread and second post on TBHP. I just want to share the nightmarish experiences I've had with Maruti and seek (not sympathy) solutions to my problems.

How it all started?

It was June 2011. I had been married for about 1.5 years now and my newborn daughter was about 6 months old. Plus, the Money-back policy that I had been investing for close to five years was about yield its first return.

After the first 5 months of her life at her grandma's place in Bangalore, I had just brought my daughter to Hyderabad. I had been a very enthusiastic bike rider till then, but didn't have the guts to take my little one and my wifey on the ever-thrilling but threatening RX-135. I had moved up in life (to a small extent) and thought I was now able to afford a second-hand car to take my small family out on the road safely.

The Decision:

I consulted a couple of my friends, and a real close one who owned a Wagon R LXi Duo. He was all praise for the vehicle he owned and how loyal, practical and trouble-free it was. Being someone new to this world of cars, I was impressed. I had been doing a lot of research on Maruti's TrueValue website and selected a car that fit my requirements. And one fine day, end of June 2011, we went to the TrueValue showroom to have a look at the car I had selected.

Surprise! The car I had booked was not available; not only was it unavailable, but it was to be refurbished and would take at least a week to be back to the showroom. So, without choice, I and my friend started looking at other Wagon R options there were. Some flashy modified, some abused and some end-of-life Wagon Rs! And then the rep drew my attention to a silver, nothing to be amazed of, Wagon R Duo, and also offered me a discount of 15k over the 3.3 lac price he quoted. The car had done only 36k kilometers! My friend did the TD (I was a novice and didn't know what cars were all about) and said it was quite good and worth the money. That was it! We came back to the showroom; I paid 5k as booking advance and left the showroom

The Delivery:
Being someone that had just "moved up" in his life, I was relying on banks to finance my loan. Loan did get sanctioned by HDFC (thankfully), and that too pretty soon. July 9, 2011, I took possession of my car (financed) after all the formalities had been taken care of. A novice, I was able to drive through and negotiate Hyderabad traffic, especially through Kukatpally between 6 and 7 pm (Hyderabadis would know what a pain it can be). I had two of my very close friends with me to celebrate our first car (and also make sure that I reached home safe). All of us were happy! And after our celebrations were over, my friends took leave.

First Adventure:

Being from lower-middle class, the car was a luxury. I drove it all the way from the showroom to home and boy, did I enjoy!? On the other hand, my wife also wanted to take a ride! So after my friends left, my wife suggested we go on a long drive within the city (in the middle of the night). I said, today being a Saturday, why don't we go out of town and be back by Monday morning!? My wife agreed. We packed all the essentials, took a couple of pillows and blankets to keep our daughter cozy in the backseat, filled the tanks up at the nearest petrol/gas stations and hit the Bangalore highway. And so the adventure began!

And the nightmare begins (Shock Number 1) :

210 kilometers from Hyderabad, around 5:45 in the morning and the first morning after I bought my new second-hand car, I had my first puncture entering the town of Kurnool. Enthusiastic, I just took the spare tire and started unscrewing the left-front wheel. One of the wheel nuts was jammed. Drove it to the nearest puncture shop, which luckily was only about 100 meters from there. The puncture guy continued what I started, and the bolt broke! He charged me Rs. 250 to fix the puncture and patch the tire that was torn (TrueValue!). We left Kurnool at 8:45, after the guy was done with fixing the tire and blabbering about how greedy these showrooms were and their sub-par service, towards Bellary. The plan was to visit my wife's cousin at Savanur, between Haveri and Hubli. We tanked up again on the way to Bellary and reached Bellary by noon through all the bad roads that my Wagon R barely managed through. We lodged at a hotel in Bellary, took some rest and by evening as we had hardly slept, and we were back on our way by 6:00.

And then started another nightmare of a drive, to Hospet and then through local roads towards Haveri. We reached Haveri at around 12:30. And unfortunately, we happened to pick up a passenger at Haveri who was travelling to the same destination that we were. We were about to hit the Pune-Bangalore highway, 30 Kms away from Savanur and another puncture! And the same tire again! I tried unscrewing the nuts and the nut opposite to the nut that had broken that morning was stuck. With no option, I called up the Maruti Helpline who promised help would be on its way in 45 minutes.

Fortunately, for me, my brother was travelling from Bangalore to Hubli that same night. I asked him to get down on the Haveri bypass. He, unfortunately for him, accompanied us in our misadventure.

By the time one of the Maruti A.S.S, guys arrived at the crime scene, it was almost 8 am, more than 6 hours after our ordeal had started. He tried hard to unscrew the wheel nut for more than 30 minutes, and failed. He then asked me to drive the car with the punctured tire to a welding shop 2 kms away. I did. But the punctured tire gave up. The nut was melted down and replaced by the spare. I took the car to the Maruti Service Station. I then noticed that the spare wheel was not an original, or was from an older Wagon R, which was much more aged than the car and would live for only a couple of months with all the rust it had gathered. After almost 3.5 hours, the tire was replaced, along with a couple of other things, and the whole thing cost me 4k. And we were back on our way to Savanur. And in all this hoopla, the passenger I had picked up had left us.

Rest of the trip back to Hyderabad was not all that eventful. We came back to Hyderabad with mixed emotions. A good trip with some bad experiences.

Shock Number 2:

In a couple of weeks, after the initial congratulatory conversations, my friends/colleagues pointed out that the car was registered in Vijaywada, AP 16, which is kind of a taboo in Hyderabad. It would be one of the first to be targeted by regionalists (for the lack of a better word) whenever there was unrest in the city (that explains the 15k rebate offered by the dealer). Nightmare! I was a non-local, unaware of things.

Shock Number 3:

The car started giving me trouble on LPG mode, especially in the 2nd gear where I had to move over a speed-breaker/road hump. There was no response and the car used to stall (which still is the case, but I've gotten used to it). I took it to an M.A.S.S. to have it inspected. They did something, didn't charge anything, and told me that the problem was rectified. But it wasn't!

A couple of months later at a scheduled service, I came to know that the air-filter was broken and had been screwed in whereas it was meant to be held together by a clamp. They replaced the air-filter, cost me Rs. 650 for it. They even accused me of having taken the car to an unauthorized service station.[list=1][*]The problem with throttle response continued. The air-filter broke again when I tried to move the vehicle over a speed-breaker. Seemed as though the engine was gasping for breath and it wasn't supplied with the air it needed. Till date, two years since I bought the car, I've replaced the air-filter assembly completely three times, and the problem still persists. I've highlighted this problem to the service engineer every time I've visited the service center, and they don't seem to have a solution to this.
:Frustrati

Additions, Replacements & Service:

1. Tires: 4 tires replaced. 2 of them about 30k kms old and the other 2 20k kms old. (That was how I could afford to change them)
2. Central Locking and Keyless Entry: Installed a security & keyless entry system.
3. Replaced all 4 speakers.
4. Fog lamps: Helps, and acts as a substitute when your headlights fail.
5. Installed 130/100 (illegal) Philips Rally headlights for highway duty. Though I'm normally a law abiding citizen, I can't stand the glare of the 8+ headlights of an oncoming truck on the highway. I use the low-beam within the city.
6. Service as per schedule provided.

Conclusion:

As of date, the car has done approx. 70k on the odo, 34k kms since I bought the car, and still has the same problems. All my visits to the M.A.S.S. haven't yielded anything but pain after all the service charges. And in 2 years, none of the authorized service centers have been able to fix my problems. And their attitude! I'd liken it to the government officials. They treat you as though you don't know how to drive and maintain a car.

I'm totally disappointed the way Maruti handles its customers. So much so that though they have a very good lineup of cars, I would never want to be a Maruti customer again.

PS: I might be biased, immature or inexperienced in my approach. Your suggestions would be helpful.

Hi Vikki, I can feel your frustration. I have visited Maruti True value showrooms here in Bangalore. I have found that they sell 3 types of cars
- 1) Maruti true value 'certified' cars -- standard warranty of 6 months on engine, suspension, gearbox + 3 free services ; premium warranty of 1 year on engine, suspension, gearbox + 3 free services
- 2) Maruti true value non-certified cars -- no warranty
- 3) non-true value car sold by dealer (could be tata/ hyundai etc)

which type of car did you purchase? Also, its probably a good idea still to show your car in multiple MASS -- someone from there might be able to help you.

Hey Vikki,

Without being biased, I would like to mention my point regarding the three shocks you mentioned:

Shock 1: Could have happened with any kind of car(sedan/hatchback/MUV) and any kind of tyre(new/old/refurbished). Having a puncture in just 100 metre distance of a puncture shop could be a puncture scam as well. I would surely have blamed Maruti Dealer if you were promised/shown different tyres/rims at the time of booking and if those were changed to some substandard parts post booking(this would amount to cheating).
My SX4's tyre's mounting nut was stuck just like in your case. The culprit was the tyre balance shop guy who tightened it wrongly using the machined spanner.

Shock 2: I would just term it as a rumor at most. I am far off from AP region and not the best guy to know the ground situation. But it cannot be the case that no cars are being registered at AP-16 authority all this while or the new car dealers in that area offering a special discount to buy AP-16 registered cars. Coming to the discount part, every dealer(rather sales guy from any field) have some buffer amount in the quoted price(True value guys must have bought this same car for some 2.5 lacs) and the selling price. So your sales guy at showroom might have done it to make it a lucrative deal for you and a quick sale for himself.

Shock 3: This is something I agree upon and is a matter of concern. I have seen people putting a screw if the clip breaks (does not affect the functionality at all and saves money). But air filter assembly breaking 3 times is a big issue. My 10 yrs old zen is still running on factory fitted air filter assembly. Suggest you to kindly raise the issue with maruti customer care and demand a free replacement from dealer (for lack of technical expertise in diagnosis or sub standard fitment).

Besides, such minor niggles occur during ownership (especially second hand car purchased from dealer). On a positive note, you have mentioned running this very car to 70k(34k by you) and seems the car has indeed been reliable except for the initial glitches as mentioned by you.

Wish you many more happy miles with your ride.

Regards

I purchased a TrueValue certified car. I couldn't risk buying a non-certified/unknown car.

I can really understand your frustration and especially when we do not have surplus money to spend on cars maintenance. We put all our hard money in buying a car and then if we land up just paying the maintenance bills its a nightmare.

Well my two cents:
1) As you have taken a pre-owned car expect some niggles, expect some money to be invested in consumables like tyres, battery, brakes, clutch etc.
2) Research your problems well and don't stick to MASS. You can get opinions from different FNH (Friendly Neighborhood Garage). Many a times a knowledgeable FNH is easy to afford and may have solutions which MASS do not. But choosing a FNH is a tricky affair.
3) Punctures, Tyres, Jammed nuts all these can happen in second hand cars especially if Tyre rotation was not done and rust has taken over. I can understand your agony especially when travelling with a small kid.

Drive safe.

You should sell your car. It is currently draining money from your pocket and is not serving it's original purpose, which is to take you places in safety and without tensions of breakdown.

The other day, I read about a guy who always buys the cheapest car ($500 range) and runs it till it dies. After he buys it, he never maintains it. All he does is change the oil and fluids. Never visits a dealer, or a mechanic and never replaces any spare parts. When it dies, he just scraps it and gets another one. If he's lucky enough he is able to run the car for a few years, but he's been able to get away with atleast 1 year service from such junk cars. I don't have the link but let me try to find it.

Think about it, you could never have to take a loan ever again or visit a service center your whole life. The only negative being that you never know when it'll fail on you, which is no different from the current car that you own.

If you don't like risking it, I suggest you get rid of the WagonR and use the money to buy a new Nano cash down.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikki@Hyderabad (Post 3178129)
The Decision:

I consulted a couple of my friends, and a real close one who owned a Wagon R LXi Duo. He was all praise for the vehicle he owned and how loyal, practical and trouble-free it was. Being someone new to this world of cars, I was impressed. I had been doing a lot of research on Maruti's TrueValue website and selected a car that fit my requirements. And one fine day, end of June 2011, we went to the TrueValue showroom to have a look at the car I had selected.

Surprise! The car I had booked was not available; not only was it unavailable, but it was to be refurbished and would take at least a week to be back to the showroom. So, without choice, I and my friend started looking at other Wagon R options there were. Some flashy modified, some abused and some end-of-life Wagon Rs! And then the rep drew my attention to a silver, nothing to be amazed of, Wagon R Duo, and also offered me a discount of 15k over the 3.3 lac price he quoted. The car had done only 36k kilometers! My friend did the TD (I was a novice and didn't know what cars were all about) and said it was quite good and worth the money. That was it! We came back to the showroom; I paid 5k as booking advance and left the showroom

Hi sir ji,I can imagine the frustration. I had a maruti 800 for sale about 2.5 yrs back, it was a 5 speed model 2002 model. I was planning to buy a Alto K10,which eventually I got it in year 2011. Somehow the authorised dealer in mumbai came to know that I want to sell my old car,he offered me that his valuer will visit me and give his price. The said person came to my place and he turned out to be my batch mate during my automobile engineering years. We forgot about the car to be tested and spoke of all those years at our institute.

Then he said "forget it yaar, I dont want to see your car, as it is the dealers will pay pittance for the cars however good they may be. They buy cars give a full service,touch up painting done,tyres washed ,polished hike up the cost and sell it off ".

He said sell it to a local dealer you will get good price.This type of fleecing is there in those true value cars.It is a total nonsense.


All times are GMT +5.5. The time now is 07:09.