Car steers / veers towards the left

bharatbs · 10th June 2008, 20:36

Some updates:

Since I was getting regular mails from Maruti asking for detailed feedback about the vehicle. I mentioned about my car steering to the left and presto within two weeks I get frantic calls from Bimal Auto, Bangalore (dealer) asking me to get my car so that they can get it checked.

Today I went for a drive with the technician and after a little bull****ting he agreed that the car is pulling to the left. So I have to take it to the dealer on the weekend and they will do the alignment. I have feeling that this will not help considering that wheel alignment is already done outside, but lets see whet happens. Will keep you guys posted.

Pavan, your message is beleiveable and a scary proposition. I recently drove a friends Getz. The car has a much smoother suspension and no steering pull issues. Wonder when Maruti will start making flawless cars?

Jaggu · 10th June 2008, 23:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajatsingh78

Just read the entire thread...and yes I am also the victim of the "swift-steering-to-left" virus, after numerous complains the issue is still there, I also got a tyre changed for irregular wear and tear, and I don't remember that whether this tyre was from the left side (now I will be looking for the same when I next go for tyre rotation).

You have an issue with suspension setting, unfortunately there is no other way apart from jugad work (making ovel the holes that hold the wheel assembly to strut) to solve the issue. Text book approach is to replace the defective strut which is showing the error.

rajatsingh78 · 11th June 2008, 00:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaggu

You have an issue with suspension setting, unfortunately there is no other way apart from jugad work (making ovel the holes that hold the wheel assembly to strut) to solve the issue. Text book approach is to replace the defective strut which is showing the error.

Thanks Jaggu...I am looking for a laser based wheel alignment center near my place and will get it checked and documented before I approach the dealer or Maruti for a replacement.

tush · 12th June 2008, 02:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by tush

Had given the car to the maruti service station again. This time they did "Cross Member" adjustment. I dont know what it means but the workstation manager said its the platform on which the steering assembly resides and some bla bla bla which i dont remeber. I insisted him to show me what it is. He did show me for a petrol swift which was being serviced when i reached there. He said it was adjusted by somewhere between 0.5mm to 1mm as specified by maruti as they started getting these complains for swift.

We took a drive but was not sure if its rectified as the road near the workstation is all uneven. I dont know how they checked my car as the road outside their workshop as all is tar and no cement. Hope they might have taken to other roads as well for test drive.

Jaggu and anyone else has any take on this.

punterccrx8s · 12th June 2008, 04:10

I have a swift too,2008 model. There is no such problem in my car.But in my zen i had faced this problem. First i took it to wheel alignment centre and got the problem fixed.But then , it still continued. Then i realised that the problem was with the fact that my steel rim was slightly bent. Got it hammered and into shape and then my problem was solved.

Jaggu · 12th June 2008, 11:57

There is a cross member but i dont remember any adjustments for that, is it possible for you to take a snap of the part they referred to? This would help.

If you have cleared the alignment check, only thing that can help is swapping tyres, these tyre pulls are sometimes very painful to diagnose.

tush · 14th June 2008, 18:49

Jaggu check this image of Cross Member. Its from a Pertol Swift and its same for Diesel Swift. The image below that is from the manual which the maruti workshop has it.

RacerByHeart · 16th June 2008, 18:00

I got my Swift VDI on 8th of May 2008. My car has been pulling to the left from the day I bought it. I guessed it may be due to the wheels being aligned incorrectly. I got the first service done from Pratham Motors. They did the wheel alignment. The problem persists. Pratham motors people told me that this problem exists in all swift diesels.

Please indicate if this information is correct? and what should be done to correct this issue?
I have changed the tyres and rims. I am confident that nothing is wrong with them. Wheel balancing was done on the new alloys.

This problem is not there with all Marutis as my WagonR does noto have this issue.

I have written to maruti Suzuki also but there is no reply.
I can manage driving with the car pulling to the left, but I am afraid of uneven tyre wear.

I asked other people about it, they told me that the car should pull about 1m to the left for every 30m, but my car pulls much more. It is very easily noticed, it shows up at about 40kmph.

Jaggu · 16th June 2008, 18:39

Thanks tush for the pics, that is the subframe i guess, but am not sure any adjustment facility is available on that. If you observe closely its mounted using fixed bolts with no provision for adjustment, unless there is some specific mod that Maruti has suggested over internal circulars. This part helps in isolating chassis from heavy impacts from the suspension giving a relatively plush feel.

Any other suspension experts please comment.

@racerbyheart: my car doesnt pull to any side. Wheel balancing is definitely not the issue, try swapping tyres from front to back or switching side if they are non directional. If properly set car will NOT pull to any side.

Go through these pages for more info Car Bibles: Wheels, tyres and tyre markings.

tush · 17th June 2008, 19:37

Let me mention first. I have drove my car for about 70-80KMS after bringing it from the workstation. But the problem is still there. The steering turns to the left a little bit even if there is slight change in road surface or increase or decrease the speed of the car and the car starts going to left.
Its plain simple, if i leave the hand of the steering for even 3-4 seconds the steering doesnt stay stable, will steer a bit to left and the car would slowly go to the left of road. I even feel mild pressure on my left hand to keep the steering straight to keep the car going straight. And i realise this after driving for a while.

Thanks for your inputs Jaggu. The service station said they grind the hole where the bolts get inserted around about 0.5 to 1 mm so that they can adjust the Cross Member. And they said this is suggested by maruti itself for the left pulling problem. I don't understand one thing, everytime i tell them about this problem they give the reason of road banking.
They even say this is not called pulling. Pulling means there is sudden steer towards a particular side. HELP NEEDED PEOPLE!!!!!

Where the hell should i test my car, on what kind of road. I have one chance of express highway, but then doesnt that have a little banking for rain water to drain at the sides.

The other maruti dealer ship technician said that they have a circular from maruti which specifies what they can do. However no circular has anything mentioned about cross member. He confirmed with the alignment guy in their workstation and he said that they do the cross member adjustment for left pulling in swift. But he also mentioned that they do not grind the hole to increase its diameter. They do the adjustment in the default play that it has.

No Maruti dealership has the right information i guess. Is this ever going to get resolved.

@racerbyheart: I had gone to another dealer ship of maruti to discuss this. They said they had a customer who had this similar problem for Swift Diesel. They did every dam thing. Even adjusted the Cross Member but it didnt resolve. They played on it for a month and finally they found it was the alloy wheels causing problem. They fitted the stock wheels and the issue was resolved. So u might want to check the same.

Jaggu · 17th June 2008, 22:52

Find any regular road with flat surface, newly laid tarmac will be ideal. Pune why not try the MG road? Sorry last time i drove there was some 8 years back

bharatbs · 18th June 2008, 23:34

Update on my earlier post:

I had been to Bimal Service Station last week, I spoke to the chief engineer.

The chief engineer took a test drive and then admitted that my car steered less, they had cars which steered to the left a lot more and they have done a lot of R&D to solve this issue in house at Bimal. For some cars they have been able to solve it, for others they just not been able to. They are saying that it is an issue with Swift body/chasis i.e. manufacturing defect from Maruti.

They ran several test drives. Once before tweaking the setup, once after and then without alloys. After fitting the stock tyres according to Bimal the car was steering correctly. However IMO it was not. In the end we had done more than 50 kms of testing and I was tired. I decided to call it a day and test it out on a proper well asphalted highway and then get back to Bimal.

They told me that if I was still not satisfied, they will esclate my case to Maruti and they will send a service engineer to check my car.

Jaggu · 19th June 2008, 00:01

Just take a drive to our new airport, devnahalli. You will surely know if the car is pulling to the side.

tush · 21st June 2008, 21:04

@bharatbs -

Did they do Cross Member adjustment for your car. The printout they give you for the work they have done can you just let us know what is mentioned on that. And also cross check that information with what is mentioned in the job card. On request they will show you the job card.

Update on my earlier post -

I discussed this issue with another "x" maruti dealership works manager and he said, its not pulling basically its called drag. And they solve it by adjusting the cross member and change the tyre inside out and do the alignment. And he said its not considered as a problem. Even if maruti engineers come down to check the car they will say its Drag and they would first thing question you why you leave your hands while driving. Which is not appropriate. And then it becomes tu tu mein mein.....

Jaggu · 21st June 2008, 21:23

Drag/Pull all same, maybe the degree involved might be lil higher for pull. Ideally you shouldnt have to put effort through the steering, while traveling in a straight line with flat surface at normal speed/acceleration. If you have to correct using the steering then there is pull/drag, pull if its very evident, drag if its slow pull.

Whichever it maybe, have to be corrected since it aint the right way a car should behave. But what the manager of x dealership mentioned as remedial made some sense.

10th June 2008, 20:36	#61
bharatbs BHPian Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 418 Thanked: 155 Times View My Garage	Some updates: Since I was getting regular mails from Maruti asking for detailed feedback about the vehicle. I mentioned about my car steering to the left and presto within two weeks I get frantic calls from Bimal Auto, Bangalore (dealer) asking me to get my car so that they can get it checked. Today I went for a drive with the technician and after a little bull****ting he agreed that the car is pulling to the left. So I have to take it to the dealer on the weekend and they will do the alignment. I have feeling that this will not help considering that wheel alignment is already done outside, but lets see whet happens. Will keep you guys posted. Pavan, your message is beleiveable and a scary proposition. I recently drove a friends Getz. The car has a much smoother suspension and no steering pull issues. Wonder when Maruti will start making flawless cars?
	() Thanks

12th June 2008, 04:10	#65
punterccrx8s BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 760 Thanked: 170 Times	I have a swift too,2008 model. There is no such problem in my car.But in my zen i had faced this problem. First i took it to wheel alignment centre and got the problem fixed.But then , it still continued. Then i realised that the problem was with the fact that my steel rim was slightly bent. Got it hammered and into shape and then my problem was solved.
	() Thanks

12th June 2008, 11:57	#66
Jaggu Team-BHP Support Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 20,215 Thanked: 15,906 Times	There is a cross member but i dont remember any adjustments for that, is it possible for you to take a snap of the part they referred to? This would help. If you have cleared the alignment check, only thing that can help is swapping tyres, these tyre pulls are sometimes very painful to diagnose.
	() Thanks

14th June 2008, 18:49	#67
tush BHPian Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Pune Posts: 331 Thanked: 12 Times	Jaggu check this image of Cross Member. Its from a Pertol Swift and its same for Diesel Swift. The image below that is from the manual which the maruti workshop has it. Attached Thumbnails
	() Thanks

16th June 2008, 18:00	#68
RacerByHeart BHPian Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Doha/Bangalore Posts: 42 Thanked: 32 Times	I too have the same problem I got my Swift VDI on 8th of May 2008. My car has been pulling to the left from the day I bought it. I guessed it may be due to the wheels being aligned incorrectly. I got the first service done from Pratham Motors. They did the wheel alignment. The problem persists. Pratham motors people told me that this problem exists in all swift diesels. Please indicate if this information is correct? and what should be done to correct this issue? I have changed the tyres and rims. I am confident that nothing is wrong with them. Wheel balancing was done on the new alloys. This problem is not there with all Marutis as my WagonR does noto have this issue. I have written to maruti Suzuki also but there is no reply. I can manage driving with the car pulling to the left, but I am afraid of uneven tyre wear. I asked other people about it, they told me that the car should pull about 1m to the left for every 30m, but my car pulls much more. It is very easily noticed, it shows up at about 40kmph.
	() Thanks

16th June 2008, 18:39	#69
Jaggu Team-BHP Support Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 20,215 Thanked: 15,906 Times	Thanks tush for the pics, that is the subframe i guess, but am not sure any adjustment facility is available on that. If you observe closely its mounted using fixed bolts with no provision for adjustment, unless there is some specific mod that Maruti has suggested over internal circulars. This part helps in isolating chassis from heavy impacts from the suspension giving a relatively plush feel. Any other suspension experts please comment. @racerbyheart: my car doesnt pull to any side. Wheel balancing is definitely not the issue, try swapping tyres from front to back or switching side if they are non directional. If properly set car will NOT pull to any side. Go through these pages for more info Car Bibles: Wheels, tyres and tyre markings.
	() Thanks

17th June 2008, 19:37	#70
tush BHPian Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Pune Posts: 331 Thanked: 12 Times	Let me mention first. I have drove my car for about 70-80KMS after bringing it from the workstation. But the problem is still there. The steering turns to the left a little bit even if there is slight change in road surface or increase or decrease the speed of the car and the car starts going to left. Its plain simple, if i leave the hand of the steering for even 3-4 seconds the steering doesnt stay stable, will steer a bit to left and the car would slowly go to the left of road. I even feel mild pressure on my left hand to keep the steering straight to keep the car going straight. And i realise this after driving for a while. Thanks for your inputs Jaggu. The service station said they grind the hole where the bolts get inserted around about 0.5 to 1 mm so that they can adjust the Cross Member. And they said this is suggested by maruti itself for the left pulling problem. I don't understand one thing, everytime i tell them about this problem they give the reason of road banking. They even say this is not called pulling. Pulling means there is sudden steer towards a particular side. HELP NEEDED PEOPLE!!!!! Where the hell should i test my car, on what kind of road. I have one chance of express highway, but then doesnt that have a little banking for rain water to drain at the sides. The other maruti dealer ship technician said that they have a circular from maruti which specifies what they can do. However no circular has anything mentioned about cross member. He confirmed with the alignment guy in their workstation and he said that they do the cross member adjustment for left pulling in swift. But he also mentioned that they do not grind the hole to increase its diameter. They do the adjustment in the default play that it has. No Maruti dealership has the right information i guess. Is this ever going to get resolved. @racerbyheart: I had gone to another dealer ship of maruti to discuss this. They said they had a customer who had this similar problem for Swift Diesel. They did every dam thing. Even adjusted the Cross Member but it didnt resolve. They played on it for a month and finally they found it was the alloy wheels causing problem. They fitted the stock wheels and the issue was resolved. So u might want to check the same. Last edited by tush : 17th June 2008 at 19:46.
	() Thanks

17th June 2008, 22:52	#71
Jaggu Team-BHP Support Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 20,215 Thanked: 15,906 Times	Find any regular road with flat surface, newly laid tarmac will be ideal. Pune why not try the MG road? Sorry last time i drove there was some 8 years back
	() Thanks

18th June 2008, 23:34	#72
bharatbs BHPian Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 418 Thanked: 155 Times View My Garage	Update on my earlier post: I had been to Bimal Service Station last week, I spoke to the chief engineer. The chief engineer took a test drive and then admitted that my car steered less, they had cars which steered to the left a lot more and they have done a lot of R&D to solve this issue in house at Bimal. For some cars they have been able to solve it, for others they just not been able to. They are saying that it is an issue with Swift body/chasis i.e. manufacturing defect from Maruti. They ran several test drives. Once before tweaking the setup, once after and then without alloys. After fitting the stock tyres according to Bimal the car was steering correctly. However IMO it was not. In the end we had done more than 50 kms of testing and I was tired. I decided to call it a day and test it out on a proper well asphalted highway and then get back to Bimal. They told me that if I was still not satisfied, they will esclate my case to Maruti and they will send a service engineer to check my car.
	() Thanks

19th June 2008, 00:01	#73
Jaggu Team-BHP Support Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 20,215 Thanked: 15,906 Times	Just take a drive to our new airport, devnahalli. You will surely know if the car is pulling to the side.
	() Thanks

21st June 2008, 21:04	#74
tush BHPian Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Pune Posts: 331 Thanked: 12 Times	@bharatbs - Did they do Cross Member adjustment for your car. The printout they give you for the work they have done can you just let us know what is mentioned on that. And also cross check that information with what is mentioned in the job card. On request they will show you the job card. Update on my earlier post - I discussed this issue with another "x" maruti dealership works manager and he said, its not pulling basically its called drag. And they solve it by adjusting the cross member and change the tyre inside out and do the alignment. And he said its not considered as a problem. Even if maruti engineers come down to check the car they will say its Drag and they would first thing question you why you leave your hands while driving. Which is not appropriate. And then it becomes tu tu mein mein.....
	() Thanks

21st June 2008, 21:23	#75
Jaggu Team-BHP Support Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 20,215 Thanked: 15,906 Times	Drag/Pull all same, maybe the degree involved might be lil higher for pull. Ideally you shouldnt have to put effort through the steering, while traveling in a straight line with flat surface at normal speed/acceleration. If you have to correct using the steering then there is pull/drag, pull if its very evident, drag if its slow pull. Whichever it maybe, have to be corrected since it aint the right way a car should behave. But what the manager of x dealership mentioned as remedial made some sense.
	() Thanks