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Old 18th December 2009, 20:15   #1
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Help - Dull or lifeless power steering on my Swift

Dear All,

I am facing a problem on my 3.5 year old petrol Swift (odo - 44K).

Steering seems to be very very dull and lifeless and this happens at least 75% of the time. At other times it is quite ok.

Now what I mean by dull is that it gets quite hard (imagine driving on almost flat front tyres). Mind you it is still not heavy like Maruti 800 but you can very easily feel that power loss.
By lifeless I mean that it doesn't provide me any feedback of the road. It's kind of glued to road feel....hard to explain.

Worst thing is that MASS says that all is fine. She behaves quite ok when I take her to MASS.....

I have been keeping tyre pressure at 32 on all four which is recommended by Maruti but still the problem persists.

It's so sad that the engine is so smooth and refined but I am not getting any driving pleasure due to this hopeless steering.

Any clues guys ?

Do I need ask MASS to check for the motor / greasing of steering column ? What else can go wrong here.

Please help.
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Old 18th December 2009, 21:07   #2
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The best way to find out if something is wrong with your car is to drive some other Swift.
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Old 18th December 2009, 21:19   #3
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Did that on my cousin's Swift and the steering is much smoother. Almost like driving on a finger
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Old 18th December 2009, 21:29   #4
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Visit the MASS and ask them to compare your car's steering with some other swift, Even still then they dont realise the fault - Visit some other MASS.
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Old 18th December 2009, 21:54   #5
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is your powersteering fluid below the minimum mark ?
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Old 19th December 2009, 07:54   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vdiatech View Post
is your powersteering fluid below the minimum mark ?
No. It is sufficient
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Old 19th December 2009, 08:58   #7
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What tyre size are you running?
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Old 19th December 2009, 10:33   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by abhaybakshi View Post
Now what I mean by dull is that it gets quite hard (imagine driving on almost flat front tyres). Mind you it is still not heavy like Maruti 800 but you can very easily feel that power loss. By lifeless I mean that it doesn't provide me any feedback of the road. It's kind of glued to road feel....hard to explain.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vdiatech View Post
is your powersteering fluid below the minimum mark ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by abhaybakshi View Post
No. It is sufficient
Hi, the Swift has EPS, you'd be hard-pressed to find power-steering fluid in a Swift. Have your authorized service center use a Suzuki-Scan-Tool to scan for EPS faults (or DTCs). If the EPS is providing less power than necessary, the torque sensors (& the power they're getting) need to be checked - it's all there in Volume-2 of the service manual. Does your speedo & EPS light in the instrument cluster read normal ?
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Old 19th December 2009, 14:42   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by im_srini View Post
Hi, the Swift has EPS, you'd be hard-pressed to find power-steering fluid in a Swift. Have your authorized service center use a Suzuki-Scan-Tool to scan for EPS faults (or DTCs). If the EPS is providing less power than necessary, the torque sensors (& the power they're getting) need to be checked - it's all there in Volume-2 of the service manual. Does your speedo & EPS light in the instrument cluster read normal ?
I dont know if MASS has ever conducted scan for EPS. I am sure they haven't. EPS light read normal.

To try something else, I am just back with cross diagonal tyre rotation. The steering quite smooth now but this can be misleading as some times it does get smooth. I will observe for more time. I am damn sure though that something is going wrong. As you have said I will get the scan done.
Thanks.
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Old 15th December 2011, 22:54   #10
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Re: Help - Dull or lifeless power steering on my Swift

Hi all car lovers.....

We have to be in mind one thing when we use cars with power steering that when we use our car very roughly especially by do not minding to drive cars by hitting in pothole and edges, the steering will get more and more tight.

We are aware that when we were using cars with rack and pinion steering without power steering, when we drive the same roughly we can get steering shake and noises which will move to further problems like worn out steering bearing and all. But if we use the car very carefully in rough roads especially in pothole, it will last very long without any shake or sound.

In the case of power steering we can see, when we use any car roughly the steering will get more and more tight , but it wont give any shake or noise, but we feel our power steering is not working.

So i advice that when ever we use new generation vehicle we have to be careful that, we are getting much luxury, so to maintain the luxury either we have to use the car very careful or you have to spend much money in service bills. There is no other remedy for the same.
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Old 16th December 2011, 13:41   #11
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Re: Help - Dull or lifeless power steering on my Swift

Most probably the power steering control module has gone kaput. I have seen this problem in many Swifts (pre k series).

It will cost you about ~8k in the showroom, but I've heard that it can be repaired outside the A.S.S
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Old 13th October 2016, 21:31   #12
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Re: Help - Dull or lifeless power steering on my Swift

Mod note: Post edited, please use proper capitalisation and punctuation so that it does not affect readability. Thanks.

Hi all,

Few days back steering on my 8yr old swift vxi started vibrating while turning, next day it completely stopped working and it took quite an effort to use it. Send it to MASS and they diagnosed it to steering rack failure they qouted me 32k as in parts and labour to fix it! They said that it cant be repaired as there are no repairable parts in it! Where can i get a refurbished rack can any one plz suggest?

Last edited by Jaggu : 13th October 2016 at 21:35.
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Old 13th October 2016, 21:36   #13
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Re: Help - Dull or lifeless power steering on my Swift

Most likely it is the power steering motor that has failed, check with another MASS if they can procure the same. Am sure it is possible, then should be cheaper than whole rack. If not you need to try the local scrap market nearest to you.
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Old 31st August 2017, 20:36   #14
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Re: Help - Dull or lifeless power steering on my Swift

Hi Abhaybakshi

I am bumping up a very old thread though. But wanted to check if you could solve the problem of your steering. I am currently facing the same issue on my Ciaz and trying to figure a way out.

RaSing
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