re: My 3 Cylinder Ride - Maruti Wagon R VXI ABS - 11 years / 90,000 km up! Since my warranty is about to get over in December and as I wanted to rectify the noise before that in case the part comes under warranty, I took the car to Popular MASS to get it checked. I called them at 9am for an appointment and waited for a return call which they told me to expect in 10 mins. I waited for 1.5 hours for that return call which I never got and I decided to go directly to their workshop. Since it was a Monday, the rush was pretty less and I reached at 11am. I told them the issue and they assigned me an SA in 15 mins. I went with him for the test drive, told him the issue and he drove the car and luckily felt the same problem and said it might be the wheel bearing. So i left the car at the workshop and returned back home at 12.30pm. He later confirmed that it's a conked Front Left Wheel Bearing. That's when I wanted to see how this work is actually done. So I called him up again telling him my interest and fled to the workshop by 1pm. That's when he come's and tells me that since it's a 'humming noise', the part cannot be covered under warranty.
I asked him to contact his superior, some warranty manager or someone and talked to him. That guy was adamant that the extended warranty book mentions about any humming sound not being covered( yes, it did) but it did cover the wheel bearing and this whole thing was written under steering and suspension which has a warranty till 60,000 km. So I asked him how else could someone identify this damage and this is surely a premature wear at 40,000 km. He was still clinging on to the humming thing and I told him my car also vibrates! There comes his "humming noise saar" reply again. I had to tell him how stupid this workshop was and how even TATA ASS fixes my warranty so smoothly and this MASS where I give my car regularly can't even treat a customer well. By this he said he'l talk to the Customer Care Manager and revert. In 15 minutes, they accepted to replace it under warranty. Phew!
But, I will not be able to see them remove the wheel bearing as they'l be giving it to a lathe to remove it. Their exact words were "sir, if we remove it here in our workshop, you can't claim warranty (LOL) as they'l have to hammer it out but if given to a Lathe (outside MASS) you'l get it changed under warranty" ![LOL](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/LOL.png) . Haha . That was weird. I know they do not have the necessary equipment but when their booklet clearly says any work done outside MASS voids warranty &I get to know such a thing from them, it was one Hilarious moment. Awesome!
I had to wait till 6.30 pm to get it changed and tested. The SA was very calm and ready to listen. And after they changed it, the car was so normal. I felt the car to be free and back to it's original shape. Finally!!
If I had not opted for warranty, this work would have costed my 1.2k I guess (very reasonable - 800 for parts +400 for labour). More than the money, I wanted Maruti to honour their warranty while every other company I found in T-BHP (read Tata, Toyota & even a few Maruti cases) replaced it under warranty.
After removing the whole unit (disc, shaft etc)
...and look what I found there! Funnily enough, I had replaced the bearing under the Extended warranty! hah
Cheers! |