Team-BHP - Maruti Baleno : Official Review

Quote:

Originally Posted by 9thsphinx (Post 4518407)

Hey how has your Baleno CVT experience been so far, with reference to driving around in Ahmedabad? I have just booked one with Kataria, the Alpha CVT variant. This is going to be driven in the city itself by the wife and the Baleno will be replacing our 2012 i20 Asta.

Positives/negatives of the car, dealership experience, maintenance costs etc. would help.

Hi, sorry for the delayed response. Congratulations on booking the Alpha CVT. My experience with the Delta CVT so far has been pleasant. The car has been my trusted city work horse and I am yet to come across any issues. The only niggle I faced was a low grinding noise from the brakes which gets sorted after service but returns in a few days. I will escalate this at the time of next service. After about 6000 kms, the car returns 15.8 km per litre with air conditioning always turned on. However, this also includes a 900 km highway trip and is as per the MID. I am yet to measure by the tank-full method in city or highway seperately. The maintenance cost is NIL at the moment since I am under the free service period. I have spent on accessories and an underbody coating at 3M though. Dealership experience has been okayish with Kataria. Did not face any problem but nothing special either. There is a general lack of interest at their end once the booking is made but if you complain they will take it seriously.

Question for CVT users:

Baleno in its CVT avatar is the first CVT in our house. The car is pretty new and so is the transmission, so I am still adapting. I feel that the Braking is adequate for the size of the car but what confuses me is what entails once you come to a complete stop. I read in our official review that the Baleno is able to crawl at slow speeds on its own by just modulate the brake. However, once I come to a complete stop there are times when I have to press the A pedal slightly to nudge the car to move and it picks up pace slowly and then there are times when it does the crawl thing on its own.

Is this something to do with the brakes that sort of lock up and hold the car when it comes to a complete stop or is this how a CVT works? I am comparing it to my Creta which has the old-school TC and behaves quite differently.

Is this usual or should I get it looked at during the first service? Can someone please explain.

Hi All,

Got my Baleno Alpha petrol delivered previous week. After the delivery and on the way back home we observed a creaking sound from the engine bay. Sound was clear enough to hear inside the cabin with all the windows up. Informed our RM right away and he informed that he will come and check the next day.

Next day our RM came and checked and said that it might be a issue with the play in clutch and its quite normal till 1st service. But the sound was obvious and we insisted and told him to get us an appointment at Nexa service centre at Calicut. As informed by the RM we went to Nexa service today and got it checked by the service manager and he said that it was an issue with release bearing and he said that it can be replaced under warranty.

Got it done and now the sound got disappeared. Will check for some day and update if the issue occurs again or not.

NOTE:
1. It is pretty sad that the Nexa PDI missed this clear sound which can be heard even at 20-25 mtrs away from car.
2. Nexa service with all those fancy lounges and pampering needs improvement. And we think as for us it's generally a warranty cover with no payment it might have automatically pushed our car to a late slot and only got delivered after service by 6.00pm eventhough we reached there at morning before 11.00am. (Our home is a good 70km away from service centre, which means negligence in PDI cost us a complete day along with the running and daily expenses)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 9thsphinx (Post 4521477)

Is this something to do with the brakes that sort of lock up and hold the car when it comes to a complete stop or is this how a CVT works? I am comparing it to my Creta which has the old-school TC and behaves quite differently.

Normal behaviour. The initial 'push' isn't as powerful as a Torque Converter (Owned an Accord AT and an i10 AT). It sometimes 'stalls' when there's a slight slope and requires a gentle prod of the accelerator to get going. I've seen the same behaviour in a Nissan Scala as well. Given this is the same transmission company making it - Jatco, reckon this is normal.

Just to report that the power steering unit of my Baleno Zeta was replaced under warranty. There was a slight friction while returning the steering to center after turning right.

One of my cousins also got the same replacement in his Delta. I also heard about an extreme case of this problem, where the steering was shuddering while returning. It appears that Maruti is replacing steering units if this problem is reported.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajpandey10 (Post 4520394)

Hi ,

I am looking to change battery for my Baleno alpha petrol. Can you please suggest which one to go for?

Have you changed your Baleno's battery? If yes then which company's battery? I'm going to get my car's battery checked at service centre soon. Suzuki connect has raised a "Low Vehicle Battery" alert.

I have a Baleno Petrol Delta (MT) which is 7 months old and has clocked around 11,000 Kms. Recently, I have got the 3rd free service done and noticed some chirping sound coming from the engine bay during idle which vanishes with a slight touch to the clutch pedal (comes back after releasing it). The sound does not make it inside the cabin at all, but it is quite audible in the basement parking area.

After reading a few old post on this thread, I got to know that clutch bearing can be the culprit. Planning to get it checked this weekend at NEXA.

Just wanted to know :

1. If anyone who has faced this issue in the past and how has it been after the clutch bearing replacement?

2. Should I get the input shaft bearing checked or replaced as well along with this?

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aashish_390 (Post 4531845)

1. If anyone who has faced this issue in the past and how has it been after the clutch bearing replacement?

2. Should I get the input shaft bearing checked or replaced as well along with this?

Thanks.

Hey Aashish, good to know we have the same car!

I've faced an issue with the clutch release bearing before. It has been detailed in this post.

However, as I've mentioned in the linked post, I faced the same issue at 13k on the odo. This time the clutch release bearing, input shaft bearing and also the pressure plate were replaced under warranty. The pressure plate had some irregular wear and tear probably because of the input shaft bearing being faulty from the beginning, and this was acknowledged by the A.S.S.

After this, I've faced no issues till now and the engine and transmission are smooth with no irregular noises.

1st service update:

Yesterday I have taken my Baleno Alpha Petrol MT for its 1st service to the Nexa Service Calicut with odo at 1250km in 20 days. Everything went well and this time the vehicile is delivered on time after the service. There was no issues reported and everything is well and good as per the SM.

I am writing down few queries which I have asked the SM but he could not answer properly:

1. I asked them of a very minute lag which I felt when slighlty pressing on the A pedal while running. I felt like the the supply is cut off for a fraction of second which does not affect the performance at all. The SM said that there is no issues as reported. Maybe I just felt that way. Did anyone had this observation. And mine is a manual transmission.

2. Enquired about whether an under body coating is recommended and he said that for new vehicles it does not require under body coating. Kindly confirm this.

3. And I enquired about fitting a horn other than OEM, SM was not sure whether it will void the warranty or not. Kindly clarify.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Added_flavor (Post 4531886)

Hey Aashish, good to know we have the same car!

This is Amazing Suhas. :D

Quote:

I've faced an issue with the clutch release bearing before. It has been detailed in this post.

However, as I've mentioned in the linked post, I faced the same issue at 13k on the odo. This time the clutch release bearing, input shaft bearing and also the pressure plate were replaced under warranty. The pressure plate had some irregular wear and tear probably because of the input shaft bearing being faulty from the beginning, and this was acknowledged by the A.S.S.

After this, I've faced no issues till now and the engine and transmission are smooth with no irregular noises.

That post was very helpful. I spoke to the SM and he assured that it will get resolved by clutch release bearing replacement. I'll request them to check the input shaft bearing as well. Actually yes, the sound has made its way inside the cabin also when the vehicle is below 1K RPM (although its very feeble).

Will be getting it checked and report here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prodigy07 (Post 4453319)

So, continuing the mission of getting my Zeta CVT cosmetically upgraded to Baleno RS, I got the front bumper replaced along with RS chin spoiler last weekend.

Along with this, I got the front and rear 'S' decals and rear Baleno decal painted in Piano Black. The RS decal is not visible in this pic though!

Also, I got bored of the German plates. So, got them replaced with Speedex Type 2 plates.

My next modification would be to get the rear bumper replaced :uncontrol

was the chin spoiler a straight fit or did you have to do any alterations?

The reason i ask is i was told that the entire bumper needs to be replaced when i asked my service manager to have this added to my car

Quote:

Originally Posted by noo.b (Post 4535583)

Please check my quoted post. As I have mentioned, the front bumper needs to be replaced to fit the chin spoiler. Its not a direct fit.

As an alternate, you can fix 'Samurai' chin spoiler. I have posted the snaps in my earlier posts.