[sureshkishore]

My Baleno 1.2 has done close to 80k on the odo, and had not noticed anything wrong with the steering till date.
But after reading some of the posts, I am wondering whether I have adapted to my car's inherent handicap. Honestly most of my driving has been on Maruti Suzuki cars.
Probably I need to drive a car with a good normal steering to find out how it feels. Untill then I am just fine!

[YD14]

Originally Posted by StarBoard

I own a second generation Dzire (2012) and I do not have any of the issues highlighted here. Maybe there are issues with individual steering systems.

Steering completely stuck at an angle maybe a specific issue, but return to center is negligible at slow speeds in my car. Though I have not driven any other car, but I have sat in the co-driver seat of our neighbor's 2014 Dzire and he too recentered the steering with his own effort.

Maybe it is the roads that I drive on, make it more noticeable to me. For reference, this is an unavoidable U-turns for me as it is located on the only road connecting my house.



U-turns like this one require 10-15 kmph of speeds and large steering angle. If I do not manually recenter the steering, I would end up hitting the inside of the turn. Add to that, I have seen non power steering cars like old 800 taking the turn and the driver would simply leave the steering to straighten up the wheels.

Yes, the steering is a bit heavy at low speeds but it does center back even in city driving. The non-centering issues are in the newer Marutis I think.

It's more than a bit heavy. Parking the car or anytime turning the wheels from lock to lock fast enough feels like a monkey desperately trying to climb up a vine.

[su1978]

It has been a matter of observation that all the automotive forums have their guns trained on every auto manufacturer for each and every omission that they do in any facelift. But i have never seen such type of article on Maruti. Is it because most of them are sold out or are getting some royalty from the largest manufacturer? I recall the first gen alto and the current gen alto. The current gen alto looks barebones and seems as if one has actually taken all the juice out of a sugarcane and it is up for drying. even the current ones are more like a scarecrow which has been all dressed up with heavy makeup to look like a bride. Important features are being reduced and company is earning margins on each and every vehicle being sold. Even more funny are the tires on few of their models which look as wide as that of a three wheeler(My RE has wider tires).

I am waiting for the day when just an iron frame with a single cylinder engine will be launched by them and Maruti will call it the safest car because only few other vehicles will dare scrape it....and with the Maruti Suzuki logo, it will be the bestseller with a 3 months waiting period to it.

[WD-42]

Oh wow!

A friend (who moved abroad) has lent me their 3rd Gen Dzire AMT for the long term, every time I drove that car in the nasty bangalore traffic I ended up with massive back, neck, and arm pain.

No issues while driving our own 2nd Gen Dzire, or any other car.

After seeing this thread I checked the self centering of that car and lo behold the brand new (<6 month, <2000km old) 3rd Gen Dzire does not self center. I subconciously have been centering it myself while driving that car causing the back, neck and arm pain.

I just drove continuously for half a day >50km in bangalore traffic today with the 2nd gen dzire where the steering does self center correctly, no back, neck or arm pain.

[arjunsatheesh]

I have a 2018 Ignis Zeta AMT (Petrol) and face the same issue. The car has currently run 32k and the problem persists.
I tried doing wheel alignment from many many places and still no luck. This is very irritating when you are parking every day in a multi-level car park. You do get used to it in some time but after I drive my Amaze and then get back to the Ignis I get pissed off.
It becomes dangerous when another person who does not know of this issue drives the car. Once my friend borrowed my car and when he came back the first thing he told me was how he almost crashed the car cause the damm steering would not return to the center.
The guys at the service center told me this is how it is and dismissed my concern .

[SatyRoy]

My Vitara Brezza Zdi+, 2017 run 54k kms does not show any such issue. Is it a possibility that I have adjusted to it? But I don't notice any difference when I am on my Honda City 2019.

[Mi10]

My wife's 2020 FL Ignis (one with fake Jeep Compass grill) has this issue. However, for her since she is driving a car after a really long break (almost 12 years) she didn't even realise this as an issue. She simply adapted quickly.
But if you ask me personally, it is extremely frustrating and downright dangerous to drive that car (Especially if you have driven any other car with half decent steering). And I usually avoid taking that car unless I do not have any other choice!

And It is not that all Maruthi's are this way! I remember our first gen Alto and Swift had much better steering (both self centering as well as better feel). Scross 1.6 was average at best, but it was never dangerous !

[SLK]

Not sure, if posted here already, but there is a full thread on ignis steering.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...ga-nexa-4.html (Maruti Ignis: Steering too hard & my saga with Nexa)

This seems to be an issue more specific to ignis than others. We still have 3 Marutis and only Ignis has this issue, Ertiga and K10 don't, before that Ritz didn't, WagonR didn't.

Ignis has an extremely small turning radius, I think that is one of the factors which cause the steering system to be too leveraged and hence non-returning.

Having said that, I do drive the Ignis intermittently between my VWs and I don't see this as an unmanageable issue, it's just not as intuitive but still not a problem class issue.

[arjab]

Recently took a self drive rental in Chennai. A BS-6 Alto, brand new. At the first U-turn, lo and behold the thingy almost went around in circles as the helm didn't even show any semblance of self centering. I'm sure Maruti has done away, in the interests of cost cutting, with the torque sensors on the steering column, which senses the amount of lock the driver has piled on and gently pushes the steering back to its centre. This is downright dangerous!
I'd happily take my wife's Nano XTA any day which surprisingly has a very well calibrated steering with excellent self centering and speed sensitive characteristics.

[yesyeswe]

Another reason apart from the pathetic build quality to not buy Maruti cars. I don't know how many reasons the public want to switch to a better manufacturer, but maruti had it's own advantages so what can you do.

[YD14]

Well comments from other bhpians really got me worried and I started searching internet for this. Long story short, I found this video on YouTube. Please ignore what he is talking about and skip directly to 1:57 and you will see the second gen Dzire steering not centering properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRJYYbDPyao

During his whole drive (0:45 to 4:00) it feels like after U-turns or 90 degree turns he is putting in some effort to re-center the steering.

Originally Posted by StarBoard

I own a second generation Dzire (2012) and I do not have any of the issues highlighted here. Maybe there are issues with individual steering systems.

Originally Posted by WD-42

No issues while driving our own 2nd Gen Dzire, or any other car.

Are you two sure you are not subconsciously re-centering the steering? Have you got any changes made to suspension or steering related system?

If your answers are no, then this issue has a lot more to it then simply Suzuki providing poorly calibrated steerings.

[chembilath]

I had posted the same steering issue in the Ciaz thread. Had to sell of my CIAZ 1.4 just because of the steering issue which eventually gave me tendinitis. Fought a lot with maruti for getting it corrected though I knew it was not going to happen. Even got the steering column and steering gearbox replaced under warranty, no use, the same dead steering

[SS-Traveller]

I'm a little confused here - is it that the self-centering feature of the steering is not there in some cars of a particular model, or all cars? Perhaps a poll might help here?

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

...driving schools... advocate manual return to centre by pulling and easing with either hand, without crossing hands. I have seen a lot of Learning drivers struggle with this during turns. This shouldn't have to be so if they had proper self-centering.

That, incidentally, is the correct procedure. At no time should the driver release his grip on the steering wheel completely and allow the wheel to spin or turn on its own.

[WhiteWalker]

I drive a 2016 Etios Liva and a 2018 WagonR. Always had trouble adjusting to the WagonR's steering, it does not self center and EPS is not as smooth. I literally have to yank the steering back into position during tight U-turns.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

That, incidentally, is the correct procedure. At no time should the driver release his grip on the steering wheel completely and allow the wheel to spin or turn on its own.

You would struggle to control the car if you were unable to let the steering self centre during a turn, especially while driving on curves and changing gears.