[fast_elegance]

Hi All,

The fog lamps in question here is from my Ritz VDI.

I just completed the 15,000 kms service of my car. It usually happens that when you take delivery after service, you miss out on checking some of the vital things. You are in a hurry to get back on the drivers seat and drive just to experience the new car feel all over again.

I took delivery of the car at about 6 in the evening. I have made it a practice to wash the car the immediate next weekend after service, so that I can look into the details. It is mainly to look for any new scratches on the body and also to wash off the greasy remains.

This time around I was in for a surprise. Both the fog lamps had cracks and there is no sign of any external impact. The cracks were on similar lines. My immediate guess was the high pressure wash that might have caused this. I have attached the picture of the cracks below.

I called up the service center and let them know about it. I also told them that it could be due to the high pressure wash. They asked me to come to the workshop and the branch manager got another Swift just to experiment and check if the cracks were indeed due to the pressure wash. He was confident that it was not due to it.

He looked for any other external impacts and there were no signs of it. He calls up Maruti and they ask him to send the pictures. He took some pictures and sent it across to Maruti. They review and ask him to replace the fog lamps under warranty. They also asked him to send the cracked fog lamps to Maruti so that they can test the same.

Has anyone else here faced similar issues with the fog lamps?

The mystery remains!!

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by fast_elegance

The fog lamps in question here is from my Ritz VDI.

These cracks look like the result of either of the following:

1. The car's bumper has taken a shock, could be due to dropping, a hit, or a big pothole resulting in the fog lamps cracking since the bumper is made of flexible material.
2. Someone over tightened/pushed the foglamps in too much resulting in their cracking.
3. Both foglamps did not break at the same time but were observed at the the same time. Breakage can be due to flying debris on the road.

[hellmet]

That is indeed a very swift and positive response from Maruti. I'm impressed.
I agree with the service center this couldn't have been due to the pressure wash unless the covers are made of wafer thin plastic. More like the heat getting to them over time or water spilling on the lights when hot. Just guessing. Do you drive with the fogs on in the city too?

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by fast_elegance

Hi All,

The fog lamps in question here is from my Ritz VDI.

The mystery remains!!

I have cracked the fog lamps on my safari like this. It happened when they were caked with mud(fogs on) due to light rain on highway, and then I splashed water on them to clean.
Crack crack.... Off they go.

Fog lamps run hot, and when you have mild coating of dirt on them, they get hotter. If water is splashed(either you do it, or from the road) glass will crack.

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

I have cracked the fog lamps on my safari like this. It happened when they were caked with mud(fogs on) due to light rain on highway, and then I splashed water on them to clean.
Crack crack.... Off they go.

Fog lamps run hot, and when you have mild coating of dirt on them, they get hotter. If water is splashed(either you do it, or from the road) glass will crack.

I had the same problem on my Hella Micro DE fog lamps . Everything was fine till i changed the stock bulbs from 55W to 100 W ...the heat generated by these bulbs and the first rain cracked one of the projector glasses . Also this damaged the reflectors .

[latentpotential]

Hot lamps + water will always crack the lens. Physics 101
It is possible if the tolerances the lens was made for, are exceeded.

[anachronix]

Driving through the night and sudden splash of rain, does it crack the headlight?

Originally Posted by latentpotential

Hot lamps + water will always crack the lens. Physics 101

[fine69]

Driving in rains with high wattage bulbs causes them to crack? I've myself fitted 100/90w setup and have run it for a couple of hours at stretch in rains but nothing happened. Is this restricted to the average build type of fog lamps when compared to headlamps?

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by anachronix

Driving through the night and sudden splash of rain, does it crack the headlight?

It depends on how much heated the glass is and more importantly the quality of glass itself. Fog lamps are very compact in construction and the bulbs are much closer to the glass causing it to heat further. And most OEM fog lamps are mounted on the bumper, so one of the design goal is to reduce the weight, inturn resulting in usage of thinner glass.

Originally Posted by fine69

Driving in rains with high wattage bulbs causes them to crack? I've myself fitted 100/90w setup and have run it for a couple of hours at stretch in rains but nothing happened. Is this restricted to the average build type of fog lamps when compared to headlamps?

Headlights are tolerant to much higher heat and I am not sure if any headlamps has glass lens nowadays.

I am impressed with the Maruti response. Seems like a quality issue and they genuinely want to address it.

[fast_elegance]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

These cracks look like the result of either of the following:

1. The car's bumper has taken a shock, could be due to dropping, a hit, or a big pothole resulting in the fog lamps cracking since the bumper is made of flexible material.
2. Someone over tightened/pushed the foglamps in too much resulting in their cracking.
3. Both foglamps did not break at the same time but were observed at the the same time. Breakage can be due to flying debris on the road.

These are some of the common reasons that I could think of. None of these had happened atleast in my knowledge. The cracks were noticed only after servicing.

Originally Posted by hellmet

That is indeed a very swift and positive response from Maruti. I'm impressed.
Do you drive with the fogs on in the city too?

I do not drive with fog lamps in the city. I switch them on only when necessary on the highways.

Even I was super impressed with Maruti's response. I was ready to pay for the lamps as I did not have any evidence against the quality of the lamps or ignorance from the service personnel. When the manager stated that they would replace them FOC, I was like "Really!!".

Originally Posted by tsk1979

If water is splashed(either you do it, or from the road) glass will crack.

Originally Posted by speedsatya

the heat generated by these bulbs and the first rain cracked one of the projector glasses . Also this damaged the reflectors .

Originally Posted by latentpotential

Hot lamps + water will always crack the lens. Physics 101

Originally Posted by anachronix

Driving through the night and sudden splash of rain, does it crack the headlight?

Originally Posted by fine69

Is this restricted to the average build type of fog lamps when compared to headlamps?

I think these should come with much better tolerance levels as this could be a common issue. Very high possibility that we might switch the fog lamps on when driving through fog and then it rains.

Originally Posted by bejoy

I am impressed with the Maruti response. Seems like a quality issue and they genuinely want to address it.

Absolutely!! The follow up and the response with Maruti is really superb. There are atleast 3 feedback calls after each service spaced at deifferent intervals. They just dont fail to impress.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by fast_elegance

The follow up and the response with Maruti is really superb. There are atleast 3 feedback calls after each service spaced at deifferent intervals.

Thanks for sharing the mysterious experience.

It could be also that manufacturers who are not that confident with a particular batch or a particular supplier tend to investigate quicker. This does not mean any bad with Maruti or that they are putting parts that has not passed QC or that they tend to ignore customer feedback; on the other hand, in fact, they were bold enough to own up the basic necessity - a root cause analysis. I was just generalizing things in the industry as I had been associated with purchase for some time - no two suppliers of the same part can have similarity in quality, even though both may pass QC; same case with different batches of the same supplier.

[IshaanIan]

Wow this is quite something. Great to hear the immediateness and stance taken by the company

[rohin4110]

In North India where we have extreme weather, this does happen at times due to sudden change in temperature.

Fog lights are made of glass and latter tends to crack if it is very cold outside and you use the fog light, leading to the bulb heat causing a sudden rise in temperature and the glass develops a crack