[CivicheadUAE]

Mods - I've searched the forum, but I have not found a post on Fuel Pump Failure in a brand new Alto K10. Hence a new post! Please feel free to merge with another thread if it exists.

To begin with, a brief background. I live in Abu Dhabi and am a proud owner of 2 Lovely Honda iVtecs (Civic & City). My parents live in Chennai. The time had come to replace his Hyundai i10 (which was damaged due to Chennai floods). Given that Chennai does face heavy rains and potential deluges every year, we decided to buy the "Hassle Free" Maruti Alto K10 Vxi. the details are below

Model: Maruti Alto K10 Vxi
Model Year: 2016
Chassis Number: MA3EZDE1S00241681
Engine Number: K10BN7684527
Dealer: Kapico Motors Chennai - Kilpauk
Colour: Superior White
Invoice Date: 31st March 2016
Delivery Date: 13th April 2016
ODO on Delivery: 40 Kms (normal for RTO Run)
ODO on 18th April 2016: 150 kms (approx)

Due care was followed while taking delivery and PDI and no anomalies noted. Complimentary 5 Ltrs for petrol was provided by the dealer and 30 liters of petrol was filled just after delivery in our regular pump.

The car, as any brand new automobile ran beautifully until Murphy's Law struck. On April 18th 2016, as usual, my father went down towards his car to leave for his office and to his utter shock, the car just refused to start. The fuel gauge showed more than half tank of Petrol. He was dismayed that a 5 day old car (run for just 3 days) refuses to start. He immediately called KAPICO Maruti and they sent roadside assistance promptly. The mechanic from KAPICO checked everything, the battery, the electricals etc and when he checked the fuel line, it dawned that there is no fuel in the fuel line.

The vehicle was then towed to KAPICOs workshop in Koyambedu (bless our new car being towed so mercilessly) and is there since then. The icing on the cake was KAPICO charging us Rs.2,000 for towing charges. My father is currently pressing them to refund the same.

As I write this, my father is at KAPICO service center and they say that the Fuel Pump has failed and this is the FIRST ALTO K10 in Chennai which has this problem and they dont have stock of the fuel pump. They say that they have to order from Maruti and it will take 3 days to arrive.

I have a few questions.

1. Have I been delivered a lemon?
2. How come a leading dealer does not have stock of a fuel pump for a "mass produced Made in India car".
3. Was it just Murphy's law or the car has some other serious issues
4. How do I help my dad tackle the dealership and the service center.

I have already raised a complaint on Maruti Website and still awaiting response.

I will post more details as and when I receive them from dad.

As of now I'm posting the invoice and delivery challan.

Thanks for listening and your feedback would be very helpful to me

[amansanc]

First of all, relax. You are lucky that the fuel pump didn't fail while the car was in motion. It is sad to note that the fuel pump failed so early. Terming a car a lemon due to a small failure would be stretching things a bit too much.

What you can do is that involve Maruti into it and ask them to inspect the car properly. Ask them to give a proper reason as to why this happened. Make sure everything is noted in their own system and is given to you either in writing or through email. TO help your dad, you can speak to the dealer over emails. They will be replacing the part under warranty anyway. And yes, do ask the dealer to refund the towing charges. Once the car is back, ask your dad to forget about the issue and get down to using the car normally.

[CivicheadUAE]

Thanks a lot. The dealers service centre has ordered the part from Maruti and it's expected in 2 days. They are equally bewildered that how can this part fail, that too in 3 days. Maybe is plain bad luck.

They are also investigating what could be the possible causes and I will ensure that I get it in writing.

I was not terming the car as a lemon, but yes, I'm afraid of the long term reliability. The reason we moved back to Maruti was reliability.

I've not yet got a reply from Maruti.

I will update the forum once I hear more from Maruti and once I get clarity when I'll get ur car back.

[audioholic]

Of all the Marutis I know(a lot in the family and friends circle), with a WagonR K10 run for 1.3L kms and my own K10 WagonR that now runs 50kms a day, totally covered 34k kms till now, this is the first instance of a fuel pump failure that I am hearing. I guess yours is a one of case for sure.

In one corner of my mind(dont take this seriously) I feel this might have something to do with the floods indeed. I would suggest your father to make some time and question them what exactly failed. Did the motor just burn out? Or was it some other issue? And also check if the fuel pump is really as new as the car itself. All this in a discrete manner. If any foul play is involved then it will show up. SOrry to bug your thoughts, but if you really want to seek some information, you should investigate. Otherwise, just let it pass and let them replace the pump.

[CivicheadUAE]

Thanks Audioholic for providing a different perspective to the issue. I've owned Marutis, Hyundais and Hondas and I've never ever faced this issue.

I will for sure ask dad to at least raise these questions. Let's see what they reply.

Flooding should not be a cause as this is a 2016 Make model and the Chennai floods receded in December.

Many thanks for your valuable suggestion and for sure, I shall keep the forum posted with all the updated information.

[Skyline_GT]

It's not very common that a brand new Maruti which is less than a week old face such a severe issue. Although it's not entirely impossible as well. My 2013 Swift was delivered with a faulty right headlight and was replaced cost free after much haggling.
To begin with considering your new car as a lemon would be jumping to conclusions. Has the car shown any other signs of being one?
Also even if your car is of 2016 make it would be a good idea to cross check the car's manufacturing date with the help of Team BHP's article on VIN (Vehicle Identification Number).
Secondly if possible try to find more about the faulty fuel pump (manufacturing date). Now this is just a speculation on my behalf and am not sure if it's possible but what if the undamaged parts from cars damaged in floods were used in other cars to reduce the monetary losses?
Regarding on recovery of money spent on towing your car, most service centres rope in third parties to carry out roadside assistance service. So chances of recovering the towing money is difficult if not impossible.

Lastly it will take more than just an online complaint to tackle this. While MSIL is relatively customer friendly compared to others the service centre may give you a tough time. It took three visits to the service centre and a lot of haggling to make them replace my faulty headlight cost free. Despite being a very popular service centre in Mumbai they too didn't have a stock headlight unit for my Swift!

[Torino]

Originally Posted by CivicheadUAE

Fuel Pump Failure in a brand new Alto K10.

Hi CivicheadUAE, your car is not the first. I understand your frustration but do not worry the car should not be a lemon. On of my friend bought a Alto K10 in July 2015 from Vishnu cars Pallavaram Chennai. The car was manufactured in June 2015. In September 2015 while driving, the engine lost power and died and he safely parked the car in the road side and the car refused to start. MASS mobile service was called and found that there was no fuel coming from the fuel line. The car was towed to the workshop located 5kms away. The fuel pump located inside the petrol tank failed. The service manager had no idea why it failed and said this is rare case and that is why they don't have the part in stock. Order was placed and took 3 days to arrive and replaced under warranty and the car was delivered on the fourth day. There was no towing charge or any other cost. After this incident the car has been very reliable and doing daily duties without any issues.

Critical part failure in a brand new car from a reputed manufacturer may not be acceptable. If the old and new Alto K10 share the same fuel pump (which I think they are) and considering this part failure reported to Maruti over the years, I think Maruti should have either addressed the issue or the part failure must be a very rare case. Anyway, the dealer should bear the towing charge since your car is new. Maruti responds to emails promptly and the dealers are very cautious to resolve any issue when a customer is directly involved with Maruti.

Your car should not be a lemon considering this one part failure. I bought my Alto K10 AMT in April 2015 from the same dealer Vishnu Cars in Pallavaram and the car has crossed 25,000kms and is very reliable.

[CivicheadUAE]

Originally Posted by Skyline_GT

Secondly if possible try to find more about the faulty fuel pump (manufacturing date). Now this is just a speculation on my behalf and am not sure if it's possible but what if the undamaged parts from cars damaged in floods were used in other cars to reduce the monetary losses?

Thanks for the lead. I will ensure we get the faulty part analysed and also check the manufacturing date of the part.

As of today, KAPICO Maruti is trying to contact other dealers to check if the part is available locally. Last resort is wait for the part from Maruti. They claim to have placed an order online from them.

Also, just received a PM from Maruti's FB Page. I have asked them to speak to my dad and get involved in this issue.

Thanks Torino for your reply. We will ensure that the towing charges are refunded from the dealer. It's not about 2,000 Rs., but as a matter of principle, the dealer/manufacturer must ensure cartage charges are borne for atleast a week old.

Ill post updates once the issue is solved.

[RaguHolla]

@CivicheadUAE: Is electric connection to fulepump is working? I had the similar issue cropped many times in my Ford fiesta. Even changing fuel pump didn't solve the issue. The problem finally diagnosed to relay that is managing power to fuel pump was loose to its connector. Ignore if electric connection tested at fuel pump side and working!

[CivicheadUAE]

Hi Raghu. I've not explored this dimension. Shall cascade this idea to my dad and let him ask the service advisor.

[ntomer]

I own a TUV300 in T8 trim - the earlier model, not the new 100 bhp one. I bought it in Dec-15 and it has done 14,500 kms. I mainly drive it to my birding excursions and out station trips, and very rarely in city.

When it was almost new - only 700 kms done - I took it to a drive to Mumbai. On second day of trip, just after leaving Ajmer, it's ECL started blinking, I took it to a se vice sense, they put in some actuator and problem was resolved. Though I was worried about this problem in a brand new car, I didn't think of it much.

Car had done almost 14K KMs after that, trouble free. I have taken it to quite rough terrians, driven in snow, in waterlogged roads, and it performed brilliantly.

Last Saturday (20the Aug), I was birding in jungles of Mangar-Bani (Aravalis, off Gurgaon-Faridabad road). There I crossed a small bump at about 40 kmph. Immediately an "Engine!" light started blinking, car lost all power and engine died. I cranked the car, and engine started with trouble. But there was no power and car just won't move ahead.

I was in a jungle with no mobile connectivity. Somehow arranged for a Mahindra Pik-up to tow me out to Gurgaon-Faridabad road. In the meantime, I've called Mahindra's With You Humesha service and they promised to get the car towed in one hour. Which ultimately dragged to 5 hours. M&M have outsourced their road side assistance service to Allianz and they over-burdened and under-staffed.

Anyways, the car got towed to Prime Automobiles in Faridabad and yesterday I got the diagnosis as fuel pump. Ring faulty. I asked for the root cause but they couldn't tell any. Now according to them car is alright and I am on my way to pick it up. But I have lost all confidence in M&M. What of this happened when I was in some really remote area. How can fuel pump fail just like that in a 14K done car!

[Nissan1180]

Originally Posted by ntomer

Ring faulty. I asked for the root cause but they couldn't tell any. Now according to them car is alright and I am on my way to pick it up. But I have lost all confidence in M&M. What of this happened when I was in some really remote area. How can fuel pump fail just like that in a 14K done car!

That is sad. Mahindra cars have been known for their reliability, especially in less than ideal driving conditions.
Did you get any indication of what caused the failure? Could it be due to poor fuel quality? I've heard that particles in the fuel or water could lead to this.

[ntomer]

Originally Posted by Nissan1180

That is sad. Mahindra cars have been known for their reliability, especially in less than ideal driving conditions.
Did you get any indication of what caused the failure? Could it be due to poor fuel quality? I've heard that particles in the fuel or water could lead to this.

No cause identified. I grilled the SA a lot but he had no clue. His answer to everything was that I didn't have to pay a penny, so I should be happy about that.

I doubt it was due to bad fuel quality. Car was running fine till that time, a minor bump and fuel pump went kaput.

[Ravindra M]

Originally Posted by ntomer

No cause identified. I grilled the SA a lot but he had no clue. His answer to everything was that I didn't have to pay a penny, so I should be happy about that.

I doubt it was due to bad fuel quality. Car was running fine till that time, a minor bump and fuel pump went kaput.

If possible, please post a picture of failed part here.
Fuel pumps are not meant to fail so early.

[ntomer]

Originally Posted by Ravindra M

If possible, please post a picture of failed part here.
Fuel pumps are not meant to fail so early.

Since I didn't pay for the part, service station didn't give me the replaced part.

The bill clearly mentions fuel pump replacement.