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-   -   My 1995 Maruti Zen : Time to go old school! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/214268-my-1995-maruti-zen-time-go-old-school-6.html)

Hello ! Updating the thread after a hiatus of a few months. 1513 has been used quite bit by me in these 3 months to run daily errands and make trips to the market and other places nearby where I had to go pick up something for the house. Every drive was pleasurable as always and never failed to put a smile on my face:D
However, the car has now been tucked away at its covered parking spot at our office since the monsoons are now here in full swing and I don't wish to invite rust on the bodywork, plus it was given a good run for 3 months. So I shall give it some rest :)
Post the monsoons, I shall be getting new tyres , hopefully a set of alloy wheels and have the yearly service done.




Tucked away for the monsoons !

Knowing you, I'm sure the alloys will be "period correct".:p ;) Any design finalized?

Nice & crisp update, glad the Zen is going about its business without any issue. Along with the tires, I would suggest getting the bumpers changed as well. I am aware that you care about the originality a lot, hence want to keep the 95 make bumpers. But trust me, new bumpers would transform her looks.

Btw, the exhaust pipe seems to be jutting out a bit too much. Did the previous owner get it replaced? Seems like a non genuine exhaust to me. If it's not a genuine one, I would suggest changing it to MGP one ASAP.

Hahahaha, yes you're quite right. I have narrowed my search down to either a set of 5 spoke alloys which will be painted white or a set of Zen Carbon/Steel alloys. Unfortunately both are difficult to find these days, and if found they cost a rather heavy sum!

I'm contemplating on whether I should get new bumpers or have the existing ones repainted matte black , thereafter they'd look as good as new! Yes, you're right about the exhaust pipe, it is an aftermarket one which I had to change to for the time being because the original had a nasty leak (it had a nice burble noise to it though :D) . I shall be changing it to the MGP one very soon.

Update:- After a long and harrowing wait of nearly 6-7 months , thanks to the covid-19 situation there was no chance of any car meets happening . Thankfully , with the unlock phase a few friends from the Classic Maruti enthusiasts group and I managed to meet last Sunday morning and do a drive from Bandra to Horniman Circle whilst adhering to Social Distancing norms. Since it wasn't raining, I decided to take 1513 out for the day and had an enjoyable time driving it into town . It ran flawlessly without any hiccups , although it hadn't run at all for the past month and that had a permanent smile on my face throughout the drive :) , more so because this was my first solo drive to town after getting my license!





As mentioned earlier, I shall be getting new tyres for 1513 post the monsoons and hopefully a nice set of alloys . Open to suggestions for alloys , if any.

Brought back some sense of nostalgia. We had a red coloured MH410 with black bumper, back in the day. A quick check in mParivahan and surprise, she is still running in rural Kerala:).

Here's another minor update:-
After a long long wait, I was finally able to procure the rare three spoke steering wheel for 1513. I happened to find it for sale on OLX at a decent price, so I picked it up .
Here's some trivia : Some of you may not identify this steering wheel as it was quite uncommon , although it is a legitimate Zen steering wheel. This is because, it came initially with the first lot cars only i.e 1993-94 cars. It was replaced sometime in 1994 by the more well known two spoke wheel.
It was then reintroduced in 2000 for a limited edition called the Zen VX and Vxi Deluxe and was also later made standard for the VXi variant iirc.

Now for the pics :-

The two spoke and three spoke steering side by side. They are roughly similiar in size, however the three spoke wheel is much lighter in comparison and feels nicer to hold.


In the car ! :D
Yes, it's a bit worn out in a few places but i don't mind, it adds to the graceful ageing factor of the car !


Driving with the three spoke wheel adds more to the fun factor and helps the car feel even more like a go-kart !


Compare it with the two spoke ! The three spoke surely adds a bit more character to the interior.

Hello everyone!
Its been over a month since I last updated this thread, I have been quite busy with college and other things hence I did not have the time. But anyway, here is a rather substantial update. Now that the monsoons finally took off for good, I decided to use 1513 more often. However, the tyres had reached the end of their life and the car was driving in a slightly unstable manner, braking was also a little sketchy of course. So after a long wait, I finally went out and got my new tyres ! Complimenting the tyres is a nice clean set of alloy wheels which imo look brilliant on the car. The alloys are from the 90s and coincidentally were on a Zen when they were brand new ! So at last, the mission to score a nice set of period correct wheels for the car was accomplished.
A special thanks to my friend from whom I got the alloys :D

Now for the pics :-


Awaiting new footwear at Bombay Tyres, Santa Cruz.

AANDDD the wheels go ON !










Isn't it amazing how a nice set of alloys can transform the car's looks and identity to the very next level.

As for the technical info, I went in for a set of Bridgestone B290 tyres in the size 155/65 R13, a small upsize from the stock 145/70 R13 that my car had. I have to say that the difference made by new or good tyres is genuinely often ignored by most ! The car now drives differently, for the better and I absolutely love the new stance !
As for the work, I had the work done at the well reputed Bombay Tyres shop at Milan Subway in Santa Cruz, Mumbai. They were efficient and did a neat job in every aspect, surely recommended :thumbs up

Hello BHPians, apologies for my absence from the forum for a long hiatus.
I hope you are all doing well.
Anyway it is now time for an update and this update is going to be a rather big and detailed one !
My last post on the forum was regarding my tyre change and alloy wheel installation on 1513. I have since been using the car almost daily to run errands and tasks and also for weekend drives, enjoying every bit of it as usual !
The car returns a mileage of about 11-12 km/litre in the city which I suspect is decent and what most Zen owners would have received from their cars.


The evergreen side profile of the good old 'jellybean' , I still cannot get over how the wheels have transformed the car to no end ! The car now has a slight offset due to the upsized tyres, which I am somewhat of a fan of. Might I also add how it has improved the ride quality by leaps and bounds.


The car has finally by passed the 30,000 km mark after 25 years of existence ! :p Had it not been for the lockdown last year it would have surely covered more !

Now for the main part of this update. I was supposed to service the car a long while ago, but due to the lockdown last year I was unable to and other constraints further prevented me from doing it. However, last month I finally decided I would get down to doing it because it was well overdue. The engine oil had gone all black and the coolant was brown. Furthermore, the brakes had begun to feel strained and tired. An annoying humming noise from the wheels began to make its way into the cabin, which was a sign that the wheel bearings were on their way out too. The steering too had a slight squeak. And finally, the clutch had gone hard and squeaky , of course the age did have a part to play there but I owe it more to the fact that I learnt to drive on the car ! The car had started to become sluggish. It was high time for some TLC.

A call was then made to my trusted mechanic Ravi, who has of course been spoken about previously on this thread as well, and then the car was driven off to the garage, which was its home for two years before I got it !

As I had free time, I decided to visit the garage and help work on the car myself . I must say it was a great learning experience, and of course, getting your hands dirty every once in a while is an important part of being an enthusiast :)


Time for some TLC !

So here is the list of things I had done on the car during the course of its visit to the garage :-
- Engine Oil and oil filter Change
- Coolant Change, Radiator flush and cleaning
- New Fuel filter
- Air Filter cleanup
- New Brake Pads
- Brake service and fluid change
- Clutch Change (including Pressure Plate, Release Bearing and Clutch Cable)
- New Wheel nuts and Wheel Bearings
- New Drive Shaft boot and greasing
- Steering Rack Servicing
- Carburetor cleaning and tune up
- Electrical work ( replaced shorted bulbs )
- A wash and clean service at Cadel Auto
and other general things that would get covered during a service. The parts that were replaced were all of original MGP branding and were purchased from two of Mumbai's trusted Automotive Spare parts shops namely , Sundar Auto Parts and Chandrika Auto. The work was all done at Ravi's garage and was done brilliantly as always . The entire bill came to about 7100 INR. Reasonable ! Now for the pics !



This time around we decided to use Castrol Magnatic 10W40 Synthetic Oil. Although , it is often recommended that Mineral Oil should be used for older cars, I decided to go for Synthetic. As the selected grade is correct, it should be fine. The engine revs more freely now !




The Brake pads were done for. That explained the annoying squeaky noise that the car made everytime I applied the brakes. Sometimes I do also thank the higher powers !






WORK IN PROGRESS !


The LHS Wheel nut had a crack !






The old clutch was past its prime and did not have much life left on it at all. Hence, it was replaced !


25 years worth of dust being cleaned out !




The New clutch and pressure plate ! What a beauty ! The entire cost of this piece including the new clutch release bearing was about 2750/- . The clutch is made by Valeo, which is one of the main suppliers to MGP.


In it goes !

The difference felt after the new clutch was installed was of the highest order, I can say that the car never drove that good ! As Ravi said, the clutch and gearbox would feel like makkhan post the clutch change and rightly so !

Furthermore, the LHS driveshaft boot was torn so I had that replaced and greased. The other boots were in good nick, so they were left as is but were re-greased. The steering rack was also serviced which got rid of the squeaks.

The car was driving amazingly post the new clutch installation of course, it never felt that nimble ! Post that, it was time for a carb clean and tune up. As defunct as carbs maybe these days, I shall pen down that part of the service here as well. The carburetor was cleaned and serviced with the help of a 3M Carb cleaner spray and its throat was cleaned with a toothbrush, the old school way !
Ravi, being an old school mechanic with years and years of experience knows carburetors inside out , especially the Mikunis that Maruti Suzukis got. So I watched and learnt as he turned the air-fuel mixture screw and the engine idle screw to ensure that the engine was in the right state of tune. Even if a slight something felt off, he would start over again, till the time he was sure the car was running as it should . "This is how we tuned cars without computers back in the day ! " he exclaimed. Finally, the carb was tuned up and the car started in half a crank or 'half self' as they say and the cabin was as quiet as ever with zero vibrations. Well, ZERO ENGINE NOISE !

The car was then driven to the electrician's a few blocks away to fix the LHS tail light and fender indicator that had suddenly stopped working. The culprit in both cases was a shorted bulb, had them replaced.


Finally, all the pending work was completed . The car felt and drove like a breeze. It now revved happier than ever and accelerated like never before, of course ! It was then time for the icing on the cake , which was some final pampering. I dropped it off at the Cadel Auto Petrol Pump for a wash and clean service because it had to come home squeaky clean !














Nothing more satisfying than a clean engine bay !


Welcome back home!

Next, I shall be attending to the faded bumpers and score some fitting center caps for my alloys.




A mini photoshoot with a friend's IGNIS. Displaying how Maruti Suzuki's fun small car has changed over two decades. A few do consider the Ignis to be the spiritual successor of the Zen. They are both fun to drive, So I would agree with that statement.

I have driven the car for approximately 300 kilometers post the service and it is driving brilliantly, in conclusion, I must reiterate the fact that I am so immensely happy that I have 1513 as my first car. Not only is it a fun car, but owning and looking after it is also a brilliant learning experience from which I have learnt and continue to learn so much !

On the 7th of March, it was two years since 1513 came home !
A car that was bought primarily for me to learn driving on and was then supposed to move on, I have a good feeling it's not going to go anywhere anytime soon :Cheering:

Hello guys! I’m Yuvraj from Gurgaon and I’m gonna talk about my 1999 Maruti Zen which I restored during lockdown. First let’s talk about it’s color. She’s still wearing her largely original velvet grey paint job, carbureted engine, no power steering and some chunky 13 inch rims!

Ok so let’s talk about it’s life and how I restored her. So basically my father bought the car for ₹2.80 lakhs in 1999 from Maruti Suzuki Pasco located in Gurgaon, my father daily drive the car up until 2016-2017 and had clocked just about 1.24 lakh kilometers on the odo with majority of its mechanical parts and paint still factory. In 2017 once we couldn’t insure it or get a fitness certificate for it (thanks NGT). We parked it away for some odd 4-5 years. The car Was parked untouched for those years. It was high time and I was sure that she was going to mayapuri to get scrapped within a few months, so I started the restoration.

I started off by removing the fuel tank and tried cleaning it with hydrochloric acid which did dissolve some of the rust inside, then I proceeded with temporarily cleaning the carb just to get her running. After that I somehow drove her to the front of my house using the choke since it was shutting down on pressing the accelerator. After that I started working on its cosmetics by wet sanding and polishing the paint using a rotary polisher. Once that was sorted I got 2 new bumpers, new headlights, front grill, all indicator lamps and lenses. After that was sorted I decided to paint the rusty rims a flat black then installed new lug nuts and hub caps. Oh yes! And I wrapped the door frames in black vinyl wrap. I then started the paint work on the hood, both fenders and front grill. Got 400 grams of velvet grey paint and 400 grams thinner and some hardener. Started with base work and applied primer, then I borrowed the compressor from my painter and applied 3 coats of the hot looking velvet grey paint.

After that I proceeded with the mechanical issues, sorting them one by one. First I got a new fuel tank, fuel float and pump thanks to my friend Rithvik (@_uwuzuki_ on Instagram) and Lakshay(PB10 Autohangar) they helped me procure the parts which weren’t available anywhere near me. Once the fuel situation was sorted I decided to rip the carb out and clean it thoroughly. After disassembling the carb and soaking it in petrol for 30-40 minutes I started agitating the grime with a hard brush and cleaned it again with petrol. Applied grease to all the external shafts and linkages along with regular sprays of WD-40 to ensure that the carb never seizes up after a few days of not driving. Once the carb was installed I decided to replace all the vacuum tubes and also did a cool air filter upgrade :Cheering: After that I got my brake discs and pads replaced along with the rear wheel bearings and I replaced the control arms and bushings At home myself. After doing all this I found a scrap zen nearby out of which I took two front door pads, indicator stalk assembly and battery tray (mine was totally rusted).

I got 2 new front tires and moved the front ones to the back temporarily the car was driving like new as of now so I thought of giving it a boost in power by upsizing the jets and unfortunately after hard driving I blew a coolant hose which I replaced along with the elbow, bled the cooling system and added a 1:4 coolant water mix.

Hello Hello!
It feels good to return to writing on the forum after a really long hiatus indeed. Avid viewers of this thread must have been wondering where I have been all this while. Well, work-life is a busy affair indeed. As for the Zen, well it is just as busy..driving me around daily! In addition, on the 7th of March this year, I completed 3 years of ownership of 1513. They say "Time Flies when you're enjoying yourself'. Indeed it does. Especially when it is spent behind the wheel of a street-legal go-kart. It seems as though it was just yesterday that I got the car home from my mechanic's garage and began a very significant automotive chapter in my life :Cheering:


Throwback to 7th March 2019, a.k.a Day 1 of ownership


7th March 2022, nothing but a blissful ownership experience and several memories seen in 3 years !

With the sentimental part out of the way (LOL), it's now time to post some real updates. Well for starters, I currently use 1513 daily. Literally every day. I am a media college student and at present, pursuing a part-time job as well. Both college and my workplace are located in polar opposite parts of the city, so the car sees daily running of about 50-55km, a massive step up from the meager kilometers it was used to seeing all its life. Driving it daily is a great exercise for me as it has no power steering or power windows :D no need to hit the gym! I honestly don't miss either as the car is so light while driving. Well, maybe around tight parking spots I do.




Besides that, the Air-Conditioner works really well for its age and has become a necessity these days due to the summer heat. It is probably the main reason why I can use the car daily. Of course, it deactivates the engine boost, haha, but a little compromise doesn't hurt.

The small size and dimensions of the car are a boon in bumper-to-bumper city traffic and help me captain it through narrow gaps and fill tight parking spots in tiny by-lanes near my workplace.

The prices of fuel are rising at an alarming rate these days, such that even something like a tiny 800 or Zen is becoming expensive :Frustrati
That said, I manage to get about 11-12 km/litre from 1513 with the Air-Con on majority of the times. Respectible figures from a carb engine. I have forcefully had to become a more economy-oriented driver due to the very reason.





Something important I have learned over this period of using the car daily is that, in cases of cars like the Zen and other similar cars, it is very important to use them preferably daily if possible. Sure, they may be old now but they aren't exactly unusable and should be enjoyed to the fullest. It not only benefits the car but a smile is guaranteed on the driver's face too!

Here come some pics !




1st January was not a pleasant start to the year for 1513 as it two punctures in the rear tyre. Ugh, facepalm!



Wet Wet Wet !








The daily duties performed by the car do not go unrewarded and it is treated to a full exterior-interior wash every fortnight at a friend's detailing studio and car wash center.


14th February is annually celebrated as Valentine's day. This year, the day started off really well. The car's odometer showed a cool reading of 33333km, I had a passenger of the fairer sex travelling with me whom I was to drop off on the way back from college, and then this happened :(
How? A BEST bus scraped past my car while turning onto the road from the bus stop. Thankfully no one was hurt, and miraculously the car\'s body was unharmed. Just that the bumper alignment took a beating and needed to be fixed back in place. "No worries, sh**t happens", I thought to myself and got the car fixed. Perils like these are unavoidable and happen in any big crowded city, so it\'s always better to take them in your stride and drive safely!

Repairing it was no big deal and cost me merely 800 INR including applying a fresh coat of paint on the rear number plate which was done at my trusty local painter\'s place.


At present, the car is at about 35k km.


On its return from the painter's, I decided to blacken the B-pillars using some vinyl wrap tape. It has turned out to be a subtle and cool touch IMO.

For my birthday which coincidentally falls on the 6th of March, I received a gift for the car from a couple of good friends. And guess what it was!









FOGS !!! I absolutely adore yellow foglights, especially on a white car. Reminds me of the iconic Initial D AE86, sadly I cannot drift around in Mumbai traffic. Yes, I remember mentioning earlier in the thread that I will leave the car all stock and blah blah, but hey life is short, enjoy it while you can. That said, mechanically, this car is still left untouched.








Foglights complimenting the relatively weak full beam on a dimly lit road

A few snaps from a recent drive to Madh island and back for three days continuously which the car did flawlessly without any hiccups. Totally drove around 200 km in three days.


Land of the rising sun?
Well, almost!

That's it from me for now, I shall hopefully post updates here regularly.For now, I've got miles to go before I sleep !
Gracias,
BeemerBug_06

A few miscellaneous shots for your viewing pleasure :)

About a month ago, a group of car enthusiasts called as the Shaman Youngtimers group planned a drive from Mumbai to Lonavala and back. The group is primarily for cars which are made between the 1980s and early 2000s. Hence, 1513 too is a part.

I have driven to Lonavala a few times over to know and understand the road well enough. However, it was in our Toyota Corolla. For this particular drive I decided to take 1513 out. Some negative thoughts and apprehensions from people almost lead to me not taking it - "Oh it's an old car", "It won't climb the ghat", "It's unsafe" , "It's too small", "It has rust", "You will have to drive without the AC" , "The carb tune is not perfect", "It doesn't have Bluetooth" :confused:
Sure the car is not the safest one out there by today's standards, but one must also remember that driving style and discipline play an important role here too.

However, once I decided to take the matter into my own hands, I thought to myself that back in the day when the roads were poorly built and a modern highway did not exist, people used cars like the Zen and 800 all across the country and returned without any problems. Furthermore, I know a few enthusiasts that properly use their old cars such as Fiats and old Mercedes' for long distances even today!

In the end it all depends on your confidence as a driver and about how well you know your vehicle and its capabilities. With that, I took 1513 to the highway for the first time in nearly 2 decades.

I had had the oil changed and a tune-up done a week before the drive and the car was running very smoothly. However, before going I decided to show it once to Ravi- my mechanic who mocked my apprehension and told me to take the car bindass !













The overall experience was brilliant. Of course, a drive to Lonavala is no big deal, but for me it felt refreshing and therapeutic. I got to discover a whole new dimension of the car. It comfortably cruised along the highway and kept up with the big boy V6s and V8s that were a part of the drive too. When it came to climbing up the ghat, I needed to switch off the AC just once while climbing. I returned home safely without facing a single issue. That only made me want to enjoy this car all the more. It shall see the highway again very soon, next time perhaps I shall drive it down to Goa and tick that major event off the bucket list :D