My S-Cross completes 1.40L km: Why I replaced the timing belt twice

Have used the car for around 100 km within city limits and all good so far, but it will take a few long drives to regain confidence in the car.

BHPian kit_dennis recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My timing belt replacement story.

The car was reaching the 140K milestone and hence decided to replace the timing belt during the next service. Since getting 1.6 specific parts is not as easy as the other engines, I informed the service centre (Mandovi Motors, JP Nagar) to procure the parts and inform so that I need to bring the car only then. Even after multiple follow-ups, they took 28 days to procure all the parts. All the work (140K service+timing belt) was done in 1.5 days. Total cost 35K.

Got the car on Thursday, and did some city runs for the next 3 days. No problems were noticed.

Sunday, I went to my hometown in Kerala from Bangalore with my family. Once we crossed Karnataka, the engine malfunction indicator came on and the car was in limp mode. I stopped, checked the engine bay for any obvious signs, didn’t find any and started the car. The limp mode was gone, but the warning light persisted. I understood something was wrong, but thought would somehow reach Kerala and then get it checked. After crossing around 30 kms from Salem, suddenly the EPS signal came on and the car lost power steering. Somehow managed to park it in front of a restaurant. Probably the trigger was when the torque reached more than 2500rpm.

Got the car towed to the nearest service centre 8km away, Thriveni, Sankagiri. They tried their best to diagnose the issue, but being a Sunday, they were less staffed and it was clear that it would not be rectified soon. With some difficulty, taking the bus, cab etc reached hometown. The next day the service centre called and said the timing belt and the tensioner had gone bad and had to be replaced. The time to get the part delivered and repaired was given as 1 week. With the previous 1-month waiting experience I was worried, it would take a long time to source the parts. But luckily I got the car back exactly 1 week later. The tensioner was broken and it had damaged the timing belt as well. Picture of the time belt attached. Both parts were new and it looked to be a manufacturing defect.

While returning from Kerala to Bangalore, I tried a few scenarios to test the vehicle, like going at higher rpm, speed etc and the car performed well. And when we were crossing Sankagiri, we called the Service centre and thanked them for their good job. Spoken too soon, a few seconds later, the engine malfunction indicator came on and the car went to limp mode again. Restarted the car, limp mode gone, but the light still on. Again, decided to drive on and reached home with sedate driving.

Took to Mandovi Motors after a few days. They checked the error code, it was related to the oil pressure switch. They said it’s in the history and not in the current, so should be a false alarm. They also checked the said part after putting it on a ramp and couldn’t find much apart from some debris near the connector which they cleaned.

Have used the car for around 100 km since then within city limits and all good so far. Both Thriveni and Mandovi were helpful throughout and also knowing someone senior in Maruthi helped. Nevertheless, it will take a few long drives to regain confidence in the car.

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