A serious design flaw I noticed on my Jimny when raised on the lift

It's a design flaw when the car was transformed from a 3-door to 5-door.

BHPian Samba recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Yesterday, I took my Jimny to Jyote Nexa for the 2nd service. These guys did a good job in servicing the vehicle, and I asked them to replace the engine oil too.

Now coming to the main point. When the car was raised on the lift, I went underneath to make an underbelly inspection. I noticed that there were scratch marks on the propeller shaft, which under extreme articulation or load, rubbed the underbelly of the car.

I just used the car for a road trip to Arunachal, the car has not gone for any proper off-roading. I have heard this same issue with other Jimnys as well. What I feel is, this is in fact, a design flaw when the car was transformed from 3 door to 5 door.

I have officially asked the service centre to take it as a complaint, and they have noted it down. I will wait to see how MSIL resolves this issue.

The pics for reference.

Here's what BHPian arjab had to say on the matter:

This is a very serious design issue which Suzuki should acknowledge at the earliest and immediately start taking corrective steps.

I am shocked by the fact that: how could this clash go undetected by Maruti and Suzuki's Vehicle Integration team at the DMU stage. How could CAE overlook this? Or was sufficient CAE not done?

I have a feeling that some smart aleck took the 3-door's propshaft kinematic study and extrapolated it to the 5-door's. In real life, the longer prop + the spongy rear suspension setup, teamed up to knock the prop shaft against the cross member.

What is the remedy then? A complete redesign of the cross-member. If the cross member is a bolted one, (I have not checked on that), then the redesign can be done a bit quicker and retrofit kits can be sent out to dealers. But if the cross-member is welded to the side-long members then the issue is more complex as redesign and changes have to be done at assembly/manufacturing line level.

Another alternative can be to put a chamfer/notch - basically "scoop or shave" off a part of the metal on the underside of the cross-member. Add a pair of stiffer rear dampers and it should work.

Whatever it is this is a big dent to the reputation of "Japanese design and manufacturing process excellence", blah-blah. All the more so because the Jimny is not a new model. It has been soldiering on for decades in Suzuki's lineup, and by this time Suzuki and Maruti engineers should know the car in and out, blindfolded.

Here's what BHPian gsferrari had to say on the matter:

FYI Maruti is aware of this. I raised the issue several months back. There was a call with the entire product team (engineering, chassis, drivetrain, suspension etc.). A couple of weeks back a team of 7 engineers from different departments flew to Chennai to inspect two vehicles exhibiting this issue, mine included. A third vehicle was also there but we ran out of time.

I'm assuming Maruti is taking this very seriously. I have forwarded your post to the PR and engineering teams today.

If I get any sort of update, which is unlikely given the serious nature of this issue, I will update here. A more realistic expectation can be to hear from Maruti in a few months with some sort of recall to install parts that fix this issue. We should also not be surprised to hear complete silence. Anything is possible.

Rest assured enough noise has been made and yours is the first public post regarding this I am sure any urgency that may have been lacking until now would have kicked into high gear. This is a PR disaster they need to resolve ASAP.

Update: I'm not trying to shield MSIL but they've been very proactive. It is easy to throw tantrums, and a bit harder to work towards a solution. I'm normally a "throw my fists around" kind of guy but in this case, I want to work with MSIL and give them all the feedback and evidence they need to fix this for all of us who paid full/discounted price.

If anyone else has this issue, please post here or in any new thread created for this purpose and I will share it with the Maruti engineering and PR teams.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.