Preamble

What follows now is a continuation of a selection out of my personal archives, which I hope visitors like you will find informative and useful.
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(Q1)

(A1)

I’m afraid ‘DLI’ is there only on Alto-vx and Wagon-R in this MUL segment and regrettably, the former has since been discontinued from manufacture.

On the other hand, retrofitting a DLI on to an Alto-lx will not be cost effective, as it'd involve a change of the ECU as well - besides major wiring harnesses. The total cost may easily be > Rs: 20k ! The reasons are that the LX (3 Cyl) engine/ head sub assy is common with 800 DX-mpfi.

The Alto-vx (4-Cyl) had 2 ‘igniter coils’ that energised 2-cyl each each time. These coils are placed above spark plugs on the cam cover. In case of LX- 3 coils would be needed, 1 for each cyl - besides other changes in high-tension harness/ ECU etc.

(Q2)

My Zen VXi is approaching its second free servicing at 5000 kms. The servicing will include a change of engine oil. Can you recommend any specific engine oil such as Castrol GTX Magnatec or some synthetic oil, which will protect the engine more efficiently than the "recommended" Maruti grade engine oil ? Does it make sense to use these high performance oils for a humble ZEN or are they to be used in only the C and D segment cars ?

(A2)

The so called quality gradation of Engine oils as per 'SAE' goes upwards like SF, SG, SH, SJ etc., with SF being the lowest, recommended for low performance engines like the M800 and SG/SH for the higher end C/D gr Cars.

It's logical to assume that using a grade superior than what is the OEM recommendation can do no harm but only good to an Engine - so long as it's 'cost-effective'. That's where the catch is.

Further, for Cars under Warranty, it's best not to try and use your own oils and let the A/S/S do it's own thing coz should some thing go wrong, even if the oil you supplied is not responsible for it, the Dealership will have a very easy escape route and Engine repairs can be very expensive. I have some recent/first hand experience of it and heaved a sigh of relief coz I hadn't changed the oils to my liking during the warranty.

Once the Warranty is over, oils like Magnatec, provided they are genuine, are excellent value for money. Synthetics - good for long drain/long haul intervals - don't work out cost effective on an average Passenger Car in India but if you have money to spare, by all means use it. Mobil-1, the only officially available in India as far as I know, costs ~ Rs: 500/- per Lr a/a < Rs: 200/- lr of the Magnatec !

(Q3)

Can you pl let me know asap, what's the recommended PMP for changing
the AT Fluid on Cars like Esteem-AT - time wise and distance wise.

The Owners Manual is silent on it, though it does say somewhere to wait for a while for the system to 'warm-up' a bit before draining it off.

In the same vein, what's it for the Hydraulic PS Fluid ?

My common sense tells me that similar logic as for the MT/Gear Oil changes should apply in these two cases also - unless the oils are superior/synthetic/long drain interval types. Even then, there has to be a time/distance Cap on it ?

(A3)

For the ATF, 80 kkm or 4 years is recommended – whichever is earlier. The same goes for the Hydraulic-PS. Normally, Garages don’t change it until customer reports any problem as being totally imported, it is expensive.

(Q4)
I have a 1999 Zen LX. I have a problem and I seek your solution to. In the rainy season or on foggy days, I generally drive with the parking lights on as a safety precaution. But I always tend to leave them on after I have left the car since there is no alarm to tell me about the lights being on or the electrical system does not cut of all the electric points (which in my opinion it should). My battery has also run down twice due to this. Infact on my instrument panel in the car I have stuck a sticker, which reads as “Check Lights”, but sometimes you, tend to overlook it too ! Could you kindly advise me on this problem and how to solve it.
(A4)

This is quite a common problem afflicting most of us at some time or the other. I too gave it a thought only when one foggy winter day my daughter forgot to sw of her side lights while getting into her office and by the evening - her Batt was flat - to the extent that I had drive to her offices 20 kms away with a relief Battery.

The problem stands to get worse with Mpfi/AT Cars - as they can't be push-started either ! Therefore, to my mind, there are two solutions to it :

1) That the OEMs build-in a feature which gives you beeps like No-Seat belts - when you sw off the Ign with PLs on. One will have to manually silence/reset it - such that by default, it's ready for the next cycle.

2) For want of above, I rigged up a simple ckt using a 12v-dc/PCB-Relay, actually installed it in her Car and it worked. This little gadgetry ensured that if you sw'd off the ignition while the PL's were on - the Car's Horns went into a scream mode !

3) Its 2-initial drawbacks were - i) you cldn't leave the PLs on intentionally and ii) If you tried to start the engine with PL's on - the horns did their duty. Either of these cld be 'fixed' but I didn't feel a pressing need for it to complicate matters.

If any Accessory Builder is interested in acquiring this know-how - he's welcome to get in touch with me.