Two tips for M800 owners. Review on General Tips on Braking and Safety Techniques

Dear,

I have bought my Maruti-800(2nd Hand) two years back. I have already driven 30, 000 Kms on my Maruti. I give you two tips right off my head and completely based on my own experience with Maruti - 800.

1. Headlights=> Problem / Dimming, etc

If you take M-800 on long drives(bad choice I guess) and, if you have to blink your headlights quite often on highways, you'll notice that sometimes one of your

headlights becomes dim. This may even happen in high-potholled city roads.

You can easily find out if this has happened in two ways:

1. Look for the refection on the vehicle in front of you.

   
   




2. Look for a slightly lit high-beam indicator.(This is normally not lit, but when you have a dimming problem, this light is slightly lit.)

   
   

1. Why does this happen?

1. The Fuse loses contact due to continuous shaking.

How to fix

Right side below your steering(also below the lever used to lift up the bonnet) you'll find a black box. Firmly press and take off the black cover. This cover is about 2 in by 4 inches. On it are markings saying fuse amperage and function. Look for the ones saying'Right Headlight' or'Left Headlight'. Find the fuse(these are normally 10A fuses) and gently press them in. Try if the lights glow up.

2. Why does this happen?

1. Due to repeated blinking(flashing) of lights on the highway, your fuse would have worn out. Your friendly neighbourhood car electrician, instead of replacing it with a new one, shorts the conductors with a copper wire. This was exactly how it was done in my case.

How to fix

1. Take off the offending fuse. Tighten the copper wire firmly so as to regain contact. Replace fuse and try again.

   
   




2. Use a replacement fuse(15A too works fine), but quickly get yourself a 10A fuse.

   
   

High Speed Turns, Skids, etc

1. Most of the M-800 hand-brakes are bad. The next time you service your car, ask him to fix the handbrake. This is normally no additional cost.

Clearly, M-800 is not fit for high speed turns. It has thin wheels that do not give you enough grip for turning. Please avoid turning even at 60Kmph on rainy days. On one occasion when I turned right at 60Kmph on Ring road(Whitefield to Hebbala Side in Bangalore), the car skid badly to the left and landed up in the middle lane(whilst I was in the right lane to start with, &  on a rainy day). Luckily there was no vehicle on the middle lane.

Don't apply hand brakes to sharpen your turn on rainy days. The rear skids very badly. On normal days, handbrakes do give you good turns but wear out quickly.

Please do not use hand-brakes on M-800 at high speed. Once, when I was on a highway and some(idiot) tempo driver suddenly pulled from edge of the road towards me. At 100Kmph, I could do very less but to apply my brakes, steer off him and press the hand-brake. Applying the hand-brake caused a filmi style turning of the car as the front couldn't get a grip on the road. Please drive your M-800 slowly, it is not made for speed.

Be very careful of the Two wheelers when you take a sharp turn(with or without hand-brakes) as the rear of the car swivels towards the direction opposite to your curve(no grip on the road). You can badly hurt those two-wheeler guys desperately trying to get past you. Especially true if you have to take a turn immediately after stopping for a signal(i.e. you are accelerating during the turn)

Hi, Some more Info I found in the comment section:

Title: Handbrake info

By: modemnoise  Oct-30-05 12:47 PM

I don’t think you’re aware of the mechanism behind a handbrake. A car has exactly one set of brakes, disc or drum. The brake pedal communicates with the disc/drum using hydraulic pressure. The handbrake engages the very same brakes using a cable.

Your writeup implies that there are two sets of brakes. This is wrong and dangerous.

One reason why a handbrake is provided is for redundancy. In case you lose brake fluid pressure, you should still be able to stop the car. Also, for keeping the vehicle stationary on a slope while parking or if you’re not comfortable half-clutching on a slope.

Applying the handbrake while accelerating is extremely dangerous. This is because the rear wheels lock and will cause the car to spin 180 degrees.

Wrap Up

My M-800 is my first car. I bought it soon after joining my new job, and it was the only car I could buy without a loan. It is good and easy to steer, an ideal car within the city. However, I have to keep my eyes open for the pot-holes on the road as going through many of them would hurt one's back.

All the best with your headlights and sharp turns. And please, drive safe.

I'll try to share more of my driving experience, and I urge you to do the same.

Let's drive with pleasure in India.