Maruti solving oil leak problems in Altos engines

Maruti Suzuki said yesterday that it is in the process of fixing an oil leakage problem in the engines of 6,000 Altos produced in April. The leakage has been identified to be caused by starting troubles in the small car.

The problem has come to light less than a year following the recall of upward of 1 lakh units of its flagship export model A-Star due to faulty fuel pumps (See: Maruti Suzuki to recall 1 lakh A stars). 

In an unrelated evelopment, six months following the recall, parent Suzuki Motor Corp recalled over 10,000 units of the automatic transmission version of its 'Alto' car in Europe due to a faulty stop lamp switch in over 10,000 units of the automatic transmission version of the model.  (See: Suzuki Motor recalls 10,000 units of Alto in Europe )

The Maruti Suzuki's more than 800 sales network centres and around 2,740 service workshops has been asked to check and repair the affected Altos, but according to a spokesman this was not a recall. He said the vehicle if affected might present some starting problems but this can be easily repaired at the workshop.

India's largest car maker sold 64,500 Altos between April and June this year but has not yet been able to ascertain the number of cars that face the problem.

The company also ships Alto cars to Nepal and Sri Lanka. The A-Stars were recalled from November 2009 from India and export models such as Europe, Australia and North Africa.