First, a HUGE shout out to akylekoz, who found this car as a cheap non-runner. On my comment in his "thinking of buying this" thread (this thread) that I needed a car to replace KazooJr's totaled P5, he picked it up. He and I dragged it to his shop the next Saturday. For a ridiculously reasonable sum, he changed out the clutch, and even pretended to let me help a bit. (No photos of this part, unfortunately) My son and I drove it home last weekend. It may be the single dirtiest car I've ever seen on the inside, but everything appears to work. Outside it's in pretty good shape. We've done a top to bottom interior clean.
We also swapped out the most epic bodge job I've ever seen, a mirror made from a craft store mirror, craft wire, the broken frame and some white duct tape: 
And fixed:
I've never even heard of those. Looks like a cool little car. What are the general plans?
In reply to Ovid_and_Flem :
Realistically, primary duty will be as KazooJr's daily driver. We may try it out as a rallycross car and (if the weather ever cooperates here) an ice racer in the winter. It is a pretty interesting little car. Sub 3K gross vehicle weight. 5 speed. Selectable FWD/AWD (on demand) and AWD (locked). Power numbers aren't great (140hp), but at that weight, it can get out of it's own way alright.
Downsides are it's a "dead brand", so parts availability can be tricky. There is almost zero aftermarket.
We had a surprisingly strong Suzuki dealer here in the Lehigh Valley, and there are several of these in my neighborhood, brown, black, and silver, so I know it isn't just one
. They all seem to be thriving, but I have never seen a white one in person.Next door neighbor had a brown one he traded on a Hyundai when Suzuki left just because they left, it was running perfect at 150k with average maintainance.
New "trunk badge" should arrive today:
I also know nothing about these, but it sounds pretty nice on paper. I'll definitely be following along to see what you end up doing with this thing.
In reply to kazoospec :
Buying dead cars is like a box of chocolates, I'm glad this one worked out as well as it did. It appeared to be well cared for until the last 10k and really clean underneath for a MI car. Somehow in 10k miles this kid killed the clutch and made the interior really filthy.
I don't know why I take on these kind of projects with my limited skills and free time. The sickness runs deep with me, I just can't help myself.
Ok, so we don't have smell-o-vision here yet but I would love to see pictures of the between the seats and cup holder area. That detailing could be it's own build thread.
Great to meet you Kazoospec, and I plan an taking you up on an Autocross day. I've always wanted to try and it will be helpful to have you give me some pointers.
In reply to akylekoz :
Yeah, we still don't have the gap between the seat and console cleaned to my satisfaction. I suspect we'll end up having to pull the seats to get to the bottom of it.
I'll shoot you an email if we're going to any local or semi local autocross events.
In reply to akylekoz :
I buy some cars at auction. I can't tell you how many times I have looked at a car in the pre-buy inspection and was just amazed at the condition and filth of the interior. The car may seem like a good car from the pictures but many times that kind of interior neglect has steered me away from the whole car because I am sure if there was that kind of neglect inside there must be even more neglect mechanically.
In reply to John Welsh :
Based on what akylekoz and I found while working on the car, my suspicion is most of the neglect was at the hands of the very last owner. There was a mechanic's notation of a timing belt change at the appropriate interval and it wasn't horribly overdue for an oil change based on the window sticker. It appeared to be in overall decent condition. The clutch we had to replace didn't really appear damaged, it was just due for replacement. All of which leads me to believe the last owner didn't have it for that long, because it was absolutely disgusting. We've got it to "driveable" status, but I suspect we'll need to clean it again and remove the seats to get it where we really want it.
I'm confused.... how did they change a timing belt on a timing chain engine?
In reply to bobzilla :
Hmmm. . . that's a good question. (Still learning about this car) IIRC, the notation we found said "T.B. Service" and had a date. I suppose it could be a tensioner service or something like that . . . or the P.O. got ripped off!
In reply to kazoospec :
Ripped off would be my guess. Most people have no idea what their car needs.
Throttle body service/cleaning?
I also found out that these are chain engines after reading noticing the date, it was on the coolant overflow so maybe a coolant flush or test.
Whoops I forgot to mention that. On the other hand it doesn't have a belt so that's good.
funny story... when I was slinging parts for the acura dealer, we had a TSX come in for a timing belt service. Car hadn't been in since it was sold new. Had 105k (typical tb interval at the time). They had all their services done at a local "shop" (read: ripoff artist). The shop told them they needed a timing belt service, gave them a quote of something ridiculous. they called and asked generically how much a tb job was and our price was $100 cheaper than their quote. Bringthe car in, the advisor tries explaining to the customer that they don't have a tb, their accessory belt had already been replaced etc. The lady threw a fit, told the advisor they didn't know what they were talking about and left in a huff to go back to the other "shop" to get her timing belt done.
Now, at this point you think "maybe they were selling her a timing chain replacement". But she didn't have the noise or CEL that accompanies that.
Can't fix stupid.
akylekoz said:
I also found out that these are chain engines after reading noticing the date, it was on the coolant overflow so maybe a coolant flush or test.
Whoops I forgot to mention that. On the other hand it doesn't have a belt so that's good.
IIRC, these engines loved 30W oil and to be changed fairly regularly for the tensioners. Otherwise trhey would gum up and fail.
That looks like a pretty cool car, ive seen them around but as far as i know never a 4wd model.
They kind of remind me of the old Justys only bigger. I wouldnt mind owning one some day
Antihero said:
That looks like a pretty cool car, ive seen them around but as far as i know never a 4wd model.
They kind of remind me of the old Justys only bigger. I wouldnt mind owning one some day
I'll have to double check when I get home, but IIRC, it doesn't even have any of the usual HEY, LOOK, I'M AWD badging on it that it would have if it were from GM, Toyota . . . or pretty much any other manufacturer.
AWD SX4's had a little badge identifying them as such on the liftgate. I don't think they're marked as such anywhere else. Badge may have been removed by a previous owner or the adhesive let go at some point.
There are some model specific forums out there but they seem mostly dead at this point. These cars are not worth much and I think the enthusiasm is about gone for them. KYB does have new struts for the front now which is kind of a recent thing. Rear shocks, go with Monroe's meant for the Toyota Echo. I did and it was a nice improvement. I modified top mount hardare for the Echo as well to get the whole thing together although you may not really need to go to that extreme. Stock shocks in the rear of these are really soft (as are the springs).
My '11 FWD SX4 has been pretty trouble free. Basic stuff really like brake pads, tie rod ends, and front control arms are about all I've done to mine. Note that the manual trans fluid is GL-4 stuff and not GL-5 even if Suzuki acts like GL-5 works. I use Redline 75w trans oil in mine, not sure if that's the best fluid for the five speed in your car, mine is the later six gear unit that doesn't seem to be as nice to use as the fiver.
Honestly I don't even treat my car that well, just 4k oil changes and go, and it's never let me down. Oh, and it's got the murder-you Takata air bags in it still, you might see if you need to get yours in for a recall on that. Toyota dealers seem to pick up that work.
kazoospec said:
Antihero said:
That looks like a pretty cool car, ive seen them around but as far as i know never a 4wd model.
They kind of remind me of the old Justys only bigger. I wouldnt mind owning one some day
I'll have to double check when I get home, but IIRC, it doesn't even have any of the usual HEY, LOOK, I'M AWD badging on it that it would have if it were from GM, Toyota . . . or pretty much any other manufacturer.
If thats the case, ive probably seen a few AWD.
Small, light, AWD and a stick sounds like fun really
Checked again at home. It does have a VERY small AWD badge on the lower right of the trunk lid. It would be WAY to small to impress the mall crawler crowd. Probably why Suzuki didn't make it in the U.S.
No pics with this update, but got the front brakes done yesterday. This weekend (if the weather cooperates) we're filling stone chips, painting the white mirror black and putting on new rear shocks.
SO FAR, parts availability hasn't been too much of an issue if you don't mind making Bezos even richer. Amazon seems to have parts that Rock Auto and other's don't have, including the allegedly unobtanium tie rod ends.
Also, the "Po Face" came and . . . it's awesome. It's looking like color matching the pearl paint is going to be nearly impossible, so it will probably be applied strategically to cover the one rust bubble on the trunk after we slather it with POR-15.
I've always like these but I've never driven one. Small, AWD, stick shift - it's like a usable Lada Niva. There's also a company selling cheap lift kits and rock sliders for them. https://www.rocky-road.com/sx4-lift-kit.html
I too have been intrigued by these. I keep my eyes peeled for a cheap manual trans version but so far no luck.
I would give it a makeover with euro panels making mine a Fiat Sedici
They were a joint project between Fiat/Suzuki.
