Suzuki Problems

Replacing random parts to fix a problem is a great way to tear up dollars and time. It’s also pretty frustrating when the problem doesn’t go away. The first thing to do is to have the car electronically scanned to see if the car’s own computer can point you towards the cause of the problem.

It may be as simple as the car needs a tune up and a new set of spark plugs, but you won’t know until it’s been properly diagnosed. This is not a complex car, so any good workshop should be able to sort it for you. The other problem, of course, is that the issue is intermittent, so it may take the workshop some time to be able to make the problem appear. Patience is the key here, not throwing a load of new parts at it.

Your car has an engine Suzuki calls K12C which is a member of the Dual Jet family. That means it does, indeed, have a pair of fuel injectors for each cylinder. It’s conceivable that one set of the injectors is not seating properly or not getting the correct signal to shut off from the computer and that is filling the cylinders with fuel. This may happen until the pressure in the fuel rail dies off, or it could continue dripping all night.

If this is what’s happening, then you shouldn’t attempt to start the car as, should there be enough fuel inside the cylinders, the engine could hydraulically lock, potentially bending con-rods and destroying the entire engine.

How have you diagnosed this as the problem? Have you removed the injectors and had them checked or tested? This sounds like a pretty odd sort of problem for a car as new as this.

The other possibility is that the injectors are getting a computer signal they shouldn’t and leaking as a result. This is a tempting theory as it might also explain why the fan continues to run with the engine switched off. However, it pays to remember that many cars will continue to run their cooling fan after the ignition has been turned off as a way of reducing the temperature of the engine, even though it’s stopped. This should have no effect on the injectors, though.

It is indeed a dangerous situation, especially if you’re trying to pull into fast-moving traffic when the engine suddenly cuts out. Frankly, there are literally hundreds of causes for this, so the best advice is to go back to basics and try to find anything wrong with the fuel or ignition system. An electronic scan of the car (if it hasn‘t already been done) is a good idea, too, as it might pin-point the problem area.

You could be looking at something as simple as a poor earth connection or a blocked fuel filter. That the car runs properly in the meantime, suggests that it’s an intermittent fuel or electrical problem rather than an inherent mechanical failure.

There are a few things to check here. The first is that even though the battery has been recharged, has it been load tested? This time of year is very hard on batteries and even though it may seem to be holding a charge, when you actually put a load on it via the starter motor, it can go weak at the knees and will not spin the engine over.

The clicking you can hear is probably the starter motor’s relay which controls the power to the starter. But what about the starter motor itself? Has this been tested for correct operation. Sometimes the problem can also be what’s called the throw-out mechanism which is a solenoid that forces the starter motor’s teeth to mesh with the engine’s flywheel teeth and, therefore, turn things over.

Perhaps an auto electrician is the best place to start. Their first job will be to test a range of things and rule out possible causes one by one.

In modern cars with bonded windscreen, the glass is actually a structural part of the car. Therefore, if the car cops a big enough impact (say, hitting a pothole at speed) it’s conceivable that the stress passing through the whole car could cause a crack in the glass. Stress cracks in windscreens are usually fairly straight and will emanate from the edge of the glass.

The other way to crack a windscreen is to subject it to extremes of temperature. Pouring boiling water over an icy windscreen on a cold morning is a great way to crack the glass, but high interior temperatures in hot weather can also cause cracking in extreme cases.

Suzuki, like just about every other car-maker has a list of things that aren’t covered by warranty, including batteries, tyre, brakes pads and, as you’ve discovered, glass.

Spark plugs can foul with oil or with fuel if the mixture is incorrect or the fuel is old and stale. If it’s fuel that’s the problem you need to either fix the problem that is throwing the air-fuel ratio out of whack or replace the fuel if its old (and modern ULP doesn’t have a huge shelf life). Experience has also shown that once a spark plug has fouled because of old ULP, no amount of cleaning will bring that plug back to life.

If it’s oil that’s fouling the plug, it’s probably because of blow-by from worn piston rings or valve-stem seals. If that’s the case, the oil level n the dipstick will be falling over time and you may even see evidence of blue-grey smoke from the tailpipe. Without knowing how many kilometres this engine has covered and how it’s been serviced, it’s very difficult to suggest what the cause might be.

This is precisely why we warn consumers about the worthlessness of extended second-hand car warranties sold through car yards. It’s amazing how many get-out clauses these contracts (for that is what they are) contain and the vast majority of them are designed to take your money and then refuse any costly claims you may have. If the warranty called for a vehicle service in 10,000km, but the transmission didn’t quite make it that far, you’d reckon you’d have a pretty good case for a warranty claim. But experience shows otherwise.

But before you do anything else, have the car inspected by a transmission specialist. It could be something less catastrophic than a completely torched transmission and the fix may be a lot cheaper than the $5000 you’re being quoted. Even if it does need a new transmission, we’d be going through the same specialist rather than a workshop suggested by the car yard that’s already dudded you.

You could be looking at any number of causes for this, and some of them herald the demise of your engine. Get a mechanic to check the car out. They will probably do a compression test, a leak-down test and have a close listen to the engine both at idle and under load.

If the cracking sound is a backfire or misfire, you may have an ignition problem. But the smoke is a bit more involved as it depends on the colour of the smoke. Black smoke suggests poor fuelling, but blue or grey smoke often means internal engine wear.