not a k11 KwS's Suzuki Swift of Sporty Slowness

[kws]

Once again, I prove that I can't be trusted to be on the internet without supervision; I've added a fifth car to the fleet.

I like to keep an eye on the latest and greatest cars for sale, just you know, to see what the market is doing. Occasionally, like the 318ti, a deal comes up and its too good to just ignore.

That's what happened in the case of the new car. It had been listed for less than an hour, and after consulting with my wife, I pounced. The seller didn't use a whole lot of words when listing it, just "Tidey car got wof  out of rego but will put new one on sale selling bc we don't need it manual transmission".

The photos weren't bad, but had been taken on a potato.

It was enough to hook me, so I asked some questions.

Are there any issues with the car? "Nah its perfect".
Any issues with the clutch or gearbox? "No the car runs great".
Paint is all good yeah, no peeling or fading? "Yep"

Well hell, who can argue with answers like that? I make an offer below the asking price, which was accepted (pending me viewing the car) and we agree on a time to drive up the next morning.

After raiding some cash machines to get a fat stack of 20s, gassing up the Honda, we were ready.

The next day the weather was lovely and clear, the Honda performed flawlessly and we made the 2.5 hour drive to see the car.

Initial thoughts of the car were that it wasn't "perfect" as had been described. The headlights were cloudy and yellow to a point they won't pass the next WOF, there was a decent scrape on the LH front corner which has popped the bumper out of the retainer, and the rear tires were low on tread (legal, but only just). Still, the paint was good otherwise (if a bit hard to see under all the dirt, dust and cobwebs) and the interior although disgusting was in decent condition.

I got the key from the seller, who proceeded to say "oops I forgot to tell you the key is broken" and hand me a taped up key blade from the remote locking system. The remote was in the car but didn't work, neither did the remote locking buttons on the doors.

I inserted the key into the ignition, turned it, and after being reminded I needed to press the clutch down to start, the engine fired into life and settled to a nice cold idle. Promising.

We set off on a test drive. Immediately I noted the engine was flat when accelerating. This is the same thing I experienced when buying the last Sport, and it's from being run on 91 octane and the ECU pulling timing to protect the high compression engine. Everything else seemed to be fine; the clutch bit fairly low on the pedal but didn't slip and wasn't dragging, the gearbox shifted nicely if a bit firm, and it tracked nice and straight. All the electrics worked, as did the heater and AC.

Strangely I did notice the RH side wing mirror wobbled and vibrated like crazy over bumps. It seems a pivot is broken and the whole mirror wobbles about. The electric adjustment and folding still work correctly.

We get back and after some discussion with the seller, and negotiations with his mother, we settle on a reduced price. Hand over the cash, wait for them to count the stack of 20s, change ownership online and off we go - straight to the nearby BP for a full tank of (not so cheap) 98 octane.

After a quick lunch, we had to pop to a local shop and buy some cheap spanners since weirdly neither of the cars have a 10mm spanner in their tool kits, so I could disconnect the battery and reset the ECU for the new fuel.

There was a bit of a scare after resetting the ECU when the anti-skid light started flashing when the key was turned on, something that didn't happen before disconnecting the ECU, but it went away once on the move and hasn't come back.

The drive back was mostly uneventful other than two things. First, the 98 octane really started to wake the engine up. It's gone from feeling very flat and lethargic to revving harder and being more punchy. Secondly, the clutch started to drag and cause me grief.

Yes, the clutch that was fine during the test drive, start to get worse and worse as the drive progressed, to a point where the clutch wouldn't completely disengage and would drag when at idle in gear, making it unpleasant to sit at intersections in gear, but the flip side to that is that it got really hard to get into gear when stopped with the engine running, so it ended up being a game of "don't stop" and just rolling through any intersections I could. As long as I rev-matched up and down the box it was fine when moving.

We made it home OK. So what did I have?

Well, its a 2009 Suzuki Swift Sport with 146,000km. Facelift, JDM import, in a fetching shade of Techno Blue Metallic. Powered by the 1.6L M16A Twin cam engine, with a 5 speed manual box behind (beside?) it.

Unlike my previous one, this doesn't have the Mega Option kit with the projector HID headlights or Recaro seats.  I'm stuck with the old black housing halogen headlights and the (still quite heavily bolstered) Suzuki seats. Neither of which is a dealbreaker, or an issue. It does have the remote keyless entry and start though (albeit currently non-functional).

This one is also completely stock standard. Unlike the last one with 17" wheels, adjustable suspension, aftermarket intake and exhaust, this one is as it comes from the factory.

It's far from perfect, but its what I wanted and for the price I paid I'm very happy with it, clutch issues and all.

The photos are quite deceptive, as the whole car is filthy inside and out. The paint should look really good when it's clean though. I much prefer blue to the yellow.

Being a later facelift car there are a couple of changes over the early ones like the yellow one. The obvious one is moving the side repeater lamp up into the mirror, instead of on the front guard. The less obvious ones are that the facelift has a higher 7000rpm redline (up from 6800rpm) and allegedly a taller first gear and shorter final drive.

The goal is to upgrade a few things on the car and have it as a fun weekend/track car. It's cheap enough and parts are plentiful, that I don't have to worry too much about it. This will replace the BMW, and possibly the Tomcat.

Yes, the first modification was to send those pink plate frames right to the bin.

[kws]

Like all cars I buy, especially ones this cheap, there are issues. Not for long though.

The first fix was to get the remote locking working. The previous owner had flattened the remote battery and broken the key blade by just being ham-fisted.

It turns out that just changing the battery (CR2032 button cell) wasn't enough to get the remote working, so I started to look further into it. I suspected that it had lost its programming due to being left flat for so long, so I did some digging and found the instructions to code the remote to a car.

From this helpful thread

1 Sit in driver's seat. Close all doors and ensure all doors are unlocked.
2 Insert key into ignition lock cylinder (do not turn at this time).
(the next three steps must be done within 25 seconds).
3.Push the manual lock on the driver's door to lock, then unlock three timesm then to lock position again. (this is the lock button at the inside door release handlem NOT the power door lock switch). Lock, unlock, lock, unlock, lock, unlock, lock.
4.Pull the key out of the lock cylinder and back in four times. Out, in, out, in, out, in, out, in. (when you do this, be sure to push the key all the way in and pull the key all the way out; be methodical, not speedy. 25 seconds is a lot of time.
5. Immediately after step four, start the engine. Count three seconds, then turn off the ignition-DO NOT REMOVE THE KEY! At this point, if you have been sucessful, you will hear two audible "beeps", the door locks will cycle and you are now in programming mode.
6. Push and hold either the lock or unlock button on the remote to be programmed. The locks will again cycle indicating the remote was sucessfully programmed. Repeat step 6 for all other remotes. Once all remotes are programmed, open and close the door, then test each remote for function. You may also remove the key at this point

The bonus 7th step is to start the engine briefly, to confirm the programming.

Following these steps, I could get the door locks to cycle and beep, and when I pressed the remote button sometimes it would trigger the locks, but it was very intermittent, and the outside buttons still didn't work, nor did the keyless start.

I did some more research and found someone that mentioned a similar issue, and he fixed his remote by bending the battery tabs to improve the contact.

When you split the key, there are contacts in the top and bottom housings. All of them were flat against the circuit board.

The ones under the battery also needed to be tweaked up. The blue arrow is pointing to the contacts that bridge the two halves of the remote, I tweaked this up slightly too.

After that, the remote, the keyless start and the keyless entry buttons on the doors all started to work flawlessly. Obviously, the battery contacts weren't good enough to power the remote fully and just tweaking them to make better contact has revived it.

Feeling pretty chuffed with myself on that fix, I moved on to checking out the clutch issue. The pedal would bite pretty close to the floor, and it wouldn't disengage fully causing it to drag in gear at idle and make it very hard to shift into first and reverse at a stop. It was fine on the go because you could rev match, but otherwise it wasn't good. I have my suspicions the seller knew this was an issue, and was the reason the car "hasn't been used for weeks" and the low asking price.

The first port of call was to check the clutch hydraulics. If these are failing it can cause a lack of hydraulic pressure and the clutch won't fully operate. This would be consistent with the fact the issue got worse once the car was at operating temp.

The master cylinder looked nice and clean, with no signs of moisture on either side of the firewall. The slave cylinder on the other hand...

Was covered in filth, and there was a large damp spot on the gearbox in the general vicinity of the slave. Interesting.

Pulling the boot back revealed moisture, indicating the slave cylinder had been leaking internally.  It's hard to photograph but the boot was covered in brake fluid on the inside.

Knowing that wasn't a good sign, I reached out to the local Suzuki dealer and ordered a new slave. It's such a common issue with these that they had it on the shelf, and it was a reasonable price.

After work, I set to the task of replacing it. It's not quite as straightforward as a normal car.

Start with the engine

All I needed to do was remove the large SUZUKI cover (just pulls off), remove the air intake hose near the battery (also just pulls off) and relocate the coolant overflow tank (lifts up off its bracket)

The slave then resides down in the empty space

So, the special features of the slave on these cars. The pink arrow indicates the plastic bleed tube/nipple. This has no nut to open or close it, it's just a tube moulded into the cylinder. The blue arrow is the pipe retaining clip. You push this down to release the pipe.  And finally, the orange arrow is the hydraulic pipe.

To remove the cylinder you need to disconnect the pipe from the cylinder. This is done by pressing down on the clips (blue arrow) and firmly pulling the pipe out (toward the front of the car). It will come out in two stages. The first click is where you would pull it to if you wanted to bleed the system, as this opens up the bleed tube. Pull it again and the pipe will come completely out. I was concerned removing this pipe might drain the system, but barely any fluid gravity drained when this was removed.

Then there are two 12mm bolts to remove. I found swinging this counterweight to the right gave me more space to get at the bolts. Just be aware that moving this counterweight actually changes gear (it's on the end of the shifter linkages), so always check the car is in neutral before starting.

The pushrod in the cylinder is spring-loaded and will try to push the cylinder away from the clutch lever as you undo the bolts, so just take care.

Once removed I drained the fluid that was in the cylinder and it was black. Obviously hasn't been changed in years, and probably part of the reason the cylinder failed. I have a feeling a lot of workshops probably don't know how to bleed these systems, so just ignore them during servicing.

Before fitting the new cylinder I thoroughly cleaned the clutch lever (inside the cup), and then applied silicone grease to it (as per the manual).

The new cylinder went in as expected. You need to compress the pushrod whilst installing the bolts, which can be a real fiddle.  Once bolted in its a case of just pushing the pipe back into the new cylinder, you don't even need to compress the clip.

To bleed the cylinder all you do is press down on the clip, and gently pull the pipe out of the cylinder until it stops. This is the bleed point; the bleed tube will now be open and air/fluid should start to come out of the cylinder.

At this point, I followed the instructions in the manual. Press the pipe in to close the bleed tube, pump the pedal a few times, pull the pipe out to its stop and let air/fluid bleed. Rinse and repeat a few times. Once air stops coming through, have an assistant slowly push the clutch pedal down with the bleed tube open and then press the pipe in to block off the system. As long as all the air is out, that's the job done. Always keep an eye on the master cylinder fluid level (as the clutch shares fluid with the brakes) and keep it topped up.

A quick test drive after replacing the cylinder showed that although the bite point was now about mid pedal, and much nicer to use, the dragging and difficulty shifting gears was still there. Damn.

One last thing I found online, was someone mentioning that they found a bolt on their floor mat one day, which coincided with them having difficulty shifting. That bolt had come out of the top of the clutch pedal bracket assembly, where it mounts under the dash

This all sounds familiar.... it's exactly the same issue I had with the M328i way back when.

Once home from the test drive, I stuck my head up under the dash, and sure enough, I spotted this

Way up here somewhere

Yes, that is indeed the hole for a bolt that should be securing the bracket to the firewall. The effect of not having the bolt was obvious just by pressing the clutch pedal by hand and watching the bracket move and flex.

I guess at some point the owner found a random bolt on the floor, wondered where it came from, and threw it out the window.

A suitable M8 bolt, washer and lock/spring washer were sourced

And after some fiddling under the dash, it was installed and tightened with a long extension on a rachet. It ain't going anywhere.

The bracket doesn't move a mm now when the pedal is pressed. It's solid as a rock.

Immediately, just putting the car into reverse to back out of the garage, the difference could be felt. The pedal was firmer and more predictable, and the shifter just popped into reverse without any force or grinding. Once in reverse, the rough idle shunting from the dragging clutch wasn't present.

A quick drive around the block revealed the extent of this fix. The gearbox shifts perfectly, with the shifter popping nicely into gear, there is no more dragging at idle, and I can shift into first when stationary without having to force the shifter into gear.

A couple of slip tests (drive along in 4th or 5th, press the clutch in, rev the engine up and drop the clutch; a good clutch should immediately drop back down to the correct rpm with a lurch, and a slipping clutch will slip and slur the revs as they drop) show the clutch isn't slipping at all and has a good bite.

Overall I'm very happy since it shows I don't need to replace the clutch (at least not yet), and the car is back to being drivable, without risking damage to the gearbox.

Now I'm looking forward to getting out and driving it more.

[flyingbrick]

Nice project. Good cars! We got the wife a hybrid one a year ago, both of us love it. Looks like total nana spec but inside it feels like a sports car and drives like a kart. They ain't all the same tho! Workmate had one that was a miserable thing to drive and unbelievably slow.

[Goat]

Oh boy,

Thoroughly enjoy your amazingly detailed automotive tales and updates. Looking forward to watching the kws swift tart up!

[Toucan]

^ what Goat said.

 

My sister has a similar one, might be prefacelift in the same blue. Had annoying issue with occupancy sensor in the seat cushion failing causing an airbag light on the dash and a wof fail. Apparently very common on this era Suzuki's and some cars even being written off as a result, which seems bonkers. Chucked a resistor in there to trick the sensor which seemed to be the recommended fix found online.

[kws]

1 hour ago, Toucan said:

^ what Goat said.

 

My sister has a similar one, might be prefacelift in the same blue. Had annoying issue with occupancy sensor in the seat cushion failing causing an airbag light on the dash and a wof fail. Apparently very common on this era Suzuki's and some cars even being written off as a result, which seems bonkers. Chucked a resistor in there to trick the sensor which seemed to be the recommended fix found online.

That's the same fix as I've used on bmws before with a similar issue. Heck,it's so common on those you can buy plug and play sensor deletes for peanuts 

[Roman]

Oh man I love KWS threads

First post: "I bought this car for way cheaper than usual, and everything is fine!" 

Second post "Car problem diaries, chapter one"

And I'm like 

[anglia4]

Nice!

Love some easy wins!

[j.e.d.]

Lol.. don't worry, this is normal behavior.. denial til the next great deal comes along.

 

[kws]

I dont have the money or space for this to be fair, hence I need to sell some cars. Martha would've been a shoe in if it weren't for the Strait; I don't even look at cars on the other island since I can't just drive there (within reason). 

[j.e.d.]

Yea not like me.. paid a visit to my Uncle in Te Anau while tripping down south in January.. he had a late 90's Jeep GC sitting on his driveway and before I realised I was buying it off him with no easy way of getting it up here.. always wanted one, price to good to pass up, all the usual excuses really. Now gotta plan another holiday to fly down there and drive it back. I do enjoy a good road trip though

[kws]

Oh i'd be in so many more levels of trouble if I opened up the south island to car buying... My wife might finally give up on me and write me off as a lost cause.

[kws]

Like all new toys, it's hard to leave things alone long. The first upgrade I wanted to do was fit a better headunit.

The headunit in the car although decent, NZ market and modern, doesn't have Bluetooth, so it's useless to me. By a stroke of luck I have a good headunit with Bluetooth in my inventory... so put two and two together, and the Swift gets an upgrade.

For a standard Swift there are two screws you need to undo to remove the headunit, these are on either side of the radio unit and accessed by removing the glovebox on one side, and the under dash panel on the other. In my case, the car already has an aftermarket headunit, which was only held in with the clips on the facia. A good hard tug on the facia had the assembly out and in my hands. Dont forget to remove the connector for the hazard light button, it's quite short.

Yes, you are seeing that right, ISO connectors! I hate it when people cut OE plugs off and hardwire the radio in, so seeing ISO plugs makes me happy.

The tray under the headunit was interesting. It had a really nicely assembled AUX cable integrated into it, so you could rest your phone in the front of the tray and the cables are plugged into the back of the headunit (instead of plugging into the front)

The replacement headunit has Bluetooth, and no AUX in the back of it, so the cable was now redundant. I tried to disassemble it without cutting the cable but had no success, so ended up chopping it and pulling it out. The tray will still be handy though.

With the facia assembly out, to replace the headunit you need to remove the metal cage from the facia. There are two screws on each side.

I swapped the headunits over in the cage and swapped the wiring over to suit the replacement headunit. I swear you can do as bad of a wrap job as you like, but as long as it's done in fabric tape it looks super professional. Insulation tape wraps are so last year.

A quick test plug to make sure everything works

And after checking all the wiring was good, the unit was reinstalled into the dash. The sound quality is far better than the old Sony headunit. Shame about the blue backlight, but it does the job.

Unfortunately it was at this point I realised that I forgot to run the wire for the microphone... so out it all came again, so I could run it through the dash to the steering column shroud.

With that sorted, and sounding great, the next quick mod was to change the room lamp to an LED, which is a case of using a slim trim tool or screwdriver to pop the cover off

And the boot light got the same treatment. This one comes out by hand with some wiggling

Finally, I decided to look into the wobbly mirror. It drives you a bit mad when you are cruising along and this thing is bouncing and wobbling all over the place.

The key to knowing if it's the same issue as mine or not, is that the head of the mirror is wobbly, but the base is firmly affixed to the door. If the base is wobbly too, it'll be the bolts behind the tweeter, holding the mirror assembly to the door.

In my case it was just the head of the mirror that wobbled. I googled around and sure enough, I wasn't alone. Turns out, way back in about 2010 Suzuki issued a Techincal Service Bulletin, and even recalls, about this issue. On some/all 2008-2010 Swifts and SX4s, they forgot to use thread locker on the screws that affix the mirror head to the base. Over time these vibrate loose and come out. If all three come out, the mirror head can come off the base and fall off, dangling by just the wiring.

The TSB is available here, https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2010/RCRIT-10V513-8109.pdf

The TSB advises the technician to remove the mirror from the door and then repair it. I'm lazy and didn't want to do that, so my way means you can do it on the car.

First, look under the mirror for this cover

Use a thin flat blade screwdriver, or other thin flat tool, to gently lever that trim panel off. I did this about where the arrow above is pointing

Once you pop the end clip you will start to get an idea of whats happening

I could already see a pair of screws sitting on the plastic cover

I carefully removed the cover, retaining the loose screws. These three circles are where the screws should be. You can just make out on the one on the right has a screw in it, but the other two are empty.

That one screw was the only thing holding the mirror on

I used a small amount of thread locker and a "Naro Driver" tool to refit the screws and make sure they were tight. The Naro Driver is amazing because you can use it in such small spaces. Because the mirror is right up against the door, you cannot use a standard screwdriver, and even my 1/4" ratchet was too big. A small spanner on the screwdriver bit might work too.

With the screws refitted, the little cover can just be clipped into place. The mirror is now solid, not a mm of unwanted movement in it. I popped the cover off the passengers side mirror too, and the screws on that were snugged up, but not tight. I gave them a tweak and went on my way.

I think other than a couple of cosmetic issues, that's all the fixes I needed to do.  The only repair that has cost me money was the slave cylinder, which I probably could have got away with not replacing, but it was leaking so was on borrowed time. Everything else has just been a case of actually fixing something, not replacing it.

[thegreatestben]

I know what you mean about shakey mirror, the z4 mirror glass was hanging on by a tiny bit of glue and would flap around like mad. Huge distraction!

[jakesae101]

Great read , picked up an auto one month so ago myself has the recaros and hid lights. Much much maintenance needed every fluid changed, valve cover gasket, developed a missfire so i did plugs and coils and did a stereo with amped speakers. Has about 4 million stone chips and 230k on the clock but after a full cut and polish the very dull paint came back, the engine is spotless inside and gets 13.7L per k. Found gaskets and air filter ect were cheaper genuine than generic from repco ect

 

[kws]

1 hour ago, jakesae101 said:

Great read , picked up an auto one month so ago myself has the recaros and hid lights. Much much maintenance needed every fluid changed, valve cover gasket, developed a missfire so i did plugs and coils and did a stereo with amped speakers. Has about 4 million stone chips and 230k on the clock but after a full cut and polish the very dull paint came back, the engine is spotless inside and gets 13.7L per k. Found gaskets and air filter ect were cheaper genuine than generic from repco ect

 

Looks good on those wheels; will be something that gets done on mine at some point. I concur with the consumables thing, Suzuki genuine parts are really reasonably priced, and its often not much more to buy from the dealer than to order via Amayama or the likes.

[kws]

Should've bought a K11. Gone from working clutch, to intermittently dragging clutch, to no clutch. Seems there is little to no clutch pressure now, despite bleeding multiple times. 

New master is on the way, hopefully have it sorted this weekend. Fingers crossed it's finally sorted, or it'll be time for a new clutch kit. 

[thegreatestben]

This has reminded me that a young chap broke down outside my house in a manual swift sport.

He'd learnt to drive in it and had it full of his mates. I checked if they were all good and it's exhibiting all the same signs you're expressing. Unsure how he got on but he openly admitted he rode the clutch all the time haha. I think 5 up finished the job.

[kws]

I got this from a young guy who used it to learn to drive in, but doubt he would've come all the way from Dannevirk to break down. I have no doubt between learning to drive, the pedal bracket bolt missing and the leaking slave, that the clutch had taken a beating, but it doesnt slip, and when it wasnt dragging it had a good bite point and worked well.

[thegreatestben]

His was white so pretty sure you're safe.