15/04/10 - "Death Wobble" goes International

We decided to have a short break in Mallorca and I treated myself to a small hire car to get around the island, a Suzuki Jimny!

We rented from Vanrell over the Internet and they were very competitive and very efficient with their airport delivery and collection service.

The Jimny was an 11 month old Petrol (Manual) soft-top model (shame it wasn't a Diesel Auto - my excess baggage fee on the return trip may have been high!)......

 

It was quite interesting to drive a standard Jimny. Although it was only 11 months old (according to the rep.) it had 29,000kms on the clock.

The first surprise was the steering, yes it had Jimny wobble!. Not so bad as mine but still it was there, mainly on slowing down on Motorway slip roads. The steering would shake and there was a "knock" feeling coming through the steering when gently wobbled in the central positon. I reported it to the rep on return of the car and recommended a website that could help them out, but it was lost on him!

The other surprise was how noisy the transmission was. I have always thought mine was noisy with plenty of whine from the Transfer Box but I always put this down to the Rocklobster conversion. However this one had a similar (but quieter) whine from the Transfer Box.

Also I have always thought the gear change on mine was poor (Jamies newer Jimny has a lovely action to the gearchange) however this one was a poor as mine and the gear stick moved from side to side as your drove along, just like mine!

There were other mysterious noises as it drove along, these sounded like loose items inside the door panels.

It was a push-button 4WD selection model but I didn't play with this as the road were dry and smooth (and hot!), It was also fitted with an electric fan.

The only other achievement was the fact that I saw 120 on the speedo! Ok, so it was 120kmh but it was a good sight!. It was also much, much more economical than mine! Overall the hire of the Jimny gave me a much better feeling about some of the "characteristics" of mine

I did manage to park next to another Jimny that prompty started up and pulled away, with that wonderful sound of a Diesel rattle but it was gone before I could ask for an engine picture.