How to disconnect the radiator hoses in the Jimny 1.5 DDis (diesel)

Hello, my name is Mauro and I'm new to the forum. I've already introduced myself in the Jimny Chat section. Now I'm here to explain my new Jimny problem. For some time now, I've been noticing water inside the cabin. The water has the distinctive smell of antifreeze, so I immediately thought it was a leak from the heater radiator. I had it checked by a mechanic, and he confirmed it. Removing the heater radiator is a very long and complicated job, and the mechanic advised me to do it myself, otherwise he'd have to charge me a fortune! I then removed the entire dashboard and reached the heater unit. Now, to remove it, I have to disconnect the two hoses connected to the heater radiator. And here's the problem! In the Jimny 1.5 DDiS (diesel), there's not even room for a kitten's paw between the engine and the firewall, where the hoses enter! I therefore wanted to kindly ask if anyone has encountered the same problem as me and managed to solve it.

I think there is one diesel jimny here in Norway and two or three in Britain. But we will Try to help.

The connectors are on the engine side of the firewall. Right behind the engine in the middle, approx 20cm down from the top of the firewall.

The heater should be the same.

 
 

Hi Yakuza, thanks for replying and taking an interest in my problem. Yes, I managed to locate the connectors. The problem is that the engine is very close to the firewall, and in that small space there are a couple of large water pipes that make it impossible to get a hand in to disconnect the heater radiator connectors. And it seems absurd to me that to remove the heater unit you have to remove half the engine cooling system!

I finally managed to disassemble the heating unit, and to remove it, I think there are only two options: either remove the motor or cut the fittings, as I did. Now the problem is I can't find a new, non-original heating radiator. I may have found an original one (waiting confirmation), but it costs €363 plus shipping.

I've done this job once before, and I can say with certainty it's probably one of the most tedious I've done. And I've may have to do it again as I think my replacement matrix is filled with head gasket sealant 

As for removing the hose clamps, I've bought a tool that's specifically for those . Hopefully it makes next time around slightly easier as the clamps tend to spin around when trying to grab them.

I believe Martin on the BigJimny shop may be able to get a hold of a genuine matrix for you. Alternatively  there's one here on Amayama , a site I've used before and have now bought two, genuine Suzuki. These are for the petrol models (K6A, G13, M13 engines) however I can't see why they wouldn't be the same as the diesel ones.

Darthblaker7474 wrote:

Alternatively  there's one here on Amayama , a site I've used before and have now bought two, genuine Suzuki. These are for the petrol models (K6A, G13, M13 engines) however I can't see why they wouldn't be the same as the diesel ones.

"Taking a chance" on getting the correct part is not my idea of a fun thing to do, especially when there may be easy ways to "improve your odds" of getting the correct part.

Amayama should have the parts catalogs for the diesel Jimnys, and if they don't, there's megazip.net or partsouq.com - you can start with the VIN and see if that takes you to the correct parts catalog, and if it doesn't you can try navigating your way through the maze.  I know that megazip has the catalogs for the Santana built diesels, but without a VIN, I won't guess as to whether or not they have the one that's needed.