Sterling Family Jimny!

thanks for all the guidance guys, it is much appreciated.

though the rattles do annoy me, I've got a Landrover! so rattles are in abundance, but I draw the line at a new car suffering from them.

my C2, which is from a manufacturer who couldn't really be considered a quality product, has done 80k, and not been treated all too gently over those 80k, albeit always regularly serviced, has never rattled, it developed a knock once or twice, but once was a loose wheel nut, and the other was when the anti roll bar pushrods wore out.

Hal,

I'll try and locate the rattles and then at least I can watch the garage techs while they try and put it right, you should see how many "shims" the disco has in! hopefully it'll get sorted. the slight fluttering rattle from the door is the one that really grinds on me, but the rattle in the dash when cold is relentless until the heater is up to temp, which makes me think something expands tight when warm, put flaps around when cold.




believe it or not, there is some science behind rattles, and I suspect the garage don't comprehend this. (apologies if this is well known already guys) but rattles are a bi-product of a component meeting its UNF- Undamped Natural frequency, at which point it resonates, oscillates etc. normally, car manufacturers have minimum frequency limits for any components, and these have to be above anything the car can produce or be exposed to in normal service. especially critical for engine components. Belgian Paving is the physical acid test, but a lot can be done in the lab, as is done where I work now.

Suzuki will almost certainly have done this for the Jimny- no self respecting car manufacturer would dare put parts into production that aren't validated, so the only way this one can be rattling is because it has not been put together correctly, so often a headache for validation engineers is their components been successfully validated then not put together properly.

which is why I don't buy the dealers excuses either, the car is going back in when I get chance, and aside from anything else, the spare key doesn't work! it doesn't fit the car!

cheers, Paul.

Paul, I though we had lost our spare key on the day we picked our Jimny - although we did find it later in the wife's coat pocket....enough said! I enquired to my dealer if they could get a replacement before we found it and they quoted me £130.00 fully programmed. I told them that the key also had the identification number tag on it and I was assured that this was not a problem, they could request the details direct from Suzuki. Your dealer has possibly given you a key to someone else's vehicle? For whatever reason though I think your dealer should be able to get this sorted even if they can't sort the rattles!

JimnyGlenn wrote: Paul, I though we had lost our spare key on the day we picked our Jimny - although we did find it later in the wife's coat pocket....enough said! I enquired to my dealer if they could get a replacement before we found it and they quoted me £130.00 fully programmed. I told them that the key also had the identification number tag on it and I was assured that this was not a problem, they could request the details direct from Suzuki. Your dealer has possibly given you a key to someone else's vehicle? For whatever reason though I think your dealer should be able to get this sorted even if they can't sort the rattles!

Totally agree Glen,

our spare is a non Fob type, I have not checked the dog tags to see if that on this key and that on the fob key match, but they keys certainly aren't the same lol.

cheers, Paul.

well I've hopefully traced the rattle to the front passenger side of the dash, just under the access hatches/vents for the windscreen demist. Suzuki reckon they've tightened these up a few times already, but thats obviously not solving it, so I'm going in there with some epdm foam and some gasket material to stop two planes of plastic rubbing against each other/vibrating etc. Suzuki obviously aren't capable of such a task, unless of course I can't get into it.................. :laugh:

The Wife has just been promoted so she's going to be working a few miles further from home (she currently works...... wait for it, 300 yards from our house) so the car will be in daily use from that point, and I want to get it right before then.

3500 miles covered so far, almost all of them happy. :lol:

cheers, Paul.

Paul_sterling wrote: well I've hopefully traced the rattle to the front passenger side of the dash, just under the access hatches/vents for the windscreen demist. Suzuki reckon they've tightened these up a few times already, but thats obviously not solving it, so I'm going in there with some epdm foam and some gasket material to stop two planes of plastic rubbing against each other/vibrating etc. Suzuki obviously aren't capable of such a task, unless of course I can't get into it.................. :laugh:

The Wife has just been promoted so she's going to be working a few miles further from home (she currently works...... wait for it, 300 yards from our house) so the car will be in daily use from that point, and I want to get it right before then.

3500 miles covered so far, almost all of them happy. :lol:

cheers, Paul.

Finally got Suzuki to act on the rattles, but even then it was half hearted, and they've stuffed foam in place, seems quieter, but time (and cold nights) will tell.

the gearbox however is something is a joke.

the problem persisted, and i sent it into the garage a fortnight back for a day, and demonstrated the problem to them. when i went to collect it at the end of the day, they said it was perfectly normal, an answer i was not amused by.

"I've driven 70 year old tractors which go into gear easier than that, and they are straight cut crash gears!"

after something of a tennis match of debating the problem, they offered to take the car in and "use it for a few days" (bad suggestion) to see if they can trace the problem.

as it is, its shifting okay at the moment, so rather than let them flog the motor, I'll leave it as it is.

car keys have yet to be resolved though, having the spare key for someone else' car is a ridiculous administration gaffe,

anyway, 5000 miles done now, and i'm getting happier with the car. even had it out to a few rallies with the engines in the trailer, it tows okay, albeit slow haha. the low torque of the engine is the real killer, but for the most part, this is meant to be a capable off roader for us, not a heavy duty tow car.


cheers. Paul.

Had first decent snowfall of the year (locally) over the weekend, up to four inches on the highest parts of the village on Saturday, and a couple of inches in the lower areas, roads ungritted, unploughed, excellent! Jimny Time.

I'd been out (foolishly) in the C2 on the morning, and returned home before conditions got too much for its wide tyres and turbocharged engine, but I got held up by of all things, a Freelander, bottom gear, downhill, stabbing the brakes, what a muppet.

so parked the C2 up, and cleared off the Jimny. there's a corner on the road going past our house, and when i started clearing the Jimny, a taxi entered the bottom of the corner, by the time i'd finished and warmed the car up, he was just alongside of our house.

Dropped the Jimny into 4H, three point turn on the deep snow, then set off onto the road and up the hill past the fuming taxi driver, no hastle, no drama, just sturdy traction. just before East Howle Bank, i noticed a BMW 1 series signal to turn right into the village, so i stopped to watch the inevitable, a complete 360 by a somewhat unsuspecting young female driver. lol

I'd even go as far as saying it is much better in snow and ice than the Disco. the disco can deal with deeper snow, but the heavy front end gets hugely confused when trying to turn corners on a slippery surface, where the light Jimny just isn't fazed by it. its pretty good even in 2wd.

Said to my wife "rattles, spare keys, gearboxes, all those trials and tribulations were worth it for just how brilliant that little car is in the snow".

Paul.

Great, just waiting for some snow down south (not convince we will get any this winter)

If you are on your own in the Jimny then some weight in the back can make things even better, bag of salt, sand, grit etc.

its been a while since I last posted on our Jimny.

Its now done 22,000 miles, and for the most part its been pretty good. a trip down to Cheshire last year to collect some machines produced 43mpg, with a trailer on the back, albeit an empty one.

What hasn't gone away is the bad starting, most noticeable in poor weather, some times she just doesn't want to go, and 30 seconds of cranking can go by some times before it fires.

neither has the rattles, though they have changed place. there is now a pendulum rattle from either the drivers seat, or the drivers side door card, and its got to the point where i've parked it up to sulk and i'm back using the C2, it'll be to go back in to Suzuki.

A big issue which bothers me a lot is a burning rubber smell from the rear drivers side corner. present after even a short journey, neither I nor suzuki can trace it, though the idiots at the garage let the car cool down before they looked at it, and looked at the wrong side for good measure.

Paul.

Nice jimny and great mpg I managed 41mpg last week.

jim wrote: Nice jimny and great mpg I managed 41mpg last week.

Thanks Jim.

I don't normally do that well, 35/36mpg is more common.

Paul.

Paul_sterling wrote: i noticed a BMW 1 series signal to turn right into the village, so i stopped to watch the inevitable, a complete 360 by a somewhat unsuspecting young female driver.

Paul.

Are you sure you saw a signal.....BMW and signal in the same sentence.....a bit far fetched Paul!

Keithy wrote:

Paul_sterling wrote: i noticed a BMW 1 series signal to turn right into the village, so i stopped to watch the inevitable, a complete 360 by a somewhat unsuspecting young female driver.

Paul.

Are you sure you saw a signal.....BMW and signal in the same sentence.....a bit far fetched Paul!

Strange how in this particular instance there's no follow-up post from Daniel30......Dan? Daaaan? You there, mate?
:whistle: :whistle: :woohoo: :whistle: :whistle: