Gen4 first service.....or, rather, ...not...

Booked in for its first service tomorrow; today I get a ‘phone call from the garage - seems they can’t do the full service as it includes a change of gearbox oil and there isn’t any Jimny gearbox oil available in the UK!

It’s on back order and they can’t guarantee when Suzuki will be getting supplies out to dealers.

Unflippingbelievable.

Anyone else experienced this?

I'm surprised they even told you, many dealers would just check the levels and leave it at that. I can't believe there would be much wrong with 'box oil on a first service anyway. Short of sucking in water when fording gearbox oil tends to be good for many thousands of miles. When the lever action gets a little sticky (particularly in cold weather) it's time to change the oil.
Chris

Modern cars are it seems, allegedly run-in from the factory and early oil changes are deemed unnecessary by some manufacturers.

However as an aircraft engineer, and a believer in 'the old ways are the best' (at least for some things) I pulled an early oil cx on my brother's new Suzi SX4 at 1000 miles and took the filter and an oil sample along to the spectro analysis bay at work - this is where they do early failure detection (EFDC) of aircraft components by examining the metal particles in the oil which in turn show which components in the engine (or hydraulic system) are wearing or potentially breaking up.
The guy in the lab was not surprised to find that much of the metallic debris in the filter and oil sample was in the form of swarf from the manufacturing processes and not so much from the initial wearing in of a new engine!

Always, always ALWAYS do an early first oil cx at about 1000 miles

I had my 12 month service last week and the diff and gearbox oil was changed. Specific line item in the bill. Also noted that they did use O W 16 engine oil as well. Very happy with the service.

So it was YOU that had the only bottle of Gen4 Jimny gearbox oil in the UK then.....

Seriously, I’m glad that there is a gearbox oil change this early, for the reasons Max outlines above - I just can’t believe that Suzuki and their dealer network allowed themselves to be caught by surprise when first services for the early deliveries come up.

When I raised this with the dealer service dept, the line I got was: “weell there’s only about a thousand in the country so........” - doesn’t fill me with confidence as to how well our Gen4s are going to be supported.

On another note, can any one tell me what’s unique about Gen4 gearbox oil that another gearbox oil can’t be substituted?

"On another note, can any one tell me what’s unique about Gen4 gearbox oil that another gearbox oil can’t be substituted?"

I was thinking the same thing, I maybe mistakenly believed it was the good old R72 box. Plenty of oil about in many grades, just not many with a Suzuki logo on the bottle.
Anyone with a G4 know what oil it should have? Usually stated in the owners handbook.
Mike

Scimike wrote: "On another note, can any one tell me what’s unique about Gen4 gearbox oil that another gearbox oil can’t be substituted?"

I was thinking the same thing, I maybe mistakenly believed it was the good old R72 box. Plenty of oil about in many grades, just not many with a Suzuki logo on the bottle.
Anyone with a G4 know what oil it should have? Usually stated in the owners handbook.
Mike

Gen 4 handbook says ‘Suzuki Gear oil 75W’ for manual transmissions, seems relatively easy to get hold of given a quick internet search

Gearbox oil spec is 75w-80 fully synthetic GL-4
Very common stuff, all major brands supply one. I had some in the shed (Granville Oils). Chris

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationOk it looks in the same range as that for the R72 in the G3. They recommend 75W85 or 75W90 GL4, so the reality is plenty of oil exists in the UK that is suitable, not sure what the dealer actually waiting to get.
Quick Google

Maybe they just want to use Suzuki supplied components, but it's not a condition of the warranty, just that it's correctly serviced to schedule by a registered garage.
So happy my Jimny is old enough that I can just service it myself without involving dealers.
Good luck
Mike

Sorry I was speaking rubbish. Gearbox oil was not changed only the front and back diffs. Owners manual states inspect manual gearbox oil every 24 months or 25000 miles if Genuine Suzuki Gear Oil 75w if any other brand replace every 24 months or 25000 miles. Only diff oil was replace at 12 months followed by inspect every 24 months.

Clipped out of the UK edition handbook Gen4.

Chris

Quick update:

Fired off grumpy email to Suzuki UK who acknowledged and responded very promptly.

They contacted my garage who got on the phone to me - seems their first caller got it wrong, as has been pointed out above, its the diff oils that get changed at this service, not gearbox.

Apparently Suzuki Japan are struggling to obtain supplies of the oil from the manufacturer, however, provided an approved substitute is used, this is acceptable for warranty purposes etc.

Garage have been able to find a supply of such a replacement which turns out to be the same oil, from the same manufacturer, that Suzuki Japan are having difficulties with!

Now booked in again for next week.