Gear Lever - A bit fiddly to get into gear (Gen 4)

Hi Guys,

On my Gen 4 it is a bit fiddly to get the vehicle into gear.

Usually when starting the vehicle, putting into reverse.
Also from neutral into 1st / reverse tends to take 1 or two attempts....

What can cause this?

I have never had a problem with reverse, 1st can be temperamental at times. If it doesn't go in first time I go straight to 2nd then straight back in to 1st no problem.

No issues with ours, gear change is really smooth on it, could be clutch related

Take it in to your dealer

My local dealer was telling me they had one back as the gear change was a bit tight, they took it for a weekend and drove it about then gave it back.

Are you pushing the clutch pedal all the way to the floor? Is there any extra carpet or sound deadening material that is hindering this? Is the position of the seat making it difficult for you to push on the pedal? Is the pedal correctly adjusted? Have you tried a gentle blip on the throttle as you attempt to engage gear?
I have never had a problem with my own Gen.4 and with other members comments I would suggest that that it could be one of the above.

Roger

I had this about 10 years ago in my Gen3 after the wrong fluid was put in by the dealer. They "forgot" to use the Suzuki specified oil, and just put something else in there. Was really tricky to get into first gear until they swapped out the oil with the right stuff.
Has yours had the first service where they do all the fluids?

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I will do the following this afternoon:

* Make sure there's no obstruction when I depress the clutch
* Check the clutch adjustment - first figure out where and then how

I got my Jimny with 7500km on the clock. When do they usually do the first fluids change?

Another question for the GEN 4 owners:

When you depress the clutch fully, how far from the bottom should the clutch start to engage?

Ours engages quite high up, in fact it takes a bit of getting used to after my Defender where the clutch biting point is quite low down.

Groenewald wrote: Thanks for all the suggestions!

I will do the following this afternoon:

* Make sure there's no obstruction when I depress the clutch
* Check the clutch adjustment - first figure out where and then how

I got my Jimny with 7500km on the clock. When do they usually do the first fluids change?

Another question for the GEN 4 owners:

When you depress the clutch fully, how far from the bottom should the clutch start to engage?

Fluid changes detailed in the owner's manual. Normal driving is like 40k kms for gearbox oil change. I did mine at around 10k kms . TC has been changed twice for me, once with new chain installed and once when the gearbox oil was changed.
Have seen a video of gearbox oil change at 20k kms and it was black.
Keeping the car a while and think 40k kms is way too long before a change.

crash486 JB74W

I agree with crash 486. Lubricant is cheap in relation to possible damage to major items.

Roger

I went to Suzuki this week and asked one of the guys to take a look at the gear shifting.

He said it feels fine. I also compared it to another one they had on the floor, and it felt rather similar.

Mind you, I tend to compare it to our Rav4's gear shifting - but the Rav is on about 330K km now....