Grinding Noise After 50mm Lift - Traction Control Activating

Hi all,

I have tried searching but haven't been able to find any answers, and I'm very new to the world of Jimnys so please excuse me if this is a dumb question.

I have a brand new JB74 (with only 50km on the clock).  The car has a 50mm Ironman lift which I installed myself.  When I go around left-hand corners with a bit of speed (50 - 60kph), I get a horrible grinding / rubbing noise and vibration from underneath the car.  It doesn't happen all the time but I seem to be able to induce it by braking lightly or decelerating while turning using engine braking.  This only happens through left-hand turns, not right.  It also does it with and without a passenger on board.

At first, I thought it may have been the ABS activating, but then realised I didn't need to brake to make it happen.  The ABS light also does not illuminate when this happens.  I also thought it could be the prop shaft rubbing against the cross member, however, I have fitted cross member drop brackets and I note that the sound mostly comes when the car is decelerating (ie. when the nose is pitched down and I assume the prop shaft moves away from the cross member).

The problem persists regardless of whether I have the stock wheels and tyres on the car, or my 235/70/R15s (on 15 x 7 rims).

Has anyone experienced anything like this or have any clue about how I could diagnose the issue?

Thanks so much for your help!

Kind regards,
HR

Thanks so much for your replies!  Appreciate you both taking the time to consider.

I've spent some more time with the car this evening, looking for witness marks and so on, and have now realised the noise is the traction control being activated.  Although I'm positive the traction control light wasn't illuminating before, it now seems to illuminate *most* of the time I experience the issue.  I activated the ESP Maintenance Mode and switched traction control off, and the problem appears to go away.

So after a lot of stuffing around, it appears it's not actually something rubbing.  My concern is that it doesn't take much for the traction control to cut in.  I've read that it can behave inconsistently between cars (ie. from one Jimny to the next), but could it be that the suspension lift has affected the way the traction control behaves?  I would expect that kind of thing could happen due to my bigger tyres, but reverting back to the stock tyres doesn't fix the issue.

Thanks so much Michael - that is likely what may have happened here.  I figure if the sensor or wiring itself has been damaged, I would probably get a warning or error code.  Because the symptom is more that the traction control cuts in early, I think your point about the mount being bent might be a good one!  I will have a look at the sensor area tonight.

I have just encountered the same problem JB74 LCV (abs braking nearside wheel when cornering at about 45Mph) after a 50mm lift and 225/70/16 Extreme XJ03 wheels. Potentially dangerous especially in the wet. It was explained to me that it is caused by the rotational relationship of the inside and outside wheels being increased due to a wider track and increased wheel size causing the vehicle to think it is in a skid? Suzuki dealership believed they could software out the problem but after two visits they have not cured the problem. Not sure where to go from here??

My immediate thought is the 235's are a possible problem. It does warn in the manual that increasing the tyre size can effect the ABS ect.
There's probably nothing that will change that other then slowing down around corners.
Cars are getting a lot smarter and the downside to that is the more you change them from factory spec the more confused they get as the data they receive to make decisions is very different from what is actually happening.
They might come up with an update to fix this but I doubt suzuki will, it allows them to remove the entire drive train from any warranty claims and that saves them money.

HachiRocker wrote:

Hi all,

I have tried searching but haven't been able to find any answers, and I'm very new to the world of Jimnys so please excuse me if this is a dumb question.

I have a brand new JB74 (with only 50km on the clock).  The car has a 50mm Ironman lift which I installed myself.  When I go around left-hand corners with a bit of speed (50 - 60kph), I get a horrible grinding / rubbing noise and vibration from underneath the car.  It doesn't happen all the time but I seem to be able to induce it by braking lightly or decelerating while turning using engine braking.  This only happens through left-hand turns, not right.  It also does it with and without a passenger on board.

At first, I thought it may have been the ABS activating, but then realised I didn't need to brake to make it happen.  The ABS light also does not illuminate when this happens.  I also thought it could be the prop shaft rubbing against the cross member, however, I have fitted cross member drop brackets and I note that the sound mostly comes when the car is decelerating (ie. when the nose is pitched down and I assume the prop shaft moves away from the cross member).

The problem persists regardless of whether I have the stock wheels and tyres on the car, or my 235/70/R15s (on 15 x 7 rims).

Has anyone experienced anything like this or have any clue about how I could diagnose the issue?

Thanks so much for your help!

Kind regards,
HR

What are you running your tyre pressures at? 
With the size tyres you are using your pressures should be around 22psi.