Suzuki Swift Engine Problems

Replacing random parts to fix a problem is a great way to tear up dollars and time. It’s also pretty frustrating when the problem doesn’t go away. The first thing to do is to have the car electronically scanned to see if the car’s own computer can point you towards the cause of the problem.

It may be as simple as the car needs a tune up and a new set of spark plugs, but you won’t know until it’s been properly diagnosed. This is not a complex car, so any good workshop should be able to sort it for you. The other problem, of course, is that the issue is intermittent, so it may take the workshop some time to be able to make the problem appear. Patience is the key here, not throwing a load of new parts at it.

You could be looking at any number of causes for this, and some of them herald the demise of your engine. Get a mechanic to check the car out. They will probably do a compression test, a leak-down test and have a close listen to the engine both at idle and under load.

If the cracking sound is a backfire or misfire, you may have an ignition problem. But the smoke is a bit more involved as it depends on the colour of the smoke. Black smoke suggests poor fuelling, but blue or grey smoke often means internal engine wear.

It is indeed a dangerous situation, especially if you’re trying to pull into fast-moving traffic when the engine suddenly cuts out. Frankly, there are literally hundreds of causes for this, so the best advice is to go back to basics and try to find anything wrong with the fuel or ignition system. An electronic scan of the car (if it hasn‘t already been done) is a good idea, too, as it might pin-point the problem area.

You could be looking at something as simple as a poor earth connection or a blocked fuel filter. That the car runs properly in the meantime, suggests that it’s an intermittent fuel or electrical problem rather than an inherent mechanical failure.

There are a few things to check here. The first is that even though the battery has been recharged, has it been load tested? This time of year is very hard on batteries and even though it may seem to be holding a charge, when you actually put a load on it via the starter motor, it can go weak at the knees and will not spin the engine over.

The clicking you can hear is probably the starter motor’s relay which controls the power to the starter. But what about the starter motor itself? Has this been tested for correct operation. Sometimes the problem can also be what’s called the throw-out mechanism which is a solenoid that forces the starter motor’s teeth to mesh with the engine’s flywheel teeth and, therefore, turn things over.

Perhaps an auto electrician is the best place to start. Their first job will be to test a range of things and rule out possible causes one by one.

Spark plugs can foul with oil or with fuel if the mixture is incorrect or the fuel is old and stale. If it’s fuel that’s the problem you need to either fix the problem that is throwing the air-fuel ratio out of whack or replace the fuel if its old (and modern ULP doesn’t have a huge shelf life). Experience has also shown that once a spark plug has fouled because of old ULP, no amount of cleaning will bring that plug back to life.

If it’s oil that’s fouling the plug, it’s probably because of blow-by from worn piston rings or valve-stem seals. If that’s the case, the oil level n the dipstick will be falling over time and you may even see evidence of blue-grey smoke from the tailpipe. Without knowing how many kilometres this engine has covered and how it’s been serviced, it’s very difficult to suggest what the cause might be.

Modern engines like the Suzuki’s use literally dozens of sensors to keep the engine’s computer informed on the operating temperature, quality of the fuel, coolant temperature, ambient temperature, camshaft position and lots, lots more. If just one of those sensors starts to offer up false or misleading information to the computer, the whole operation of running the engine can be compromised. That’s when you’ll get rough running and/or stalling as well as the excessive fuel consumption you’ve noted.

Rather than starting to change sensors on an ad hoc basis (which could take weeks and hundreds of dollars, and even then not arrive at a solution) the best advice is to have the car electronically scanned. At that point, the car’s computer is a good chance to tell the interrogating computer what ails it, and then you can zero in on that component and replace only the parts that are the problem.

Without further information, or actually seeing the car and hearing the noise, it’s impossible to give you any advice on the cause of the noise. Your best course of action is to take it to a mechanic and have them assess it for you firsthand.

Check the fuel supply, the fuel pump, lines, filter, and consider having a diagnostic check done by a dealer.

It has a chain.

The most likely explanation for the dealers using the 10w-30 low viscosity oil is that they have a deal with an oil company to use it. It’s more likely to be based on a commercial arrangement than anything else. Use the oil specified in the manuals and you won’t go wrong. And Mazda does approve the use of E10 in your car, so I would be inclined to use it.