Vitara No Power - Bogs Under any load : SOLVED

[Cranko]

Hello - I'm from Perth, Western Australia and want to try to contribute
to the 'knowledge bank' a little , in terms of a recent problem that occurred (to the car) and what was wrong.

I spent 3 weeks working on the Vitara (car I use) and would describe my
mechanical experience as beginner.

In the three weeks "of work" I used the net extensively, especially this forum (past posts) and youtube. So I hope anyone entering the right search terms on google or otherwise may find this post. I tried a lot of things to fix the problem.

My mechanical tool set is very limited. Ages ago I used to work on old cars while at Uni (around 1985) . I currently change oil, spark plugs and other basic jobs, but hadn't looked into fixing cars with computers-that-give-orders, i.e. computer engine management systems )

Anyway The Problem :

The Vitara would bog from a standing start sometimes, other times would drive OK but lack power.

When it had totally no power (would bog) it would not stall . It felt like there were no revs, and there were no revs. It would bunny hop and seem to run on 1 cylinder. Totally Choked. It would barely move forward.

The weird thing was you could turn the ignition off, wait 20 seconds, and 99 times out of 100 you could then drive it after restarting, but with reduced power. So you could drive a few blocks but notice it just didn't have much grunt.

That is why I am writing this post. Most lack of power problems I have read of could not be resolved by turning the ignition off and waiting for 20 seconds.

The CEL light never came on once. But it was working fine.


The CAR :

The car is a 1997 Vitara. Its a Multi Fuel Injected, 1.6L G13B engine type I believe. A hardbody. Its got JX written on it. I can provide the VIN later.

This car does not have the fuel pump earth lead stuck anywhere obvious like near a back tail light.

The Solution:

The fuel pump was faulty. Before it was fixed (by a mechanic), I did not test the fuel pump or fuel pressure. This was because the A) fuel pump made all the right noises when the key was turned and having limited tools I did not (B ) have anyway to test fuel pressure. The mechanic said the fuel return line was dry. Also C) you could drive it when it did not bog totally.

What did I learn in my 3 weeks ?

1. Don't throw parts at the problem. I sort of broke this rule

2. If like me (you live in Australia) and you have an old Vitara don't assume
the 16 pin OBD port will help you. The protocol in my car's case was Suzuki
SDL, a 3 wire affair that is difficult to read without a special cable.

cheers Stephen

[xxx]

THANKS ! (see your rules on oBD1 is on my page here)
see Australia
http://www.fixkick.com/ECU/ODB2/OBD-facts.html

G16b
actually there are like 20 things that can go wrong injection wise.
the pump test is just the 1st. and the dribble test only works on the 100% dead pump. (lots of pump modes of fail besides good and bad)


testing injection


you never said 2 doors or 4, the 4 door dont have the ground in the same place as any 2 door, so post doors, for better help,
as the sticky 1 shows.

yours was at top of a long list of tests. many a way to fail there are...

14 fails
and 6 major test, just for MPI injectors. (knowing injections are the issue going in)
http://www.fixkick.com/INJECTORS/inj....html#Guessing

[Cranko]

Thankyou for your reply. I will look forward to going through/using your website at The FixKick.com Repair Pages, for Sidekicks and Trackers to learn a lot more !

The car is a 4 door and was an import from Japan which I should have mentioned.

From your website a link: OBDII - On-Board Diagnostic's System - Does My Car Have OBD-II? The Connector and Communications.
then on this car pins 5, 9 and 16 are occupied only.
So it has the 16-pin J1962 (OBD2) connector but is obd1 type as you have stated. There is a person on the web that sells a cord to read the info through this port. When I say "info" I mean live data.

cheers S

[xxx]

ohhhh if true that is great. some ecu do comm, with obd2,just need cable.
i hope your does work like, that, .
yes, live data will greatly help you and save lots of wasted time,

[Bex]

Presumably your car is OBD1 - you can buy the cables needed for connecting to the ECU SDL connector, and download the diagnostic program for free from here:
Suzuki Diagnostics
I have this, and it is well worth it.

[Cranko]

Hi Bex - yes James Holland from that site said to me that he thinks his cable will work. When the $ situation improves I mentioned that I would buy his cable. Good to know the cable has high recommendations from you and XXX.

To tell the truth I wouldn't mind writing a little summary of my 3 weeks working on the Vitara May help a total novice. From the beginning "Iv'e raised the bonnet now where do I start?" to the end of the time where it only just made it to the mechanics. Still I guess reflection is a total luxury these days...... Lot of fun though.

cheers S

[Bex]

Certainly a summary of your adventure would be quite welcome, as there are plenty of novices here - myself included - who would be happy for such information. Normally I would suggest most posters to actually start a post regarding their own symptoms, etc., as often 'anecdotal' info can be a bit misleading. However, all info leads to a better knowledge of this car. So, yeah, go for it - summary (and photos if possible) would be great.

[xxx]

really, i consider the scan tools are free.
if you use it 1 time, ( & you will, if you own the car long enough)
it pays back big time. ( a true investment) < think about it?
anecdotal , yes, (my motor ran,bad, the skipped tune up was the cause,) ho hummm

reading 1000 posts on misfire , many anecdotal for sure.
what is better is diagnosis.... using tools, gauges and meters.

for and idea of how futile guessing is , see here.
MISFIRE.
at first blush it is 1 of 4 ways (yes, it is in physics)
but is it really ? no , it's a vast number of ways.
http://www.fixkick.com/misfiring.html

but , if you read my text file sig link
post the symptoms and if you want to guess or test?
no body ever states that. here...

if you take it to a real mechanic , you don't want him to guess, do you?

you do know there are great books on topic , right?, (open hood and....)
not to mention ASE classes.

the first steps, are the most crucial
most open the hood and don't recognize a thing.
pretty hard to run with that.... no pun.
in school you learn to work on 50 year generations of engines, and the parts under the hood all start to look the same.
some parts only look different, but are the same.

for the best help, post your symptoms, (engine for example) cold,hot, idling, cruising , hills , flat ground, and WOT.
with input like that , which i call the Good the bad and the ugly , really does help the blind guys. (and missing parts and mods)