[BenArcola]

Hi folks,

I'm new here, but having enjoyed the benefits of lots of useful info from others, I thought I'd share some learning (which I couldn't find on the forum) in case it is useful for anyone else. Being new, this may just be a load of school-boy errors, in which case please feel free to put me right / disregard!

I bought my: UK-spec 1997-98 Vitara (Santana), 4 cylinder, 8 valve with single point fuel injection (SE416) online. It was sold-as-seen with:
- with a blow on the exhaust - surely a simple fix?
- loss of brakes on tight cornering, presumably due to a 3inch lift kit stretching the old near-perished brake hoses (should find out tomorrow whether new extended hoses fix the issue)
- rev counter working intermittently - I gather from reading around that this is likely the Cam Position Sensor dying

First on the list, I thought it would be a simple job to fix the exhaust... it wasn't....

Issue 0 - there are so many variants and I haven't found an easy way to work out the spec of my vehicle - I think have pieced most of it together, but it has taken ages - have I missed a simple way of looking it up? I have the vehicle registration (V428 EUJ) and VIN (VSEETV01VNA209743) and I have used PartSouq but even then there are multiple options - endless squinting and cross-referencing - surely in this digital age there is a better way - is there somewhere a register of Forum members with photos of their vehicles and the corresponding spec to help newcomers?

Issue 1 - using the vehicle registration number on parts sites did not give the right model (e.g. Europarts, AutoDoc). Sometimes you can trust the images but not the text, sometimes vice versa. So frustrating and time-consuming!

Issue 2 - when I eventually found someone who could sell me what I think are the right parts (Car Parts Online | Replacement Car Parts | Discounted Car Parts - by ringing them and sending them photos of the old parts and links to what I think is the right page on PartSouq), they were not like-for-like and the compatibility of the various bolts, springs, gaskets was terrible

So here is the outcome:

What came off:

What PartSouq suggest (which looks right):

Exhaust Pipe 1 (downpipe from the manifold) - OnlineAutomotive - part number EFSZ8007 - looks wrong in the image, and what has arrived has a simpler curve, but seems to have worked - Search results for 'EFSZ8007'

Exhaust Pipe 2 (Catalytic Convertor) - OnlineAutomotive - part number ECSZ5002 - looks wrong in the image, and what arrived has a much smaller CAT section, but seems to have worked - Search results for 'ECSZ5002'

Muffler/Backbox - I didn't change

Exhaust Springs - OnlineAutomotive EMB012 were specified with the above Exhaust Pipes, but were too short (didn't fill the gap between the bolt head and the locating shoulder)
Instead I used the ones from https://www.onlinecarparts.co.uk/ (who are actually the big German firm AutoDoc) Article №: SZM-105 Manufacturer: VEGAZ and I think I picked up some identical ones from EuroCarParts too.

Exhaust Bolts - OnlineAutomotive EMB011 are almost identical to others I ordered, but have thread right to the end and so were much easier / possible to fit
The ones from AutoDoc (Article №: 765-903 Manufacturer: FA1) had the last few threads cutaway (to enable easier locating), which makes the threaded section too short to reach (probably due to the poor fit of the Ring Seal)...

Exhaust Ring Seal (big fat "gasket") between the manifold and the downpipe, and also between the downpipe and the catalytic convertor - marked as being the same part number in both locations everywhere I looked, but I ended up with 2 different versions and had to use one of each to make it work

Exhaust Ring Seal (big fat "gasket") between the manifold and the downpipe - used the smaller version OnlineAutomotive EMG068 which doesn't seem to fit very well, but I got it in and the exhaust is not (yet) blowing.

Exhaust Ring Seal (big fat "gasket") between the downpipe and the catalytic convertor - used the larger version from https://www.onlinecarparts.co.uk/ (who are actually the big German firm AutoDoc). Article №: 80547 Manufacturer: WALKER. Not a great fit, but the one which came with the 2 new pipes didn't fit at all.

Gasket between the catalytic convertor and the back box - I used both the thick ring one from OnlineAutomotive EMG013 and flat triangular one with the "corners" cut off to provide sufficient thickness (perhaps necessary since I didn't change the back box). I think the flat gasket came from EuroCarParts.


When installing, I had to first mate the downpipe and the catalytic convertor very carefully to get the Ring Seal to sit centred (I hope), since it doesn't locate very nicely, and then mount them both together in to the vehicle. This makes fitting the rubber hangers more difficult.

The parallel hole (figure of 8) rubber hangers are similar enough from all of the different sources. But I got the 90 degree off-set hangers from Onlinecarparts / Autodoc Article №: 763-902 Manufacturer: FA1. I forgot/didn't get with the rubber hangers the sleeves which go in the hangers so had to reuse the old rusty ones.


What a faff. Has taken weeks. Should have taken it to a garage, but I thought if I did it myself I could justify buying this monster DEWALT DCF899N-XJ 18V LI-ION XR BRUSHLESS CORDLESS IMPACT WRENCH (to undo the seized bolts between the downpipe and the exhaust manifold) and I have to say, it probably is worth it - 950Nm of torque! - no more jumping up an down on wheel nut wrenches ;-)

The other part of the tips for releasing exhaust bolts on this forum (which worked a treat - thanks) - 2 weeks of daily soaking in Penetrating Oil, then heating to glowing with a MapGas blow torch (smoke wrench) and then using an impact wrench - Hi! Exhaust bolts and exhaust questions


Apologies for the long ramble! Has been cathartic - ready for the next challenge...

Ben

 

[turboguzzi]

wow, very detailed and compliments for taking the time to write..... All i have to add is that compared to other japanese cars i owned, specially subarus, that were al manufactured in one plant in japan, the parts variations with vitara/sidekick/tracker/escudo is totally crazy.
with mfg in japan, spain, canada and dont know where else, then just look at how many names for the same car, navigating through the various versions of the on-line catalogs is indeed a challenge.
i am active in a spanish vitara site and there its common knowledge that santana cars where fitted with whatever was handy in the parts department, with lots of undocumented variations.

 

[BenArcola]

wow, very detailed and compliments for taking the time to write..... All i have to add is that compared to other japanese cars i owned, specially subarus, that were al manufactured in one plant in japan, the parts variations with vitara/sidekick/tracker/escudo is totally crazy.
with mfg in japan, spain, canada and dont know where else, then just look at how many names for the same car, navigating through the various versions of the on-line catalogs is indeed a challenge.
i am active in a spanish vitara site and there its common knowledge that santana cars where fitted with whatever was handy in the parts department, with lots of undocumented variations.

Thank you for saying this - makes me feel much better about how difficult I have found it - not just me being daft )

 

[Bex]

Welcome to the forum. This may make it easier in the future. Here is the parts catalog for your car. Although I think that partsouq may use a similar catalog, the one below may be easier to navigate.:

Suzuki

This way, you can get the part number you’re looking for, and search using that number. I’ve used partsouq a number of times, and they are quite good. But searching with the part number may find sources closer to home, as well.

However!!! LOL. I bought a 97 Vitara some years ago as a parts car. It turned out that the parts for the brake circuit - master cylinder, MC reservoir, pipes to rear drums, etc., were NOTHING like what was in the diagrams. If you go to the main page for the Suzuki catalog above, it also lists Santana vehicles as Santana-1, Santana-2, Santana-3, etc., without any indication of year, etc. I had to scour through pages of diagrams, to find a diagram that looked like my brake system. I finally found it under ‘Santana 3 door’, with no indication of year, etc. So, you are not alone in this kind of search!
By the way, does your 97 Santana built Vitara have that very strangely shaped (and very expensive) battery sitting in the engine compartment in front of the driver’s seat? Very skinny and tall, and most auto parts places have never seen anything like it? Fortunately, my 97 was used as a parts car, so I never had to replace that - but Santana is quite an experience....IMHO.

 

[BenArcola]

Welcome to the forum. This may make it easier in the future. Here is the parts catalog for your car. Although I think that partsouq may use a similar catalog, the one below may be easier to navigate.:

Suzuki

This way, you can get the part number you’re looking for, and search using that number. I’ve used partsouq a number of times, and they are quite good. But searching with the part number may find sources closer to home, as well.

However!!! LOL. I bought a 97 Vitara some years ago as a parts car. It turned out that the parts for the brake circuit - master cylinder, MC reservoir, pipes to rear drums, etc., were NOTHING like what was in the diagrams. If you go to the main page for the Suzuki catalog above, it also lists Santana vehicles as Santana-1, Santana-2, Santana-3, etc., without any indication of year, etc. I had to scour through pages of diagrams, to find a diagram that looked like my brake system. I finally found it under ‘Santana 3 door’, with no indication of year, etc. So, you are not alone in this kind of search!
By the way, does your 97 Santana built Vitara have that very strangely shaped (and very expensive) battery sitting in the engine compartment in front of the driver’s seat? Very skinny and tall, and most auto parts places have never seen anything like it? Fortunately, my 97 was used as a parts car, so I never had to replace that - but Santana is quite an experience....IMHO.

Cheers Bex, really appreciate it!
I was wondering about the battery - it certainly looks like an odd size and is strangely small - haven't yet looked in to replacement - I guess that is one more adventure on the horizon ;-)

 

[Bex]

I believe that Turbo had a similar battery (as did my Vitara). It’s a ridiculous shape, and very expensive to replace (considering the cost of normal size batteries). IIRC, he actually built a different size battery tray, and made some mods so that a normal size battery would fit. Maybe he’ll chime in here, or else I can search for his post about what he did.

 

[turboguzzi]

dont know if by turbo you intend me, but never built a tray for mine... anyway, i have a rather narrow one too (installed by PO prior to me buying the car), but cant see the problem installing a wider one...tray certainly covers from firewall to strut tower width

 

[ArroyoRat]

dont know if by turbo you intend me, but never built a tray for mine... anyway, i have a rather narrow one too (installed by PO prior to me buying the car), but cant see the problem installing a wider one...tray certainly covers from firewall to strut tower width
View attachment 100559 View attachment 100560

 

[Bex]

dont know if by turbo you intend me, but never built a tray for mine... anyway, i have a rather narrow one too (installed by PO prior to me buying the car), but cant see the problem installing a wider one...tray certainly covers from firewall to strut tower width
View attachment 100560

Hmm....I thought you had changed the set up for the battery. I guess it wasn’t you, but someone posting actually did some modification with this. I found that, on my Vitara, it was impossible to use a standard sized battery, and the tray held the battery too high, and it would touch the hood, thus shorting out the battery. There was no way to put in a standard sized battery on my 97 Vitara, without either relocating it, or doing some mod on the position of the tray.

 

[Bex]

Ha. Found it.

1995 Suzuki Vitara Fat Boy -repair and upgrade log

Hey Zuki lovers, So i Have my 1995 Suzuki vitara which I have owned for many years is about to under go some TLC and mods, another user requested some photo's so here there are pre-upgrades and repairs, still a tidy vehicle but needed some love after a few years in area like paint, tires...

www.suzuki-forums.com