Suzuki Alto Works – Weirdness and More Parts

It’s been an interesting few weeks. I had a scare in the Alto, and more parts arrived.

The weirdness started when I was taking the Alto to work the other week. I jumped in, started it up, and all was normal. I’m cruising along, jamming to some tunes, and hit the usual start stop traffic. I’m just crawling along… And BAM, ALL the dash warning lights suddenly light up and start flashing. They flash a few times and then the majority turn off, leaving only the Check Engine and Stability Control warning lights lit.

I’m worried, will the car suddenly die stuck in traffic? Is the car about to asplode? I’ve never seen all the dash lights flash like that. I quickly jump off the highway at the next exit and crawl the car home.

It was running fine, no misfire, no smoke, no leaks, nothing. Just the lights.

I made it home fine, swapped cars and left it to think about what it had done.

After work, I plugged in the tablet and fired up SZ Viewer to scan the codes. Ah yes, I think I have a couple of codes. None were current, but nearly all modules at at least one code.

Reading into the codes, they all centered around one thing, the loss of CAN communication with the ABS unit.

I checked all the modules and they were all the related codes, so I saved screenshots of the codes for later and cleared all the codes in the modules. Nothing came back.

I’ve driven a few hundred KM since, and haven’t had any issues, so hopefully it was a once-off and not an intermittent CANBUS issue.

I did have a quick look at the ABS module and it looked normal, so I gave the plug a wiggle and left it

While in the engine bay, I forgot that I hadn’t shown my awesome duct tape duct.

For whatever reason, either the intake rubber intake or the fibreglass duct are too short and they don’t really meet up, leaving a large gap between and around the two. I made the duct tape duct before trackday to try and encourage more air into the airbox rather than slip out around the smaller rubber intake. Its fully enclosed and seals the two parts together.

It withstood the trackday heat and is still there. I might look for a proper solution one day, or maybe not.

The other day I finally had some bits arrive that I have been trying to get for months. Before Christmas, when I first got the car, I tried to order these bits through the local dealer. They asked Suzuki NZ, who asked Japan, and were advised they could be ordered, so we placed the order.

Japan then proceeded to ignore the order and not process it. After a couple of months of chasing it, I cancelled the order.

I enquired with Amayama, who I have been getting the majority of my genuine Suzuki parts through, and sure enough, they could supply and at a lower cost.

Finally, those parts arrived. What are they? Well, the main one was the massive polystyrene insert that sits in the boot and gives me a proper boot floor. Without it, the floor of the boot is much deeper but tapers and makes it kinda useless for carrying anything in.

The insert just slips into place

All the shaped spaces in it are meant for things like the jack, tyre iron and flat tyre goo kit. I have none of these, so all it is used for is my tow hook

I would like to find a water bottle for the intercooler spray that fits into one of the spaces too…

Having the block in place means I could reinstall the coreflute “floor” and carpet. These are retained with two special clips with little pull tabs on them, so you can access the tools under the floor

It’s a kinda dumb thing to be excited about, but I can finally use my boot.

The other thing to arrive was the LH and RH front A-pillar trims. The LH side had a big crack in it, and the RH side had a bunch of holes from when the Japanese owner had a gauge pod fitted there.

To remove these trims, all you do is pull down the door seal

And pull the trim free, starting at the top.

It’s hooked into the dash at the bottom, but easy to pull free. Refitting is the reverse, hook it in at the bottom and then push the clips into place. Refit the seal, and you’re done.

I’ve got a couple of other small things on the way and then that should be most things sorted. It’s crazy how well priced genuine parts are for these wee things. I’m paying the sort of prices I would normally pay for secondhand junk on Facebook, for brand new parts from Japan.

Future thoughts are an oil cooler for the engine, an SWK intercooler and water sprayer, and maybe some half-down lowering springs. All in good time, and depending on cost.