[tim80z]

About 500kms into my 1000km journey today while travelling just under 110km/h the Jimny started surging all of a sudden. The revs were jumping around and it threw a check engine light.

After rolling to a stop, I plugged in the scan tool and discovered 5 codes, a misfire code for each cylinder and a general misfire code. Rolling to a stop fixed the surging, the light cleared and I continued on my way.

About another 50-100kms later it happened again. I immediately put the clutch in and began to roll to a stop but it all cleared once I was down to about 60km/h and I could continue again.

Over the next hundred kms or so it appeared to happen a little more frequently, eventually I found that travelling at 100km/h or just less (under 3400rpm) the problem never occurred, but within a few kms of doing 110km/h (3800rpm) it would happen again. I finally made it into Brisbane by keeping it under 3500rpm and didn't have any further issues.

I'm suspecting a fuel delivery problem, maybe fuel pump or filter. I'm going to drop it in to Suzuki tomorrow and see what they can find but does anyone have any suggestions or possible causes?

- Tim.

[suzkboy]

Possibly a coil pack breaking down under heat and load. They are know for failing know and then

[tim80z]

suzkboy wrote:

Possibly a coil pack breaking down under heat and load. They are know for failing know and then

The problem was clearly linked to revs and seemed to be unaffected by load. Going over 3500rpm was an instant trigger.

Also I'm getting a separate error code for each cylinder plus a general misfire error code. If it was a coil pack would I get errors for all cylinders or just the affected one?

- Tim.

[zukenutter]

This is exactly what happens when a crank position sensor fails.
I'd put money on this being the problem. Someone suggested in a similar thread a while back that spraying the sensor with cold water can help.

My first Jimny had this happen, exactly the same symptoms.
I'm 90% sure it'll be crank or maybe cam position sensor.

Very common Jimny problem, now we can assume M motor problem.

[atari4x4]

if it's throwing codes on all 4 cylinders, i'd say it's more likely to be upstream of the coil packs... look at the Cam & Crank sensors.

[zukenutter]

Misfire is just what happens when the sensor fails. You'll be able to drive at low or intermittent revs all day long because the ecu defaults to a limp home safe mode.

[zukenutter]

And highway speeds is what will trigger it.

[tim80z]

Thanks guys. I'll see what they find tomorrow. Sucks that I've got perfectly good cam and crank sensors in the old 1.3 at home.

- Tim.

[zukenutter]

Damn that does suck.

[atari4x4]

could you get someone to strip the sensors off the old motor & express post them up to you somewhere?

i know this feeling, happened to me at the national meetup & it sucks the big one.

[zukenutter]

He needs them today

[JrZook]

I swear suzuki used cam hall effect sensors only rated to 85C

[dank]

We had similar issues in the Jeep and also in the Xtrail. The parts break down with heat over time, just a fact of life. Worth keeping spares because they are easy to replace and a massive pain in the butt if they fail and leave you on the track/road somewhere.

[mr.green]

zukenutter wrote:

Misfire is just what happens when the sensor fails. You'll be able to drive at low or intermittent revs all day long because the ecu defaults to a limp home safe mode.

not quite, the crank angle sensor input is about the only one that the ecu can't create a limp signal for. unless the ecu knows were the engine position is it won't run. The motor will run without the cam signal but will be grouped injection not sequential./

i bought a m15 cruze on friday, i've got the same problem and am about to order a new crank sensor today.
when mine first played up i thought it was going to be a fuel pressure problem as it happened in big revs (5000). after it happened again yesterday i saw the tacho dropped out when the motor missed and being a manual the tacho should have read right until the car stopped moving.

[mr.green]

damn i'm sick of double posting

[zukenutter]

mr.green wrote:

zukenutter wrote:

Misfire is just what happens when the sensor fails. You'll be able to drive at low or intermittent revs all day long because the ecu defaults to a limp home safe mode.

not quite, the crank angle sensor input is about the only one that the ecu can't create a limp signal for. unless the ecu knows were the engine position is it won't run. The motor will run without the cam signal but will be grouped injection not sequential./

i bought a m15 cruze on friday, i've got the same problem and am about to order a new crank sensor today.
when mine first played up i thought it was going to be a fuel pressure problem as it happened in big revs (5000). after it happened again yesterday i saw the tacho dropped out when the motor missed and being a manual the tacho should have read right until the car stopped moving.

My comment is based on my own past experience, which was the Crank position sensor. It kept running, just not at highway speed.
Just curious, based on your above comment, if your Cruise is running but having the same issues as Tim, why would you think it was the crank angle sensor. Seems contradictory, or am I missing something?

Also, now that you mention the tacho, I vaguely remember mine behaving similarly.

[JrZook]

It depends on the limp home firmware in the ECU but you need some sort of engine position/speed reference sensor. This could be a cam or a crank angle sensor. ECU could have a redundancy measure where it can use the cam sensor info in case of a faulty crank sensor or vice-versa etc. Loose both and ya fully screwed

[zukenutter]

I'm thinking both should be in my spares box for Cape York

[mr.green]

zukenutter wrote:

Just curious, based on your above comment, if your Cruise is running but having the same issues as Tim, why would you think it was the crank angle sensor. Seems contradictory, or am I missing something?

Also, now that you mention the tacho, I vaguely remember mine behaving similarly.

running would be a loose term it took me an hour and a half to drive 6 ks, stopping and starting.

the point i was making was the senser might have a problem at Xrpm or at a certain heat/day/full moon cycle and that will cause a light to engine light to come on but that doesn't mean its in a limp mode, just that ther was a problem and now the sensor is working again if the engine is still running.. as jr said, the cam might be able to take over but i wouldn't bet a cape york tow home on that.

i might try and unplug the crank sensor on my cruze after i do the job just to see what happens.

[zukenutter]

I think it was stekky that suggested spraying water to cool the sensor, and maybe that's the back up for your theory and my thinking in that when it gets to hot it chucks a hissy fit then when cools enough is all good again.

[tim80z]

Update time.

After posting here I took the car to Suzuki in Moorooka who basically didn't want anything to do with the car and told me to take it to an Ultratune so they could diagnose the fault. Ultratune plugged in their logger, did a lap of the block and said the spark plugs are stuffed. New spark plugs had been installed when the engine went in about 4000kms before. Ultratune claimed that the spark plugs felt a little loose and this had caused their early demise.

Fast forward to the next day and it was time to head over to Fraser Island. The car ran great for the first day and a half and then started to play up again when we were returning from Sandy Cape after a long run in soft sand at high tide. Waiting for an hour or so to let it cool had the car going again and it continued to go well for the rest of the time on Fraser.



Returning home a few days later and everything seemed to be ok for the first few hundred kms but somewhere between Dalby and the NSW border the car started to play up again. This was almost exactly the same symptom as the first time the fault occured, a few hundred kms of driving got the heat into the engine and then revs over 3500 caused it to begin to fail. Managing the symptom we returned home safely and only encountered the issue another two times when revs went over 3500 for a sustained time.

Once home I was busy/lazy doing other things and didn't try swapping the crank angle sensor straight away. Then on Monday morning while driving to work, a 20 minute drive at 110km/h on a day where the temperature was already in the high 20s at 8:30am, the problem occured again and the engine even shut itself off completely. A rest for a few minutes then it started up and I drove the remaining 5kms to work. Today swapped out the M18A crank sensor and put the M13A sensor in, slightly different part numbers but both parts appear to be identical for all critical dimensions.

M13A crank angle sensor. Known history of 54000kms and never produced a fault while in the M13A. Part number J5T32171.


Suspected faulty M18A crank angle sensor. Unknown history, supposedly 56000kms when engine was bought from wreckers plus about 6000kms since the engine has been in the Jimny. Part number J5T23801.


Note that on the suspected faulty sensor there is distinct heat stress markings.

I haven't yet given the car a good run at speed in heat to really test if the sensor swap has fixed the problem. Once I've tested it for a while I'll report back with any findings.

- Tim.

[Scales]

its just a magnetic pickup, so i dont rekon youll have any grief with the miss-matched p/n's... fingers crossed anyway.

i got money on the crank, the cam one should be okay cos its up outta the way a bit. but you never know.

[tim80z]

Since swapping the crank sensor over the problem hasn't reoccured so I'm closing this as solved.

- Tim.

[Scales]

i know how much that was eating you dude, well done.