[Suzidad]

My daughter has a 2010 2.4L GV Man 5Dr. with 160000 km on the clock. Late last year Suzuki charged over $2000 to get rid of multiple dashboard warning lights. Fix incl new VVT, timing chain, tensioner and guide as these parts were covered by some type of black powdery substance. No mention of any other possible problems. This was after trailering the car 200 km to Melb. By the way, my mechanic had already replaced the camshaft position sensor AND the crankshaft position sensor as directed by the diagnostic tool.
After having the car back for a couple of months, she has had severe overheating problems.
We have now found that the cylinder head is cracked. I have seen images of exactly the same crack on web sights.
There are NO second hand heads available. (All used to fix this problem?) My mechanic had no choice but to buy new from Suzuki. I have not had the bill yet.
A variety of web forums all seem to know about this problem. They indicate that there was a recall in the US but Suzuki Australia refuses to recognises the problem.
Can anyone on the forum advise me how to approach Suzuki Australia to gain all or part recompense for the costs so far.
Suzuki Australia refused to help in any way with the original problem.
My daughter loved her Suzi, bought from new, but now is happy to see it taken to the wreckers. Never thought I would hear her say this.
Any help/advice gratefully accepted from a newbie on the forum.

[losfer]

Hey suzukidad. I am the author of what Suzuki Australia are trying to hide.
Suzuki wont even acknowledge the problem.
Im afraid you have no recourse.
The TSB i published was from an american source. The TSB was never published here.

[losfer]

Another thing i touched on in the post was the thermostat values and how they affected bleeding the coolant system of air. Another thing is the mixing of suzuki coolant with ANY other coolant will cause it to gel and block the radiator causing it to overheat.

[HamiHarr]

That sucks suzukidad. I have the same vehicle only in the auto version, at about 150kms, no problems so far, but I have wondered.

@losfer, I just had my mechanic flush my system after a trip and I can see he has not put in the suziblue coolant. May I ask you what the difference suziblue is, does it actually prevent this problem (especially if not running with it previously)? I am wondering if I should flush it again and replace the standard coolant with suziblue and hope that is enough to avoid the unfortunate circumstance of that has befallen suzukidad and his daughter.

[Suzidad]

Big thanks for the quick reply and sorry about the lengthy post. I will still approach Suzuki Australia, even though the Customer Service manager is able to sit back behind her closed doors and put out polite replies without face to face contact.
I will also contact ACCC, Consumer Affairs and the Ombudsman. Lucky I am retired and have a bit of time up my sleeve.
Thanks again.

[atari4x4]

when i drove mine off the showroom floor 3200kms ago, the service guys specially told me not to top up the coolant under any circumstances with a generic coolant & the genuine coolant is biodegradable & congeals when mixed.

they knew i was going to modify it & was capable of doing my own work, it was the one thing they seemed pretty firm about.

[HamiHarr]

atari4x4 wrote:

not to top up the coolant under any circumstances with a generic coolant.

Yeah, I have been aware of the top up issue and have never done that in the life of the vehicle (had it since new). Its generally never a good idea to do that in any vehicle.

The recent flush was a full drain and replacement under pressure, so there should be no mixing of different types of coolants. I wanted to do that because it ingested a fair bit of dust on the tracks. Added a pic for reference

I was more wondering if not running the suzuki blue is a mistake, given the history of the motor, it probably is and I should just get it done. After the trip, when I saw a bit of gunk in the coolant, I was just keen to get it replaced and 'forgot' about the genuine coolant requirement. Suzukidad's post was a reminder.

Maybe I'll just take out the 2.4l and drop the N32a in there anyone got one handy?