2003 Suzuki Vitara Daily Driver Project

Long story short, my boss wanted to get rid of this Vitara because it would shut off after running for 45 minutes or so. Just stopped dead in its tracks. He has two work trucks and it was just taking up room so i got it for a song. Like cell phone payment or two cheap....

It was his daily driver that winter prior so it just had recieved a new set of plus sized Blizzak tires. That certainly is a perk.

I got a few cell phone pics and it looked like it had been sitting a bit and it had some rust stains and rocker rust but for the price ill take a gamble.

For the record, this is my first 4x4 vehicle that i have ever owned. This is also the first suv type vehicle. Should be interesting.

I took it home and realized that it was loud. REEEALLY loud. I will have to address that asap.

Brought it home in one piece, with a full tank of gas even, thanks boss =) I decided the first thing i should do it wash off all the sap, and under-the-tree-debris that had collected on it. I gave 'er the old kerosene and cap wash soap bath and she came out real purdy. Night and day difference.

Finally the garage got cleared out off other projects and i took over the space for a bit. This was a quickie project that had to get street legal and driveable asap because i had only a motorcycle up to this point. Great for nice weather, terrible for winter...

I had mentioned that this car was loud. well it turns out the exhaust was kaput. Open pipe after the first cat. Muffler was barely hangin on and falling apart so i yanked it and pitched it.

Up on jack stands and let the adventure begin

Initial inspection revealed that it needed front brake overhauled, sway bar stab bars (end links), fluid spill and fill all around, and a basic "tune up" nothing too bad yet.

Ill update as i have time, project is on the road so this is a bit of a backward posting.

Enjoy.

Those are great little trucks. Would love one for winter again.

Word of advice: Change the timing chain/tensioner. Those like to faile between 150-190k miles and wreck the valvetrain.

Bobzilla wrote: Those are great little trucks. Would love one for winter again. Word of advice: Change the timing chain/tensioner. Those like to faile between 150-190k miles and wreck the valvetrain.

^^^word

I had one for many, many miles but can't offer any advice because nothing ever went wrong. Mine was an early year, and you could have 4WD or ABS but not both at the same time. (Shifting into 4WD disabled the ABS. WTF?)

And and check these guys out: Calmini

If I ever get one again, I'm doing the J27 swap into it right off the bat (GV over a V). THe 2.5 was OK, but it really needed that extra 20hp/30ft-lbs of the bigger 2.7 in the XL-7.

Bobzilla wrote: Those are great little trucks. Would love one for winter again. Word of advice: Change the timing chain/tensioner. Those like to faile between 150-190k miles and wreck the valvetrain.

im at 113K miles and its quiet. Is there a tell tale sign of age or noises that they make?

On the old J25/J27 V6's they would chatter. On the 2.0L they usually just snap.

Good starter SUV. Those little guys really are pretty capable off road. My uncle had one of those with a 5-speed.

Took apart the front brakes. Driving it home initially they felt goofy, like they had not real feel to em. I was curious to find out what was up...

Fronts rotors were typical Ohio style: rusted and grooved and flakey due to our winters and salt. Pretty normal.

The front pads are locked into the sliders that they ride in. Totally jammed and rusted in place. I used the 5 lbs mini sledge to get one side out. Pads were shot, not so much in thickness but in grooves and a crack.

So, whats the best solution here? Bought some reman loaded calipers and pads and new rotors. Quick, simple. Cleaned up the hub and all, threw on some paint in the wheel wells and she is all set.

Bled the brakes and pedal is great. Life is good again. This was an easy fix thankfully.

My dad came out and we worked on the brakes one night after work. Enjoyable times. Love it.

The rear brakes were better then the front.

It looks like they were done at some point sorta recently. They did the rears right. Besides being a bit dusty and some road debris in there i could tell they had lubed up everything and cleaned it all before re-assembly. Kudos to P.O.'s mechanic. I was impressed.

Pulled the rotors and knocked off all the rust scale. Thickness was good and only slight rust build up. So rescuffed the drum surfaces and gave the outsize some paint to keep it front rusting that quickly. Painted on the left, not done up on the right.

Hosed it down with some brake clean, re-lubed some bits and adjusted the brakes. I got even luckier when the e-brake cables were not rusted to heck nor were they seized. Adjusted those too and life is good.

Some black paint on the rusty bits and anything that is easily visible and thats that.

Rear brakes only took a night so that was great.

Sway bars end links, upon closer inspection were shot. Replaced em. Pictures should just about tell the whole story...

Old on left new on right...duh

The clunk in the front end is now totally gone

Nice work! This should be a great winter beater! Hope you get some snow soon so you can have some fun!

Wishing I had this one right about now.....

Next up, get rid of all the used fluids and top it off with new stuff.

The trans fluid smelled good, but figured replacing it would be a safe bet. The front diff, rear diff and transfer case smelled kinda gross like always but not terribly dirty and no bits in it.

While crawling around on the cold concrete i figured i might as well do an oil/filter change.

For all the fluids the total came in just under $80. Not bad. "Cheap insurance" my father would say.

And some "tune up stuff" while we are at it. This is a daily driver so i cant have stupid stuff leaving me stranded.

Air filter was so so. Dirty so threw a new one in.

The spark plugs looked to be original. They ran the car but the tips were worn. Sounds goofy, and i wish i had pictures but it looked like someone filed down the tips. just plain worn. Put in new ones, some dielectric under the plug wires and good to go.

Lastly, decided to replace both belts. Old ones were cracking and well, old. Remember kids, make a diagram.

Makes me wish there was a 4x4 only section in GRM.

Make a belt diagram - a lesson we all learn at least once.

Cool build. Always nice to see unloved cars being brought back from the dead.

Bobzilla wrote: If I ever get one again, I'm doing the J27 swap into it right off the bat (GV over a V). THe 2.5 was OK, but it really needed that extra 20hp/30ft-lbs of the bigger 2.7 in the XL-7.

Fun fact: Those motors were based on the Mazda KL.

I've always wondered how much power the J27 could make without much work.

They liked to rev, at least the J25 did. It was a bit gutless down low, but it made pretty noises up near the 7k redline.

Next up was a bunch of rust repair or at the very least rust anti-progression efforts. The worst of it, as with most vehicles in this family, was the rockers.

II was "luck" in that my rockers were not totally blown and and still had some strong-ish metal and shape left to them.

At first i just scraped off the big flakes and scuffed the top and put on two heavvvyy coats of Rustoleum Hammer Finish black paint on it.

sidenote here worth pointing out for future users of the hammer finish paint. the "black" actually turns out drying a very dark grey, almost maybe black but more or less grey. Still looks amazing but black it aint

After a while and some reading online and parts stor browsing i found some closed cell waterproof foam and injected some of that in the gaping holes to, well, not have gaping holes. After cutting and shaping the excess i glopped on more rustoleum and it looks pretty legit. Almost looks factory and you can not notice the horrors that lie there until you look underneath =)

The rest of the car was pretty easy. Just touchup chips and scratches. Not too horrible.

I lied.

The passenger rear door frame had rust bubbling big time on the leading edge of the door. I poked a bit to loosen up the big chunks and the plan was to rust coat it and touch it up. Well, after a few soft pokes with a screwdriver, well the whole thing collapsed and i had a hole that went clear through to the interior.

Thought of welding it a patch but it was too close to the window and a bunch of molding and trim. Parts store to the rescue with this goofy metal patch putty. I applied it like one would sticky tack and it held and you can hardly even tell there was a repair done.

It might sound hokey but this is a beater. If i was restoring it thats one thing but i just need to last a few years and ill be happy as a clam.

The fuel door had actually rusted totally off. I cleaned up the fuel door area, painted it with, you guessed it, Rustoleum hammer finish black and am leaving it exposed. I think it looks alright so it stays. First coat on, needs some touch up haha. you can see i already got started on cleaning it up. getting rid of rust stains and all that makes a huge difference.

Next up is giving it a full inside & out detail...

Wiped off the car and got it ready for detailing. I was using a buffer and Meguiar's "Ultimate Compound" which has some grit (for lack of better word) to it to cut a bit. Great for paint that needs brightening up.

Interior was a wipe down with some multipurpose cleaner in water and then Meguiars interior portectant. Go with the natural shine not high gloss. Its plenty shine enough. smells nice too.

Honestly i just did a quick job, not my usual work cause the car needed to get on the road as winter was here.

Cleaned up well i think:

Noticed in my driving since the Vitara has been on the road that the 4x4 light blinked. Oh boy.

A pump supplies something like 5-6 psi. to the front diff when 4x4 is activated. I tested to see that the diff engaged by applying said psi and it worked so for the time being that seal is ok. Then i tested to see that the lines from the pump to the diff held pressure and were not cracked up. help fine.

Put a gauge on the 4x4 pump and turned it on.... took a while to get pressure and it could not hold it. Internally shot.

Ordered a new one from LKQ and bolted it in. Quick job. Easy.

4x4 now works....

Man this makes me miss ours so much.

Great progress on the rust!

How are you able to even paint in the winters? It's constantly 30 degrees here in NJ, and maybe 40-45 in the garage. It's put a hamper on my efforts in repairing rust on my daily driver project.

Looks great! Did you ever figure out why it shuts off after 45 minutes? Seems like that would be important...