Steve
Vancouver,#2Consumer Suggestion
Sat, April 15, 2006
We had a customer who bought a used '01-'02 Suzuki with the 2.7V6. It had 32K on it about 1 1/2 years ago. It now has 57K. It had the cold start noise and the same at idle when hot. Bring the engine off idle to about 1000rpm and the noise would go away, return about 20 seconds after the engine came back to idle. Did some reasearch (AERA, All Data, Motorage etc.) The first thing that came up was T/C cover leak. The second was the tensioner issue. Seems like the OEM part has very tight clearances and a small orface that can plug up or gum up. So with nothing to loose we dumped in some Berryman's in the oil (as per instructions) and replaced the oil/filter. The noise went away. This amazed me as I'm not the 'Cure in the can' type of guy. But, it worked on hyd. lifters 25 years ago, when the quality of oil and filters was lacking. I hope the problem was caught soon enough that no damage was done to the internal parts and only time will tell. However it was also noted to use 5W-30 Oil only. Use a OEM oil filter or a good aftermarket such as WIX, NAPA, Carquest etc. not the junk you get at the discount stores. The most inportant was to change oil at 3000 miles max. along with the filter to prevent the tensioner glitch. Back to the Mobil 1. It will last forever but you have to take into concideration, when an oil filter bypasses, the fine parcticles, sludge, etc. remains in the oil and will end up in the tensioner. So this is why the 3000 mile oil changes and good filters. BTW, I shared the above info. with the service manager at the local Suzuki store and he was very receptive. He has his hands tied as to what the factory will pay for. At least he can relay the oil change info. to his customers so they can prevent a failure If they choose to listen. Which I really doupt with the average car owner going to the Quckie oil change joint for what ever oil they have in the barrel at the time plus cheapie filter and wating 5000+ miles between changes. I'm not trying to defend Suzuki but I hope the above information helps someone avoid big buck repairs.