2007 Suzuki Swift+ P0301 Shaking at Idle

[Arrakark]

Hey man thanks for the reply and feedback. Glad someone still drives these cars! I think that with the right maintenance and care a car can last 3x it’s rated lifespan. I’m aiming for about 350k km with my car. I’m inspired by the world record for car mileage; a Volvo P1800 with 3.2 million miles that has original engine block and transmission. The owner changed the oil every 3000 miles and transmission fluid every 25,000 miles. Since fluids are so cheap nowadays I don’t see why I shouldn’t try to do the same!


I’m glad you found an engine and a friend who could swap it in a night. That’s quite impressive. Where did you manage to find an engine? I feel like the model is so old it’s hard to find a low-mileage one.


And gotcha; I took your advice on the sandpaper. I couldn’t find some cutting compound but I used some Ultimate Compound which is also quite strong near the peeling coat. Also couldn’t find the same ceramic coating in local store so I went with some cheaper $10 spray-on stuff. I applied it liberally. Couldn’t see a noticeable difference, but I hope it can offer some UV protection. It’s weird maybe it was the specific ceramic coating I got but compared to wax I couldn’t see any coating. I think once the weather clears up I’ll go and do a proper detailing.


One “secret” I learned about detailing recently that I don’t seem to see anywhere is this: use silicone grease on rubber/plastic components. Pure silicone grease (the stuff that comes in tubes generally) soaks into rubber and plastic and really protects them from UV and drying out. I just did all the plastic trim on the outside and the weatherproofing in between the doors and trunk and they look way better and are generally more flexible.


And yeah haha I knew about those bolts being optional. They actually made it much easier to align the rotor anyways so I thought I’d keep them in.


I’ve never gotten anything done at Macco, but I didn’t realize pro paint jobs are so cheap. Hole near fuel cap; like rust hole or just in the paint?


And wow that’s so much work on your vette. Why the custom grind cam? Sounds like a super fun project haha! Are you documenting it anywhere? I’m sure myself and others would love to read about it. Awesome pics btw too, especially the one on the track.


And also I like your Aveo. I took after your car and removed my logo on the front. Looks a bit better with just black. Where did you get the black trim down near the front (not sure what that part is called)? Also, how does one make a 105hp Aveo autocross capable? :P

[Arrakark]

Also, as for my update, here’s what I’ve done so far:
• Replaced serpentine belt
• “Fixed” the small chip in my windshield
• Fixed passenger door handle
• Removed Suzuki emblem
• Fixed/clear-coated the headlights
• Cleaned PCV valve
• Decided to not replace tensioner (and idler pulley because I don’t have one lol)
• Attempted to inspect rear brake shoes but failed
• Fixed rear left turn signal
• Got the transmission fluid level under control
• Calculated how much I spent on this project




part 1/3:


I started with the belt replacement. It was actually pretty simple since I’ve technically done it before. Just double-wrench the tensioner pulley, pull it back, and replace the belt. The old belt was very worn compared to the new one. Just like the timing belt, I’m surprised that it lasted this long honestly.






I also wanted to replace the belt tensioner at the same time, but I had trouble finding a 14mm socket that fits. Either I had sockets that were too long (impact socket) or too short and with an extender they were too long. Oh well. I know it’s a part I should probably replace soon, but the one that’s on there right now still tensions well, doesn’t make any noise and the tensioner bearing is still pretty good. I’ll get to it at the next fluid change.


Also, I did not have an idler pulley in my car. I think this pulley is either for the manual version or for one without the A/C.


For the windsheild, I used a $3 kit from Rockauto. I noticed while reading the instructions that it was for “bullseyes” only. My chip was more like a small crack, and surprise-surprise, it didn’t do much to fix the crack. It did fill up the top where the initial crater was but the resin did not extend much past that. Oh well; for $3 it wasn’t an investment, more a curiosity.




I got rid of the Suzuki emblem next. I thought I could take a dremel to it; sand down the chrome electroplating, prime and spraypaint it with clearcoat on top. I found it to be way too much work, so I just junked it! Looks much better without it now anyways. For anyone who was wondering how to take off the plastic mounters, you need to use something to hold the outside down. I used snap ring pliers. Also, I was curious about the legality of this. Apparently it’s perfectly legal in BC, Canada. I thought maybe the cops wouldn’t want this happening because then they wouldn’t be able to identify your car.

[Arrakark]

Next, I did the headlights. I used 1000 grit sandpaper to roughly sand the UV damaged clearcoat and plexiglass underneath. There was a lot! About 20 minutes worth of hand-sanding for each headlight with the 1000 grit only. Then I moved up in increments of 500 grit all the way to 3000. But then, just before putting the clearcoat on, I realized that such a smooth surface probably wouldn’t hold the clearcoat on very well. So I went back and roughed up the surface with 1500 grit before masking, cleaning with isopropyl, and clearcoating with some 1-part Rust-Oleum clearcoat. And the results were disastrous! There were spider-web like cracks all over the headlight. I read online and it was most likely due to wrong type of clearcoat and improper application. I waited way too little between coats (about 5 min) and didn’t do a light enough spray. The photo you see of the cracks below is after I had left the clear coat dry and I already started sanding it off again.








So I sanded down the old clearcoat down again, and this time I went out and bought a respirator and some proper 2-part clearcoat. I basically followed this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKNn24Afv5g from Ratchets and Wrenches and I was very happy with the results! I waited about 10-15 minuites between coats this time, and did a very light coat at first, with heavier coats going forward. I did about 4 coats in total. There was some orange-peel on them now but it’s very subtle. It shows up well on camera but you can’t feel it at all if you drag your finger over it. I think I will wait a month and then polish and wax these guys and I’m fairly sure it will go away. Either way it makes the car look like new again!




Here’s before the first coat:




After first coat:




After second coat:




After third coat:




After fourth coat:




Closeup of orange-peel:




It’s not perfect by any means, but I’m still happy with it.

[Arrakark]

Getting the fluid level under control was quite the challenge. Turns out you have to EXACTLY follow the instructions in the manual for measuring ATF. Drive around for 20km to warm up the engine. Park the car on a level surface. While the car is on, cycle through each gear from P to 1 and back to P, waiting a couple of seconds in between each gear. Only then can you go and pull the dipstick, clean it, and measure the fluid level. After doing this about three times and draining fluid, I finally got the level down to the maximum on the dipstick. I clearly had way too much in there. Doing all of the steps listed above makes the fluid really stand out on the dipstick.




Next think I did was fix the rear-left turn signal not turning on sometimes. I found that this problem was very intermittent, and may or may not correlate with the amount of rain. By disconnecting the connector going to that unit (found behind the carpet) and measuing with a multi-meter, I found that there was in fact 12V being delivered to the bulb. The bulb was in good condition, so it was most likely the wiring or the connection. I ended up giving the lightbulb connections a good sanding, and sealing up the connections with some silicone grease. This fixed the issue. Also; I read about getting the rear lights off and I have some advice for anyone wanting to do the same. There’s technically two bolts and two “clips” holding the unit in place. In order to get the clips off, all you need to do is gently shake the unit left and right until it comes out. Don’t pry on the clips or you will break them. The unit does hold on well with only one clip though. What I found odd was how the drainage worked on the hatchback. Any rain from the roof seems to purposely pour down very close to the headlight unit and through the bumper?? What a strange design choice. Doesn’t seem like it leads to much rust oddly enough.








Another issue I addressed was a loose passenger door handle. One of the bolts had come off. Thankfully after taking off the panel with this tutoral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip5pEf0R4DM I found the bolt dangling inside. All I had to do was put it back into the door handle; but this time I added some blue locktite. I didn’t find a good source on how to take off the mirror trim. I found that a 12mm wrench is perfect for this!




I attempted to take off the rear drums to inspect the shoes. After a lot of hammering I realized that I had the older-version drum brakes, where the drum and studs were a single unit, and where you have to take off the axle nut to remove the drums. So I was basically banging a hammer on the bearings. Oops! I ordered a 1 1/14” impact socket (I read that a 32mm works as well) and I’m waiting for that to arrive. Don’t make the same mistake I did!




And lastly I researched the crankcase ventilation system and how it worked. I learned that a faulty PCV valve can cause build-up in the engine. I don’t think my engine has much buildup, but it certainly isn’t squeaky clean by any means. The PCV valve is a cheap part, but I didn’t want to make another order to Rockauto, so I decided to check and clean the valve I already had. I possibly made a fatal mistake by using brake cleaner (chlorinated too!) to clean the unit. I learned after cleaning that brake cleaner can damage rubber and plastic components. Woops! At least I dried the unit extra well with compressed air before putting it back. The cleaning got a lot of gunk out of there, and I swear it actuated better after it. Once I learned about the brake cleaner bit, I went back to inspect the valve about a week later. It seemed to work okay. I applied a small bit of silicone grease to the o-ring to protect it some.


Lastly, I decided to do some accounting on the project. I didn’t have many tools before the project so I spent about $850 CAD on tools. $670 went towards parts, $160 towards fluids, $130 for detailing. In total I’ve spent a grand total $2.3k to get a functioning car with 251k km on it. Oh lord!

[LTPOWER95]

Hey man, sorry I haven't messaged, I've been so busy and just started my new job a few days ago. First of all, thank you for your compliments. And I have to thank you again for what you've been doing; I bet your car has some tears on its clean headlights now that you're taking good care of it. There's good info here for other users to read and take notes, & now I definitely know a couple trouble spots myself. Another thing, your documenting skills are phenomenal dude. You're the kind of user (hero) people in forums need, but the user (hero) we don't deserve. Insert Batman joke.

Lol anyway, the thing on my bumper is called a front splitter, a front spoiler.. a front lip lol there's multiple names for it. Some are specific, so I belive this would be called a lip. And the one I used is a Honda Civic 96-98 Mugen Style Lip Front, they're about $50. I did have to cut a little because it was a bit long on the ends, then I used good rivets to hold it in place. I recommend you do more research on which one fits best because I seen other users with a better looking fit than mine. Apart from the paint, I think you've done almost all you can do to this thing. Even I'm thinking of changing out some pullys with my engine job for my vette as well.

So how does one make an Aveo autocross worthy? I don't know lol, I haven't done much research really, but it's still a possibility, it's just something I had in mind as I fix it up here and there. I have an idea of what can be done, suspension wise, MKII coilovers, I also heard about upgrading the lower control arms, and a couple other suspension parts like bushings, struts and such.. Brakes can be upgrades too, though I think we'd still have to keep the blasted rear drums, unless you wanted to go crazy and do a conversion and get the abs to still work. The weak point on these cars is the engine. There's basically no mod support for them. I heard they're like disposable, not for racing lol, Again, unless ya wanna go crazy and do upgraded internals. I suppose we can do the good ol' upgrades like a more free flowing custom exhaust system. Some peeps used to make an exhaust header too. Another thing is getting the lightweight crank pully a forum member makes here, losing rotational mass weight is key a well done cold air intake, good resistance NGK Spark plugs and cables gapped a tad bit more for the extra intake air, and I mean just a bit more like from stock .44 to .45 or .46 to all four, I find using the original gap has the engine surging from too much air, of course gapping too much will lose power instead. I could be wrong but this worked for my car. The other engine mods would be getting a certain head (I forget which one) that accepts the metal opel manifold that breaths in a bit more air too, that comes with a bit of install mods in itself. I'm guessing all this will get around 130hp from the 100hp or whatever this car has, the tranny can still handle that. Hmm, a strut bar brace, and some kind of roll bar set up inside. Then, you can do whatever you want to the interior.. comfy bucket seat, seat harness, momo steering wheel.. & no real need for interior lightweight savings really, some good light 14-16 diameter inch wheels and decent tires and that's it. But honestly Idk man I really haven't done much research. But my plan was for the car to be a bit quicker than stock and make sure it can perform well on track. It's a time race against yourself with autocross so I think the car can do it. If you want track racing on the proper league against other competitors for the podium position, yea you'd need more done on the car but that's another story, that I don't see the point on doing to my daily lol.

Yea man, I do post some stuff on my car, I post on the Corvette forum as well, my user is LTPower95. I want to post the end result of my car once I'm actually finished with it though, in a couple months I'll be done. But I guess you can follow me on Instagram, I post some stuff there too. My user is still LTPower95 lol. Cheers.

The reason for my custom grind cam which is 218/224 Lope Seperation at 111, duration 268 - 276 and Valve lift .571 .566) is because I'm from Cal, so I needed a good efficient hard cam that I can still get the car to pass the strict smog check every 2 years here with all the worked heads/manifold throttle body, fuel system and others mods it's gonna have. By installing the original catz again to the block and hope the good tune by Solomon can pass. Just need to pass 15 & 25 mph on the sniffer is all. That why I'll also keep the EGR airpump system as well, that can bolt to my futur custom made long tube headers, there's no gain from taking off the EGR, and keeping it on will only cause the manifold and heads to clean (less build up) and to run slightly cooler by feeding back the exhaust fumes back into the manifold once the egr valve opens at certain engine running conditions to recirculate again, hence causing the fumes to come out cleaner for better smog quality.

Here's a few pics of the Aveo, I want to go 1 inch drop with futur coilovers, my front shocks are a bit beat. There's the damage by the gas tank, it's on the door. And the front lip
I love my wheels, they're an Enkei PF01 style wheel I got from somebody's MR2 build.

[LTPOWER95]

Idk why I said cheers up there if I wasn't even done haha. Here's the last pic, I usually keep it clean but it's a little dirty here. The price of your car is still good, considering it's a good driver and you know it's been worked on the right way now. Lastly, I know my writing is bad but hey I do speak another language. I mean I'm fluent at both and don't have an accent, I speak properly, but it does take away from only speaking English a little, my English could be better, I'm no scholar.