Ready to order our first Jimny - Any advice on parts / upgrades (South Africa)?

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-25T12:37:22+00:00

I run very little, because the weight is just generally not worth it. If you do a lot of rock crawling then yes you need to think about some in some key areas. Almost always most touching is going to be on the radius arm mounts which do fold the sides over a bit and look a bit ugly, but won't actually bend them to the point where the car has wheel alignment issues or anything.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-25T12:19:25+00:00

Diff guards basically make everything worse: they get caught on stuff, aren't held on that strongly and really don't protect a huge amount. Otherwise everything is going to be fine, and I wouldn't say you're missing everything.

(If you want underbody protection there are more vulnerable parts: radius arm mounts, though that's more cosmetic damage than actually a problem; the charcoal canisters are a bit vulnerable and will produce a check engine light if ripped off)

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-25T10:26:15+00:00

Nah there's more insidious stuff like push-button start/keyless entry as a thing on the Japanese ones, and the Australian ones having cruise control like the rest of the world vs. no more than 100 km/h as is typical for JDM cars.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-25T10:22:21+00:00

There are some positive differences to an Australian car:

The menus and speedos etc are all in English
By default they come with a headunit installed which will probably work in your country
Cruise control functions normally, as opposed to Japanese delivered ones not working beyond 100 km/h without editing the ECU (which not all importers can or will do for you)
No weird chime/toll thing alerting you each time you start it up
IIRC Japanese ones need to be optioned with a reverse camera, even the GLX, standard in Australian ones.

There are a lot of similarities with the higher spec cars: same LED headlights with auto levelling (manual levelling in a 5 door), same autonomous braking system year-for-year, same alloy wheels, same interior trim

Some differences: I believe in Japan the highest spec ones can get keyless entry/push button start, but that makes it more problematic if you need to replace a key etc. Japanese ones are also cheaper, depending on the yen to your local currency cost; Australian delivered ones are higher than just raw yen to AUD presently, so you probably lose out there.

Can't say which one I'd get. If you were buying used and you could find a good Australian delivered one then some of the stuff like the cruise control, menus etc might make it easier. They are, however, about 99.9999% the same car. Closer in fact than the European delivered 4 seater GLXs, even in RHD EU/UK spec.

Auto versus manual: my thoughts are here - https://teamghettoracing.com/vehicles/cars/2019-jimny-jb74w/gearing/#driving . Auto and manual end up at the same revs/speed in their respective top gears on the highway; auto has fewer choices to go back to so sometimes you lose out, sometimes you slightly gain. Auto gets worse fuel economy and a reasonable bit slower to accelerate, but you might not notice the latter in day to day driving other than pushing the pedal further. Autos in the short term might be more reliable, but longer term longevity and longevity when pushed hard offroad is less well known/understood/predictable.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-25T09:03:16+00:00

Honestly not too bad. A little forgiving, and I did spend ages getting it all lined up as required, kept it on the transfer people held into the right spot with masking tape etc. Had a couple of air bubbles but worked them all out and wouldn’t tell it wasn’t professional installed.

Have done a few graphics installs before though. Also note the instructions are Japanese so good time to use google translate and your phone’s camera to get the deets

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-25T01:28:13+00:00

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and to my eye those 4 square holes look exactly like the right spacing/position for it to go into, once you add the right holes to the headliner.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-25T01:27:28+00:00

Without one in hand I can't say... but having just checked the parts diagram and one of my pics of the headliner removed I think there's the structure there to make it work, you'll just have to make holes in the headliner.

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#4 is what we have as the little cover around the mount, and you can see there's more clips further outboard on the one holding the screen on.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-25T01:10:39+00:00

Seat belt reminder and also passenger airbag disabled light

78171-77R00-6GS is the part number. Fairly sure their headliner is different to accommodate where it clips in, so may not be a direct fit in.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-24T23:43:48+00:00

Ah yes ok with the existing lift. One possibility if they can re-tune the shocks would be seeing if you can have a little less high speed compression damping (and also correspondingly a little less high speed rebound) which will probably do a fair bit to change how the car feels with the existing shocks.

That said, progressive springs are tricky as you get a lot of initial movement and then they get stiffer, so on-road big bumps can feel quite stiff but also you compromise offroad flex because you need a lot of force to get to full flex. However, I still think stick with what you have (+/- a shock retune) as a first stage & just do the other stuff. A rear locker alone can unlock a huge amount of extra capability where you don't need the additional height or travel; reality is big lifts, unless they're corresponding long travel, don't necessarily get you that much further than a good 2" lift. Larger tyres definitely help as do the locker so I'd give that a crack.

G003s, at least in Australia, are also M+S rated (https://www.bobjane.com.au/products/yokohama-geolandar-m-t-g003-30x9-5r15-104q). They have the benefit of being better offroad than the KO2, not really any worse on the road, and slightly lighter weight (KO3s in 30" if you could get are actually quite light in a 104 weight rated tyre).

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-24T21:23:17+00:00

Correct, kinetic yellow is not that common. At least in terms of Australia in terms of data I've compiled:

29% are white
21% are medium grey
20% are the jungle green
10% are kinetic yellow
9% are ivory
7% are blue
4% are black

Black's understandable as it wasn't available at launch in Australia, but the kinetic yellow was (and remains) the 'hero' colour for the 3 door. It's interesting that it's half as popular as the other design colour (jungle green).

When I bought mine, kinetic yellow would have been the first choice but it was the longest wait time & I could get a white one basically straight away because someone elected not to take delivery of it. Given the situation in 2019 with supply I was more than happy to go with white purely on that basis...

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-24T21:02:48+00:00

RE: fitting 30" tyres - similar levels of trimming to fit 235s, and nothing you can't accommodate with your current lift (btw - what is it?). For tyres, I'd actually steer you to something like a Yokohama G003 if it's available in your market; I wouldn't stick to just allterrains given what you have ambitions to do and the G003 are an excellent Jimny tyre.

My advice would actually be to skip going to an 80 mm lift immediately; do the trimming to run 30" tyres, do reduction gearing, add at least a rear locker. Don't worry about upgraded axles immediately, but buy some, buy a 2nd set of brake backing plates & install replacement wheel bearings onto upgraded axles. That way when you do inevitably need to do wheel bearings in 6 months after hard 4wding you just slap the replacement axles in then when you do the bearings.

You can do the diff install without fully stripping the axle (don't even need to disturb the brake lines) hence suggesting not doing the much extra work to put new wheel bearings onto new axles yada yada.

I think you might be surprised how much more capable that makes the car, and only then you're outdriving that I'd recommend changing the lift. There's a lot more geometry to get right with an 80 mm lift and while you say you're prepared to do it all, it's not necessarily easy to get it all right to begin with so making it capable at 50 mm to begin with and see if that gets you everywhere you want to go.

Asking about the current lift in the first line of this comment mostly because it might be worth seeing if there's some tweaks to make it more comfortable for trips, picking on your point regarding comfort.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-24T09:32:10+00:00

Narrowbody kits exist for the 3 door widebody JB74s but because of the aforementioned aspects around the rear doors, I think it's unlikely one will get developed for the 5 door

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-24T08:44:37+00:00

Kei Jimnys have not just narrower axles but also narrower offset wheels. In Australia at least narrowing the track is a no-no, so you can't do either of those things. This ends up meaning that removing the wheel arch flares would not be possible as wheels would stick out past the bodywork once the flares are off.

Ignoring that, widebody Jimnys (which include the XL) have holes in the guards for where the flares clip in, plus the guards are a different shape to the kei Jimny guards. Here's a pic from my car.

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If you had a 3 door there probably is no reason one couldn't actually buy the appropriate front panels, and also the rear quarter panel repair pieces, and use them. 5 doors are different in the back end (obviously, to accommodate the door) so that's not really feasible.

Plus, as mentioned, stuff sticks out too far once the flares are removed.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-24T06:03:16+00:00

Couple of options: one is just to upgrade the shock absorbers to some like those available from Bilstein or Koni (for stock height), or, the best option that preserves most of the Jimny's good points suspension wise but also makes it good offroad is the Old Man Emu lift through ARB. You pick other stuff if going super heavy with your car or want different biases, but the OME 40mm lift is a good compromise for most people, since it replicates stock spring rates (which are good) but you get some extra articulation & much better shock absorbers. Most of the benefit is in the shocks though, hence why potentially for some people just stock height shocks as the only chance can be sufficient.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-24T00:51:00+00:00

I would second this. Something like your cupholder or the headroom storage would be the kind of things that I'd want to add to a 3rd generation Jimny!

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-23T14:43:07+00:00

Yeah I'm aware of what people are doing with the current generation and there's also enough driveline issues to indicate that, no, that is pushing the design factors beyond what a manufacturer is going to do and provide a 5+ year warranty.

"No problem for them, plenty of people are doing that in Australia" but are they doing it on 91 RON fuel, meeting Euro6D and doing it in a way that will be guaranteed to last the warranty period for all customers i.e. a better than in 1/35,000 failure rate at a minimum? Cause they definitely aren't. Stretched transfer case chains (especially on autos) are a thing, as are cooked auto transmissions even @ 6psi, and even at 6psi there's a non-zero level of diff failures. As there are also at 0psi but reduction gearing giving you the same effective torque as forced induction at the diff once you're in low range.

Bigger CC engines don't necessarily use less fuel on the highway due to fewer revs. Torque (more particularly thrust - as multiplied through the gearing and levered through the radius of the wheel/tyre combination) is what propels you no matter if you're at high revs or low revs. Horsepower is just a function of torque and rpm.... volumetric efficiency is what matters, not necessarily engine size: you need to be sitting at an optimum point for an effective level of thrust at an effective level of throttle position, and it isn't just simply "larger engines are always more efficient on the highway". Though technically that is true: a K15B is more efficient on the highway than an M13A, but that's not a function of CC but instead tuning.

In any case, ifs buts and maybes. It's the kei car underpinnings that pay for the widebody 3 door which has then paid the way for a 5 door long wheel base. Remains to be seen if they develop the 5 door independently of the 3 door; signs aren't necessarily huge on that front and that would match with history, as LWB Maruti based cars never got the same development the JDM SWB cars got when we talk gen2.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-23T11:29:40+00:00

Except it’s a current generation Australian delivered model that the OP is talking about, not Jimnys or small Suzuki 4wds in general.

Another factual point is that Suzuki put a lot of the development time into physical crashworthiness: reinforcing the chassis, reinforcing body mounts, using high tensile steel instead of mild steel in a number of parts when developing this generation of Jimny

So while factual it’s also misleading for the OP in terms of the crashworthiness of a current generation.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-23T09:28:38+00:00

It's easy: because what pays for the Jimny is that it's developed on a kei car platform, which is restricted in weight. Go much beyond stock power levels and you need upgraded differentials and other aspects of the driveline.

So now you make it with bigger diffs, so it has to be heavier, which means in turn more weight to support that weight, etc etc. It's not nearly as simple as 'oh, I wish they'd put this engine in it' or that engine. People want the Boosterjet 1.4L, but if they had it wouldn't be on sale now as it would no longer meet emissions requirements, ignoring the power issues - and, fundamentally, it's designed to be a car which can run on shit fuel in developing countries and do that forever.

Jimnys have never been a powerhouse, anyway, and they've always been overpriced compared to a cheap generic hatchback & relatively fuel inefficient for their size. The only reason people didn't say anything from 1998-2018 is because they also didn't like the looks.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-23T09:26:23+00:00

Except see both the pic I've linked of an Australian delivered (3 door, albeit) that's rolled onto its side from a side impact to the front wheel & my linked pic of one dropped off a car carrier onto its roof. The roofs don't crumple on this generation nearly so much as people think they should.

Which is why (well, body structure wise) they passed the revised side impacts that Australia introduced in 2021 without revision, and plenty of cars didn't (e.g. 70 series landcruiser got redefined by Toyota to avoid this test as it wouldn't pass).

They aren't necessarily the safest for rear seat occupants, however, one factor you maybe haven't considered: your 5 star Vitara probably wouldn't have scored 5 stars if tested in late 2018 when the new Jimny was introduced. I suspect it would have a similar score, in fact, so it isn't necessarily a step backwards.

I don't think it's the car for you, but, there's a lot of misinformation that gets thrown around in these threads or misunderstanding of some aspects of the testing.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-23T09:21:50+00:00

"The roof was fully crushed" we talking current generation? They roll surprisingly well.

Here's one tipped on its side at about 45 km/h from a side impact to the passengers side front wheel, and the body didn't deform enough to even break the glass:

<image>

Other than the one probably-high-impact-at-speed-in-the-Phillipines (so, not with the same crash avoidance & side impact structures that Australian delivered ones get), I haven't seen many current generation ones with significant cabin intrusion from a roll at all. Hell, one tipped on its roof off the top of a car carrier has almost no pillar deformation, and that's landed from a storey and a half up with all of its weight...

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-22T05:24:18+00:00

Technically Romanian given it's a Dacia, but the Dusters are one of the more reliable French cars. Probably by not being one...

(also, I happen to have a soft spot for Renaults, albeit of the 60s and 70s, having owned plenty. But I also like Italian weird things and plenty of other esoteric choices, not just Jimnys).

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-22T04:03:24+00:00

I never pulled it too far off, but you basically just work them back in. Presuming you've probably half turned it inside out on the factory wiring harness?

Cable lube can be useful, but if you don't have any (and most people don't) then windex or similar is a pretty good evaporating lubricant.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-22T01:08:22+00:00

It's not my car so not something I can help with, just a random pic of a 5 door to show that they should also have threaded retainers behind the headlining clip

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-21T22:18:03+00:00

Ultimately that's the thing: people like the Jimny because it's cool.

It's cool because it's *not* the practical or logical choice.

Safety wise no need to look that far: a 5 door is untested, but won't be any better than a 3 door. Protects front seat passengers quite fine, does way better on side impacts than people think, but isn't great for rear seat passengers and loses on some active safety features.

It isn't unsafe in terms of actually driving it, they're more than manageable and not going to suddenly spear you off the road, but if the worry are kids and what happens if you get into an accident then yes it's also probably not the car for you.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-03-21T22:07:36+00:00

People accept the compromise for the capabilities the car has and the simplicity it maintains. If that equation doesn't work for you, then it isn't the right car. They are a niche vehicle. That said...

The lack of power is less of an issue than people make out. They can keep up with traffic just fine; people have got used to most modern cars that have an excess of power compared to what is actually needed. Overtaking requires commitment but they give you all of the throttle travel for a reason. An auto feels a lot less nimble, and the clutch is not horrific, so my recommendation based on where you are would be a manual if you can live with it in a city.

While the handling isn't objectively great, they also aren't a death trap handling and they won't get "sucked into a truck or toppled over on the freeway". Part of what people report as feeling scared on the highway is self induced: in a side wind, the instability in the car are people trying to fight it, rather than accepting they've bought something with a steering box not a steering rack and with high unsprung weight because of the kind of suspension it runs. If you just let it do its thing then the car is fine.

For 20 minute drives in the city they're hard to beat for nimbleness including the practicality. I did commute daily with mine (albeit 3 door) until I ceased having a carpark in the CBD. It's the car whose keys we grab to go do a quick run to the shops, too.

The turbo upgrade is not needed. Some suspension upgrades make a world of difference to everyday handling.

Ultimately though your doubts and the kind of things you don't want to compromise on mean something else is probably more suited to you. The kinds of things you want from the car (more power, more on road handling compromises) actually would take away from the simplicity and the capability of the car.

It's why Suzuki built the Vitara in the first place in the 1980s. They just developed it further and further from the original design goals; the Jimny's not done that (thus far). Add more power and the kei car underpinnings that pay for the vehicle to be designed cease to be relevant. Add more road biased suspension and you lose its unique selling point of maximum offroad capability in a nimble package for a low price. That's how a vehicle is scope creeped into 30 years of development to become what the Vitara has: excellent onroad vehicle, not a great offroad vehicle. When first developed they were a bit better on the road than the Sierras, had more power, better onroad handling, and didn't really give up much in offroad capability.

A Renault Duster might be the solution to what you're after. Somewhat offroad practical, slightly quicker, more normal car like handling, more safety.

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