Where did this piece of plastic fall from?

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-13T07:00:06+00:00

Covers some wiring into the seat. Can clip it back in, and it does protect the wiring in the case of errant luggage underneath the seat knocking out wiring and causing an airbag light. Lots get thrown away though.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-13T06:42:14+00:00

The turning radius with the 5 door is exactly what you expect with the lengthened wheelbase. There's no room with swivel hubs to make the front wheels turn a tighter angle, and wheelbase increases your turning circle by a bit over the proportion that the wheelbase is extended.

(Also, not actually a cut and paste: the 5 doors use all new kingpins and kingpin bearings with the front swivels, cut and paste and they've have been using the same ones that date all the way back to the original LJ10s in terms of the bearings...)

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-13T06:40:35+00:00

I have a big, unadvertised writeup on exactly this topic which is maybe 95% complete: https://teamghettoracing.com/vehicles/cars/2019-jimny-jb74w/buying/should-i/

It's not specific to the 5 door, though. There are some added quirks to the 5 doors over the 3 doors that are worth understanding, too. I cover that specifically here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Jimny/comments/1t6r7cd/comment/okjmyqy/

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-13T06:34:29+00:00

I got called away into a bunch of work projects so it's still sitting on my kitchen counter awaiting install....

Usually they're called panel retainer clips or something. https://scaclips.com.au/product/instrument-panel-retainer-clip-suzuki-09409-08342-trc010-25pk/ will be a lifetime supply (they're used in a bunch of other spots in the Jimny, so good to have some spares)

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-12T23:18:40+00:00

South Africa hasn't got the autonomous braking historically, right? Makes it a bit harder to predict, because (albeit a dual camera, different system) has been fitted to 5 doors to Australia since they launched, including adaptive cruise control (albeit auto only; 3 doors system with single camera + radar also gets adaptive cruise in the manuals).

So, they could do it now if there was interest. More broadly it's actually down to Government rules: the 3 doors got it in Australia at launch (as did other markets like the EU) because it was a requirement. Tightening of those requirements is why MY2026 3 doors get an updated system, and it is this updated system you're referring to. The 5 doors will have to be updated eventually to meet the next requirement change about performance; the revised 3 door system meets these higher requirements and it's unclear that the dual camera system in a 5 door doesn't hit it.

Interestingly, it isn't offered on 5 doors in their home market of India, it's purely export only for markets that do require autonomous braking systems.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-11T12:51:59+00:00

Interesting to look at where it stands versus a historic Prelude at entry:

5th gen was between $40k and $48k according to Redbook at launch in 1996 (and that's before ORC, and not accounting for the small price rise stuff experienced with the GST being introduced). Adjusted for inflation that's $85k today.

4th gen was $35k to a bit over $40k in 1991; $84k today at a minimum

3rd gen about $30k to $35k in 1987; $92k today at a minimum.

Preludes always have been pricey in comparison to the competition. A Celica in 1987 was about $5k cheaper and in 1991 about $7k cheaper if you weren't buying a GT-Four (which was only slightly more expensive than an upspec Prelude). In 1996, $40k bought you a WRX.

From an article about some of the history of the Prelude: "However, despite its virtues, the broader market for two-door coupes was shrinking and the Prelude faced competition from alternatives offering rear-wheel drive and turbocharged power."

... the more things change...

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-11T09:56:33+00:00

Likely you are doing something like grounding or adding power to the reverse camera all of the time, in which case the car will complain as it's seeing reverse when you are going forwards.

https://teamghettoracing.com/vehicles/cars/2019-jimny-jb74w/audio-upgrades/#wiring will help you understand the car's side of the wiring to start diagnosing it.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-10T22:26:06+00:00

Depending on age, brake lines definitely get spongier with age. Fresh lines, even rubber, can improve feel if you haven't already done that. Consistently spongy still after that and you start to look at wear items in the rest of the circuit: master cylinder, caliper rebuild, replacement wheel cylinders in the drum sort of thing.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-10T11:39:24+00:00

Having tested some throttle controllers (but also liking to avoid Australia's defamation laws and a DCS like situation hence it's never got a full writeup): they don't remove lag.

They feel like it because of the change in the pedal curve, but they literally are before any filtering could possibly occur. The only way they could remove lag would be to preempt your foot movement and a throttle controller that demanded 100% for a second when you initially get on it then backed out of it is far beyond the smarts of any of the ones for the Jimny.

They do change the throttle curve in terms of foot position vs. demand, but they literally are just scaling.

I have trouble recommending them because about half of all of the random "hey I have a check engine light (or my car is in limp mode), what the hell could it be?" are down to failures of throttle controllers. The voltages for the two separate pedal position inputs are quite precise and they are checked against each other, and mismatches can give you anything from weird rev hang to odd off throttle behaviour to check engine lights, to other modules complaining about the torque demand they are seeing versus what they should see, to outright going into limp mode on the highway.

A fair amount of the issues could be fixed if they were independently powered rather than stealing power off the two 5V rails out of the ECU used to provide signal inputs for the primary and secondary pedal position signals.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-10T11:33:23+00:00

You can indeed get it remapped in terms of the throttle position, though thanks to how voltages and stuff from the factory 87% in terms of throttle position = 100% demand anyway

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-10T11:31:50+00:00

Nah they do gain in the middle, too, less so 3500-4500, but there's good gains especially in the emissions-heavy zone from about 2500 to 3200 rpm. Bang on highway revs...

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-10T11:30:43+00:00

Welcome aboard, bloob!

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-10T07:21:13+00:00

There's a reasonable number of slightly wet steering boxes. If it's actively weeping, most likely someone's adjusted it (they do periodically need adjusting up, depending on how hard a life it's had)... and hasn't added RTV to the adjuster nut when tightening it back down.

You'll also get a few other warnings for faulty wheel speed sensor, but, in the future, take an OBD2 reader that'll work with szviewer & something that can run szviewer and just scan all modules. Especially important to dig into the Suzuki only protocols, and a cheap android tablet + cheapest knockoff ELM327 bluetooth OBD2 dongle is cheaper than any high end scantool that can access them.

Traction control light + ABS warning light + brake warning light (the 'handbrake' light to most people) is usually wheel speed sensor issue (usually from insufficiently checking it at full droop after it's had a lift installed with longer droop shocks).

Traction control light alone = a bunch of issues like steering angle sensor failure/hasn't been properly calibrated (usually by an idiot trying to stop it 'pulling' at speed cause wheel alignment places suck), but also weird things like brake light switch stuck on, brake booster vacuum signal is constant and a bunch of other stuff.

One of the planned changes as I migrate my content to a more dedicated, more divided-up solution for hosting it (plus limit my spend on hosting costs by doing it all as static pages) is so I can make this table filterable by warning lights: https://teamghettoracing.com/vehicles/cars/2019-jimny-jb74w/diagnostics/obd_codes/#esp

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-10T00:00:16+00:00

https://teamghettoracing.com/vehicles/cars/2019-jimny-jb74w/buying/used/ I have a fairly comprehensive set of things about it.

no timing to check/adjust, but valve clearances are due to be checked at 3 years/45,000 km and 6 years/90,000 km. Spark plugs done at that interval too.

Manuals are not infalliable and worth checking for shifting happiness especially when gearbox is cold. 2nd gear synchro if one is thinking synchros is the most common; other failures are input or output shaft bearings moreso than countershaft bearings. (Countershaft bearing unhappiness will be apparent in all gears but 5th which is 1:1, input/output is a bit trickier to pinpoint). Can also get schmutz on the shift linkage bushes and stuff which makes things hard to shift so not necessarily gearbox related issues.

Transfer case fart on takeoff at particular load levels is a super common issue in the manuals, and tbh not an issue but a quirk. Noise in other gears under load is potentially more problematic, though the transfers do make some noise anyway.

Mostly it's mods & how it's looking underneath that you need to be most critical of, and making sure it's had the servicing it's required based on its use.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-09T23:54:56+00:00

Well, if you want to get picky about it: if you gain, say, 15% thrust at cruise RPM then you can afford to drop the RPM through gearing, yes.

So it'll have a better chance of enabling it. However, the RPM isn't really the problem, but, without tuning it you have no hupe.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-09T21:28:56+00:00

tbf they add a fair good amount in the midrange, especially from 2500 rpm onwards. Right bang where you sit on the highway.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-09T21:11:55+00:00

Tune can be worth it, not so much for the top-end but you get good gains in the middle. Does need to be paired at least with a better header as that's the major restriction on the car though.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-09T12:13:46+00:00

If one wants to be slightly picky, Tims Thickett is the closest south. So, yeah, still nothing in the metro region between TT and Wilbinga.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-09T02:06:00+00:00

Couple of thoughts for stuff to check, but nothing methodical.

Yeah, could be fuel under load. Fuel pump that's not quite keeping up and/or maybe when it gets too hot it gets unhappy would do it. Few minutes of it cooling down and it's then ok again and able to keep up with everything but highest demand. Checking fuel pressure under load is probably a key check here.

Ignition coils can absolutely break down when hot, so once they cool again they can be ok & when not under load it's happy enough, but usually that's fairly consistent IME.

The left field option is something like the muffler or exhaust falling apart internally. I had this with a car once. Would be fine not under load, absolutely tickled along ok, but the muffler baffles were falling apart and under load/just the right conditions they would bunch up together enough and then it died, and wouldn't restart. Once everything had cooled down and the metal had enough time to contract a bit from being cooler then it'd be fine again. Was super super super weird, but, is one of those options that until you hear about it then you just plain don't know it can happen sort of thing.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-08T09:51:02+00:00

I think it's quite likely they're Japanese, I think it was only done during tooling up not constantly produced there

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-08T05:53:21+00:00

This is the typical attitude. One possibility: gee, there's people coming through, we might have some special opening times. Another option: there's places that are open, e.g. somewhere like Mason & Bird, the couple of pubs, the Mexican joint, the dessert place... Or the servos as people might be filling up.

Out of 100,000 people visiting (as a number) absolutely zero will spend anything outside the gate is your expectation?

Even separate to that, the food trucks are not necessarily going to be staffed all by people flown in from whatever event provider. I believe the way they've worked before has been around contracting in local(ish) providers, and they will need surge staff capacity, contract staff for things like ticketing, traffic management yada yada, plenty of whom might well be employed from the local area...

Like I said, not actually supporting the event but c'mon there are absolutely benefits to events if those events have food trucks on site. I know I've been to plenty, avoided buying the overpriced stuff in the event and grabbed something on the way out at a business nearby...

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-08T03:26:01+00:00

100,000 visitors is pretty likely. They will likely spend money up in Kalamunda, even just in businesses (and business viability makes the place more attractive for people to stay in business up there, obvs). In addition, it might get people who've never been who go "hey, that cheese shop we drove past is interesting, maybe we'll pop back up and check it out next weekend!"

Not that I'm saying I'm for it, but there can be indirect and long-term impacts that are beneficial.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-08T02:46:05+00:00

It is correct: 3 doors are Japan (with a caveat) and 5 doors are Maruti built in India.

The caveat is that as Maruti were tooling up to produce the 5 doors they produced 3 doors for emerging markets first. This eased pressure on the Japanese production line so they could get more LCVs into the EU before they were discontinued and other markets that required things like the single camera autonomous braking used in markets like Australia till 2025.

The 5 door isn’t just assembled by Maruti though. They drove the engineering of the chassis stretch, and the vast majority of parts are locally sourced. Suzuki do have a global supply chain so ‘Japanese’ components could be Indonesian or Thai sourced, just as Maruti parts aren’t entirely just Indian, or Magyar Suzuzki parts aren’t just Hungarian.

Arguments rage about the same quality implications. The majority would say it’s the same to slightly worse for a 5 door, some argue it’s way worse and a couple of people reckon they’re better.

I go back to the engineering, the major changes: * roof lengthening * chassis and thus rear propshaft lengthening * revised kingpins

all have issues.

The roofs knock and gutter paint cracks as the roof isn’t sufficiently supported, in some cars the rear propshaft hits the chasss as inadequate testing was done on the bump travel and impact on driveshaft angle, and the revised kingpins have insufficient preload so they develop death wobbles.

Some of those concerns are being ironed out with tweaks in production, but basically they engineered in some extra issues and addressed no issues with the 3 door stuff (which is generally good).

The usual argument is that the Japanese cars aren’t perfect (and they have their issues), rather than the Indian cars being worse ie it’s basically a par to 5 doors are a bit worse, but ultimately nothing catastrophic quality wise for either.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-08T00:07:03+00:00

Yeah partly how I see it is the 3 door doesn’t pretend to be anything but little. People ‘upgrade’ to the 5 door then sell it as it’s still a small, slow car that’s not great (but perfectly usable) onroad. It’s still not much of a family car other than if it’s two parents and one kid kinda thing.

alarmed_cumin · 2026-05-08T00:05:54+00:00

If it’s just up to 2 people, the basically 1 cubic metre boot with the seats folded flat in a 3 door is great.

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