K6a HA22s rattle.

[DANGO_MASTA]

Hi all,

Have been driving a Suzuki alto works ha22S recently here in Japan land. It's been great fun and has reliably gotten me over 5000 kms in the 6-7 weeks I have had it. Suzuki sure know how to make little cars fun.

However, the little critter has a rather nasty rattle that presents itself at idle when warm / hot. Never does it when cold, but after a bit of a flogging or long periods of operation it pops up pretty reliably. a little throttle to raise the RPM even just a hundred or so rpm usually stops it, but it sounds like it builds a bit of a resonance and comes back when you let it drop back to idle. The sound seems to come from the right hand side, quite low in the engine bay but I haven't had any luck locating exactly where. See attached video for a particularly severe example. It's not quite that loud in real life, but definitely noticeable.

Currently has about 4000 km old mobile1 10-30 in it, which it has plenty of. Can't remember if it had said noise on the old oil as one of the first things I did when I got home was swap out the oil and filter (Japan seems to still have a fondness for old Dino oil, which to me seems less than great in the island of the turbo.)

Anyone with K6A experience (or more general experience) than me have any idea what could be the source? And if it's something to care about or just another "old car rattle" to ignore like on my MX-5 back home?

https://youtu.be/M6e2qHr1LPk

[Brayden]

Sounds like a loose/broken exhaust bracket or clamp, or something else loose and knocking on the exhaust pipe.

[DANGO_MASTA]

Thanks Brayden. If I manage to get under the car sometime (not set up here at all for working on cars unfortunately, even an oil change requires rolling about in mud) i will post back with anything i find.

Also, you seem to be someone knowledgeable about "warming up" Suzuki motors so you might know this. Is there a fairly easy way to remove the boost andfuel cut on the k6A? I know a SS ecu would do the trick, but if I'm not mistaken they never made an ECU for the HA22S pre 2001. The post 2001 ECUs have a different pin arrangement and so are incompatible if I remember / understood correctly.

[Brayden]

Fuel cut defenders work on the majority of ECUs, and should be pretty easy to find in Japan.