Need Suggestion on Driving With my Kizashi

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SSHREST4
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:00 pm

Hello Everyone,
I am so glad that when I had issues with my Suzuki Kizashi 2012, many people in the community reached out to help me. Thank you for your support.

However, I might need some suggestions again regarding my Kizashi. A little bit of background about my Kizashi, it's a 2012 SE modal AWD. I bought it around two years ago and it had always been a reliable car. However, in November 2019, I got a check engine light. When I used the OBD2 reader, it showed me that there was a cylinder misfire in my fourth engine. I reached out to everyone in kizashiclub and got very good suggestions. Here is the information of what I did with the car:

1) Swapped the ignition coil and spark plugs between 3rd and 4th cylinder (Still showed misfire in 4th cylinder)
=> This meant that the coil and the spark plugs were fine.

2) Bought a compression tester and checked the compression in all four cylinders
Reading: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Cylinder (150) whereas the forth cylinder had (12) which is very low.
=> There were many possibilities, broken valve or piston, blown gasket, and many more.

At this point, I gave hope and took it for inspection in my nearby engine repair shop. I told them what had happened and they said if the compression is zero it means there is problem within the engine. He told me that just to take the head off and inspect for the problem (no new parts involved), it would cost me $2300 US. I could not afford that much just for inspection as I am a student and decided not to repair it. This was all in November 2019.

Anyway, I did not have a choice as I live in a suburban area in Mississippi and the car was essential for my commute. I unplugged the ignition coil power adapter and fuel injection power adaptor from the fourth cylinder so that no fuel was going to the cylinder and no spark was created for fuel ignition. As per my logic, it was just the air that was going in the 4ht cylinder and going out. After that, I started driving the car every day and have been driving it to this day July 2020. The car shakes at idle a little bit and has a little rough pickup, but everything else runs smoothly ones I start driving.

I know the thing I am doing is not good for my car but I had no other options as an independent student paying for my college fees. Now I recently graduated this May 2020 and this pandemic thing happened. I have to move to another place but that is going to be rough for sure. I want a suggestion from Kizashi family to let me know if it is possible to commute with my Kizashi on its current state. The travel I am about to make is 623 miles or 1002.62 km.

I am not going to lie. I have been driving the car from November till now for an average of 10 hours per week basis.

Please help me with your guidance Kizashi family. THANK YOU.
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SAEED_KIZZY
Posts: 507
Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2017 2:31 pm

I am not an expert but engine with compersion problem and misfire need your attention asap if you value your car. it can lead to more damage and more cost for sure.
old tech
Posts: 705
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:51 pm
Location: n/w pennsysvania

First of all ,this is very rare for an engine failure of this type on a Kizashi so there could possibly be more to it but let’s assume what’s happened to your car is the most likely cause of no compression is a burnt exhaust valve. The compression is leaking off into the exhaust. I’ll give you an A+ for unplugging the injector and coil for the short trips for getting you by for a while but the fact is that you still aren’t running correctly and the dead cylinder is pushing an unburned mixture into the exhaust that is basically unmeasured. The Catalytic converter‘s are left to try to clean up the mess, even with unplugging the injector and coil. If the converters were still young enough they would probably get to dangerously high temperatures but I’m guessing your car has over 100,000 miles and probably couldn’t get to those kind of temperatures. I can’t advise anything but doing the fix correctly but if you do decide to drive this on a long trip, I would be trying to keep an eye on the cats and make sure they aren’t turning red heading for the nuclear meltdown and certainly avoid parking over anything flammable such as dry grass this time of year. The repair for your car isn’t that bad. The cylinder head can certainly be pulled off in the vehicle, I think it would be about a 12 hour repair with a couple hundred dollars parts is the most likely. Fix it right or switch horses and sell it as a fixer upper while it still moves .


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