Bought '99 Esteem - no maual or info !

[DOCTORBILL]

I just bought an '99 Esteem for $2,700 in Spokane, WA.

1.8 L, 4 cylinder, DOHC engine - 96,000 miles on it.

Looks to be from Idaho and very well taken care of - interior good, black paint
in good shape, no dings.

I found an Air filter at Schucks (FRAM CA 8052) and the Oil Filter is PH 4386.

Put on a locking Gas Cap - sugar in your gas can be disastrous.

I have no clue what the oil weight is supposed to be, but I will use 5W-30 from
WalMart for now.

Does anyone know the color codes?

DoctorBill

[Torch]

Hi,

Owner's manual for mine says to use 5w30 and the 1.8 liter is supposed to use 5 quarts.

You will also find that there is no shop manual available for this car either, to remedy this I have a growing web page devoted to just the 1999 Suzuki, it mainly only covers the 1.6 liter with automatic transmission but may have some things in common with the 1.8 liter version.

URL = http://home.comcast.net/~lj_robins/99suzuki/

You can email me with any questions you may have.

No idea about the color codes.

[DOCTORBILL]

Damn! That is quite a nice job you've done on making that site!

One does not see such things very often....!

I took a picture of mine (my 18 year old daughter's car for school, actually).
This is it in the used car lot - more later... got it for $2,700 (10% off window price)



Just changed the oil - both FRAM oil and air filters available here in Spokane at Schuck's.

I normally use WalMart's oil filters (made by Bosch!) but had bought the 1.6 L size filter by mistake.

No air filter at WalMart, so I went to Schucks for the Air Filter -then I realized that
I had the 1.8 L engine - so bought a FRAM oil filter just this once at Schucks!

Used WalMart 5W-30 motor oil. The engine made a horrible grinding noise for one second when I started it up
after adding the oil. The oil pump being empty - maybe?

The air filter was already new. The car was obviously taken care of by the previous owner - a "Little old lady" perhaps?

I called the Local Suzuki dealer - they want $330 P&L to change the Timing Belt.
Considering that I am 64 and all the work your site shows I'd have to do, maybe $330 isn't that bad....(!)

I wish I could contact the previous owner to see if the Timing Belt has been changed by them...It could be relatively new!

Any way to quickly check it's condition w/o taking everything apart?

ALSO - do you know if the 1.8 L DOHC engine is an "Interference" engine or a "Non-Interference" engine?

DoctorBill

[Torch]

On the 1.6 there isn't any way to look at the belt without taking the timing belt cover off. The 1.8 (being a DOHC) is either going to have one very long belt or two belts that somehow have a pulley on common, I'm not sure how that is setup. But to answer your question, I don't know how you can check the belt on the 1.8 liter.

Funny, my dad is about your age, he would probably agree with you that the $330 may not be that bad, he doesn't do all the work on his truck that he used to, he just takes it to a garage now.

I don't know if your engine is interference or not.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[DOCTORBILL]

Another thing has popped up...

My wife has been driving my daughter around (still hasn't gotten her learner's permit).

They tell me that the headlights are quite dim - yellow.

I suspect the previous owner had not installed HALOGEN headlights!...if that is possible!?

I looked at the headlights and cannot find any way to adjust them and don't
see how to replace them!





The large outer cover has no visible screws or screw holes like most cars have.

Can you tell me how that is done and how I could AIM them once HALOGENs are installed?

Both my wife and my daughter are in love with this car!

They think the Speedometer is off - a lot of folks passing on the 55 mph highway.

I'll check to see if 55 mph takes 65 seconds to go a mile....using the mile posts.

ALSO - the windshield has a stone chip hole, so today I'll use that syringe kit setup I had
bought at Harbor Freight with instant glue and fill it to stop it from spreading.

How does one replace the spark plugs on this engine....the top of the engine
looks like it was made on Mars! I've never seen anything like this!





DoctorBill

Here is an English Esteem Forum !
In the UK the Esteem is called a Baleno !
http://www.clubaleno.co.uk/Phase_6/pages/news.htm

[Torch]

Ok, stuff I can actually help you with...

Head lights, yeah, they are odd to being with. What possibly happened is someone wanted to be cool and put colored head lights in there in place of the stock halogen lights.

Driver's side...

1 - Remove the battery.
2 - In the 2nd picture you posted, that small round electrical connector that disappears into all the rubber... Put two fingers on each side of it, then wiggle and pull at the same time until it comes off.
3 - The round thing that you are looking at now around the electrical connector, carefully peal it off around the edges, eventually it will come off.
4 - There is that odd spring looking thing that you should now be looking at, take a picture of it so you can figure out how it is supposed to look when it goes back on, it is a royal pain it go back on but it will. Remove the spring thing and then pull the light bulb out, it is actually quite small.

Passenger side...

1 - Remove the air filter box.
2 - Instructions are the same as above.

There isn't any way to aim them, they are automatically locked in place where they should be once the spring thing has been reinstalled.

Doing 55 around here will get you passed on any day of the week, but seriously, try the mile post thing, you could also have someone else get up to 55 and then see if your car does the same speed according to your speedometer.

Spark plugs...

Suzuki was the first engine I had ever seen that looks as exotic as they do, prior to that everything I worked on was old school distributors. Getting the spark plugs out is actually quite easy, I have the 1.6 which is setup differently than the 1.8, on the 1.8 those four black things on top of the valve cover with the gray electrical connectors are your ignition coils (yes there are four of them) unplug all the gray connectors then unbolt the coils, pull and wiggle them at the same time they should just pop right out. Your spark plugs are at the bottom of the holes, and yes you do not have any spark plug wires :-)

They are in love with the car? So am I, I love this car, my wife eventually wants to get rid of it due to high mileage but I'm like "It still runs fine", so I never plan on getting rid of this car if I can help it.

Hope this helped!

[DOCTORBILL]

Thank you for the info on replacing the headlights!

I will have a go at them in a while.

I noticed some things on the top of the Headlight Frame on our 1.8 L Esteem.

Here is a photo - notice the curved arrows on the left and right sides.



The left ones say 'up' - 'dwn' and the right ones say "R' - 'L'....adjustment instructions?

I think that maybe underneath the plastic cover must be something to adjust the Headlights Aim.

Have you ever removed that large Tork's Head Screw at the top?

Does your 1.6 L have these marks?

What would 1.3% mean in the middle? Odd stuff......

DoctorBill

PS - next time you reply, please go into the Title and add an "n" to maual...!
Didn't notice it before I hit Submit...

[Torch]

I'm not sure what the 1.3% means.

From what I could find to adjust the headlights on the 1.8 there is a little hole up behind the headlight that you can stick a screw driver down into, it should be more or less back a little ways from a sight glass with a little O with a little red line that you are supposed to line up with a little black line.

I'm not sure if mine has these marks or not, I have never noticed them if they are there, but I have never had to adjust mine so they could very well be there.

Apparently the head lights on the 1.8 came in two styles, a one piece with one bolt on top (the one you mentioned) then two smaller nuts on the back side, probably 10mm.

The other style is a two piece with one bolt on top and two nuts on the back holding the head light part on, and another bolt on top and one nut on the back of the turn signal part of the shell, either way they both don't look very hard to remove.

[DOCTORBILL]

We have had this car just a few days now.

I took the car out and drove it in the dark last night - I think the Headlights are
just fine brightness wise.

They could be aimed a bit higher as the dims are not high enough.

I'll get out the flashlight and look for those holes behind the Headlight.

According to Schucks Web Site, there are single bulbs that go into the backside
called Sylvania Capsule Halogens (9003XV)
http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductL...pe=301&PTSet=A

or whole "H4" headlights for this model....(403654HL)
http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductD...umber=403654HL
Called an "H4 Conversion Headlamp"

DoctorBill

[Torch]

The holes to adjust the head lights should be up on top with the screw driver going down into the hole, they are not actually "behind" the head lights.

[Crvett69]

you can buy a Pentius UltraFLOW PLB4386 oil filter at the counter at schucks for about $2.25. you will have to ask for it at the counter though. the air filter is Pentius UltraFLOW PAB8052, should run about $6. might have to order it

[DOCTORBILL]

I recently purchased a '97 Suzuki Sport Sidekick with the 1.8 L 4 cylinder engine
in it.

Is that exactly the same engine as in our '99 1.8 L SUZUKI ESTEEM ?

DoctorBill