Buying a jimny - rust

Scimike wrote: came to the conclusion that underbelly rust protection is very low on Suzuki's list,

This is so true. It is something mentioned in the Celerio forum a lot. I was almost shocked but only fully appreciated the poor protection when I applied a sound deadening underseal to help kill the road noise. Suzuki should be ashamed.

That is something Suzuki Norway is better at then many other importers, all cars go straight to underbody and cavity treatment at the port of Drammen when they arrive. If kept clean and re-treatened over the years it should be able to have a rust free suzuki

I bought 4 New Jimnys over a 13 year period and I was always a bit disappointed with finding that the panel behind the grill was poorly painted and very quickly showed signs of surface rust.

Speaking of rust.... I just removed the back seats to make a bigger area for the dug (he was struggling with the bench). Now that I’ve removed the bolts through the floor there is obviously daylight. Do I need to treat around the holes, Screw the bolts back/fill them in or just leave the holes as they are? 26 years of age and fitting some wind deflectors this morning and removing seats is all the mechanical work I’ve mustered since working on go-karts as a kid! I’m ashamed...

Other things of note, I’ve got a squeal which I assumed was the belt as on inspection there’s more belt dust in the bay than is left on the belt itself. But it only seems to squeal when the lights are on which makes me think it could be something else, alternator maybe?

Aaaand last but not least the 4wd isn’t working. I press the button but literally nothing happens, no beep, no dash light and no noise from the car at all. I’m hoping it’s just a fuse but any ideas/advice is welcome!

Thanks in advance

When I removed our rear seats I put some copper grease on the bolts and put them back in. Fitted keeps the water out and you won't misplace them :laugh:

When you turn the lights on it puts load on the alternator and will make the belt slip if its not in 100% condition. So its still your belt, not the alternator.

Scimike wrote: When you turn the lights on it puts load on the alternator and will make the belt slip if its not in 100% condition. So its still your belt, not the alternator.

Schmike, my neighbours Jimny had the exact same problem, and had the belts changed twice before deducing it was the alternator that was the problem.
All worked fine when she drove off from the garage that did the job, until a few days later on one cold and rainy morning with radio, fan blower, lights and wipers running it started screaming like a banshee.
I came out to see what was wrong, and unloading the alternator by switching the ancillaries off it suddenly went quiet. I was astonished; I'd never seen anything like that before.