2012 Kizashi SE - Coolant / heating problem

murcod · Wed Oct 29, 2014 12:29 pm

That's a fantastic outcome. I honestly believe the Kizashi should have a coolant overflow bottle that has a larger "air gap" before the coolant overflows.

Wed Oct 29, 2014 2:46 pm

good news...thanks for the follow-up

Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:25 pm

murcod wrote: PS: EFI vehicles will normally cut out the A/C compressor depending on the % of throttle opening or revs and (as already noted with the Kizashi) when the engine begins to overheat.

Sorry for the delayed response to this comment, but here it is:
I'd say it's too late by the point the engine is already overheating. In high altitude mountain ascents, the coolant temp isn't really going down as you need to keep climbing the mountain. Also, I'm not sure about the Kizashi, but my former Impreza only cut the A/C when the throttle was fully depressed. You literally had to floor it for the A/C to cut out to allow full engine power. I verified this in both the owner's manual and in practice. However, it's not like you need to always floor an accelerator to climb a mountain. Therefore, the risk of overheating was always there if you left your A/C on in mountain ascents like the one I lived on.

In essence, I think it's best to avoid the risk of overheating when climbing mountains so cutting out the A/C early in the ascent is a good practice.

Carl-in-NH · Sun Nov 09, 2014 3:51 pm

So I traded in the Kizashi on a new car. Got a good deal on a 2014 model Q50 since they are trying to clear the inventory for 2015 models. Took a huge bath on the Kizashi tradein value of course.

Sorry to see the Kizashi go, as it has been a great little car for us, and we took good care of it. But, this coolant issue put the fear in us, and that combined with Suzuki leaving the US auto market just killed our confidence that we could keep the Kizashi for the long term as we had originally intended.

Thanks again for everyone's input and advice on this.

Carl

Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:18 pm

Nice! What was the trade in value of the Kizashi?

murcod · Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:18 am

Carl-in-NH wrote:So I traded in the Kizashi on a new car....
Sorry to see the Kizashi go, as it has been a great little car for us, and we took good care of it. But, this coolant issue put the fear in us.....

So what are the details of your Kizashi- so people know which one to avoid buying secondhand?

The Q50 looks like a very nice vehicle. Post up some pics sometime.