Kizashi Club

My clutch pedal has developed a 'click' over the last few weeks. It happens as I begin to push in the clutch, right at the top of the pedal travel. It sounds as if it's maybe catching on something, I've had a look but can't see what could be causing it.

Has anybody experienced this in their Kizashi?

I have this too. We have a RHD 2010 XLS. Clicked for a bit. Then the friction point moved closer to the floor. Took a look and the clutch pedal box assembly has broken a spot weld. This may have been the clicking. The box had also started to collapse which is what moved the friction point. Now in an accident this assembly is supposed to collapse. I believe is it is probably a bit on the flimsy side to begin with. Suzuki Australia had not had this happen before and the OP question is the only thing close that I have seen. I have managed to get the part in through a mechanic friend and should find out sometime soon how the fitting of it goes. Will post back later.

This happens in many brands and is usually the pedal bracket

Hi, klvn8r. Did you have any success changing the clutch pedal box? Please check your PM.

Cheers!

Probably time for an update.

I did respond to the PMs from GTR. Pretty much identical failure there. Curious how the repair went.
I also notice quite a few people talking in forums about clutch issues and hoping for a recall. Problem I see with a recall is it probably needs to pose a safety risk and to get it noticed it might need to affect more than the 12 of us who bought the manual model. I suppose you could argue the car could stop in traffic and that could be a safety risk. Don't know here so speculating.

How did the box replacement go? I noticed that the replacement part did have slightly better welds. I was not comfortable at the time installing so I opted to pay someone to install it for me. They quoted a ridiculous price for stripping the dash and welding the broken strap that went from the box to the intrusion bar. In the end we decided to leave it without the strap and see how long it lasted. Initially it upset the starting system. The mechanic could not work it out so I decided I would take a look (have a background in electronics engineering). It needed a cable to join the stub coming off the intrusion bar to the box to earth out the switches. Might have been because the replacement part was painted but probably the coating in the engine bay.

The repair lasted almost a year.

Being quite annoyed about it failing again I thought I would have a go myself this time.
I spent a couple of hours this morning removing it (argh upside down fumbling in dash). Removing a cover and part of a vent is enough to get clearance to get the box and pedal out. Nuts for the master are easy to get to from under the bonnet (be careful not to drop as I don't know where they would go) and once the clevis pin is removed you can pull the master and rod into the engine bay without too much grazed knuckles and swearing. There are two cables that plug into the interlock switches (one interlock to detect the clutch is down for starting and the other for the cruise control to cut it when you use the clutch).

I now had a car with two pedals. My daughter took a photo of the "automatic conversion" pedals and the spare part I was holding.

Inspecting the box I could see it had torn away in two places again.
I carefully marked the switch positions and stripped out the box. Pedal, pinion, spring etc removed.

I fired up the stick welder clamped and welded it. Not the nicest welds but enough to get it back to the right shape.
Installing it back in the car was much easier than removing.

I chose to pack under the base where it touches the firewall at the bottom right. Used a large hex nut as a spacer to try and reduce the flex a bit.
The strap I am guessing was meant to reduce the flex but was clearly not enough. The square base does not sit flat on the firewall and the bolts are on diagonals. There is a spacer strap that fills in between the bolts which supports towards the top left corner. The bottom right corner hangs in the air and that is probably what is the issue. Still wondering why it needed spacing from the firewall in the first place.

Now for a test.

It works like a new one again!

Will see how long it lasts this time.
To be continued...

Thanks for the update. I need to find that clutch box and add some support before it breaks.

Seems to be right hand drive cars.

Woodie wrote:Seems to be right hand drive cars.

I was thinking this for a while too, but didn't mention it given not everyone explicitly stated that they drive RHD models. However, it really seems to only be an issue with them. I haven't come across any complaints of LHD models with this issue. I've got around 47,500 miles (~76,500 km) on my LHD manual Kizashi with no issues whatsoever with the clutch.

Woodie wrote:Seems to be right hand drive cars.

So the Kizashi's in the United States have not had this problem?

Actually it may very likely just be the RHD model affected.
My wife suggested this thought while I was speculating on why it was breaking.
So I wonder how many RHD manual ones they sold then?