What Did You Do With Your Kizashi Today?

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KuroNekko
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Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:08 pm
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krell wrote:Which ignition coil brand you ordered from RockAuto?
NGK. I strongly prefer to use NGK or Denso ignition and emissions related component on Japanese cars.
SamirD wrote:Glad to hear you cured the ignition issue, although with as meticulously as you care for your car, I wonder why it failed in the first place?
I just think the part went bad over time. It's been nearly 80,000 miles. The NGK coil came with some info in which it discussed checking for the main reasons coils fail. It's usually because the gases get past the spark plug into the coil's boot or dirt and moisture getting into the spark plug hole from the other way. It was neither case as my failed coil boot was clean and clear of any combustion residue or dirt. The spark plug was seated nicely in pristine condition. I just think this coil went bad. The car now runs very nicely again with the new coil.
SamirD wrote: Your Kyocera seems very similar in terms of durability specs to my NEC. 8-) At the time the NEC was the only one where the touchscreen worked underwater, but looks like the Kyocera has the same capability. :D Aside from not having a physical keyboard (which was one of my requirements for as much as a type on my phone), it seems like it would be the perfect upgrade for me once the NEC is no longer supported.
I can't say capacitive touchscreens of any phone work well underwater. It's because full submersion interferes with the capacitive touch functioning between one's fingers and the screen. However, the phone has a water sensor and automatically puts the phone's camera in Underwater Mode when submerged in which the physical buttons become camera functions. This way, it can be used as an underwater camera/video.
When out of water, the screen does work better than most others with gloves and while wet. My old iPhone5S wouldn't work too well when rain got on the screen but my DuraForce Pro works just fine.
The DuraForce Pro is marketed towards LEOs/first-responders, construction workers, and outdoorsy folks as it has features that appeal to all of those categories of people.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
SamirD
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KuroNekko wrote:
krell wrote:Which ignition coil brand you ordered from RockAuto?
NGK. I strongly prefer to use NGK or Denso ignition and emissions related component on Japanese cars.
SamirD wrote:Glad to hear you cured the ignition issue, although with as meticulously as you care for your car, I wonder why it failed in the first place?
I just think the part went bad over time. It's been nearly 80,000 miles. The NGK coil came with some info in which it discussed checking for the main reasons coils fail. It's usually because the gases get past the spark plug into the coil's boot or dirt and moisture getting into the spark plug hole from the other way. It was neither case as my failed coil boot was clean and clear of any combustion residue or dirt. The spark plug was seated nicely in pristine condition. I just think this coil went bad. The car now runs very nicely again with the new coil.
SamirD wrote: Your Kyocera seems very similar in terms of durability specs to my NEC. 8-) At the time the NEC was the only one where the touchscreen worked underwater, but looks like the Kyocera has the same capability. :D Aside from not having a physical keyboard (which was one of my requirements for as much as a type on my phone), it seems like it would be the perfect upgrade for me once the NEC is no longer supported.
I can't say capacitive touchscreens of any phone work well underwater. It's because full submersion interferes with the capacitive touch functioning between one's fingers and the screen. However, the phone has a water sensor and automatically puts the phone's camera in Underwater Mode when submerged in which the physical buttons become camera functions. This way, it can be used as an underwater camera/video.
When out of water, the screen does work better than most others with gloves and while wet. My old iPhone5S wouldn't work too well when rain got on the screen but my DuraForce Pro works just fine.
The DuraForce Pro is marketed towards LEOs/first-responders, construction workers, and outdoorsy folks as it has features that appeal to all of those categories of people.
I second Japanese parts for Japanese cars. But I also go one step further and recommand genuine dealer parts over the Japanese aftermarket as I've seen a noticable difference in quality with dealer parts.

Good to hear that there wasn't anything that might have caused the failure, but now with ours knocking on the 80k mark (77k presently I think), it makes me wonder if I do need to think about this. The idle isn't as smooth as it once was, but I haven't touched the plugs either, which are probably the same from the factory.

Interesting. The NEC Terrain's screen works absolutely perfectly underwater. That is pretty neat how the Kyocera adapts to water like that. I love physical buttons because I still believe in the value of tacile feedback (why I'm almost exclusively typing on an IBM Model M keyboard), so it's great to see Kyocera use those buttons underwater.
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KuroNekko
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SamirD wrote:I second Japanese parts for Japanese cars. But I also go one step further and recommand genuine dealer parts over the Japanese aftermarket as I've seen a noticable difference in quality with dealer parts.
For me, this depends on the part. In many cases, yes, the OE/genuine parts is best. However, there are many cases where the genuine parts are the problem. This was certainly the case with first-gen Mazda3 wheel bearings. Aftermarket replacements like TIMKENS were much better than the genuine parts from Mazda (made by FoMoCo). I had both dealer-installed genuine Mazda front wheel bearings go bad in less than 2 years/24,000 miles of driving after paying a lot for them to replace the original factory set. There was nothing else wrong with the car to have promoted such premature failure. They were just junk OE parts.

As for parts like ignition coils, I'm not too loyal to OE/genuine parts for the reason that the automaker doesn't make or design the coils in the first place. I've also not noticed much of a difference between quality aftermarket parts and dealer parts, especially if the aftermarket part is made by the same company that produces the dealer part like NGK or Denso.
However, the most compelling reason is price. Dealerships and sites selling OE/genuine parts charge a premium for them. For example, the ignition coils for the Kizashi are about $250 each on a genuine Suzuki parts site. I paid less than half of that for a Made in Japan NGK ignition coil on rockauto.com which I think meets OE quality.
SamirD wrote: Good to hear that there wasn't anything that might have caused the failure, but now with ours knocking on the 80k mark (77k presently I think), it makes me wonder if I do need to think about this. The idle isn't as smooth as it once was, but I haven't touched the plugs either, which are probably the same from the factory.
I wouldn't worry about it. There are many high mileage Kizashis that ran past 100,000 miles on the original ignition coils. I've actually never heard of any member here having one fail before. I think mine was just an isolated issue with one coil and not indicative of issues with these in general.
That being said, I'd replace the spark plugs at your mileage. Even as premium NGK Laser Iridiums installed at the factory, 80K miles is towards the end of those spark plug's lifespan for optimal performance.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
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LPSISRL
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SamirD wrote: Good to hear that there wasn't anything that might have caused the failure, but now with ours knocking on the 80k mark (77k presently I think), it makes me wonder if I do need to think about this. The idle isn't as smooth as it once was, but I haven't touched the plugs either, which are probably the same from the factory.
When was the last time you added something to your fuel to clean the injectors? I basically have never done that but decided to at just over 100K miles. After doing some research on which ones work best, I added some Lucasoil to the last few tanks, my idle has smoothed out a lot. Especially when the A/C is on. I don't recall anyone else having a coil that has failed so it seems that Kuro's is an anomaly.
2011 Kizashi SLS CVT (silver)
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SamirD
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KuroNekko wrote:
SamirD wrote:I second Japanese parts for Japanese cars. But I also go one step further and recommand genuine dealer parts over the Japanese aftermarket as I've seen a noticable difference in quality with dealer parts.
For me, this depends on the part. In many cases, yes, the OE/genuine parts is best. However, there are many cases where the genuine parts are the problem. This was certainly the case with first-gen Mazda3 wheel bearings. Aftermarket replacements like TIMKENS were much better than the genuine parts from Mazda (made by FoMoCo). I had both dealer-installed genuine Mazda front wheel bearings go bad in less than 2 years/24,000 miles of driving after paying a lot for them to replace the original factory set. There was nothing else wrong with the car to have promoted such premature failure. They were just junk OE parts.

As for parts like ignition coils, I'm not too loyal to OE/genuine parts for the reason that the automaker doesn't make or design the coils in the first place. I've also not noticed much of a difference between quality aftermarket parts and dealer parts, especially if the aftermarket part is made by the same company that produces the dealer part like NGK or Denso.
However, the most compelling reason is price. Dealerships and sites selling OE/genuine parts charge a premium for them. For example, the ignition coils for the Kizashi are about $250 each on a genuine Suzuki parts site. I paid less than half of that for a Made in Japan NGK ignition coil on rockauto.com which I think meets OE quality.
SamirD wrote: Good to hear that there wasn't anything that might have caused the failure, but now with ours knocking on the 80k mark (77k presently I think), it makes me wonder if I do need to think about this. The idle isn't as smooth as it once was, but I haven't touched the plugs either, which are probably the same from the factory.
I wouldn't worry about it. There are many high mileage Kizashis that ran past 100,000 miles on the original ignition coils. I've actually never heard of any member here having one fail before. I think mine was just an isolated issue with one coil and not indicative of issues with these in general.
That being said, I'd replace the spark plugs at your mileage. Even as premium NGK Laser Iridiums installed at the factory, 80K miles is towards the end of those spark plug's lifespan for optimal performance.
When I owned an auto parts distributor, I was in the unique position to see return rates on products as well as compare dealer and oem parts. While I agree with you that there are some defective dealer parts (just as there aftermarket), many times while the aftermarket part made by the same manufacturer (like NGK or Denso) looked identical, it was in the QA stage that the highest quality parts were cherry picked for dealership labeling.

Even more interesting was to compare the NGK plugs that Honda sells at the dealership vs what you can get at auto parts stores--this was a night and day difference and I saw the same difference with Mitsubishi dealer plugs too. Prior to this I was simply using auto parts store plugs by Denso or NGK, whichever was one sale.

That's a good point on the failure of the coil as I haven't heard of this here where most of our car problems are posted. I just remember how bad my luck is with things at times though (I ALWAYS get my bagged searched at the airport, ALWAYS have issues with customer service never doing what they promise, etc) and started to panic a bit.

You're right about the plugs and it's been on my Kizashi 'to do' list for a few years now. Unfortunately, the car has taken a back seat to more pressing matters. :(
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n8dogg
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Joined: Tue Jul 30, 2013 1:20 am

Front rotors and pads at about 92k miles. First time change. There was still some meat (about 5 mm) on the pads but vibration in the braking for quite some time now. Interesting though was the inside pads on both the passenger and drivers side wore unevenly. Both of them wore to about 3 mm towards the leading edge of the pad, where the wear indicator is. Got the rotors and pads together as a set from Rock Auto.
'12 Kizashi SLS AWD w/RF sound
easy to chip Vivid Red and 25% window tint
Pirelli Cinturato P7 Plus II
Power Stop Rotors and Pads
183,xxx miles and still lovin it!
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n8dogg
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New Battery. Original stopped holding a charge at 6.5 yrs and 91,000 miles.
'12 Kizashi SLS AWD w/RF sound
easy to chip Vivid Red and 25% window tint
Pirelli Cinturato P7 Plus II
Power Stop Rotors and Pads
183,xxx miles and still lovin it!
Tom Kizzie
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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:04 am

Changed sparkplugs&air filter. Will clean the interior tomorrow and try to check if I still have the original battery ..otherwise it must be almost new. (have my car since januari)
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DiggerDerrik
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Finally got around to putting LED low beams in. Hopefully this is the last time I change them. They look alright. Though I need to clear the headlight assemblies up a bit. 8 years of Pacific NW weather have made them foggy.

BEAMTECH H1 LED Headlight Bulb, 50W 6500K 8000Lumens Extremely Brigh CSP Chips Conversion Kit

For some reason they don’t list the H7’s anymore?! :o
2016 Ford Explorer XLT Ecoboost
2010 Kizashi GTS FWD
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motosonic
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DiggerDerrik wrote:Finally got around to putting LED low beams in. Hopefully this is the last time I change them. They look alright. Though I need to clear the headlight assemblies up a bit. 8 years of Pacific NW weather have made them foggy.

BEAMTECH H1 LED Headlight Bulb, 50W 6500K 8000Lumens Extremely Brigh CSP Chips Conversion Kit

For some reason they don’t list the H7’s anymore?! :o
I assume you had to make them fit? Ie cut holes or whatever? Let's see some pics
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