1996 Geo Tracker P0300

[gorkyb]

I've been busy doing house work before the summer ends, I had time this weekend to complete the exhaust work, I welded in a new cat and put a new Bosch o2 sensor after the cat. P0420 went away, I had not fired up the Tracker in about 4 weeks, it started right up yesterday. I took it to work today, no bogging of any kind just yet, nor any p0300 pending codes. I still haven't measured the MAF output yet.

[fixkick]

me 2, and a blown up home A/C evap coil. $$$

didnt you find dirt in dizzy cap. was that you?

420s those can be hard to fix. if found that driving a long ways can bake the CAT dry and it then starts working, but mine was full of pure oil and antifreeze.

also 300s might self clear, run bottle of techron through it. or just drive it, and let the normal fuel cleaners work.
good luck to you.

[gorkyb]

I found that the rtv gasket was coming apart in pieces at the distributor base, what led me to find that was that after I washed the car (outside, not engine bay) it would not want to start, the water was coming down the windshield and dripping over the distributor and getting right into it through the broken gasket. Since I took it apart and resealed it I havent had that problem again.

P0420 disappeared this morning on my way to work, I'm just wondering how long that aftermarket $79 cat will last. I also found out I must have missed to weld a spot on the exhaust pipe because when I gave it the gas this morning I could hear a leak at higher engine load. I have to check that soon.

[fixkick]

yes, the dizzy is not water proof at all , in fact ,the cap has a top vent.
i guess your hood gasket is bad. (at rear)
highvoltage and water are bad bed fellows.. LOL (all non pure water, that is....)

a leak at the rear will be safe. as Closed loop ,CO is very low, , exception is parked on a snow bank or drift, with snow up to frame rails. then a tight exh system is real handy.

I hope you can find an easy fix for this.
one car i had i could not stop leaks at the fire wall (front), so i made some RTV dams that directed the flow to away from the DIZZY.. (like a dyked river.)

cheers

[fixkick]

forgot one more Suzuki track-kick trick.
1: the firewall, all cowl vents. under those wipers. deep inside that huge PIT.
there are secret drains, that flow from center to the top rear, of each front fender. (special fender drains)
if the left one clogs, (leaves and junk?) the water can re-route, to dizzy, the water leaks in places, it must not. (it will find a way.. for sure)

if both drains, clog, it can land in passengers (LHD) feet, it can overflow the cowl coffer dam.
now it's a glory hole. not fun ever.

these vents are, oh so, easy to clog. then taking off the wipers, that is a fun trick, to clean it all out..

[gorkyb]

Very interesting, I often wondered that, great info, I will look into it

[gorkyb]

What's up guys!, code P0300 came back this past week, I think I found the issue, it seems to be a loose wire on the connector going into the distributor base, every time I touched the wires going to the plug, the car hesitated. Most of them are in bad shape anyway. What would be the best approach to fix this connector? do the wires push out? Unfortunately, the issue seems to be where the wire goes into the plug (this is all on the harness side of the connector, not on the dizzy side)

[fixkick]

Great, you found it. The 96 has many pins, none of which can be bad in any way.

get a used harness of a wrecked 96-98 (kick or tracker)
suzuki dont sell connectors and are custom to suzuki,but does (did) sell harnessed but the price is huge....$$$

find a harness, cut out this bad section, and solder it, with heat shrink , in the new section.

This damage was caused most likey by PO pulling the engine and not tying back the harness, I have huge respect for unobtanium SUZ harnesses.
I salute mine every day.! LOL !

[gorkyb]

Haha, we'll I just got done troubleshooting this, I took the connector apart by using a safety pin, small long-nose pliers and a loooot of patience, when I barely started pulling on the wires, the white and the blue/black wires broke right off the connector. With all seven wires off pulled from the connector I slid heat shrink tube on the ones that needed it. The two wires that broke off the internal crimp on female connector had to be soldiered, so I did that. It's not showing any bogging anymore, I erased the code p0300, I will drive it tomorrow to see if any other symptoms show up.

PS: if anyone else reads this and tries to do the same, be really careful. I almost broke two of the seven pins going into the connector, there are tiny holes on the connector where you can stick the pointy part of a safety pin and it will allow you to dismantle the whole connector.

[fixkick]

way to go, if the actual pins are ok, the crimps can be reused, and sure beats ,searching all over the USA for a harness.

and many yard, dont even sell them. (unless in person, pick a part) but on line/phone far away , you ask them and they say, gee we dont do those...

the FSM has page that show connector dismantling. and must be done on the 8v injector...every time....
tedious it is..

I glad you got this worked out. and thanks for the details..