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19 years with my beloved 1st gen Swift G13B: Overall experience & mods

23rd May 2024, 13:09 by Ananth Iyer

I have skipped one important point, the Swift is running on a modified engine which I plonked in when the car had run only about 5000 km.

BHPian keroo1099 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

With the new Swift being launched I thought it's probably a good time to post about my ancient 2005 Swift Vxi that just got home after a nip and tuck.

My memory is hazy, but I think we got the Swift because my modified 1000 was beginning to show its age and the better half and myself thought it was high time we got something new. I clearly do remember taking a test drive of the Swift and both of us instantly falling in love and booking a Vxi on the spot. I also remember it cost us a little over 6.0L !!

The car has now done close to 100k and so far has been utterly butterly reliable except for a gearbox with a slight whine from day one which Maruti refused to acknowledge. To reduce the whine I have been using a gearbox additive which has greatly reduced the noise but it's still present. Other than the gearbox the car has been through two sets of clutches (one was faulty), a couple of water pumps (notoriously bad on the G13B), a set of brake discs and a suspension overhaul (more on that later), and an AC compressor. I have been changing batteries every 5-6 years and have stuck with Amaron which has proved to be very reliable.

I have skipped one important point, the Swift is running on a modified engine which I plonked in when the car had run only about 5k. My friend had a spare G13B block which was worked on, and combined with the existing head to create an engine that had a much better bottom and top end but looked stock from the outside. I didn't want a loud exhaust so decided to retain the stock exhaust but did play around with some end cans till I grew older and wiser and went back to stock. I also managed to pick up a set of used 14" OZ rims which are still going strong on the car and are now paired with a set of Continental CC5's which will soon need to be changed.

I think about 5-6 years ago the suspension was showing its age so during the rebuild it was decided to try using the diesel Swifts struts/coils to get better handling. It worked but the car sat really high so we ended up cutting the coils to lower the ride height which is how it is now. Handling and road holding is great at highway speeds but stiff and crashy on expansion joints with this setup so it really is a compromise between ride and handling. The compressor also died about 5 years ago and has been replaced with one that comes with the 1.2L engine and isn't as good as the original. During Covid I managed to do a DIY ceramic coating with a kit from the US called AvalonKing which worked out a treat.

At some stage the headlights were upgraded to 90/100 halogens and the halogens in fogs were replaced with 4300K HIDs which were bright but scattered the light so ended up rarely using them. It was by pure luck I figured out I could fit an extra set of Sinolyn 3" fog projectors which I had when I had to remove the bumper to replace a blown bulb last year. The 'U' bracket that came with the kit was almost a direct fit and lined up with the OE housing in the bumper. Once fitted and aligned the difference was staggering with a sharp cut-off line, even spread and a huge throw. I also replaced the wiper stalk with a newer unit that has the intermittent option.

Everything was tickety-boo until last year when the car got keyed rather badly on both sides by a 'human'. I tried rubbing compound to get rid of some of the scratches which worked beautifully but I just couldn't ignore the remaining deep ones. Spoke to Nkrishnap (Krithi Car Care) and we initially decided to do 4 doors and one panel which quickly spiraled into doing the whole car when we discovered rust and other issues from previous repairs. I also ran through the numbers on how much it would cost to replace the Swift with something comparable and it quickly became clear that doing a complete makeover was the smarter option. With an old car one has to remember that costs can spiral when one opens it out and I was prepared for this as we also ended up changing a lot of parts like door hinges, window beadings, power window assemblies, etc. I also decided to redo the upholstery which was showing its age and sagging and Shiva from Imperial Leathers did a fabulous job.

In the end I think for my kind of use for a car which is used 95% in the city and rarely goes out on the highways except to do an Italian tune once in a couple of months and which still makes me happy when I take her out this was the 'sensible' option.

Enclosing some pics of the car post work.

New Stalk with intermittent option