The Philippines has to be the number one importer of Suzuki mini-trucks. I have lived on Mindanao for the past 6+ years since retiring from my job in Houston, Texas. Because the Philippines has a ridiculous tariff policy, mini-trucks are disassembled and shipped here as "salvage parts" and then repainted and reassembled and sold as salvage , or reconstructed vehicles. I have bought two of them. The first was a mini-van with 12 valve (660) engine and 4 wheel drive. After 3 years I sold it and about a month ago I bought a really nice 4 wheel drive pickup with the 12 valve engine. When these vehicles come here they must be converted to left-hand drive. A new dash panel is installed and everything is swapped over. Some items do not swap, so they are just left off. Things like the defroster ductwork under the dash is just thrown away, because we never need defrosters here. In most cases, things like the rubber bumpers for the drop-down bed panels are not reinstalled. The linkage for the rear tailgate is never reinstalled. Even the plastic Suzuki nameplate on the front is removed for sanding/painting and 50% of the time is not replaced. However, there are many small parts places that specialize in working on, and selling parts, for these vehicles. I went to one to buy that front emblem for my van and the girl just laid about 20-30 used ones on the counter and said pick what color you want. I asked her where she got so many and she replied "the rebuilder in Cebu". So the rebuilder takes things of to paint or convert and to save money in labor just doesn't put some things back on. THEN, as a little bonus, they sell those left-off parts to parts places. Since the import tariffs are very high, but the export tariffs are very low, it might be a good idea to think about contacting a parts place here for hard to find parts. As to an answer for a repeated question that I see here, yes there is one online place that sells complete service/shop manuals in English, but they are stupid expensive because this guy paid to have them translated from Japanese to English. If I can be of any help just let me know.
I am in Iloilo(Panay Island) and what I have found is that the Parts Houses here will not even order anything or even try to help in any manner except for some standard things such as Tires, Batteries, light bulbs, and such. There are no Suzuki Dealers here, so when I needed a Thermostat, I wound up dealing directly with jp-carparts.com in Japan. Found them to be easy to deal with and had prompt shipping and easy payment setup through Western Union. It may be just where I am located but I have found the so called parts houses less than dismal as far as customer service is concerned. Fred
You can go to "suzuki4u.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6616" and follow through to download a complete and free service manual. Depending on what you have, this may help some of you. Fred
KCCats, Just click on the link and it should download the zipped file into Adobe on your computer. I live in the Philippines. I have no idea of what is available in the states as far as salvage yards or parts houses. Sorry I can't be of more help. Fred
But I have several Suzuki vehicles and would really like to be a member of that forum. Im on the Swift forum, Honda, Several Snowmobile forums (Im a Moderator on Snowmobileforum.com) And Yes I would really like to find a parts yard here in the states!
KCCats, OK now I get what you are trying to do. Might be something to do with them being a UK based website although that normally is not a problem. I mess with quite a few different sites in different parts of the world and seem to have quite a bit of trouble with some sites but not others since I moved to the Philippines, some will not even allow access because of my location. I have just accepted the fact that some are not accessable to me. Fred
