2008 Suzuki Sx4: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2008 Suzuki Sx4
On the 2008 Suzuki Sx4, the failure owners report most often is airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault, and the reports cluster around 55,000 miles. The earliest to appear is seat belt or retractor failure, reported by a median of 50,000 miles. Overall it scores 67 out of 100, high risk for a 2008.
High risk for a 2008 — 212th riskiest of the 356 2008 vehicles we can rate. 140 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork.
The failures owners actually file about
Owners have reported 27 named failure modes on the 2008 Suzuki Sx4, and the three most-reported carry 41% of everything filed.
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault leads with 36 reports, about 2.1 per 1,000 vehicles and with the middle half of reports between 40k to 62,500 miles.
Seat belt or retractor failure follows with 14 reports, usually reported between 40k to 115,000 miles.
Other electrical problem follows with 8 reports, median 15,000 miles.
By system, the reports fall mostly into airbag (52), electrical (15) and body (6).
The mileage the reports cluster at
107 of the reports on the 2008 Suzuki Sx4 came with an odometer reading, and half of those were filed before 50,000 miles.
Cumulatively, 46% by 50,000 miles and 92% by 100,000 miles of the dated reports had been filed.
The busiest stretch is between 50,000 and 60,000 miles, which alone holds 24% of the dated reports.
27% of the dated reports were filed below 36,000 miles.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
Showing the 12 most-reported failure modes of 27. The full list is in the table below.
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
- Dashed the median reported mileage
How bad it is when it goes
Across the named modes, 8 mention a crash, 3 a fire and 6 an injury. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 4.44, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault at $300–$1,600, seat belt or retractor failure at $200–$900, other electrical problem at $250–$2,000 and other body or interior problem at $200–$2,000. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
6% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault | airbag | 36 | 28 | 40k | 56k | 63k | 2.1 | $300–$1,600 | High |
| Seat belt or retractor failure | airbag | 14 | 10 | 40k | 50k | 113k | 0.8 | $200–$900 | High |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 8 | 6 | — | 15k | — | 0.5 | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other body or interior problem | body | 6 | 3 | — | 58k | — | 0.3 | $200–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Engine sensor failure | electrical | 3 | 3 | — | 94k | — | 0.2 | $180–$900 | Moderate |
| Tail light, brake light or signal failure | lighting | 3 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.2 | $100–$900 | Moderate |
| Other brake problem | brakes | 3 | 3 | — | 3k | — | 0.2 | $300–$1,800 | High |
| CV axle or driveshaft failure | drivetrain | 2 | 2 | — | 33k | — | 0.1 | $450–$2,200 | High |
| Wiring harness or short circuit | electrical | 2 | 2 | — | 50k | — | 0.1 | $400–$3,500 | High |
| Airbag failed to deploy in a crash | airbag | 2 | 2 | — | 34k | — | 0.1 | $1,000–$5,000 | Critical |
| Wiper or washer failure | glass | 2 | 1 | — | 3k | — | 0.1 | $120–$800 | Moderate |
| Other engine problem | engine | 2 | 2 | — | 40k | — | 0.1 | $300–$4,000 | High |
| Other wheel or tire problem | wheels | 2 | 2 | — | 17k | — | 0.1 | $200–$1,500 | High |
| Other visibility problem | glass | 2 | 2 | — | 39k | — | 0.1 | $150–$1,400 | Moderate |
| Complete engine failure or seizure | engine | 1 | 1 | — | 91k | — | 0.1 | $4,500–$12,000 | Critical |
| Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure | engine | 1 | 1 | — | 59k | — | 0.1 | $1,200–$4,500 | Critical |
| No-start or intermittent start failure | engine | 1 | 1 | — | 102k | — | 0.1 | $200–$1,800 | Moderate |
| Wheel bearing or hub failure | drivetrain | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.1 | $350–$1,200 | Moderate |
| Fuel pump failure | fuel | 1 | 1 | — | 490 | — | 0.1 | $600–$2,600 | High |
| Alternator or charging system failure | electrical | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.1 | $450–$1,600 | High |
| Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure | electrical | 1 | 1 | — | 28k | — | 0.1 | $700–$3,000 | High |
| Instrument cluster or gauge failure | infotainment | 1 | 1 | — | 57k | — | 0.1 | $350–$1,400 | Moderate |
| Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure | suspension | 1 | 1 | — | 95k | — | 0.1 | $400–$2,200 | High |
| Other powertrain problem | transmission | 1 | 1 | — | 85k | — | 0.1 | $400–$4,500 | High |
| Other fuel system problem | fuel | 1 | 1 | — | 12k | — | 0.1 | $300–$2,200 | High |
| Other steering problem | steering | 1 | 1 | — | 78k | — | 0.1 | $350–$2,400 | High |
| Other speed control problem | adas | 1 | 1 | — | 37k | — | 0.1 | $250–$2,000 | Critical |
| Unclassified problem | other | 40 | 30 | 36k | 57k | 67k | 2.3 | — | Moderate |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2008 Suzuki Sx4 draws about 8.0 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 86th percentile of complaint rates among 2008 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 17,396 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2008 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
At an early mileage (~18000 mi) the passengers airbag when on indicating the airbag was disabled. I took the car to the dealer but they said if it was not on at that time, they could do anything. The problem persisted until now that the main panel airbag light is permanently on. I called the dealer and they said there is no longer under warranty due to the mileage. I also started a research on this specific topic on this car model and it seems it is a common issue among them. Since the dealer rep. Said no a single airbag will deploy in an accident, I suggest NHTSA to investigate this problem as a manufacturers defect.
2008 suzuki sx4 crossover driver airbag light and passenger seatbelt light are on constantly. Contacted suzuki customer service, took vehicle to authorized suzuki dealership. Diagnosed problem, will cost over 2200 to make vehicle safe to operate. Service man informed us none of the airbags will function until 2200$ repairs are made. Car is not under warranty. If I choose to have the passenger seat cushion replaced this will make the third seat cushion as it has been replaced another time already under warranty. Suzuki customer service told me since car is out of warranty I have to pay. They told me to have service manager contact their technical rep and open a case and maybe they might help me in some unspecified way. Suzuki dealership would not give us a loaner car and suzuki customer service would not authorize loaner vehicle. We have to drive this little deathtrap without any airbags. If you go online and type in suzuki sx4 airbag light on you see this is a widespread problem. We can`t afford to pay for another airbag sensor that will only last a short time and then leave us vulnerable and unprotected. Please help us and others…
Seat belt or retractor failure
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 suzuki sx4. The contact stated that when a passenger sat in the front passenger seat the air bag indicator light illuminated on the dashboard which means the air bag would not deploy in the event of a crash. The seat belt indicator light also illuminated on the dashboard. Both lights continued to illuminate and the vehicle was eventually taken to an authorized dealer, where the indicator lights were reset. The failure recurred moments after the lights were reset and the vehicle was taken back to an authorized dealer.the contact was informed the passenger seat bottom needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not serviced. The failure mileage was 50,000 and the current mileage was 66,000. .
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 suzuki sx4. The contact stated that when a passenger sat in the front passenger seat the air bag indicator light illuminated on the dashboard which means the air bag would not deploy in the event of a crash. The seat belt indicator light also illuminated on the dashboard. Both lights continued to illuminate and the vehicle was eventually taken to an authorized dealer, where the indicator lights were reset. The failure recurred moments after the lights were reset and the vehicle was taken back to an authorized dealer.the contact was informed the passenger seat bottom needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not serviced. The failure mileage was 50,000 and the current mileage was 66,000. .
Other electrical problem
The car doesn't start when I turn the key, if its too hot out or cold out. It takes 30 minutes of turning the key over before the car will start. I have brought it into the dealership 4 or 5 times now, and they put a downward tail pipe on it, but still hasn't fixed the problem. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 sx4 crossover. The windshield wipers and the rear view mirror vibrate when driving. The windshield wipers were replaced, but the failure resurfaced. Also the front tires and the driver-side brakes have prematurely failed . The dealer cannot identify the cause of the failure. The current mileage was 31,000. The failure mileage was 3,000.
Recalls on the 2008 model year
NHTSA has issued 3 recall campaigns covering the 2008 Suzuki Sx4, affecting an estimated 38,107 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover air bags, visibility:rearview mirrors/devices:exterior and equipment:electrical:navigational system(global positioning . Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
Recalls also distort complaint counts. Publicity about a campaign reminds owners that complaining is possible, so reports for a recalled component often spike after the recall rather than before it.
AIR BAGS
189,901 vehicles 2013-09-06- Defect
- Suzuki Motor of America, Inc. (Suzuki) is recalling certain model year 2006-2011 Grand Vitara and 2007-2011 SX4 vehicles. In the affected vehicles, over time, the OCS sensor mat installed in the front passenger seat may fail due to repeated flexing of the mat from use of the seat. As a result, during a crash necessitating deployment, the air bag will deploy regardless of whether the front seat occupant is an adult or a child.
- Consequence
- Air bag deployment with a child in the front passenger side seat increases the risk of injury to that child.
- Remedy
- Suzuki will notify owners and dealers will replace the front passenger seat cushion assembly (which includes the OCS sensor mat) free of charge. Sufficient quantities of parts are not currently available to fix all of the affected vehicles. Owners will be notified of the recall in October 2013 and will receive a second notification when parts are available to have their vehicle repaired. The recall began on May 23, 2014. Owners may contact Suzuki at 1-800-934-0934. Suzuki's recall campaign number is VD.
VISIBILITY:REARVIEW MIRRORS/DEVICES:EXTERIOR
69,587 vehicles 2010-10-19- Defect
- Suzuki is recalling certain model year 2007 sx4 hatchback and model year 2008-2010 sx4 hatchback and sedan passenger vehicles. The three screws that secure each of the outside rear view mirrors to the mirror base can come loose due to vibration.
- Consequence
- If a rear view mirror falls off the vehicle the driver will have reduced visibility increasing the risk of a crash.
- Remedy
- Dealers will replace the base screws on both outer rear view mirrors free of charge. The safety recall began on november 5, 2010. Owners may contact suzuki at 1-887-697-8985 or visit suzuki's website at http://www.suzukiauto.com.
EQUIPMENT:ELECTRICAL:NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEM(GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM)
20,692 vehicles 2010-09-01- Defect
- Suzuki is recalling certain model year 2008 through 2010 sx4, 2010 grand vitara, and 2009 through 2010 equator vehicles that were equipped with a garmin nuvi model 750, 760, and 765 navigation system. The batteries contained in the affected gps units can overheat.
- Consequence
- Overheated batteries could result in a fire.
- Remedy
- Suzuki will notify owners and the repairs will be performed by garmin technicians by replacing the battery and inserting a spacer on top of the battery free of charge. The safety recall began on september 24, 2010. Owners may contact garmin directly at 1-866-957-1981 or suzuki at 1-887-697-8985. Owners may also visit garmin's website at www.garmin.com/nuvibatterypcbrecall.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
How it ranks in the 2008 field
The score at the top of the page, placed among its peers. The zones are the same thresholds the scorer applies, read out of the scorer itself, so the picture and the band word cannot disagree.
Scores are ranked within the model year, never across years, because an older car has had longer to accumulate reports.
- Left fewer and less serious reports
- Right more, or worse
- Marker this vehicle
How 2008 compares with the other years
High risk for a 2008 — 212th riskiest of the 356 2008 vehicles we can rate. Every score on this site is a rank inside its own model year, which is what makes a 2004 and a 2019 comparable at all.
Across the 7 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2007 comes out best at 63 and 2010 worst at 76, with 2008 itself at 67.
If the model year is negotiable, 2007 scores lower than 2008 by a margin worth acting on. Same body, same engines, different luck — usually a supplier change or a mid-cycle fix, which the complaint data can show but never explain.
Within the 2007–2013 generation specifically, 2007 is the strongest year at 63 and 2010 the weakest at 76.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Within the 2007-2013 generation, 2007 Suzuki Sx4 scores best at 63 and 2010 Suzuki Sx4 worst at 76.
What to look at before buying one
The mileages below are where the first quarter of reports for each mode had already been filed, which makes them the point at which a fault is worth looking for rather than the point at which it happens: seat belt or retractor failure from about 40k and airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault from about 40k.
On a 2008 Suzuki Sx4 with more miles than that on it, the useful question to put to a seller or a mechanic is whether seat belt or retractor failure has been dealt with, and if so with what parts and at whose expense. A car that has already had the repair is in a different position from one that has not.
None of this is a diagnosis. It is a list of what other owners of the same model year reported, ordered by when they reported it, which is a good place to point an inspection and a poor place to stop.
The limits of complaint data
140 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 140 reports, 107 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 76% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 2008 Suzuki Sx4?
The most-reported failures are airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault (36 reports, median 55,000 miles), seat belt or retractor failure (14 reports, median 50,000 miles) and other electrical problem (8 reports, median 15,000 miles). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
At what mileage do 2008 Suzuki Sx4 problems start?
Seat belt or retractor failure is the earliest failure mode to show up, with a median reported mileage of 50,000 miles and a quarter of reports before 40,000 miles. Across all failure modes on this year, the median report sits at 50,000 miles.
Is the 2008 Suzuki Sx4 reliable?
It scores 67 out of 100 on our risk index, which is high — 212th riskiest of the 356 2008 vehicles we can rate. The score is a comparison against other 2008 vehicles, not a prediction about any individual car, and it is built from complaint rates, severity and how early failures appear.
Which year of the Suzuki Sx4 is best?
Within the 2007–2013 generation, 2007 scores best at 63 out of 100 and 2010 worst at 76. Same body, same engines, different luck.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed