Beware 1st gen oil cooler line failures

[Inahurry]

I have a 00 bandit (the last of the the first gen series) that has racked up a few miles (45k).  I always had it dealer serviced and all the maintenance completed in a timely fashion.  While my son was riding it, at around 40k miles with his lil cutie on the back, a small fire broke out near the exhaust.  Since he was in town and got "scared" he dumped the bike and his lill cutie on the crete.  Turned out that the oil cooler line ruptured and the header was hot enough to ignite the oil and provided a sunburn to his left forearm.  Got it replaced (Suzuki said they had never heard of that happening) and then approximately 150 miles later the other line ruptured while I was riding.  Since I was going a bit faster than my son it did not catch fire, but made for a hefty smoke screen and lil slippery rear wheel.  Had it not been for my riding partner signaling to pull over.  I assume I would have eventually stopped when the rear tire slipped out from under me or the engine ran out of oil.  So long story with the morals being if one fails the other is not far behind, and just because they made it doesn't mean they can keep it running, and if you are up there in miles you might replace the factory lines at 25-30k miles to be safe.  Has this happened to anyone else?

[B6mick]

No and mine has 135,000 kms on it, half of which where as a courier bike.

[terrebandit]

Just curious but did you have an aftermarket header on the bike?

I ran a HS stepped header for a while and the oil line was touching the header.  I had to bend it out of the way to get clearance and to avoid what happened to you.

Dave

[Inahurry]

Yeah I had a header put on at about 20k...lines were not touching but may have contributed to the issue as the lines are located between the tubes.  Maybe the answer is ss lines?

[terrebandit]

All you need is about 1/8 inch ( approx 3 mm) clearance between the line and the header and you will be good to go.  If it touches the line, its toast.

Dave

[Inahurry]

Mine were not touching....but I thought I would throw this circumstance out there so everyone would be aware of it...On the bright side..a hacksaw, some fuel line and a couple hose clamps an oil refill and I was back on the road within an hour.  And thanks goes out to all those bikers that stopped to helpout.