Author Topic: Continuing Saga of Oil Burning Bandit (Read 56938 times)

FlyingTurtle1 · « **on:** March 23, 2005, 11:47:45 PM »

Well Folks

Here's the continuing story of my Oil Burner....I was supposed to have my bike back from the dealer last week( they've had it for 8 weeks now) as the time for thier call came and went I got a little upset and was afraid to call them for fear of what I might say, so I had my better and calmer half call them. They told her that the parts needing machined(cylinder) had been sent to the machine shop, that's funny she said last friday you just got them back from the machine shop. Well you'll need to talk to the service manager the guy says, OK have him call me. 2 and 1/2 hours later no call. My wife calls them back...yes says the service manager your parts were sent back to the machine shop because they weren't done right. OK when can we expect the bike to be done maybe wendesday (today) or thursday. NO call today. But I'm getting ahead of myself...Monday the 21st I decide to call the extended warranty folks to see if they are going to extend my warranty sense this is the 3rd time I've had this motor gone thru...well no they say your warranty expires tomorrow and as the warranty is a "point of sale" item it cannot be extended any more maybe you should call Suzuki. OK I ask why are you paying all this money to rebuild instead of putting in a new motor? Because he says Suzuki will NOT sell any motors to thier dealers. This suprised me but as I found out later almost NO major manufacture will sell a new motorcycle engine(Harley being the exception). So I call Suzuki and ask can I get a warranty other then the dealers 30 day labor/90 days parts deal he says NO your way past our warranty you should call SEP (Suzuki Exteneded Protection or GE Warranty the company that holds the warranty). You can see where this is going right?
Monday evening I called a lawyer... I'm asking for a 1 year warranty. a new bike or my money back. I like my Bandit folks but I gotta tell you if I get my money back Suzuki will Never see another penny from me or mine. Oh and just so you know my Daughter '03 SV650, my Son '00 TL1000R... my daughter's boyfriend RACES '04 GSXR600. Anyway thank you all for letting me rant.
Almost forgot to add...if Suzuki doesn't trust thier dealers enough to extend a warranty on thier motors why should I trust them....????

PeteSC · « **Reply #1 on:** March 24, 2005, 08:02:50 AM »

Good luck, Terry.
I made this topic 'sticky' so it can draw some attention.
Suzuki needs to realize we like the bikes, and are willing to be 'brand loyal', but not to the extent of getting screwed.

Swamp Rat · « **Reply #2 on:** March 24, 2005, 10:35:29 AM »

A simular incident is happening to a friend of mine and Ford. He bought an 04 f-3500 deisel. He was getting oil blow back in his radiator. Turned out one of the motor heads had warped because the factory over torqued the head bolt and it stripped out. They replaced his engine with a remanufactured engine instead of a new engine. He was quite miffed about this and wanted them to replace it with a new one...they said it's their polcy to replace with rebuilt engines not new ones. They refuse to replace the engine with a new one and they won't extend his warranty. They are basically telling him "tuff cookies just live with it". Just one of the reasons why I'm a Dodge man. The other being that I have 328,000 mile on my Dakota V6 and it's still running strong.

tacoman · « **Reply #3 on:** March 24, 2005, 01:45:17 PM »

Warranty stuff is tough because it all involves insurance. I think in any case the squeaky wheel will get the grease. I know there's a lot of infighting between manuf. and dealers. Keep complaining and send a lawyer letter and I would think things would get handled. As for the buddy with the Ford, Ford actually had to buy back a lot of '04 trucks due to the problems with the new 6.0 diesel. My golden rule, NEVER buy a first year product out of Detroit. Wait a few years to get the bugs worked out.

99er · « **Reply #4 on:** March 24, 2005, 02:16:06 PM »

Good ole' Ford!
If you own a 96-99 SHO, you should know that it's only matter of time until the engine grenades. The cam gear walks on the cam until it slips and plants a few valves into the pistons.
Since Ford only made 20,000 of these cars, they're waiting until they all grenade and will be done with the complaints. Check eBay for the latest victim. They didn't count on a class action suit, however.
Buy one cheap and have the cams welded. A great car and they're cheap considering this small reliability issue...

Ford or Suzuki, dealers are trash. Sorry for your predicament.
Marc/Atlanta
97 TR SHO
99 Bandit

tacoman · « **Reply #5 on:** March 25, 2005, 04:06:46 PM »

All manufacturers hate warranty claims, it comes right out of the bottom line. I can't always blame them though. Sure there are some lemons out there, but there's also a lot of neglectful, idiot owners out there. I talked to a Ford service manager and its amazing how many cars come in with 20-30,000 miles on them and the motors toast. People want the engine replaced because they never thought to change the oil!

terrebandit · « **Reply #6 on:** March 26, 2005, 11:52:27 AM »

I'm sorry that you are having to go through all this. I know lots of guys that have struggled through this oil burning issue on their 2G bandits.

I even did a survey on it abut 3 years ago....

http://groups.msn.com/DavesBanditHomePage/20012002banditsurvey.msnw

I was one of the lucky ones as mine only burned about a quart every oil change. Others were in much worse shape than me and did what you did. In all cases I know it was a fricking struggle to get this warrenty work done. Its just not right that people are being treated this way by Suzuki. I am hugely dissapointed in them as I have had nothing but good experiences with Suzuki products (4th bike so far). They ARE losing customers over this issue!

FWIW, I have a 1G now (a 2000 model) and it don't burn a drop of oil.

Jacknife · « **Reply #7 on:** March 27, 2005, 05:52:03 AM »

Is the problem with how they build the motor, as in are they building it to fast to meet demand and screwing up on a few, as so many are being sold, the few are now becoming alot. A recall is the last line of defence, if that happens shit really has hit the fan!

And most of the time you will never here about the one's they fix in the factory! I live close to the Nissan plant in the UK and have spoke to some of the workers there and the storys they tell! I wont be buying Nissan!

dsartwell1 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 27, 2005, 08:23:05 AM »

I haven't read the rest of this story yet but it sounds to me like your dealer is a POS. Too bad they are messing with you because I really like my Bandit 6. I haven't had any issues with it except a vacuum line under the tank came loose. The engine started tapping real hard and there was no power at all. I was scared to ride the last 5 miles home but had no choice. Called the dealer and he sent his son with a pickup to get my bike within 45 minutes!! Called me the next day at 10 AM and said all was well and it was just a loose vac line. Anyhow I would beat on the Dealer and let him fight with Suzuki. If he stands by his product he should be more pissed at Suzuki than you are. I'm confident if I was in your shoes my dealer would be on my side and try to hold me as a customer. The bike market is getting more competitive every day and it would be real easy for me to look hard at a Z750 as a replacement after I sued the crap out of them. Just my two pennies!!

FlyingTurtle1 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 27, 2005, 10:43:37 AM »

For all the good thoughts folks! Just to let you all know I don't blame my dealer..Competition Accessories..They have really tried to help as best they can. I do believe they are just caught in the middle. When this happened the first time I sent them to Bandit Alley to see what you all were saying, they tried to get it fixed and it didn't work.
My laywer sent Suzuki,SEP and Comp a letter last week asking for a new bike or my money back, I haven't heard anything from them yet. I guess what I really don't understand is why Suzuki can't just give me a new motor. They know this motor has had problems from day 1, doesn't make sense to go through all this when a new motor would solve the problem. Seems to me it would be cheaper for them and a WHOLE lot better then ticking off a whole family of Suzuki riders!

I'll keep you posted.....

Red01 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2005, 04:59:23 AM »

Quote from: "Jacknife"

Is the problem with how they build the motor, as in are they building it to fast to meet demand and screwing up on a few, as so many are being sold, the few are now becoming alot.

I can't answer why FlyingTurtle1 is having ongoing problems, but the original problem was Suzuki had changed the design of the pistons in 2001. The primary (only?) change was the oil return holes in the oil ring grooves was bigger than the groove itself. This isn't an unheard of practice, but most pistons that have this feature have the holes only break out of the groove on the lower edge. Suzuki centered the holes, so they broke out above and below the groove. Some engines work fine this way, others consume oil.

The fix for oil drinkers and late 2002-up production models was to install new pistons with smaller oil return holes like the 2000 & earlier B12's used.

longislandbandit99 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 29, 2005, 07:16:42 PM »

This sucks. I'm about to lose my three year warranty in June, June 1st to be exact. I didn't get to ride the thing at all basically last season and it runs like shiznit right now. I'm debating a dealer warranty repair on the pistons since I know mine was made with the bad pistons. I know it burns oil and it also drips oil. It drips from the oil cooler hose bolts down by the filter. The exhaust tip is black with soot and it has about 3200 on it. I think it runs a little rich too but I dare not mess with carbs. Unfortunately I trust none of the dealers near me. I need to pull the plugs and see if they are fouled first and I'm afraid I'll find oil fouling.

I didn't get the break in oil change until 1800 miles. I took it to a dealer near my house (I bought it at a different dealer) and he told me the plugs were fouled because I was warming it up with the choke set too high. They also told me the valves didn't need adjusting. Now when I bought it, the mechanic at that dealer told me I could ride it however I wanted but I had to make sure I didn't run at the same RPM for an extended period of time. I asked if I had to keep it below a specific RPM and he said no. He said work the gearbox as much as possible and on the highway vary speeds, gears and RPM whenever possible.

What should I do? Should I do some investigating and attempt the warranty repair? It doesn't lose that much oil as far as I can tell but like I said I didn't get to ride enough last year to really gauge the consumption. I'm not a total mechanical idiot and can do some things to it. However my tool box is very lacking and I don't have a good repair manual for it. One of you guys sent me an '01 manual for a different Bandit model on CD (thanks again, I forgot who you are) but I would like the correct manual for my bike.

Red01 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 29, 2005, 07:41:13 PM »

The drip from the oil cooler line doesn't sound like a major problem. Could just need to be re-torqued, or the seal washers replaced.

If your bike doesn't visibly smoke or use a quart or more every 600 miles, a warranty repair will be hard to get unless you happen across a very sympathetic dealer. (Some folks have.)

Also, if your VIN is JS1GV77A*22102179 or higher, you already have the newer pistons.

I would be surprised if it is running rich. These bikes normally come from the factory jetted very lean - to make the EPA happy.

Yours is a 2002, right? AFAIK, the only difference between a 2001 and a 2002 is very minor. The difference is in the digital displays in the speedo & tach. The '01 has a fuel gauge in the tach and the digital clock, odo and two trip meters are all in the speedo. The '02 put the clock in with the fuel gauge. So, unless you're dealing with the wiring to those functions, everything is the same. My guess is the service manual is the same for all '01-'05 models and just supplements to adress the minor wiring changes in the later years. (There were a couple more minor wiring changes in '04.)

longislandbandit99 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 30, 2005, 06:58:29 PM »

I have checked the VIN already in the past. I know it wasn't made with the "correct" pistons. I also know it probably doesn't burn a quart every 600. So now what should I do instead?

Red01 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 30, 2005, 10:11:27 PM »

1. Live with it.
2. Try to find a sympathetic dealer who'll go to bat for you.
3. Fix it out of your own pocket. (In this case, I'd go with Holeshot's high compression pistons.)