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C50 Engine Seized

6K views 23 replies 15 participants last post by  yoda43 
#1 ·
So, my 2005 C50 (<12k miles, with excellent maintenance history) has a seized motor. Really weird, since it had oil, and I was driving it when it gave up the ghost. Anyone hear of such a thing?
 
#3 ·
It happens a lot. I had an '05 that did the same thing. Meticulous attention to the maintenance schedule, then the motor went for no apparent reason. Don't bother looking up parts to fix the broken one. When mine let go in 2012, the parts cost alone was north of $2500.

Your best bet (and cheapest option) will be to buy a used motor out of a wrecked bike. You will have to use an engine from 2005 to 2008 if you want it to be a direct swap. Other model years use the same engine case and internals, but have different intakes, heads and charging systems. If you get a motor other than the years above, you will have to swap parts between the original and donor motor.

This might be a good opportunity to shop for a new bike as well. End of the season, means some screaming deals on new bikes.
 
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#9 ·
This might be a good opportunity to shop for a new bike as well. End of the season means some screaming deals on new bikes.
Yeah, unfortunately, that's the plan. This kind of failure has me a little gun shy. When I bought this bike, it was immaculate and in perfect condition. I could tell that the previous owner babied that bike. I had lots of confidence that I had made a good purchase.

Moving forward, I'm not really confident in Suzuki.
 
#12 ·
It's a crapshoot as to how reliable these bikes can be. Some get great motors and run for 60 70 thousand Miles problem-free. Others are a monumental pain in the butt and die an early death sometimes as early as 12,000 miles. There's no rhyme or reason to it and it effects all model year so it's not like you can avoid a specific batch. For the money it's still a great bike oh, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. But I certainly wouldn't expect to be keeping it for the rest of my life!
 
#14 ·
As Skrap said, some of these bikes just die an early death. I have seen a few at 13k miles but I think this is the first 12k mile bike. Unless you can find a really cheap motor in good condition your bike is probably not worth fixing. Some guys get lucky and get 70 to 80 k miles out of a motor but it's not the norm. The majority go around 60-65k miles or so and are done. There are a bunch of dead 30-35k mile dead bikes on this forum. Unfortunately its just kind of a low-cost middleweight starter bike. They are meant to be ridden for a few years then sent to the scrap pile. It is what it is. Whatever you do, good luck.
 
#16 ·
Wow! Really sorry to hear this. Mechanical things like to be driven regularly, whether it be cars or bikes. The worse thing you can do is let an engine just sit. While low mileage vehicles are very attractive to a new owner, they can come with their own set of problems. I wouldn't necessarily give up on Suzuki or the Volusia/Boulevard lineup. I've had several now and they've been great bikes for my riding style and needs. Just know their limitations. I recently stepped up to a Yamaha Road Star 1600, for no other reason than my riding style out in Arizona is much different than here in New England. The Road Star is beast with a reputation of a bulletproof engine that will go 100K+
 
#17 ·
I'd be curious what the failure mode was. Why, specifically, did it seize up? Overheating sticking the top end? Lubrication failure spinning a crank or rod bearing? Tensioner failure leading it to skip time and crash the piston and valves together? (that's usually not an issue until you get into the 40-50k mile range)

I hear about the C50 "blowing up" at low miles, but there's virtually never any explanation behind what happened. The cam chain tensioner I'm aware of, but seems like there's other modes of failure besides that or neglected maintenance.
 
#18 ·
The thing that did me in was piston meeting wall of cylinder with no lubrication...
 
#23 ·
Coming from an engineering perspective, particularly a bearing and lubrication perspective im quite curious as to how a motor locked up, especially one with virtually no miles and oil. I would suspect previous owner before I suspected the manufacturer. Does the motor not turn at all? Like completely seized? That would be pretty hairy if it happened out on a ride...
 
#24 ·
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I had a 2002 Volusia that I sold in 2009 with somewhere between 60,00- 70,000 miles. It ran great and didn't really have issues that I was aware of. In fact I rode it from PA to every state between Main and Florida. That may have been the key, as even though these bikes have a limited life, the ones that keep being ridden instead of sitting seem to do better, in my opinion. Maybe it had a life of short and infrequent trips and something got sludged internally. The Nomad that I replaced it with has been reliable. I have almost 80,000 miles on it, and I wouldn't hesitate to ride it anywhere. But then 1600 cc's would be expected to put the miles on a bit easier than 800, I suppose. Anyway, it would be great if it was an easy fix, but it honestly may not be...
 
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