I’ve been off the site for a while, many months. I did check-in now and then but didn’t post anything.
My quest for 100k miles, on my 2013 C50T, is still in progress, but not with the original engine.
I apologize in advance for the longevity of this post. I wanted to detail the events up to the claim so that current owners that have similar issues may find their solution quicker and if you have Suzuki Extended Protection, this will give you a little better understanding of what to look forward to and how to handle it.
A few things of note:
I do all my own maintenance. I keep all my receipts, and I document everything I do on all of my vehicles in spreadsheets. This turned out to be paramount in my claim with the agents at Suzuki Extended Protection(SEP). If you have or are thinking of purchasing the SEP, you MUST maintain accurate and detailed maintenance records. Do not trust your dealership or mechanic to do this on your behalf. Keep all notes and receipts as proof of the work done.
A Little History Prior to the SEP Event
In early January, 2018, I had about 73k miles on the bike put on over the last 4 years. In Southern California we were having some record hot spells, and in February 2018, I started having some issues with the bike overheating. I would ride it about 40 miles and it would throw the red temperature light just before the 40 mile mark in riding. Every time, I pulled over, shut it off, checked everything, and turn it back on. Fan would start up and the engine would cool right down.
One morning, I was preparing to go to work and noticed a few drops of fluid below the radiator overflow. This alarmed me, as over the last three years I had never seen any overflow. I use Evans Waterless coolant which doesn’t expand like water or anti-freeze. I took pics and checked the fluid level in the radiator but it wasn’t down much. It also had some little black nodules of powdery substance that simply crumbled between my fingers. I couldn’t tell what that was or where it came from so I immediately called the folks at Evans Waterless Coolant, sent them some pics and they sent me some sample bottles to fill and return along with some fresh flush and coolant. Nice folks at Evans. They have excellent customer service, and were just as concerned as I was.
While waiting for their lab to check the samples, I pulled everything apart, drained the radiator fluid, checked the thermostat, and checked all the sensors, switches, etc., following the guidelines in the maintenance manual. Found nothing. Put it all back together, albeit with a new thermostat, pressure tested and started riding again. One thing I did find, … it looks like part of the radiator was painted on the internal part of the radiator near the sensor mounts, and inlets. Looks like poor manufacturing where they didn’t close up the holes before painting. I suspect the black modules were paint particles flaking off.
A couple of weeks later, the engine started flashing the temperature light on cold mornings again. This wasn’t right, so I checked and found the Fan switch at the bottom of the Radiator was being slow to flip and turn on the fan. Previous tests, following the instructions in the service manual testing the switch with oil showed it was functioning correctly. It turned out the switch inside the sensor was faulty and would work intermittently. Shutting off the bike during a failure, caused it to reset and turning the ignition back on it would activate it and turn the fan on. In performing the switch test with oil, heating it up slowly, it would work every time opening and closing within range of the correct temperatures. But if you heated the oil up to 240 degrees and then lowered the switch into it, it would not activate, even if you let it sit there for 10 minutes. Removing power, and letting the oil cool down and then re-applying the +12v to the device would activate the switch. These are transistor based switches that use a chemical reaction when heated up to alow the flow of electrons. This, doesn’t make any sense, but I’ve seen stranger things. Maybe it had a leak and was now contaminated with coolant.
I surmised the engine was heating up faster than normal at times, maybe the thermostat wasn’t opening fast enough, maybe the thermostat bypass wasn’t working. Maybe the black nodules had clogged the radiator. I flushed the entire system but it was all clear. Checked hoses, thermostat, radiator, new fluid, everything else checked out and was good.
I replaced the fan switch after a rather long search for one that wasn’t so expensive. Suzuki wanted $57 plus shipping($25). Local auto parts stores (equivalent part numbers) $35 + shipping($20). Not one auto parts store locally had one in stock, not Autozone, Oreilly’s, Napa, or even PepBoys. Found one on Ebay for $7 in Puerto Rico, an equivalent part number, w/free shipping. Ordered it and after doing so, found the same thing on Wish.com for $3ea, so I ordered two more even though I had to wait two weeks for them to come from China. (The $3 Chinese units turned out to be the exact same unit/manufacturer as what was originally on the C50T from Suzuki.)
Once the switch was swapped out the issue was resolved. Fan now cycled as it should. And I returned to riding the C50T. A week later, Evans, emailed their results and found nothing wrong with the fluid, and they didn’t know what the black particles were. To find out would take some more extensive tests that would cost more than it was worth to find out. To them everything checked out ok. I had about 75k miles on the C50T at the time. Their experience with Suzuki C50/M50 models was limited and this was a chance to add some additional information to their files.
A few more weeks passed, and about 1500 miles further down the road, the battery stopped taking a charge. It was four to five years old and never had an issue. A sealed battery, used almost every day should last 4-5 years, so it was about time. I checked everything electrical on the C50T. It could also have been related to the stator, as one of the three leads didn’t seem like it wanted to maintain voltage. I changed the battery and the issue went away and the stater appeared to work fine.
My quest for 100k miles, on my 2013 C50T, is still in progress, but not with the original engine.
I apologize in advance for the longevity of this post. I wanted to detail the events up to the claim so that current owners that have similar issues may find their solution quicker and if you have Suzuki Extended Protection, this will give you a little better understanding of what to look forward to and how to handle it.
A few things of note:
I do all my own maintenance. I keep all my receipts, and I document everything I do on all of my vehicles in spreadsheets. This turned out to be paramount in my claim with the agents at Suzuki Extended Protection(SEP). If you have or are thinking of purchasing the SEP, you MUST maintain accurate and detailed maintenance records. Do not trust your dealership or mechanic to do this on your behalf. Keep all notes and receipts as proof of the work done.
A Little History Prior to the SEP Event
In early January, 2018, I had about 73k miles on the bike put on over the last 4 years. In Southern California we were having some record hot spells, and in February 2018, I started having some issues with the bike overheating. I would ride it about 40 miles and it would throw the red temperature light just before the 40 mile mark in riding. Every time, I pulled over, shut it off, checked everything, and turn it back on. Fan would start up and the engine would cool right down.
One morning, I was preparing to go to work and noticed a few drops of fluid below the radiator overflow. This alarmed me, as over the last three years I had never seen any overflow. I use Evans Waterless coolant which doesn’t expand like water or anti-freeze. I took pics and checked the fluid level in the radiator but it wasn’t down much. It also had some little black nodules of powdery substance that simply crumbled between my fingers. I couldn’t tell what that was or where it came from so I immediately called the folks at Evans Waterless Coolant, sent them some pics and they sent me some sample bottles to fill and return along with some fresh flush and coolant. Nice folks at Evans. They have excellent customer service, and were just as concerned as I was.
While waiting for their lab to check the samples, I pulled everything apart, drained the radiator fluid, checked the thermostat, and checked all the sensors, switches, etc., following the guidelines in the maintenance manual. Found nothing. Put it all back together, albeit with a new thermostat, pressure tested and started riding again. One thing I did find, … it looks like part of the radiator was painted on the internal part of the radiator near the sensor mounts, and inlets. Looks like poor manufacturing where they didn’t close up the holes before painting. I suspect the black modules were paint particles flaking off.
A couple of weeks later, the engine started flashing the temperature light on cold mornings again. This wasn’t right, so I checked and found the Fan switch at the bottom of the Radiator was being slow to flip and turn on the fan. Previous tests, following the instructions in the service manual testing the switch with oil showed it was functioning correctly. It turned out the switch inside the sensor was faulty and would work intermittently. Shutting off the bike during a failure, caused it to reset and turning the ignition back on it would activate it and turn the fan on. In performing the switch test with oil, heating it up slowly, it would work every time opening and closing within range of the correct temperatures. But if you heated the oil up to 240 degrees and then lowered the switch into it, it would not activate, even if you let it sit there for 10 minutes. Removing power, and letting the oil cool down and then re-applying the +12v to the device would activate the switch. These are transistor based switches that use a chemical reaction when heated up to alow the flow of electrons. This, doesn’t make any sense, but I’ve seen stranger things. Maybe it had a leak and was now contaminated with coolant.
I surmised the engine was heating up faster than normal at times, maybe the thermostat wasn’t opening fast enough, maybe the thermostat bypass wasn’t working. Maybe the black nodules had clogged the radiator. I flushed the entire system but it was all clear. Checked hoses, thermostat, radiator, new fluid, everything else checked out and was good.
I replaced the fan switch after a rather long search for one that wasn’t so expensive. Suzuki wanted $57 plus shipping($25). Local auto parts stores (equivalent part numbers) $35 + shipping($20). Not one auto parts store locally had one in stock, not Autozone, Oreilly’s, Napa, or even PepBoys. Found one on Ebay for $7 in Puerto Rico, an equivalent part number, w/free shipping. Ordered it and after doing so, found the same thing on Wish.com for $3ea, so I ordered two more even though I had to wait two weeks for them to come from China. (The $3 Chinese units turned out to be the exact same unit/manufacturer as what was originally on the C50T from Suzuki.)
Once the switch was swapped out the issue was resolved. Fan now cycled as it should. And I returned to riding the C50T. A week later, Evans, emailed their results and found nothing wrong with the fluid, and they didn’t know what the black particles were. To find out would take some more extensive tests that would cost more than it was worth to find out. To them everything checked out ok. I had about 75k miles on the C50T at the time. Their experience with Suzuki C50/M50 models was limited and this was a chance to add some additional information to their files.
A few more weeks passed, and about 1500 miles further down the road, the battery stopped taking a charge. It was four to five years old and never had an issue. A sealed battery, used almost every day should last 4-5 years, so it was about time. I checked everything electrical on the C50T. It could also have been related to the stator, as one of the three leads didn’t seem like it wanted to maintain voltage. I changed the battery and the issue went away and the stater appeared to work fine.