My Baby Burger's in the scooter hospital....

[MrGrumpy]

...and the scooter doctors haven't a clue what the problem with it is!!! And its not in some back street workshop, but a pukka Suzuki official dealer!

I have had a series of electrical oddities off and on over the previous few months, with FI light coming on, erratic idling, missing at speed etc. The problem was diagnosed as a corroded wire giving a poor earth connection, and the engine ran properly, but then the water temperature gauge started to show maximum all the time, then the fuel gauge did the same thing! And then the engine symptoms started to reoccur........As part of the confusion, it had a new fuel pump (as a recall), but now they've found that if the pump is disconnected, the gauges work fine! They seem baffled, and apparently have come up with several likely causes all of which have turned out not to be the case! Its already been there 3 days!!
Thankfully, I've got the TMax to commute on, but I tend to start emulating one of those manic traffic busting videos when I commute on that!

[SpikeOne]

Tell them to apply 5 Why's. That'll sort it!

[NorfolkChris]

How about the 5 why's and one H

[MrGrumpy]

They have now decided that they have no idea whats causing the gauges to fail (after testing everything else in the wiring loom), so now want to replace the Instrument cluster including its PCB.

Thats a mere £276 - possibly without VAT and certainly without labour

[poldark]

They have now decided that they have no idea whats causing the gauges to fail (after testing everything else in the wiring loom), so now want to replace the Instrument cluster including its PCB.

Thats a mere £276 - possibly without VAT and certainly without labour

Oh bugger!

How old is it, suggest an email to Suzuki UK Customer Service to vent dissatisfaction, I was surprised how interested they were when my B650 went bang and that was a 7 year old bike.

[Bluebottle]

Might be a daft question but has somebody checked that the connectors are all definately the correct way round after the pump was changed?

[MrGrumpy]

They have now decided that they have no idea whats causing the gauges to fail (after testing everything else in the wiring loom), so now want to replace the Instrument cluster including its PCB.

Thats a mere £276 - possibly without VAT and certainly without labour

Oh bugger!

How old is it, suggest an email to Suzuki UK Customer Service to vent dissatisfaction, I was surprised how interested they were when my B650 went bang and that was a 7 year old bike.

Interesting....Its a 59 reg so its four years old - 2nd MOT due shortly. It hasn't been a success story reliability wise - they've been a succession of electrical gremlins all giving rise to the same symptoms - FI lights on, erratic idling (it has a fail safe high idle full choke mode it goes into), missing at high speed - but with different causes. Whether the gauge problem is linked into the other problems I don't know. I could live without the Fuel and water gauges, but since the instruments are effectively 1 PCB, if the board is deteriorating, then everything else might go west as well.
OK its never actually stopped and let me down (unlike Aprilia Atlantic) but there have been times when it seemed unwise to try and ride it. The irony is that routine maintenance has been dirt cheap! Servicing costs are cheap - Its still on its original brake pads and drive belt after 9000 miles, the current back tyre is still looking very good after 4500 miles (I replaced front last year), though I just spent £200 to replace the rotten original exhaust.

The other issue is that whilst its the perfect thing for my commute (when its going....) it isn't worth that much now (a few minor cosmetic issues not helping), so spending too much money simply isn't worth it.

[MrGrumpy]

Just collected the Burger......£500 bill - half for the parts, half for the several hours of labour trying to find the problem

Whilst the Aprilia Atlantic was my most unreliable scoot (failing to complete journeys on several occasions which the Burger always has), the baby Burger has been my most expensive to keep running.........

[ridinhigh]

so what was the problem?

[MrGrumpy]

so what was the problem?

They eventually decided on the basis that they'd checked everything else that some of the problems were caused by some sort of failure in the instrument gauge PCB - bizarrely, as well as showing nonsense readings it seems the faulty gauges were confusing the engine management system. The change of exhaust also upset the FI ....apparently you were supposed to let the engine idle for 10 minutes after changing the exhaust for the FI to recalibrate itself.

Still idling on the high side if you ask me....