05 starter problem please help

[jaholbro]

Ok bought an 05 last year, around August or so.
Last year i started having a problem, occasionally when I start the bike the starter seems to not disengage and it spins for a split second after the bike has started. Dosen't grind, just a high pitch spinning noise

So, I took my bike to the dealership on Jan 12th. To make a long story short they finally got it to do it infront of one of the mechanics. Well they investigated and said everything looks good.

Well they talked to the techs at suzuki and suzuki had them change out the starter clutch, which they did...and didn't fix it, then they checked the contacts on the starter button but everything looks good. I went in there today and talked to the service manager. He told me that the suzuki tech that he had been talking to said he has heard about the problem before but basically dosen't know the cause. The service manager said he wanted to change out the starter, but the suzuki tech said to not spend much time chasing it down because they still don't know why its happening. Now I know of one other 05 for sure thats doing this same thing. I've talked to suzuki and there basically telling me there looking into it. My bike has been in the shop for over 2 months for a simple starter issue and still hasn't been fixed.

Has anyone else heard of this problem or experienced it or maybee knows some insight into what it may be?

Looking at the service manual I see a starter relay...could sticky relay contacts somehow cause this problem?

 

[oldbird]

hey jaholbro i got an 05 that started doing the same thing a few months ago took it to dealer they finally heard the noise and said not to worry about it unless it got worse i got the extended warrenty so it will be taken care of if it gets worse only happens 1 or 2 times a month

 

[jaholbro]

No way there getting away with that. I realize that it probably won't hurt anything, but the simple fact is that there is a problem with my bike, it was there pretty much since the day i took it off the show room.

Of corse mine does it alot more than 1 or 2 times a month....



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[Turbo-Torch]

Find out what the lemon law is in your area. If they've had the bike for 2 months and can't fix a documented problem under warranty, then it sounds like they have gone above and beyond violating the law. After the first week they should have "shotgun" the problem by replacing anything and everything releated to the starter system.
That's complete BS that you have a 6 month old bike and have been without it for 2 months. Sure it's winter and you live in Michigan, but that's besides the point and the law doesn't care about weather.

Also if you bought the extended Suzuki protection plan they owe you something like $25 per day for a rental vehicle.

Bring all that up with the service manager and I bet you get your bike back real fast.

 

[jaholbro]

Ya know what thanks for mentioning that...never thought about it here is what I found out about ohio's lemon law

3 repair attempts for same defect.
8 total repair attempts,
1 attempt to repair condition likely to cause death or serious bodily injury,
or out of service 30 or more calendar days
before
1 year or 18,000 miles, whichever occurs first.

I think i may have a case here

 

[oldbird]

man i dont think i could be without the busa for over two months i try to do all the work i can myself oil changes clean chain adj chain things like that but if you find out what is happening please let me know and if mine gets worse or i find out i will do the same thanks

 

[jaholbro]

What pissed me off even more, i didn't go to bike week with my buddies cause i didn't want to pull the bike out of the shop, probably should have

 

[jaholbro]

I have an update

Suzuki customer support just called and told me that this is a normal thing with these bikes, and it is ready to
pick up. Now I have plenty of reasons why I don't think this is normal, beeing the dealership had never heard it and suzuki authorized the replacement of the
"starter clutch" and had the dealership looking into other possibilities of the problem after it wasn't fixed. Also they had planned on sending a tech
to the dealership to look into it himself. Also that I have only heard of a few 05's having this problem and from the
information that the service manager at honda east was telling me is that suzuki had heard of the problem before but was unsure how to fix it.

After 2.5 months of this they are just now calling me and telling me its normal. I am absolutly outraged right now. He was telling me that its normal on 04's to 06's. If it were normal it shouldn't have taken 2.5 months for them to tell me that it was normal.

he was telling me that it has never caused a failure and I realize that it won't with the design of the starter clutch. However one of my major concerns is with the affected value of the bike. If i were to try to sell this bike and a prospective buyer heard the noise, in my opinion it would hurt the resale value.

Does anyone else think this is normal? This wouldn't be such a big deal if it were happening a couple times a month or even a week. But when i'm out riding it happens damn near every time i start the bike

 

[camaroguy72]

Mine did the same thing, then it didnt do it anymore and I didn't think anything of it. My old zx6r did that once in a while. My camaro did it too. The relay was sticking or whatever so it wasnt completely engaging the flywheel and stuff. Definately replace the starter!

 

[High Ranger]

Have an 05 LE and never had that problem.