Service intervals

[cookystheone1]

Hi can anyone help, I have had my sv 18 months and done about 14,000 miles, the service costs are ludicrous for a budget bike, last year when I drove to Portugal (3600 miles) it needed a service before and after! Anyone got experience of extending these intervals? My other bike is a Yamaha Diversion, which is serviced every 6K and at 53,000 miles all by me, runs perfectly.

[flymo]

Hi can anyone help, I have had my sv 18 months and done about 14,000 miles, the service costs are ludicrous for a budget bike, last year when I drove to Portugal (3600 miles) it needed a service before and after! Anyone got experience of extending these intervals? My other bike is a Yamaha Diversion, which is serviced every 6K and at 53,000 miles all by me, runs perfectly.

so why not just service the SV yourself?

Most complicated step is likely to be checking valve clearences and it seems that this very rarely goes out of adjustment anyway.

[Lissa]

so why not just service the SV yourself?

Most complicated step is likely to be checking valve clearences and it seems that this very rarely goes out of adjustment anyway.

+1

The services are really very simple. If Pete can do it, anyone can:D

The only one that we have done by the 'professionals' is the 15,000 k one.

[yorkie_chris]

If you can service a diversion then the SV isn't any more complicated, only thing is do you have a warranty to worry about?

[cookystheone1]

The warranty runs out in July, problem is it was serviced last September and I am going to Mugello and Catalunya to watch the GPs (3500K) so that will take me to 17K or so, 2K over the valve service at 15K. Otherwise I have another service, go on holiday and have another service, it all gets a bit expensive. Unless anyone can tell me their valves have actually required shimming, I am tempted to leave it, my guess is they only need shimming after 40K plus.

[petevtwin650]

Well you're gonna have to pay for a 15k service at sometime anyway. rather before the holiday than after I'd have thought, so the next service will only be a "cheap" one. However there was a thread on here discussing whether it was worth keeping the warranty against money saved on servicing if you can do your own. How many peeps claim anything on warranty these days, especially on an Sv?

[punyXpress]

Seem to remember an article in one of the comics whrer it was cheaper to take the bike to France & get it serviced there.
Has anyone tried this?

[yorkie_chris]

Well you're gonna have to pay for a 15k service at sometime anyway.

Why?



Personally I'd check the clearances, it's sods law that the one time you don't check, one of them will be tight and burn a valve. It's not hard to do either

[Red Herring]

I tend to do things as and when they appear to need attention, rather than wait until the book says I should check them. I've not had my SV long enough to have to do anything routine but given that when I got it the first thing I did was pull it all to pieces I had a good opportunity to see what lies in store. I can't see there is anything to complicated to looking after the SV. Oil, filters and plugs are all easy to get to and straightforward. The cooling system has a few more pipes and the thermostat is a bitch to get to but if whilst you have the radiator off to do the plugs you flush that through that will prevent any build up over the years. The front valves are really easy to get to and check, the rear ones slightly more awkward but as you have the tank up (or off, it's only an extra bolt and few pipes) it would be rude not to do them as well. If you do find a valve clearance out then it is a little more challenging, but at least if you then decide to take it to a dealer you know you will actually be paying for them to do something!

Brakes, suspension joints, cables, chains etc are all basic stuff and if you are lucky like me and have a pointy you won't have to worry about carb balancing.

As a general rule try and keep everything clean and lubricated on a routine basis and that will make working on the bike so much easier, it will also mean you spot something amis much earlier and hopefully before it becomes a problem. Just get on with enjoying riding it....

[yorkie_chris]

and if you are lucky like me and have a pointy you won't have to worry about carb balancing.

Yup pointy owners are really lucky there :D


They have to do throttle body balancing instead hehe

[petevtwin650]

Well you're gonna have to pay for a 15k service at sometime anyway. rather before the holiday than after I'd have thought, so the next service will only be a "cheap" one.

Why?


Because he wants to keep the warranty and missing the 15k one may well invalidate it. That's why I wondered if the costs of servicing outweighed the costs of a potential warranty claim.

[sinbad]

The intervals are really, really, short though aren't they. I mean, ignoring what might be average for a motorcycle service interval (I doubt it's much more than 5k if that), the SV is a fairly unstressed motor, compared with a ss600. And yet it demands a lot of attention. More attention than a highly strung super car in fact (in terms of service intervals). I doubt there is a car with intervals anywhere close.
I know it's all fairly easy to do (although I guess I'll be taking mine somewhere for its 15k this year too), but it does strike me as rather intense for an engine that (whilst pushing over 100bhp/litre, not that that is a lot in the car world these days even) is not really very highly tuned or powerful by modern standards.

I don't know how you folks that do big mileages put up with it. It would do my head in, and I do most stuff myself. I bet it's a fair few quid to have an SV dealer serviced if you're doing 15k+ per year.

Why so short Mr Suzuki?

[petevtwin650]

Why so short Mr Suzuki?

To keep their dealers happy and to sell lots of filters

I thought once Yamaha started with the 6k intervals the other Jap 3 would follow. Perhaps we should all buy Yams and vote with our wallets.

[Red Herring]

One of the reason motorcycles have such frequent "service" intervals is because there are far more things on a motorcycle that require frequent regular checks (chains, tyres pads etc) and the manufacturer has to assume a complete ignorance on the part of the owner and that the only time these things will get looked at is when the clock says it is time for a service. In reality we are far more knowledgeable than that, but they still need to cater for the lowest common denominator. One of the other reasons motorcycles require more frequent oil changes is that the engine shares it's oil with the gearbox (mostly) and the pressures in the gearbox are far more destructive of the oil.

[ASM-Forever]

To keep their dealers happy and to sell lots of filters

I thought once Yamaha started with the 6k intervals the other Jap 3 would follow. Perhaps we should all buy Yams and vote with our wallets.

:winner:

[steveg]

my fazer 600 had 6k service intervals which was great

Cheers Steve

[fizzwheel]

I doubt there is a car with intervals anywhere close.

Was watching top gear repeats the other day, Clarkeson was testing an EVO 8 ( I think ) he said it needed a service every 4K...

[sinbad]

Was watching top gear repeats the other day, Clarkeson was testing an EVO 8 ( I think ) he said it needed a service every 4K...
Yeah, I wished I hadn't posted that little bit later last night. I got to thinking there's quite a few. Even the normal EVOs are something 4.5k or 5k miles I believe.

[thefallenangel]

even worse is when you gotta do a 50 mile round trip for a service. 10K is probably what i'll clock up once my SV hits it's first birthday. It'll be 3 services and for the ?500 i spent on it (and ?30 in fuel to drive there and back and the aggro of taking time off) it's put me off buying brand new bikes ever again. Considering what it costs to service it myself (How much is oil and a filter?) i will never go new for warranty protection as it's not worth it if you find a bike which has been looked after from new. So when i go for my ZX-6R i'll be looking for a 2nd hand one which is a few years old.

Intervals are way too short for people who use the bike as a single mode of transport as they're more likely to notice things go wrong than Mr weekend warrior who covers 500 miles a year.