Bad Experience With Suzuki Service Centers. Need Help.


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Though I owning a Suzuki bike for past 3 years and extremely happy with it, today only understand why many people still not buying a good quality Suzuki product. I just want to inform you all people about my experience with 2 Suzuki service centers at Ernakulam. I visited both SCs today to give my bike to do a engine de carbanisation.

I own a Suzuki GS 150 R (2010 May Model) which just completed 3 year and 52 K Km now. I bought the bike from a sub dealership near to my home because i know the owner and the workers there. I had done all services till 30K at these service center and after that i had replaced engine oil at every 2-2.5 K Km at a Local workshop i know.I shall buy the original spares (if required) and oil from the service center and do the work at out side or sometimes myself, because the SC is always full of vehicles for service and i need the bike for my office commute. The only spares i replaced in my bike till 50K km were 1 no front disc brake pad, 2 nos rear brake shoes, an air filter and Oil filter at every 6k km as per the manual. I replaced the 2 tires and chain & sprocket once the bike has reached 50.5 K km. I never lose balance on this bike and it neither gave any issues nor a puncture too.
My monthly usage varies between 1.5- 2K Km because on rainy days i prefer to use my car/ scooter. Except 2 long trips done, I only used the bike to my office commute and my daily ride is about 70km total including city & Highway ride. My average speed is around 70 Km/hr. I usually comfortably cruise on this bike in 80-100 km/hr and the top speed achieved was 126km/hr. The bike always given me more than 50km/ltr in all conditions and it is an excellent performer made with good quality.
My last oil change(SGP castrol 20W 40) was before 1150 km and after that i feel the bike has little strain after 80 km/hr and i can feel the engine knocking while giving accelerator. I decided to do the Engine decarbornisation at any of the main service center.

Service center Experience
Today morning i went to Aluva motors and meet the service engineer and they told me to meet their main technician who will do the bike checking and test drive. I described the story and asked about the price for engine decarbanisation and when they can do. That guy simply quoted approx 8-9K for the work. My mouth got open and my eyes popped out. I again asked him why 9k for only a simple decarbonisation then he told since the decarbonisation not done at 25-30K and the engine these much Km, piston & cylinder and valves may already damaged and need to replace. Which is already not in stock will be take upto 1 month to get these items and complete the work.
I even more surprised, when i told him to start and check the sound difference of the bike. he just started the bike and given full acceleration in neutral gear which i never done to my bike. A big thick black smoke came for just 3 seconds and become normal colorless air after that. he told it started to burn the oil, which i didn't believe. As per my experience if oil burning the smoke will be in white colour and bike will show missing in high acceleration, which is not in my bike. then he came up with another story that bike the small tick tick sound coming from the crank shaft and need to replace that too. Crank shaft price is around 3500rs and they are busy these days and come next week after myself arrange a spare bike for me, since the spares may delay, work will complete by one month. I understand he is playing with me and i raised my voice. I asked how you know my bike's piston & cylinder damaged without even not riding or not open the engine? Is it Suzuki engine will last only 50K km even after these much taken care? My friend has a Zeus which has ride more than 2.5 lakh Km and still it runs smoothly without a clutch change. Why you charging these much for a decarbonisation? then he changed the tone and told , sir decarbonisation and valve setting will come only 3.5K and if there is no issue we can use the current piston,cylinder & crank shaft. If you are interested to change then also we can fix with these old ones but sound will not go. Again i asked then why you charging 3.5k rs for the decarbonisation only and why it takes one week. He told they are not doing it here and send the cylinder head outside todo. He showed another GS 150R which is less than 2 year and they are going to do engine work. he told it will cause minimum 19K rs for the work. I felt sympothy to the owner of that bike and thought it is better to tun away from there.

I had at least 3 lakh Km riding experience and visited many service center but i never heard anything like this from any of the show rooms in kerala. I thought i will go to the main dealership at Manikandan motors which is 20km away from there and they are also selling the all Suzuki high end models including Hayabusa here. I expected a mature response from them.
I reached manikandan motors service center and informed reception lady that i need to meet the seniour service engineer/technician as my bike giving some sound. after one minute one 19-20 year old SE guy came to the reception. I told him that my GS 150 R is parked at outside gate and please Td and check the bike whether to do any decarbonisation and or need any other work. I also told him that i dint done the decarbonisation till now and the bike odo reached 52.8K. He stood in the reception and then simply told that if then it will come around 8-9K , because if they opened the engine they may need to replace the piston & cylinder. I asked him that i need to see someone senior there and he told it will take at least 1 hour as they are busy. i just waited there 10 minutes and just went to my office.
I contacted some of my friends and they told me to do it in any local shops at less than 1K RS. My confusion is that,
1) if i do this in local shops and any engine spares may required, i had to again come to these people.
2) is there any other way to do engine decarbonisation other than engine head opened/
3) Is it Gs150R engine will last only 50-60K km? is there any body in our forum or in our contacts that their GS done more than 80K km and if then can you please share your experience with ASS and the decarbonsiation.
4) is it any thing true in the SEs words shared to me?what is my option then?
I feel these Suzuki ASS all over are there to just loot the money and they are just spoiling Suzuki's Brand value here. One of my uncle had to spend 16K rs for his access, because the Suzuki ASS at Kozhikode has told him that the scooter engine had damaged due to run with less oil. the scooter is just 34K km run now.
This bike i bought with the intention of use it at least 100K km or 10 years and not interested to sell it.
my GS150R was run very smooth till these days and i really love the bike and as i need to get out of from these, request your suggestions on my issue.
 
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Re: Bad experiance with Suzuki service centers-Required help

@Releesh

Sad to hear this from Suzuki which is not new to me here in Hyderabad. Due to the service reasons I have sold my suzuki slingshot of 1-1/2 year old with 6000km on ODO and one my my brother in law also sold his Suzuki Access due to high service costs. Yes suzuki has good bikes and scooters but service guys are spoiling them all the time with lack of knowledge
 
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Thanks RK

Any suggestion on

Is there anyway to teach something these ASS thieves?

how to do the engine decarbonisation? or if not done for another 5-10K KM what will be happen? can you suggest somebody in TAI, who can give me more information on these.

Though i really interested in the upcoming Suzuki inusma 250, i am not interested to sell this bike now. Same time i suspect, what will be my situation, if i had to face any issue on that bike also.
 
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@Releesh

To be very frank and with my own experience, the suzuki bikes are really good, but ASS in India is not up to the mark. When I had my bike I have gone through 4 service centers and each one is more worst than the other and last interest. Wrote so many times on their website but all in vein so decided not to waste any more time with them and sold off the bike.

There was one member with GS 150R, but I don't remember, just try if you can search him on TAI and I do not know whether he is active at present. I wish Sam Dinkar(our new mod) can help you on this decorbonisation issue. Nothing will happen to bike it emits more smoke and its efficiency will come down if the bike is due for decorbonisation as per manual. I am sure there are good mechanics outside who do job for suzuki bikes, but they may be less in number due to poor sales of suzuki bikes(this is the situation in Hyderabad, but may be different in your area).

No doubt GS 150R is an excellent bike, but if I am in your position, I will never opt for one more suzuki bike in future[:)]
 
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I am not familiar with bikes.Does this bike have a carb or is it fuel injected.Looks like you need to get the fuel system cleaned.

For decarbonizing the engine adding a liquid to the fuel is not the best method.There is a machine that is connected to the fuel line and it circulates decarbonizing agent, this is the best method.

White smoke is due to water or coolant and not oil Releesh.Black smoke is due to rich mixture of fuel.This is all pointing towards a faulty carburettor or faulty settings of the carb.

To clean the carb you can remove the air cleaner pipe that fits onto the carb and spray carb cleaning fluid into the mouth of the carb.The engine rpm will start to drop when you do this so you need to twist the throttle to keep the engine from stalling.Spray short burts into the carb.Then turn off the engine and spray some more cleaning spray into the car and assemble the cleaner pipe.Wait for atleast half and hour before starting the bike up.Take it for a long drive and see if it performs better.
 
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Thanks Jarpickle for the comments

Mine is carburetor model.
But the method you mentioned is available for Bikes?

There is no water /coolent in my bike. Balck smoke came only for seconds, when he raised the throttle for maximum. I think it is the carbon particles in the silencer and engine. I can clearly see this on silencer.
In Bikes you can see white smoke when it starts to burn oil.

I never cleaned carburater/spark plugs i guess. Carburater cleaning liquid will not available here. Though if needed, i think it is easy to remove and clean then fix.

I was thinking for a long trip (500Km) on my bike, only to reduce/burn the carbon deposits in the engie/silencer. By the way i use my bike daily at least 35 km nonstop at above 70km/hr(5K rpm)
 
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Carburettors are really complex.Opening one should be done only by an experienced mechanic.

The black smoke indicates the fuel mixture is too rich at higher throttle.Try the car cleaning spray, it is available at most auto stores(cars used carbs too and the same spray can be used)or online.

The carbon deposits on the exhaust pipe are due to the unburnt fuel.

Check the condition of the spark plugs and update here.

Yes you can use the method I suggested to clean the carb on your bike.To burn of carbon as you are revving the bike close the carb mouth with your palm then rev the engine some more.

Long trips are good to burn off carbon deposits.I suggest using the carb cleaner before the long trip.
 
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Releesh, sorry for being late to this thread.

1. I have test driven GS150R about a year back & I feel this is the only bike that can compete with a Honda Shine in terms of smoothness.
2. I read your complete thread and I feel the issues are related with only the Carburetor
3. Change Spark plugs & get the carb cleaned (preferably get it dismantled & soaked in thinner/petrol/brake oil before re-assembling it)
4. Clean your fuel tank also.
5. I dont find any reason for the 9K bill for such a simple task. Finding a machine that does this task will be very hard even in Bangalore.
6. Do not waste money in buying fuel line cleaning liquids etc

I would suggest you to go ahead with Jarpickle's advice on getting the carburetor cleaned (by mechanic) and change spark plug. If this doesn't work, then look for decarbonisation machine/options.
 
Thread Starter #9
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Thanks RK, jarpickle & ss80.
I shall replace the spark plug, air filter tomorrow and i shall do check the bike with a local mechanic i know.
Now i confused the reduced pick up & black smoke is due to carburtor or decarbanisation.
 
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It is due to the carburetor.Someone must have messed with the settings of the carb or the throttle position sensor.The unburnt fuel causes the black smoke.This will lead to the formation of extra carbon on all engine parts.

Best thing to check the carb is to do a PUC check, check the level of hydrocarbons from before this problem was observed to right now.If the level has increased it means your carb is running rich.
 
Thread Starter #11
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^^ there is no chance for anyone to mess up with the carburetor in my bike. After 30K km i didn't given the bike to ASS for service and all the oil change done in front of me only.
Bike i use only to travel between office and home and there is no chance in these area too.

Most importantly, My bike only giving a light black smoke only when we give full acceleration in neutral gear. So i dont think it is unusual.
I had done the PUC one month before and certificate is at my home. I''ll check and update here tomorrow but i dont believe their figures. In fact no pollution checking centers in Kerala will give a accurate value as per my experiance. they may give the certificate with out starting the vehicle too.
 
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Could be due to gumming, which is caused due to fuel.

The black smoke is due to excess fuel being dumped into the carburettor.
 
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I didn't understand Gumming. can you please elaborate on gumming.

One of my colleague has a mechanic earlier worked on Suzuki show room. he told he will do the decarbonisation at 1K rs. I don't know much about him. Is it Valve setting need to do as part of this? Is it need to done at laith workshop?

jarpickle@

Forget about the black smoke. it is never there on a normal riding and came only on full acceleration in neutral. all other mechanics i asked told it is carbon deposits in the silencer. It is perfectly normal as per them.
 
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Surprise!

I had a visit to my nearest Suzuki ASS from where i bought the vehicle to buy a new Air filter,but stock was not available. I had a talk with the owner. I just casualy enquired about these decarbonisation thing and air filter. He told it is not required to replace the plug as there is no issues with starting and air filter not needed to replace, as it had replaced only 20K km before only. They will clean it using air compressor.
About decarbonisation, they will do it at 1K and the valve setting too. no aditional chages and no issues. Told me to give it on Tuesday and they will do these all and service and return bike on the same day. So i decided to try these ASS.
 

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