Q: I’ve owned my beautiful Suzuki SV1000 V-Twin since new and it’s never given me any trouble, at all. The bike has covered 67,000km and its last major service was done at 40,000km. However I do change the oil myself, every 10,000km, so it’ll soon be ready for another oil change.
But over the last few thousand kilometers the bike has started to make a worrying sort of rattle sound from around the engine, but I can’t detect where from. If I just lift the bike off idle, using the throttle, things do become a little quieter.
So, I’m asking for your advice and hopefully you’ve had a similar problem with other SVs you’ve repaired over the past, then you can tell me what the noise is, hopefully?
Daniel Norton Durban
A: It sounds like you have a cam-chain problem here, especially if the bike has never had them replaced and it’s now on quite a high mileage?
So I would say your twin cam-chains are now coming to the end of the life cycle. You’ll need to go to a Suzuki dealer or competent mechanic and have them replaced, and you’ll probably also need to replace the tensioners and cam-chain guides while you’re inside the motor, just to be safe.
The whole job should cost around R6,000, but shop around for quotes first. But I would do it ASAP because if a cam-chain breaks it can do very expensive internal damage that will end up costing you a lot more than 6K.
