Idle Hammer

[dalsmthme]

So I am just wondering. How many people have "Idle hammer" with there SV. I have an '03 with 5k miles and it has developed "Idle Hammer". I have read that it isn't a terminal problem and Suzuki will fix it if you wine enough. I think I am just going to ride mine as is, I am just miffed that the think sounds like its going to come apart with only 5K on her.....

[blndweasel]

could be your exhaust system if you didnt do any tuning of the fuel mixture following installation... when did you start to notice it?

i've never heard the term "hammering" before either... knocking, pinging, ticking, but not hammering.

[dalsmthme]

Well, I would call it "Knock", but no knock I have ever heard of goes away when rpm's are increased. It started way after the pipes were added, I don't think it is that. This is definitly eminating from the bottom end of the motor and is appreciable through the bars at idle. It is definitly not the standard clutch rattle either since it occurs both with the clutch engaged and disengaged. There is alot on this subject on the SV1000 Portal, but thos guys in europe are more anal than I am. I was just curios how many people experiance this knock.

[gaian]

I read that some SV1ks had a main bearing problem which caused a knocking at idle. Not wishing to be too vague, I found this reference:

http://www.complaints.com/directory/2005/january/31/40.htm

[codzilla70]

My 05 1k makes some racket, much more than the 650. At first I was worried like you but then I did some research and it seems to be not that uncommon for it to be noisier. And a biatch to get Suz to fix it. Since I had a warranty I just rode the crap out of it and nothing happend and now its got 8ks on the odomiter and I noticed it around 3k I think. Some of these bikes are just noisy I guess. :dunno: Def check the portal for more info.

[blndweasel]

okay, so not knowing anything about that issue with the SV1K's, and reading that guy's letter to suzuki... i'm real skeptical of this.

not wanting to sift through forums to get more information, did they mic those bearings before and after replacement? i.e. did they verify that the factory installed main bearings were running out of tolerance?

i've heard knocking sounds like this at low RPM's on a lot of bikes... I really don't think it's as serious as everyone makes it out to be, otherwise you'd have a lot more spun main bearings and seized crankshafts.

when the guy from the letter mentions the sound starting at some point following the first service, I wonder if perhaps there is a torque value discrepancy for some fastener, between the assembly line and the service yard.

does the noise happen when the bike is cold, hot, or both? if it were low oil pressure causing a breakdown of the oil cushion the crankshaft rides on, you'd notice it more at higher oil temperatures when the effective viscosity drops.

what someone really needs to do is take an engine that does this, and tear it apart and blueprint it. but i doubt anyone is willing to do this.

yeah... the more i think about this, the more it seems like it's perhaps by design. these bikes were built to be ridden, so the factory should choose bearings that provide optimum clearance at running conditions, not idle.

at idle, when your oil pump is spinning slowly, you have less oil pressure. say you have a .0015" main bearing clearance. at idle, your oil pressure may be low enough to produce a weak oil barrier for the crank to ride on, lending to symptoms of loose main tolerances.

but as you build up revs, the oil pump spins faster, and produces more pressure. this effectively fills out that .0015" gap better because you have more oil passing through the space between the bearing and the crank. hence why the sound goes away at higher revs.

you could build a bike that had .0010" main clearance, that would probably run quiet at idle, but then at higher revs could run into trouble because it would produce more resistance in the oil circuit, and there's a chance when transitioning from closed throttle to WOT conditions, you could have crank to bearing contact.

of course this is all pure speculation... again, someone needs to tear down an engine to see what's really going on.

[bloodclot]

all i know is that you very rarely hear of these engine fouling up unless they have been crashed, opened up, or wheelied a lot. so i wouldnt worry too much. i have had two SV's and neither has had this knock. but i have heard of people like codzilla who noticed the sound and just kept riding for years with no problems.

i personally think its just a quark of the bike. but who knows, maybe in 10 years people will talk about buying old SV's and say things like "watch out for the first and second gens, they had crank bearing that shit themselves after 80k...." lol

[dalsmthme]

Honestly, I am not to worried about it. My old 1200 Bandit made more noise than this engine ever thought of. It would be more of a concern to me if it resulted in engine failure. I did have an oil burner bandit, that was anoying always having to add oil. Suzuki has a pretty good track record of not taking care of these issues.

[Old Dawg]

Some of the '03 1000's have a knock at idle. Mine does and it's only at idle with a warm engine. Other than that it runs fine but it only has 5K miles. I'm hoping it's not a big problem and it will last. Time will tell.

[curley]

I have an '03 Vstrom(1000) - which seems to be the model the "idle hammer" was very noticable on. If you have time you can check out the Vstrom web site - http://vstrom.info/ and read all the theories on what causes it. It appeared on mine right after I changed the oil - I have over 20K miles on the bike - no crank problems - no metal in oil. The only valid issue with early Vstroms seem to be the clutch housing ( it causes the bike to vibrate thru certain RPMs) ... the best way to solve it looks like installing the clutch from a SV1000! - so if you have a SV1000 - I wouldn't worry too much - ride and enjoy the bike- it's a great motor.

[dalsmthme]

Some of the '03 1000's have a knock at idle. Mine does and it's only at idle with a warm engine. Other than that it runs fine but it only has 5K miles. I'm hoping it's not a big problem and it will last. Time will tell.


Yeah, yours sounds identical to mine. Only time will tell I guess.