RMZ250 2010 Gearbox Problems

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RMZ250 2010 Gearbox Problems

by Brian Burke
(New Zealand)

Have had a shocking run with 2 x bikes brought for a young rider I sponsor. From manufacturing there were 2 screws on the inside gearchange lever that fell out and screwed the gearbox. Mechanic had same gear change issues with his bike and checked screws on his and all but fallen out: Screwed the gears in his as well. The engine casing on mine (only 20 hours use) had to be replaced plus all gears. I still had to pay $1700.00 to have it fixed. The motor was returned and installed into frame and started. No oil pressure! Turned out that Suzuki bike shop had installed 2009 piston/rings/gaskets! Low compression/and oil gallery holes were covered by incorrect gaskets.

There is more (hour meters which were part of Suzuki promotion were taken out of spares kit and sold back to me) but do not have enough space to include and who wants to hear a raver going on?

For a bike that must have been assembled on a Friday by someone whose mind must have been on hitting the party scene that night, I have paid a hefty price.

On the good side though: Bloody great bikes with good power/handling. The main bike has run flawlessly.

Cheers

- Geez Brian.. That would piss any bloke off no end! I can't believe you had to pay for the repairs, I know MX bikes don't have warranty's but come on. It wasn't a certain Suzuki dealership on Barry's Pt Rd, Takapuna by any chance...? I had a 2nd hand RM blow the piston after 2 hours of riding after I bought it off their showroom floor.

Hayden -

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RMZ250 2010 Gearbox Problems

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Jan 29, 2012
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Rmx 450z 2010
by: Luke Hayward

My transmission is screwed on my rmx after 25 hours. From all the Research I have done it's gonna be rounded dogs, broken gear and bent selector forks. Let's see what the mechanics say once its split. Pity Suzuki are still selling something they know to be a rubbish design.

Jul 24, 2011
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Seized Crank On 2011 RMZ
by: Andrew L

Hey guys. I found this page after blowing my bottom end today. I have a 2011 RMZ250 and had it from new. It now has 25hrs and I changed the oil every 5hrs with the filter, extremely frequent on services and my crank has seized which resulted in a damaged bore, piston etc.

I don't know what to think. A crank should last 80+hrs not 20. I am so disappointed and frustrated. And I already know Suzuki won't wana know about it.

I should have kept my 2010 Yz250F. I went the RM because it handled so much better, but don't know now if it was worth it.

Jul 01, 2011
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RMZ 250f 2010 Complete Top End
by: stephen

Helped son put oil filter in the wrong way, after 500 meters locked top end. Looking for a replacement. Thanks.

Apr 27, 2011
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Tranny Fail
by: Anonymous

11.8 hours on my new Suzuki RMZ250 and it is chunking metal pieces in the oil of my tranny gears. Piece of shitttt! SOLD! Back to Honda.

Apr 27, 2011
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Gear Repair
by: Anonymous

Hi, yip I recommend getting the gears reground so they lock into gear better. Daryl Hurley at Action Suzuki is the person to see there, he will have gears in stock.

Apr 27, 2011
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Honda Gearbox's All Good
by: Anonymous

Hey Andrew. You're right there. I forgot to say I brought my son a RM125 and had to replace the gearbox on that one as well.

I have had Yamaha/Honda/Kawasaki and never had a gearbox problem with any of them. I have had 5 CRF250's and they were fine. Still have my original 04 Honda CRF250 and the gearbox is still perfect. Problem with them were the valves. That's why I went to the Suzuki! Can't win can we?

Cheers
Brian

Apr 22, 2011
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Rubbish Gearbox
by: andrew

Had gearbox problems on every rmz I've owned - 07, 08, 09 and 10. Tightening the indent spring helped the false neutrals but as for the dogs on the gears rounding, just shit material, like their rm125 boxes.

Apr 02, 2011
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Re-ground
by: Anonymous

What do you mean by re-ground? We thinking about grinding but we don't know if the grinded piece must be hardened again.

Apr 01, 2011
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RMZ Gearbox Problems
by: Brian

Like a typical motorcycle manufacture, Suzuki have released and sold an untested product onto the unsuspecting public and walked away from their responsibilities to make them right.

We are continually fixing the transmissions on the 2 bikes we have. In place of buying replacement parts, we have found that we can have the gears re-ground with the correct angles on them so they mesh together better. To date they seem to change more positively and hopefully will last longer.

To Suzuki I say show a bit of honor and do the right thing for your customers.

Apr 01, 2011
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08 RMZ250 Neutral
by: Anonymous

My 2008 RMZ250 has been hitting neutral (Well only 3 times but Ive only put about 15 hours on it.) Should I be worried? How much is it gonna cost to fix? Can I finish this series or is that too risky?

Mar 16, 2011
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Rmz 2011 Gear Problems
by: Greetz from the Netherlands

Dear All,
We also have big problems with the 2011 rmz 250. It looks like the 3 studs at the back of 2 and 3 gear are not correct and just one of those studs is hooking in the hole of the gear wheel next to it. Does anybody know an address for anything else other than original Suzuki parts? Our bikes will not run longer than 10 hours before 3rd gear jumps out on it's own.

Jan 01, 2011
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Engine No Better Than Gearbox
by: Anonymous

35 hours of riding and up for complete rebuild. This includes everything except rocker cover and engine casings. We were told that we didn't service the bike which is a joke because all my bikes, 5 in total are serviced every 5 to 7 hours. Yamahas are all still running while the newest bike 2010 rmz250 is pushed in the corner. Cheaper to wreck it out for parts.

Nov 30, 2010
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Ride a Suzuki And Roll The Jumps
by: Anonymous

I know how this guy feels about jumping the Suzuki. You have to question whether it is worth taking the risk to accelerate up and jump to find yourself in a front wheel endo when it hits a false neutral.

Maybe these bikes were made to race the good old TT's and not supercross or maybe they are really road bikes that only look like a motocross bike?
OR maybe the gear boxes are only there for us to hang our gear on.

Anyway, gears are over rated. Look at how Josh Hanson went on the Aussie supercross when his bike was stuck in 2nd gear. Maybe we should really be deciding which gear we need and then permanently weld it.

Nov 26, 2010
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2010 Suzuki RMZ 250 False Neutral
by: Anonymous

Hello guys I had a used 2007 Suzuki RMZ 250 and the thing would never stay on neutral and it would go into neutral while riding. It cost me severe shoulder injury. I thought it was a problem of the used bike so I asked around, it turns out it happens to be Suzuki's in general.

I loved my 07 and besides that problem, I figured if I purchased the 2010 model it wouldn't have the same problem.. Yeha right! I ended up landing on my back at 40mph (2d gear full). It is a shame they couldn't fix a problem like that in 3 years.

Now I am really scared each time I ride on the bike. I think I will sell it and never buy one again. Shame on them it sucks because the bike is amazing.

Oct 24, 2010
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Gear Shifter
by: Brett Franks

Hey Brian I seem to be having this same problem with my bike. Could you tell me exactly where the loose screws are so I can figure out what the problem is with my bike?

Coming off Yamaha's for the last few years I am beginning to think that the better cornering is not worth the hassle these yellow bikes are giving me.

Oct 08, 2010
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Brian Has Trouble Again
by: Anonymous

I just had trouble again with gearbox for 3rd time. AND Suzuki are not interested. They just want to send me on another wild goose chase to frustrate me into giving up.

Have gone back on this site and now see others are having a right time. Pity others have put anonymous as this is exactly what the manufacturers like. Remember it is us, the buyers, that decide whether they survive or not. The poor old bike shop guys are scared of their suppliers and will do whatever they want even if it means cutting loose a valuable customer.

In place of anonymous why don't we put down the serial # of our bikes?

Your thoughts..?

Oct 07, 2010
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RMZ Gearbox #3
by: Anonymous

Hey Hayden. I am back. Bad news again. You would not believe it but the 1st bikes gearbox that was fixed is missing gears again!

We have taken it into another Suzuki dealership to have it checked out and they found that one of the screws (yes, the ones that caused the first bit of grief) had loosened again. Luckily we have caught it before it did any damage this time. Still cannot see why it has become dodgy without pulling apart again. Have been in touch with Suzuki NZ and they are not interested.

What do we do? I have brought these bikes to give a young fellow an opportunity when in fact these bike people can only see me as the opportunity!
$20000.00 worth of bikes and 3 gearboxes since January 2010 is just simply unfair.

Brian

- Brian. I don't know mate. Probably not a whole lot considering they don't come with a warranty. I've been down a similar track. Fortunately for me my boss at the time was the size and shape of a Yeti - a big angry one - and he had 'words' with the dealership. They only charged me for parts in the end but it took a royal bollicking from Fred first. Don't buy a Suzuki again, and let them know it. Yamaha and KTM are made out of much higher quality materials, and Honda are also known to be reliable.

Hayden -

Oct 05, 2010
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Screwed 2010 RMZ 250
by: Anonymous

Ok so I bought a 2010 rmz 250 from new and it's probably had about 50 hourz of riding because I don't ride much. I am already on my second cam chain. One day the bike wouldn't start.. once it got checked out they found that the bike needs a full rebuild and it's going to cost me $3000. This is because a certain Suzuki dealership can't put bikes together when they fix them the first time. I will never buy from a Suzuki dealer again and after I fix this bike it will be the last Suzuki I own because of reliability.

Sep 28, 2010
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Gearbox is Rubbish
by: Anonymous

I also had a 2010 rmz 250 with a dodgey gearbox. From new I couldn't get neutral, it selected it's own gears & the motor also blew heaps of smoke on start up. The bike shop reckon they hadn't heard of any others with gearbox problems even though I had heard of about another 5 round the tracks that had self destructed. I sold mine after only 4 hours of use & bought a ktm.

- Geez.. how frustrating. Quality of parts seems to be a problem for the Big Yellow.

Hayden -

Sep 16, 2010
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Back Again
by: Anonymous

The gearbox on the 2nd bike needs to be fixed now. Just plain worn out! Quality of the gears are not very good at all. We have never had gearbox problems on any other bike!

Do we have to just grin and bear this?

Sep 13, 2010
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2010 rmz 250 Gearbox
by: Anonymous

I had to address my gearbox after 25 hours and my mates as they both hit false neutral. All the dealers I approached said they hadn't heard of any issues - yer right!!

Jul 30, 2010
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Goofball Mechanics
by: MATT CUDDY

In 1983 I bought an XL600S Honda dual-sport. That next weekend I rode about 300 miles of Baja California in very dusty conditions. When I got home to clean up the bike, someone who set up the Honda had forgotten to install the air filter!

The inside of the airbox was filthy, and after several months of pestering American Honda I got an un-limited warranty on the motorcycle, in writing.

Being that it was a Honda XL all that dirt going through the motor didn't seem to hurt it one bit.

Lots of idiots in the shop.

- 300 miles of dusty Baja California?! .. without an airfilter - and the bike was still running?! If this isn't the perfect ad for Honda motorcycles then I don't know what is.

Matt, a 300 mile trip through Baja sounds like an amazing experience, why don't you tell us all about it? Use the form on the bottom of the Dirt Bike Events page. We await your story..

Hayden -

Jul 30, 2010
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Reply
by: Anonymous

Hey Hayden.

Not Barry's point road but not too far away either. Can't be too specific. Like your site, as lot of effort seems to have been put into it. Being able to have a moan without censorship is a rare treat in the sport of Moto X.

I stopped buying magazines as they appear to be only manufacturer/retailer catalogues that us consumers foolishly pay for.

Keep up the good work showing our sport from all sides.

Cheers

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RMZ250 2010 Gearbox Problems

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RMZ250 2010 Gearbox Problems