Suzuki fuel line tried to kill me..... again.

Just went for a 4 day ride in the 40 degree heat to the snowy mountains and Bright in Victoria. All was going well until I was 100ks from Bright traveling at 100kph when the 1250 Fa s engine did a big miss and then kept on going for about 2 km. At first I thought that I had a clagged  fuel filter, then the engine did another big miss, the rear of the bike started sliding all over the place and the bike and me almost did a high side then a low side around a corner, all at the same time. We almost ended up in a ditch at the side of the road then bike finally cut out and we glided to a stop. WTF?!!!!. I hit the engine cut off switch and turned off the ignition, got off the bike and started to look for what had happened. Flat tyre? and an engine problem? Nope, just a smell of hot fuel. The skid was caused by a large amount of fuel going over the back wheel. I got out the standard Suzuki toolkit and undid the 2 bolts holding the fuel tank and slid it back to lift it. There it was, the fuel line had disengaged itself from the lower fuel inlet. This is the second time in 2 years that this has happened, and I don't know why it does it. I connected it up again and it seemed to hold ok even when pulled to check that it had clipped properly. The way the bike kept on going after the initial miss for 2 mins and then stopped makes me think that the line comes off in two stages.
    Needless to say, I'm going to replace the line with a new one asap and secure that one with a couple of pull ties to help stop it coming off. 
   The worst case scenario with this fuel line coming off is a firey death after losing control. And in my case this happened on a total fire ban day.
  Has anybody else had these fuel line connecters on their Bandit or GSX1250 Fa come off ?

I have not had any probs with mine. I have had the hose disconnected / reconnected a few times while doing maintenance etc. So far so good. I bet you I have just jinxed myself by commenting on this. 

Never heard of it other than tank connector due to owner error (no click). Has it been off recently, and yes, new hose!!

kewwig wrote:Never heard of it other than tank connector due to owner error (no click). Has it been off recently, and yes, new hose!!

Yep about a month ago but I've ridden about 2,000 kms since then.

Boatz wrote:I have not had any probs with mine. I have had the hose disconnected / reconnected a few times while doing maintenance etc. So far so good. I bet you I have just jinxed myself by commenting on this. 

I hate being jinxed. My mum used to do it to me all the time.
 
Just in case, if your bike suddenly stutters or cuts out while riding, hit the engine cut out as fast as you can. I think it cuts off  fuel pump as well? I hope it does.

phill north wrote:

Boatz wrote:I have not had any probs with mine. I have had the hose disconnected / reconnected a few times while doing maintenance etc. So far so good. I bet you I have just jinxed myself by commenting on this. 

I hate being jinxed. My mum used to do it to me all the time.
 
Just in case, if your bike suddenly stutters or cuts out while riding, hit the engine cut out as fast as you can. I think it cuts off  fuel pump as well? I hope it does.

I had a similar thing happen to me in a Volkswagen beetle years ago, I had just been over to fill up so didn't really worry about the smell of fuel at first.

Long story short the fuel line had come off at the carby but enough was squirting into the hole to keep it going but at the same time covering the engine in petrol, just as well I had fitted a quality set of leads when I did it up.  

Not good when bike tries to kill you .

Check this out. http://www.stromtrooper.com/general-v-strom-discussion/126345-fuel-line-connection.html Something is not right with these connectors. Suzuki may get a class action against it soon if this keeps on happening and it kills enough people.

As i had the tank off today, I'll be checking mine in the morning   

holy shit.

you did well then to not crash.

good luck fixing the bloody thing.  

A length of efi rated fuel hose and a couple of quality hose clamps will give piece of mind. 
Not too much extra work to undo a clamp rather than a clip. Just be sure to clamp after the flange on the spigot.

I'm thinking about getting the pressure regulator tested as well. The in line fuel pressure should be about 45 PSI. I remember a month ago when I took the tank off to replace the coolant (when you replace the coolant you take the tank off and put it back on several times), I made sure that each time I heard the click as the fuel line engaged at both ends.
   This constant thought about  checking the connectors is ingrained into my memory because I had the lower connector come off a couple of years ago and it scared the living shit out of me then.
  Come to think of it the 1250  fuel line connectors are much harder to get off than my old 08 gsx650 , and the 650  lines never popped off.   Stupid connectors.

You're not alone on that phill. I had the same thing happen to me one the way to work. Only I hadn't clipped it all the way on after having the tank off. Bike died at 100k. I looked in the mirror to see a white cloud behind me. When I hit the kill switch and rolled off the road , out of the cloud came a cop (bloody glad he wasn't a smoker). I had loss 3 quarters of a full tank over his bonnet and he didn't smell a thing, he just kept going past.

Just ordered a new fuel line and noted that the original part has been superseded. I hope its been modified with a better connector system.

Hello all, been a while....
Sorry to bump an old thread...but I'm wondering if anyone else has had the fuel line quick connector come free from their tank on their GSX1250FA, (or any other variants) in recent times.

Mine did today. A muggy warm day in Darwin and a reasonably spirited ride home on the 70km daily commute (seemed to get a few openings) and just approaching the home gate, the engine cuts out about the same time as I'm wondering why most of my my left leg is suddenly feeling unusually cool...and wet. I look down to see fuel pissing out and soaking my jeans. I couldn't get that ignition shut down fast enough. Bike nice and hot, fuel everywhere pulse rate high. I can't belief how lucky I was ....and that it happened at the gate! Anyway, wheeled it the last 100 or so metres, removed the tank and sure enough the top fuel line connector (attaches to the tank) was unattached completely.

Have I had the tank off? Yes several times since new. I've done the TB balance at least 3 times, last one about 7 months ago (lots of riding since then) but I'm almost certain....  the last one I did I connected it back properly with that necessary click.

I'm now wondering tho given the thing came off.... yet they seem to lock very positively when on, and there's no accessory wiring etc that might have inadvertently compressed the release mechanism.

There was zero warning like engine missing or spluttering. It was pretty much one second riding sweet, next I'm being primed as a human torch.  I've put it back together, checked the connector, it all looks fine, locks on well....

So....has anyone else had it happen recently?

I've had my tank off at least three times in the past 9 months or so, but haven't had any trouble (touch wood) with the connector coming loose.  Track this down mate - I'd be very interested to know if there is a failure mode that can torch me!  

Deleted duplicate post.

You've mockered me by bringing this up Phill.
Mine came out of the shed today after a maintenance session. The last thing to do was a throttle body balance so the motor had been running for 20/30 mins. Got on the bike rode, 5 metres up the drive when it gave the big cough followed immediately by that distinctive splashing noise.
It's happened to me twice before so twigged quickly and had the ignition shut off quick smart but still had a huge pool of fuel under me.

!Tag wrote:You've mockered me by bringing this up Phill.
Mine came out of the shed today after a maintenance session. The last thing to do was a throttle body balance so the motor had been running for 20/30 mins. Got on the bike rode, 5 metres up the drive when it gave the big cough followed immediately by that distinctive splashing noise.
It's happened to me twice before so twigged quickly and had the ignition shut off quick smart but still had a huge pool of fuel under me.

It is a bit of a dicky clip to trust your life with though isn't it  

Ken Oath.

What do you all think about having a  Sticky ( if that's the correct term ) collection of "Must Do's" in the Maintenance Section to help eliminate this and other problems after maintenance to our bikes. It may save a disaster.

I support what you're saying Boatz.  I think Suzuki drafted the maintenance manual on a Friday arvo before a long weekend and the QA was already half way to the coast.  After all, how can there be no scheduled replacement of the fuel filter?  And no replacement of the front fork fluid?  And yep, that quick release fuel line connector is definitely suspect.

After my initial fuel bath on Thursday arvo, I rode the bike next day and all good cept I looked down about a bazillion times on the ride into and home from work on Friday. I took the fuel line off again over the weekend and did a second careful inspection.... Couldn't fault the mechanism either end. Both connectors working fine, lock on and don't want to come off. All appear in good condition (bike has around 30,000 kms on it). Cleaned everything lubed up the seals and reconnected. I'm now thinking it must have been a bad re-install after I did the last TB sync. Can only think I didn't lock the thing on properly last time (although I'm certain I undid the tank using the lower connector not the top and it was about 7 months ago and I've ridden it every day since then...so I'm still a little inclined to be in the WTF!  camp...).

Bill.

Why not secure it with something like cable ties?

A loop round the line and one around the spigot could be joined by a 3rd cable tie (imagine handcuffs)