Free tank woohoo!

I organized the people on the old sport-twins TL1000 email listserver (before we had a bulletin board) starting back in '97 to present the problem with the original all-rubber '97 tank seal (at the fuel pump mounting plate). We all got organized and reported the failure cases to the US DOT/NHTSA website. But the production numbers for the TL1000 were so small, especially since it was a new model, that it got no attention at all. Many more Chevys get hit by lightning than the total number of TLs that were in existence.

So I organized the data showing that 100% of the rubber seals in the US shrunk and leaked after some amount of use & time (who knows, fuel type may have even been involved). When we reported the problem to Suzuki the level 1 phone support geek would follow protocol and tell each person to take it to his dealer. The dealers would screw it up with the wrong sealants, strip the bolts, etc. etc. One guy parked his bike in his walk-out basement, near his water heater & furnace, under the bedrooms for him & wife & kids. He came down one morning to find fuel all over the floor. Another guy had problems in-use, with it dripping fuel onto him while he rode...that one was especially critical because that and a guy with a fire made it a "safety" concern instead of warranty/reliability/usability issue. Otherwise Suzuki could have just given everybody another rubber seal and blown us off after the 1-year warranty in the US.

So I gave Suzuki US the first opportunity to respond to our mini-study, and the phone dweeb at Suzuki USA didn't realize what it meant.

So I forwarded it to NHTSA/DOT. We got really lucky, and got a safety investigator who was this girl who rode a Yamaha sport-tourer. She understood. So the DOT/NHTSA ordered Suzuki to send all drawings, studies, etc. and also wanted affidavits from every engineer, all the replacement parts orders, statements from every dealer who'd dealt with ay '97 tank problems, etc. etc. She was cool, and I got her the phone numbers for a dozen '97 TLS owners with leaky tanks, and she took it from there.

Now by this time Suzuki had come out with the improved seal on the '98 tank and the TLR tank, the steel seal plate with a rubber sealing surface vulcanized onto the steel. The steel could not shrink, and didn't allow any movement of the pump plate, so the fuel pump plate was no longer "rubber-mounted" on the seal. So that was pretty much an admission that they knew there was a problem and an improvement was needed. But Suzuki never offered a new-style seal for the old-style '97 tank with the original bolt pattern.

But they found other problems with the tank. In an accident, the rear hinge could pull the bottom out of the tank, ripping it open at the bottom seam like opening a can of sardines, dumping all the fuel on the rider & hot engine & ignition.

Dealers and customers had already screwed up a lot of '97 tanks. So the day that Suzuki was supposed to give them all the data, instead Suzuki announced a recall. They supplied new tanks on exchange, and new supports for the back of the tank near the hinge, so a front impact didn't drive the tank down into the frame at least.

Then England, France, Germany, etc. wanted in on it, and Suzuki made it a world-wide recall.

Then we started to get organized about the original '97 clutch...but that's another story.

A lot of dealers were not very good at returning the '97 tanks that were exchanged (didn't send them back to Suzuki), and there were some on the used market, so for a few years there were original ones floating around on eBay. I think that because it's a Safety recall Suzuki has been really good about honoring it for a long long time, but I think the US only requires common parts availability for 10 years so when there are no more you're out of luck on getting a free one.

There were several other teething problems with the '97, and the short 12 month US warranty got a lot of attention because of them.

Question,

And it's not a threadjack because it is the same issue!

I have a 97 TLS. I just went to check the tank since I was curious. I have the X stamped tank, but also know I have the two piece gasket because I just did the fuel filter mod. Should I try and get that replaced for free at a dealer? I have the tank off so if they ordered the part it would be a 30 second ordeal. I am sure they are going to give me some BS about the tank already having been replaced under the warranty. If they won't do it, should I just go ahead and order the new 1 piece seal?

Whoever put the fuel pump back on previous to me (probably the dealer doing the recall replacement) put the gasket on "backwards", then just forced those holes to line up on the sides. I am surprised it didn't leak. I flipped it around the correct way where the holes actually line up correctly, luckily they didn't foul up the old gasket too much and it still doesn't leak. But since it is the unfixed 97 gasket it is over 15 year old rubber , so again, I am all about getting a new one.

Chris said:

Great attitude :jack
Can you **** off back where you came from? If not, a simple, "I apologise for being a dick" should suffice. :thumbup

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Dude you have no idea what your talking about. That POS has harassed me at every turn. He posts a stupid ass comment in EVERY thread I start for no reason what so ever. What your suppose to be special cause you been riding a 15 year old bike that apparently stays broke down a whole hell of a like so he can't ride or he is just some *** ass 500 pound grizzle eating lard ass and his bike can't take the strain. I have had my TLS less than a month but apparently I have a lot to learn cause I got a free fuel tank and I thought I would let other owners know why. At least I didn't have to commit fraud to get mine. I try to do something nice and again it get some stupid ****in comment. Apparently this piece of shit is jealous, AGAIN cause some "newbie" has a nicer bike, with a brand new fuel tank no less. Jealousy is a bitch ain't it. So their u go **** head, perhaps you should do your homework before u follow your masters lead and post stupid comments about thing which u know nothing of. thanks, HAVE A GREAT DAY, ****er!