Other powertrain problem on the 2008 Suzuki Boulevard M109r
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 16 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Suzuki Boulevard M109r report other powertrain problem at a median of 5,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 10,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 800 miles at the tenth percentile to 20,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 17,912 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
100% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 811 miles | 4,563 miles | 6,273 miles | 11,414 miles | 18,723 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 2,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 10,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 39; the 2008 has 16. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
2008 suzuki m109r (aka vzr1800) began to experience loud rattle in clutch basket with bike in neutral at approximately 6000 miles. The rattle get noticeably louder under acceleration. I took bike to dealer and was told that there was nothing defective in the clutch, and that the rattling was due to torsion springs in the clutch hub vibrating with the engine, and that this was 'normal'. It seems to me that if this is truly 'normal' operation, that the noise would have been present from the day I bought the motorcycle. However, there were no unusual noises coming from the clutch until after 6000 miles on the odometer. Investigating an online forum, I found numerous other riders whose bikes exhibited the exact same problem. Many of them have also been handed the 'its normal' answer from their dealers. If it were 'normal' operation, all m109rs would have the same symptoms, yet obviously this is not the case. *tr
I bought a brand new 2008 suzuki m109r in mid july 2008. From day one the clutch lever didn't have the usual stiff feel that I am accustomed to from suzuki?s, I had just traded in a suzuki m50. I talked to the dealer about this and they said that as long as it had a 1/4in play in the lever that it was not an issue. After the 600 mile service I noticed that the clutch would only start grabbing about an inch to an inch and a half from being all the out. I told the dealer about this and again as long as it had a quarter inch play there was no issue. After about 3000 miles I started to notice slight vibrations while riding up hills between 3200-4000 rpms. I told the dealer of this issue at when I dropped the bike off for its second service along with the clutch lever still not feeling right. The dealer said they would check it out. Again they came back finding nothing wrong but the service manager said he would take the clutch cover off and check it out and make any adjustments. After he did this he said he made a minor adjustment and didn?t see any issue. I went for a long days ride all through southern california, on my way home I…
Intermittent clutch shudder, this occurs at random but most predictable on first take off after engine warm up. It is a violent shudder of the entire bike and has the potential of causing the driver to lose control will taking off and wrecking. This seems to be a common problem with this model motorcycle. By reading online forums, way to many people are experiencing this problem for it not to be a recall. Suzuki does not recognize an issue or problem and provides no assistance in the repair. I cannot afford to have exploratory maintenance performed so the problem has yet to be repaired on my bike. I personally feel this to be a safety issue, I am an a.s.e. Master certified automotive technician and have worked for a fleet of vehicles both as a mechanic and now in administration for the past 15 years. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Suzuki Boulevard M109r
Manual clutch or hydraulics failure
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Oil leak
No-start or intermittent start failure
Harsh or jerky shifting
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 16 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other powertrain problem happen on the 2008 Suzuki Boulevard M109r?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 10,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2008 Suzuki Boulevard M109r?
16 reports have been filed with NHTSA. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed