Left Hand Side Engine Case Exploded on Highway

[thompn]

Hey all. Had a nightmare day today, was riding around 135/140kmh on the Autobahn in Germany and out of nowhere the bike made a horrible sound, lost power and I was lucky enough to nurse it to the shoulder where I found that the left hand side top crank Case had a huge hole in it, bits are definitely missing and I have absolutely no idea the cause.

The bike was recovered and taken to a depot so I won't be able to get more photos until tomorrow, but had a scout on this forum to see if anyone else had a similar incident and had no luck.

The bikes a 2015 S10 with around 35k kms on the odo so I wouldn't have expected this level of catastrophic failure at this point in time. It's been well looked after and serviced well within the windows. I'd done about 800km today at the point when this happened.

Not sure what this post is for... Awareness? Venting? I dunno... It's 1am and I'm annoyed and stuck in Germany now instead of on a nice riding holiday

 

[Fordf350]

WOW. Eager to hear more about this. Sorry for your misfortune. Best of luck

 

[Jlq1969]

No reports of that failure before….probably the starter came loose, and stuck the gears….but there is a gear that seems to be out of place….I think it is the front balancer gear

 

[~TABASCO~]

WOW……. Holy cow ! I’ll have to look at these photos more closely on a real computer. The last time I witnessed anything like this was a “dog paw” broke off one of the gears and was bound in the transmission and ……….POW………. Blew it apart.
I’m really glad your OK and seem to be un harmed.

Let us know what your plan is with the bike. If your going to fix it and find some super long back ordered part, let me know. I have parts I might be able to help you with. I have a whole engine.

Post more photos when your able.

 

[OldRider]

The starter damper assembly is gone. Strange because it doesn't turn after the engine starts. How long after you had started the engine did this happen? Had you just started it or had you been on the road for a while?

 

[Tenman]

Hate to see that. I had a Suzuki 750 water buffalo explode the same cases in 1973. It locked up and I almost crashed. Bike got junked.

 

[thompn]

Cheers all for the early pointers. I'm pissed but I'm fine, nobody was hurt and I realise it could have been a lot worse than it was, so that's at least something. The poor guy in the Tesla behind me took something to the front bumper and it punched a hole in it, other than that and my engine there were no casualties!

@OldRider looking at the diagrams it seems a fair amount of stuff has gone and a fairly large piece of the engine casing, I do wonder if what jlq mentioned could be the culprit. As for how long I'd been riding, probably just over an hour since the last start. The bike didn't miss a beat all day (nor ever until now, actually) and there were no weird sounds in the lead up to this incident it just... Went.

The plan is to fix the bike. Probably just buy a new engine and swap out then see if there's any part outs I can do from this engine to recoup some of the costs. I have seen a similar age and mileage engine for sale in the Netherlands (where I'm based) for 2000EUR which is certainly not ideal but not as bad as I had imagined.

Will post any updates as I find stuff out in this thread. Definitely not the end of the super ten journey for me, I love this bike.

 

[thompn]

Just saw the bike again in person and had a chat to a few mechanics at a Yamaha dealer where the bike is waiting until it's towed home.

They obviously couldn't say anything other than that the engine is likely not economically repairable, nor have they ever seen or heard of any such failures of this engine. They also checked their system and can't see any past bulletins from Yamaha or other dealers where this sort of failure was recorded. I'd driven 175km since the previous engine stop/restart which was around 2 hours when I've pieced together the timeline from yesterday.

The crank casing is completely destroyed, I can see some large cracks and splits underneath the gears and until everything is unbolted I won't be able to see the extent of the damage.

Got some more in the daylight photos which shows the extent of the damage. Also contacted Yamaha to make them aware that the engine failed - maybe they can help, maybe they don't - just for the peace of mind knowing that if it's some production failure they can deal with that on their end.

Will have the bike home hopefully in a few weeks at which point I can get in there and pull this thing apart to see what is going on internally. I don't think rebuilding the engine is the route to go, but swapping out for a whole new one would probably be the best course of action here. FYI Yamaha said around 15k euros to full strip down, investigative, new parts and rebuild including labour. Which is more than the bike is worth. For 2k I can buy a used engine and swap out.

For now I'm on a train home drinking beers and trying not to think about it too much.

 

[SkunkWorks]

Gives new meaning to the term "Exploded-View"
Glad no-one was hurt, and you can tell the tale.

 

[bimota]

have you seen this

Yamaha XT 1200 Z Super Tenere 2010-2013 Motorblock (Engine) 201545613 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Yamaha XT 1200 Z Super Tenere 2010-2013 Motorblock (Engine) 201545613 at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

rob

 

[thompn]

Cheers @bimota I've had a quick scout online but once I'm back home and the bike is in my workshop I'll have a proper hunt and plan the next stage of this saga

seems that super 10 engines are quite cheap for a whole power plant so definitely worth swapping out.

Also heard back from Yamaha who basically said "shit happens". Not quite the response I'd expect after a 35000km engine destroys itself and could have caused a much larger accident but I'll pursue that once the bikes back with me. At which point I'll try and get to the bottom of the failure and post some photos for you guys in case anybody is interested in seeing more.

Nick

 

[cyclemike4]

So sorry for you. I know that is disappointing. I am glad you are o.k. I have only heard of two super T's with complete engine failures. One was a rod issue and I think I saw that on this forum and yours. Sure hope you can find an engine and get it back going.

 

[WJBertrand]

I wonder if the starter somehow became engaged at speed? I know there’s a one-way sprag clutch in there that lets the engine over speed the starter at start up and idle, but how long could it keep up at highway speed before heating up and seizing?

Glad you’re ok, that could have been nasty for you.


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[RCinNC]

I wonder if the S10 sold better in Europe that in the US. Out of curiosity I checked the UK portal for eBay and saw six complete S10 motors on the first page. When you check the US portal, there are only two in the first three pages. I'm only 300 miles away from the big 100,000 mile mark, and the "plan ahead" part of my brain keeps telling me to look for a spare engine, "just in case". I'm sure my Cub Scout leader would be proud that I'd taken the motto "be prepared" so much to heart.

I've been on the forum now for about a decade, and I don't think I've ever seen a Super Ten engine grenade like that. It's the kind of damage you see when a top fuel dragster eats itself.

 

[~TABASCO~]

Cheers @bimota I've had a quick scout online but once I'm back home and the bike is in my workshop I'll have a proper hunt and plan the next stage of this saga

seems that super 10 engines are quite cheap for a whole power plant so definitely worth swapping out.

Also heard back from Yamaha who basically said "shit happens". Not quite the response I'd expect after a 35000km engine destroys itself and could have caused a much larger accident but I'll pursue that once the bikes back with me. At which point I'll try and get to the bottom of the failure and post some photos for you guys in case anybody is interested in seeing more.

Nick

Im definitely interested in any info or photos you can provide in the future..... the more, the better...... This is extremely rare event, It would be great to see what actually happened. I still cant believe it....

If you're interested..... the top end is still probably good... That has some value if you want to save it or sell that to someone in need.

 

[thompn]

I checked the UK portal for eBay and saw six complete S10 motors on the first page. When you check the US portal, there are only two in the first three pages.

Interestingly there are two relatively young engines for sale in the Netherlands which is quite promising. I'll follow up on those next week once I'm back to normal life. Weird but lucky for me in this case, I guess.

Im definitely interested in any info or photos you can provide in the future..... the more, the better...... This is extremely rare event, It would be great to see what actually happened. I still cant believe it....

If you're interested..... the top end is still probably good... That has some value if you want to save it or sell that to someone in need.

I will 100% post photos and info on here once I get the bike back and can get the engine on the bench, the forum has been a great resource for me and if this can help someone not have this happen to them then that's great.

As for the plan, I think I'll replace the engine with a new one and then part out what's left as I'm sure there are some people who would want/need the bits that are still good. Either that or keep on to them just in case for down the road.

From what I've seen online and what the Yamaha mechanic said today nobody has ever seen a super tenere nuke itself like this. I am wondering if it's a foreign object that's lodged between gears, the starter potentially as someone here has suggested, a defect in the case, maybe a crack that's gone unnoticed (although I gave it a once over on Monday when I changed my oil and filter before heading out and everything looked fine). They have a great rep as a robust engine which is one of the main reasons I bought it, so I'm super disappointed this has happened at such an early stage in its life as opposed to once I've got 100k + on it! The guys in the shop were lining up to look at it and take photos because they haven't seen any bike engine do this before.

I'm extremely interested to try and get to the bottom of what's caused this issue, I just hope it's evident from what's left and I can solve it

 

[~TABASCO~]

Interestingly there are two relatively young engines for sale in the Netherlands which is quite promising. I'll follow up on those next week once I'm back to normal life. Weird but lucky for me in this case, I guess.



I will 100% post photos and info on here once I get the bike back and can get the engine on the bench, the forum has been a great resource for me and if this can help someone not have this happen to them then that's great.

As for the plan, I think I'll replace the engine with a new one and then part out what's left as I'm sure there are some people who would want/need the bits that are still good. Either that or keep on to them just in case for down the road.

From what I've seen online and what the Yamaha mechanic said today nobody has ever seen a super tenere nuke itself like this. I am wondering if it's a foreign object that's lodged between gears, the starter potentially as someone here has suggested, a defect in the case, maybe a crack that's gone unnoticed (although I gave it a once over on Monday when I changed my oil and filter before heading out and everything looked fine). They have a great rep as a robust engine which is one of the main reasons I bought it, so I'm super disappointed this has happened at such an early stage in its life as opposed to once I've got 100k + on it! The guys in the shop were lining up to look at it and take photos because they haven't seen any bike engine do this before.

I'm extremely interested to try and get to the bottom of what's caused this issue, I just hope it's evident from what's left and I can solve it

Thank you…….. I believe most of us are certainly interested.

I wonder if one of the cir-clips broke and let one of the gears ‘slide over’ into a driven gear. That would do this damage.

broken cassette tooth or broken ‘dog paw’ would also do all of this.

either way, I would find it very fascinating to find out the real cause.

Once again, really glad your OK and no damage to you physically.

 

[thompn]

Thank you…….. I believe most of us are certainly interested.

I wonder if one of the cir-clips broke and let one of the gears ‘slide over’ into a driven gear. That would do this damage.

broken cassette tooth or broken ‘dog paw’ would also do all of this.

either way, I would find it very fascinating to find out the real cause.

Once again, really glad your OK and no damage to you physically.

All very good theories! The motor did lock up for a second and then freed itself which I assume was the gear housing exploding and dislodging the blockage, to put it one way. I am extremely lucky that nothing bad happened as it could definitely have been much worse. A bikes just a bike and as frustrating as it is, not much I could have done and at least I'm here to talk about it.

Keep this thread on your watch list and I'll update it as soon as I get the bike back and dig into it. It could be a couple of weeks until it's back and then maybe a bit more time until I can face looking at it again thanks for the input so far everyone

 

[merchant]

So glad you are okay and forming a plan. Thank you for keeping us abreast of your progress.

In terms of rare events, I had one with my 2007 4Runner. About two months after purchasing, it would not shift passed second gear. Took it to the dealership and they said there was no record of this ever happening on a 4Runner. They had to airlift a complete transaxle from Japan because there were none in the States. They gave me a Prius for a couple weeks then handed the 4Runner back to me. It's been flawless ever since. It's still my primary driver with roughly 190K miles on it.

I hope you have a similar experience with your Tenere. After the engine swap, I hope it performs for another 100+K km.

 

[WJBertrand]

When looking at replacements know that there are differences between the first and second generations. I believe they’re interchangeable but there are several improvements to the 2nd gen engine. Different pistons and rings, CCT, clutch basket and additional changes to the cylinder head (not sure the details here though). I think the pistons and rings were updated to address an oil consumption issue on some 1st gen bikes. The 2nd gen engine makes a few more horsepower too.


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