OUCH this is a very painful experiance, well more expensive than painful, so here goes. bear with me on this it is very important info.

March this year i decided i needed a new toy i already own a gsxr1000 k4 yeah loads of fun, fast as... well you know, and mega wheelies whenever you want them. But what do you do come september wet roads weather not so good, i know buy a DRZ400. So i bought an 02 bike gave £1650 for it a bit tatty but arnt they all,

So a good clean and a service was in order, when i took out the oil filter and drained the oil i noticed there was no O RING behind the filter. Thats when i got worried this is in there to keep up the oil pressure, i wondered how long it had been missing the previous owner assured me it was serviced regularly and as he owned his own garage i believed him.

Anyway to cut a long story short without this small O ring your engine as i found out will destroy itself. Once i fitted a new filter and O ring and put in clean oil i ran the bike up to temperature and set off down the road only to here the engine knocking. I was not happy so out it came and off it went to an engine rebuider, when he stripped it down he told me i had been lucky as it had just started to go, yeah just started heres what a MISSING O RING HAD DONE, Damaged big end bearings causing them to start and break up, with bits going into the starter clutch and damaging that, with bits of metal from that going into the frame via the oil return and so on. While it was in bits he advised me to change the cam chain and piston rings because it made sense while in bits as these are classed as consumable parts that eventually need changing, a complete gasket set and of coarse labour which in total with return delivery cost me £749.96.........GUTTED all because some one didnt notice the O ring. Not to mention the problems i had cleaning out the frame that holds all the oil to make sure no bits of metal re-entered the rebuilt engine that was a nightmare job...

So in short an O ring costing a few pence WILL save you lots. The trouble is when you change the oil filter the O ring normally sticks to the filter and you dont notice it when you pull it out, and when you buy a new filter it DOES NOT come with an O ring so your non the wiser, even a genuine suzuki filter comes without one, so unless you know its there at some point during an oil change your gonna lose it.

So just a word of WARNING to anyone thinking of buying a used DRZ400 from some one who claims to have serviced the bike themselves ask about the O ring or better still take of the filter housing and check for the little bleeder yourself, its only held on with 3 10mm bolts and will only take about 5 mins to check and give you peace of mind, believe me i wish i had.

Dont forget to view my other motorcyle related guides..

Good look if your after one and YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, Regards.......Ian