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Mechanics yanking my chain or what....

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My Bandit burned oil due to defective pistons
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That is not a servicing dealer issue.. That is a corporate issue, And I agree with your concern.

I had a vent panel fly off my FJR within the first 100 miles of leaving the dealer.
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What component do you claim was a manufacture defect that allowed the panel to come off? Did the replacement panel also fall off? OR was this an install issue, yours or the dealerships? If it was a install issue, then thats not a warranty deal..

Though I have seen randomly disappearing panels covered in just that case, #1 fell off on the way home.. #2 fell off later the second day. Manufacture Tech line consulted and it was found a Dealer installed factory option was pushing on the back side of the cover.. Mount modified, third cover replaced, customer reimbursed for purchase of replacement cover.. So no cash out of his pocket, warranty approved.

My ZRX's swing arm bolt lost the nut and backed out at 1000 miles leaving the swing arm at an angle. It must be my fault despite the fact I had paid $150 to the dealer for a 600 mile service.
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What year ZRX? Is checking the swing arm bolt nut part of the manufacturers recommended 600 mile service? And even if it is... what part do you claim is a warranty repair? what manufacturers part failed?

I'll assume based on what you posted.. It was not a warranty repair because it is not a warranty part failure... it may have been a dealer tech failure, and should have been covered by that dealership in good will..for their mistake... http://www.blues-crap.com/pdfs/service.pdf
there is a "nut and bolt fasten check" line in the 600 mile service mandate... Checking swing arm bolt torque is not routinely consider part of that in the service world,,,unless a common issue exist.

Your post speaks directly to the consumer confusion of what is a warranty repair covered by the manufacture, and the confusion some have in what perhaps depending on the circumstance be covered out of pocket by the servicing dealer.

Kurt of your three issues above, only one is a warranty issue, and it was a Manufactures issue to deal with, nothing to do with the servicing dealer.

Like you and others here I would never buy an extended warranty or a service maintenance contract .. but I know folks that should, as they do not own tools, do not want to get dirty, and like the piece of mind of the the tow (or ride ) it in broke, dirty, needing service, pay money, ride it out working way of life.

I can not relate to that mind set, but I acknowledge it exists.

I have customers that can work on their bike but choose to have me do it.
I have folks that can do limited work, but choose to have me do the more involved.
And I have a few that literally want a clean, running bike with no more effort then finding the key and putting gas in it.

To each his own
 
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Save your money from the warranty contract and buy tools. They seem to have 101 excuses for everything. Kind of like is the glass half full or half empty. Buy used and do your own work.
 
Nothing to do with motorcycles but warranty work. I work at a used car dealership and we do as a courtesy repair some items that are not covered under the warranty if they happen shortly after the vehicle is financed. Just good business to try to help your customers. Not every single solitary piece on a vehicle can be covered,but common sense dictates that helping client is in the best interest of both parties. Just my 2 cents.
 
kickstand~prophet said:
Nothing to do with motorcycles but warranty work. I work at a used car dealership and we do as a courtesy repair some items that are not covered under the warranty if they happen shortly after the vehicle is financed. Just good business to try to help your customers. Not every single solitary piece on a vehicle can be covered,but common sense dictates that helping client is in the best interest of both parties. Just my 2 cents.
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:giveup::giveup::giveup:

THAT ^^

Good dealers with good service managers do it.. Others do not :giveup:
 
Like E. says, I think it's more dealer-to-dealer than brand-to-brand. I can't speak for MCs because frankly, I've never owned one that was in warranty.

I have plenty of warranty experience with GM and Nissan vehicles. In most cases, they fall all over themselves to honor warranties. In fact, the Irving Nissan dealership bluntly told me "Nissan pays us very well to handle warranty items." When I had used Chevy tow vehicles in the 80s & 90s, I found the Arlington dealership to be pretty easy to work with on warranty or TSB items. Parra in Irving, on the other hand, was always buttheaded about anything and everything on my '86 Astro and my '96 Cherokee. I always ended up getting the warranty work done elsewhere. And I eventually learned my lesson & quit buying vehicles there.
 
E.Marquez said:
.

I have customers that can work on their bike but choose to have me do it.
I have folks that can do limited work, but choose to have me do the more involved.
And I have a few that literally want a clean, running bike with no more effort then finding the key and putting gas in it.

To each his own
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+ 1 :popcorn:
 
I agree with Marquez, the warranty is only as good as the dealer.

My most recent experience was first hand at a Kawasaki ATV dealer as their only mechanic and also the warranty administrator (side business for a John Deere dealer). Let me tell you, Kawasaki will bend over backwards to make the customer happy, but it takes a dedicated mechanic and management team to make that happen. Kawasaki was powerless to do anything without the proper information from the dealer.

All of the foot work falls on the dealer to get the ball rolling, documentation, documentation and documentation, is all Kawasaki wanted. I NEVER had a single warranty claim denied! I did have a few that Kawasaki may have dinged me a couple tenths to an hour on, but I had a 100% recovery rate on my parts. With that said, you also need some help, cooperation and commitment from the customer, especially involving intermittent and oil consumption issues.
 
Now from my anti-dealer soap box.............

I had a customer bring me a Goldwing this past week for service. The last time it was service was at the Honda dealer in Shawnee. What I found was oil in the radiator recovery bottle, A LOT of it:eek2:

For whatever reason it did not make it to the main cooling system, thank God. I had to remove the tank and clean it. Obviously someone had mistaken the bottle as the engine oil because it has a dip stick. I know it was not the customer, because he checks anything, he just rides it and takes it in for regular service.
 
E.Marquez said:
.

That is not a servicing dealer issue.. That is a corporate issue, And I agree with your concern.



What component do you claim was a manufacture defect that allowed the panel to come off? Did the replacement panel also fall off? OR was this an install issue, yours or the dealerships? If it was a install issue, then thats not a warranty deal..

Though I have seen randomly disappearing panels covered in just that case, #1 fell off on the way home.. #2 fell off later the second day. Manufacture Tech line consulted and it was found a Dealer installed factory option was pushing on the back side of the cover.. Mount modified, third cover replaced, customer reimbursed for purchase of replacement cover.. So no cash out of his pocket, warranty approved.



What year ZRX? Is checking the swing arm bolt nut part of the manufacturers recommended 600 mile service? And even if it is... what part do you claim is a warranty repair? what manufacturers part failed?

I'll assume based on what you posted.. It was not a warranty repair because it is not a warranty part failure... it may have been a dealer tech failure, and should have been covered by that dealership in good will..for their mistake... http://www.blues-crap.com/pdfs/service.pdf
there is a "nut and bolt fasten check" line in the 600 mile service mandate... Checking swing arm bolt torque is not routinely consider part of that in the service world,,,unless a common issue exist.

Your post speaks directly to the consumer confusion of what is a warranty repair covered by the manufacture, and the confusion some have in what perhaps depending on the circumstance be covered out of pocket by the servicing dealer.

Kurt of your three issues above, only one is a warranty issue, and it was a Manufactures issue to deal with, nothing to do with the servicing dealer.

Like you and others here I would never buy an extended warranty or a service maintenance contract .. but I know folks that should, as they do not own tools, do not want to get dirty, and like the piece of mind of the the tow (or ride ) it in broke, dirty, needing service, pay money, ride it out working way of life.

I can not relate to that mind set, but I acknowledge it exists.

I have customers that can work on their bike but choose to have me do it.
I have folks that can do limited work, but choose to have me do the more involved.
And I have a few that literally want a clean, running bike with no more effort then finding the key and putting gas in it.

To each his own
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You are playing word games now, Eric. None of my issues were wear items. All occurred within the warranty period and the bikes had been serviced per the maintenance schedules. I care not whether or not it is covered by the dealer or corporate, I want my broken motorcycle fixed and they can figure out who is responsible. Playing the blame game and pointing fingers while leaving the buyer hanging creates ill will.
 
The only warranty issue I have first hand experience with was the ignition switch failure on my FJR. Mamma Yamma had issued a bulletin to dealers alerting them of the problem, but urging charging customers for the repair. My selling dealer at first claimed no knowledge of any switch issues. Thanks to the FJR forum I had the bulletin number and asked the service manager to look it up. He was familiar with it and acknowledged that he knew of the problem. Although corporate was trying to make this a charge for service item he wrote it up as warranty and provided a switch assembly at no charge. They had no service slots available before my planned departure date for a bike trip so I did the labor and swapped the switch.

Overall I view this as a positive service experience with give and take. I hold Yamaha at issue for trying to cover the problem and force customers to pay for defective parts replacement. Within a year the bad switches were covered under a recall, including my first replacement switch. It was from the old batch. The local guys had to walk a line between the bulletin and what was the right thing. I think they did the right thing by me.

As to the original subject of the thread, so far so good on going fast on knobby tires. Around 80 on a twisty road the back can slip a bit, but it leaves great angled stripes on the road when it does that.
 
kurt said:
You are playing word games now, Eric. None of my issues were wear items. All occurred within the warranty period and the bikes had been serviced per the maintenance schedules. I care not whether or not it is covered by the dealer or corporate, I want my broken motorcycle fixed and they can figure out who is responsible. Playing the blame game and pointing fingers while leaving the buyer hanging creates ill will.
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Kurt you either don't understand or do and dont care.. :giveup:
In any case.. You're the buyer, dealers hope never buy a new bike. Its simply not worth the small margin realized on the sale.

I'll step out now and let the dealer bashing continue without further comment.
 
Eric, it is not just parts that are covered under warranty. In the case of Kurt's swing arm nut coming off and the bolt backing out the prime suspect would be improper torque at the factory. It failed early enough in the life of the bike to bear that out. Assembly errors of any kind, factory or dealer should be covered without a fight. As for covers flying off a brand new bike within 100 miles of use.... Really??? Would you accept that on a bike you personally purchased?
 
lowrider said:
Save your money from the warranty contract and buy tools. They seem to have 101 excuses for everything. Kind of like is the glass half full or half empty. Buy used and do your own work.
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Well that usually works, the 08 KLR needed a cylinder bore and 685 kit w/ valve job. The V-Strom needs ... well it a whole thread.:doh::mrgreen:
 
ed29 said:
Eric, it is not just parts that are covered under warranty. In the case of Kurt's swing arm nut coming off and the bolt backing out the prime suspect would be improper torque at the factory. It failed early enough in the life of the bike to bear that out. Assembly errors of any kind, factory or dealer should be covered without a fight. As for covers flying off a brand new bike within 100 miles of use.... Really??? Would you accept that on a bike you personally purchased?
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Exactly... The warranty is not just the coverage of catastrophic parts failure, but failure of any thing that isn't due to normal wear and tear. Whether it can be attributed to something done incorrectly at the dealer, or at the factory, or even something that started as a design flaw within the engineering of the bike, it doesn't matter. That is what the warranty is for.
 
Wow, on the Yamaha warranty deal. I do not have any first hand experience with Honda, Yamaha or Suzuki. My first hand experience is from CanAm, Kawasaki and John Deere.

CanAm, very good about warranty while the unit is under warranty, absolutely terrible after the unit is out of warranty.

John Deere, also very good about warranty while covered, but so so after.

Kawasaki, very good under warranty and pretty good after.

With CanAm, regardless if it was an on going issue or not, unless it was under a recall, they absolutely would not cover ANYTHING after the warranty period.

With John Deere, if you could show them through their service history any on going or defective part issues they would handle such warranties on a case by case situation. Usually they were pretty good. However, it required a lot of time and documentation by the dealer.

With Kawasaki, if you could show them that within reason why something should be covered out of warranty, they would typically supply whatever parts were needed. but the customer or the dealer would have to pay for the labor.

Here's a good example. 650 Brute Force rear internal brakes locked up. Unit was 3 years out of warranty. Customer always brought the unit in for routine service and it had less than 200 hours on it. Inspected and found that the pinion nut bearing retainer was left loose from the factory and backed off. This destroyed the brakes as well as the swing arm. About $800 in parts.

I argued that regardless of its age, that was something that should have never happened. Kawasaki looked through their service history and indeed saw a "trend". In good faith, they supplied all of the parts, we the dealer ate 1/2 the labor and the customer was more than happy to pay the rest.

I had many situations similar to this. The whole key is that the dealer followed through and went to bat for the customer. The problem is......most dealers lack,
1) experienced personnel
2) commitment
3) enough personnel
4) quality customer service
 
A good buddy of mine in town has a son who just turned 18 and got his first "real" job. You guessed it, a mechanic at a local dealer. Names not mentioned, but I know the kid well. He's a good kid, but he has never turned a screwdriver I don't think. Now he will be supervised for sure, but this kid could be working on your bike if you take it to that dealer. Not to bash the kid, but no way in the world would I let him wrench on my bikes. They guy writting the ticket generaly is not the person with tools in hand. Just something to think about.
 
E.Marquez said:
This thread is text book Internet goodness

Misinformation
Half truths
Embellishment
And some good old fashioned ignorance (and I'm being nice and assuming that folks are not lying with spitefully intent)

Please continue
It's very enlightening as well as entertaining
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So what brought you to this conclusion? :eat:
 
Blinders are wonderful things for those that wear them. They allow one to see the world though only their own experiences and disallow vision to see what others are describing. That naturally leads to disbelief of other people's experiences.
:zen:
 
When I started wrenching back in the 70s, every lead mechanic had a "helper". In a sense, the lead mechanic you were assigned to was your mentor. Basically the "helper" (apprentice now-a-days) got all the crap and gopher work, but that's how you learned.

As the years went by the dealerships eliminated the "helper" and leaned heavily on the Tech Schools for "qualified" mechanics. In theory that all sounds fine, but what is not taught at the trade schools is basic common mechanical skills/know how. Add to that they did not learn the "hard" way to do stuff. Every tool and book they needed was at their finger tips.

The problem I have run in to is that the new guys do not know

1) How to properly troubleshoot
2) Communicate with customers
3) Organize their work station
4) Document the job/notes for future reference
5) DO NOT VERIFY THE REPAIR!!!!
 
i WENT THRU THE "HELPER" route in the Navy. AND LEARNED. Went to school for 3 years, 8-5, 5 days a week in the Navy. Got all the organic fertalizer jobs to start with. For sure learned that an organized work station/tool box was MANDATORY.........to not do a good job, but a GREAT job! Was I on time? Dern tootin'! And of course, as I tried in vain to teach a young man here that its not always a bad cap by showing teaching theory, he forced me to give up. Why? Because he wanted an "easy fix"[which you only get from learning from mistakes]. And then he couldn't be bothered to DOCUMENT his troubles. Of course, a month later an identical unit came in for repair and he was again scrambling for information. And last but not least, It took me a good two years after all my training was completed before I considered myself a QUALIFIED electronics technician. And I'm STILL learning!
 
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