FJRF003.1: Ignition Switch

[scubatech]

That red stripe is just a decal. You can peel it off with your finger nail. I am assuming it is around the edges of the key slot.

 

[crankshaft]

Just got home from getting mine done. Everything done correctly plus they installed my Heli clamp for free. They took about three hours to do everything but it was done right. No complaints here.

 

[Fred W]

I've got one that will make BulletBrad's skin crawl. The recall was done well, it would seem (but they left on that red stripe and I haven't looked closely to see how easy it will be to get off). Per this thread, I asked for them to do a TBS while the tank was up - easy, right? I've watched Smitty do one start to finish with no problem. When I went to get the bike, they said "that will be $168." Huh? I was expecting around $40.
Before anyone jumps on me, let me assure you that I started calm but then worked my way up to really not anything resembling calm. In the end, if I wanted to take my bike I had to pay. But I assured them they were making a short-sighted mistake.

-FOF

PS - I think the tech did a good job on the TBS.

$168??? What was their justification? It was all labor charge (no parts) so what is their hourly shop labor rate and how much time did it take? Even without them already having the tank up it's only a 20 minute job tops.

I can't believe any shop would so blatantly rip-off a customer. Especially today where they need your business. They must not have much return business.

 

[FightOrFlight]

I'm with you Fred. They said it took two hours and couldn't or wouldn't explain further. Like I said, I gradually escalated my dissatisfaction and made it clear that their short-sighted and blatant over charging would end up costing them vastly more in the future than they made on me in the present.

But...deep breath...the ignition was done properly and the bike is ready to ride. I also learned a lesson about getting a firm estimate ahead of time.

 

[BulletBrad]

As I sit here ITCHING a few things come to mind. When we do a TBS, or any carb work, we drain the tank and fill it with VP racing fuel due to the ethonal crap they sell here in CT. This way we have a known starting point for balance with very clean fuel. If that is what they did, V.P. C10 or 12 which is what we use, is about $65 for 5 gallons. Just a thought ...... but I'm still ITCHING!!! I also let our customers know that's what we will be doing so they don't show up with a full tank.

Also folks, just so ya know, MammaYamma pays the dealership for one hours labor and refunds the cost of the recall kit. When we started off doing the recall (my bike) it took the techs about 90 minutes to do it making sure everything was covered with pads so no scratches showed up. My buddy Shawn has it down to just over an hour now but is still not getting into any rush. The last one he did was for Shawn King and his time on that one was two cups of coffee and three chocolate covered donuts. That's what I had anyway while he was working. I'm not sure how much Mr. King had. :yahoo:

Ok, now back to that ITCH :angry: :angry2:

 

[Fred W]

As I sit here ITCHING a few things come to mind. When we do a TBS, or any carb work, we drain the tank and fill it with VP racing fuel due to the ethonal crap they sell here in CT. This way we have a known starting point for balance with very clean fuel. If that is what they did, V.P. C10 or 12 which is what we use, is about $65 for 5 gallons. Just a thought ...... but I'm still ITCHING!!! I also let our customers know that's what we will be doing so they don't show up with a full tank.

I find it interesting that your shop would do that. For a TBS I'm not sure it's really worth it. Remember, a sync (by the book) is just balancing the vacuum between throttle bodies at idle. We aren't actually tuning anything, so theoretically you should be able to balance a throttle body with crappy gas and still have it perfectly balanced with good gas (and vice versa)

Also, I see no reason to put 5 gallons of super-duper gas into the tank ever. I would think that you could drain the tank, put maybe a gallon in, or whatever the minimum is to run the bike with the tank jacked up. Do the balancing, then drain the special stuff and dump the customer's gas back into the tank.

Also folks, just so ya know, MammaYamma pays the dealership for one hours labor and refunds the cost of the recall kit. When we started off doing the recall (my bike) it took the techs about 90 minutes to do it making sure everything was covered with pads so no scratches showed up. My buddy Shawn has it down to just over an hour now but is still not getting into any rush. The last one he did was for Shawn King and his time on that one was two cups of coffee and three chocolate covered donuts. That's what I had anyway while he was working. I'm not sure how much Mr. King had. :yahoo:
Ok, now back to that ITCH :angry: :angry2:

Yes, I think that it is universally true that dealerships do not make much on warranty work or recalls. But they do make something...

 

[TILAM]

Well my dealership is going to make out big on the recall. Why? Because I'm doing it myself.

I just picked up my new switch this afternoon and will be swapping out the "guts" tomorow.

The manager is an old friend of 30 years and since my switch was apart for the Brodie harness and repair of the original contacts problem, I said how about I bring in just the switch for the swap. I got there and their drill press was broken so I offered to do it myself. I brought it all home including the recall change out procedure. I'm only going to do the internals, give him back the old parts and the Steve will buy me beers and wings. I'm good with it as I'm more familiar with the inside of the switch than their tech. He's done only one and it was the brand new 09 on the showroom floor.

Hmmm? How many beers is equal to an hour's worth of shop time?

 

[Janet]

Well, my ignition crapped out this weekend (at home thankfully....). They are coming to get it Tuesday morning for the recall work.

 

[FightOrFlight]

BulletBrad - you are a positive person and I admire the "benefit of the doubt" approach. The reality is, my bike had the exact same amount of run-of-the-mill Shell 93 in it that it had when I dropped it off. They did not fill my bike with $12/gallon liquid nitrous or whatever you mentioned.

I think what you are alluding to is what I figured: My bike was the first ignition; it took longer than an hour; they made up for that by grossly overcharging for the TBS.

In any event, this Chesterfield, Missouri Yamaha dealer will not be seeing me again. Or anyone I know.

 

[Fred W]

In any event, this Chesterfield, Missouri Yamaha dealer will not be seeing me again. Or anyone I know.

Guessing that you are talking about Chesterfield Valley Power Sports? (just googled them up)

If so, it is not surprising that a place that deals in Honda, Suzuki, Polaris / Victory, and Sea Doo as well as Yamaha, in boats, Jets Skis, Generators, scooters ATVs as well as motorcycles, might not be quite up to speed on the FJR recall.

I'm just sayin'... there's something good about seeing a "specialist" at times.

 

[V GER]

Had mine taken care of last Saturday.

Curtis at Champion Honda (Kaw/Suz/Can-Am) in Mesa made it happen.

No muss, no fuss and I love the puzzled stare when I tell the counter guy "Remember, no clutch... neutral all the way down and 5 up".

I can now plan my riding season with one less worry.

Thanks to everyone in the group who made this happen!

 

[FJR919]

As I sit here ITCHING a few things come to mind. When we do a TBS, or any carb work, we drain the tank and fill it with VP racing fuel due to the ethonal crap they sell here in CT. This way we have a known starting point for balance with very clean fuel. If that is what they did, V.P. C10 or 12 which is what we use, is about $65 for 5 gallons. Just a thought ...... but I'm still ITCHING!!! I also let our customers know that's what we will be doing so they don't show up with a full tank.

I find it interesting that your shop would do that. For a TBS I'm not sure it's really worth it. Remember, a sync (by the book) is just balancing the vacuum between throttle bodies at idle. We aren't actually tuning anything, so theoretically you should be able to balance a throttle body with crappy gas and still have it perfectly balanced with good gas (and vice versa)

Also, I see no reason to put 5 gallons of super-duper gas into the tank ever. I would think that you could drain the tank, put maybe a gallon in, or whatever the minimum is to run the bike with the tank jacked up. Do the balancing, then drain the special stuff and dump the customer's gas back into the tank.

Also folks, just so ya know, MammaYamma pays the dealership for one hours labor and refunds the cost of the recall kit. When we started off doing the recall (my bike) it took the techs about 90 minutes to do it making sure everything was covered with pads so no scratches showed up. My buddy Shawn has it down to just over an hour now but is still not getting into any rush. The last one he did was for Shawn King and his time on that one was two cups of coffee and three chocolate covered donuts. That's what I had anyway while he was working. I'm not sure how much Mr. King had. :yahoo:
Ok, now back to that ITCH :angry: :angry2:

Yes, I think that it is universally true that dealerships do not make much on warranty work or recalls. But they do make something...

I agree with Fred completely on this one. Maybe the dealership has the best of intentions synching on race fuel, but that points to a lack of technical knowledge about engines in general. It's like some dealers telling customers you have to run premium fuel in the FJR because it's a high compression engine. Maybe good intentions; just misinformed. The customer isn't going to be running race fuel he's going to be using the same ethanol crap when he rides. All tuning should be done with the fuel that the bike will used with, even though there might not be any difference. As Fred said you're just balancing vacuum between throttle bodies.

 

[JRO]

I can understand using a known quality of fuel for tuning purposes. The 'ethanol crap' (no longer sold, or only sparsely available around civilized parts), is subject to many factors which could affect a tuning. It's hydrophillic, for one thing. How long has the gas been in the tank? How old was the stuff when you got it from the gas station? Is this crappy ethanol, lower quality than you normally fill up with, or 'fresher' stuff? Is the bike running rougher than normal (on this ethanol crap), or better (on some other ethanol crap)?

The ethanol crap is so bad, and so variable, that - yah - I can see someone wanting to use something decent for tuning. Racing fuel might be a bit excessive, but maybe there's nothing more 'average' available. It sounds reasonable, to me... But, I've been known to be wrong.

I had my ignition done, today. Didn't cost me a cent, on account of I had nothing else checked. Despite the fact that my dealership has banners and awards from Yamaha for having the #1 Yamaha Tech in the U.S.A., when I got it home, I discovered they still managed to leave a screw or two off...

Have to see about that, in the morning.

 

[Fred W]

My point is (was) that a TBS is not tuning. It is only balancing the vacuum in the throttle bodies. So long as the engine will run on whatever fuel you have in the tank, you should be able to balance it.

And all of our gasoline around here has (up to) 10% ethanol in it. Many consider the northeast to be somewhat more civilized than, ahem... Oklahoma. The corn squeezin' lobby wants to raise the max to 20%

 

[bikeman9]

For anyone in the SF Bay area, I had my ignition switch replaced today at Mission Motorcycles in Daly City, CA. They did a good job, same day , same key and I had a TBS done for $45. So I'm a happy camper now.

Roy

DC, CA

 

[Fred W]

$45 for about 2 minutes work. The tank is already up in the air (paid for by the recall). All they have to do is hook up their sync tool, start the bike and tweak a couple of air pots. I guarantee is took them less than 5 minutes.

How do these freeking thieving bastards look themselves in the mirror in the morning?

OTOH, I'll bet if they told you, "Hey man, the tank was already up, so no charge for the TBS", you'd probably be coming back with a lot more business and telling all your friends...

 

[old&slow]

FYI,,

I got my ign. switch replaced today , at Yamaha of Columbus / Iron Pony .

It took them about 3 hours from the time I dropped it off until I rode off...

But they didn't get started on it for probably 30 to 45 mins, after I dropped it off..

They said this was the 2nd one they have done so far..

The service folks at Yamaha of Columbus were Very Nice to deal with and seemed

to take their time and do a Good job..

same key ,, good service ,, I'm happy.......

 

[jzzmusician]

Here's one more in this lengthy thread.

I dropped my bike off at the local dealer, (2 miles from home).

As I was talking the the service manager the tech was reading the "directions" on how to do the recall. I asked how many they'd done. "None. You're the first."

Remembering when I brought it in for the 600 mile service and said that the steering head was loose and when I picked it up and asked if they had tightened they said, "you've got floating calipers, that's the ticking sound you hear." I got to the end of the driveway, turned around and said, "you drive it." They tightened the thing.

The only other dealer is about 75 miles away, in Prosser. Good, good reputation.

Should I trust my local guy or make the drive?

Bob

 

[SkooterG]

The only other dealer is about 75 miles away, in Prosser. Good, good reputation.
Should I trust my local guy or make the drive?

You need to ask? After your personal experience with this dealer, AND, all the horror stories already told?

You woulda, shoulda, coulda gone to Prosser from the gitgo.

Since it's there already, me personally, I would let them have a crack at it. Cross my fingers, sacrifice a chicken, and hope that they don't screw up a relatively simple procedure.

In the future?

P*R*O*S*S*E*R!!!!!!!

 

[twistedcricket]

Here's one more in this lengthy thread.
I dropped my bike off at the local dealer, (2 miles from home).

As I was talking the the service manager the tech was reading the "directions" on how to do the recall. I asked how many they'd done. "None. You're the first."

Remembering when I brought it in for the 600 mile service and said that the steering head was loose and when I picked it up and asked if they had tightened they said, "you've got floating calipers, that's the ticking sound you hear." I got to the end of the driveway, turned around and said, "you drive it." They tightened the thing.

The only other dealer is about 75 miles away, in Prosser. Good, good reputation.

Should I trust my local guy or make the drive?

Bob

Oh you're kidding me. I rode 57 miles in 28 deg weather 14 Mar to have mine done at the dealer I bought from. The closer dealer asked if the FJR was "something Yamaha built" and they are a Yamaha dealer. I'll continue to buy the oil there and make sure the foil is on it before leaving the store, but they will not get my FJR for service.

I wish you well, but I have a sinking feeling about this. The "kid" (he was new to the dealership, but I didn't ask how long he had been working on bikes) who worked on mine was methodical and it was very re-assuring to notice how he laid out everything removed on top of towels on the bench, and he was being extra cautious about changing the switch. He, and the service manager, apologized for how long it took (maybe 2.5hrs) but I said I didn't care as long as it's done right. The only thing he did that kinda upset me was that he was confused by the "Brodie Relay" - he attempted to make it all fit, but I pointed out the two zip ties and told him what it was for and that he could remove it. Nothing for me to get angry about, I can re-do the harness if I need to.

The dealer owner let me "test drive" a VFR so I didn't pay attention to a clock.