SkooterG
Purveyor of Crooked Facts
Pardon my rant.................
Why is it so frigging difficult to find an honest and competent wrench at a Yamaha (or any other make for that matter) dealership? My apologies to those dealers that have good wrenches, and that do try to do the best that they can, but it sure seems like they are the minority and that when it comes to performing service on our motorcycles, DEALERS SUCK!!!
Recently, I took my dirty ol whore of an FJR in for a valve check. Read about that HERE.
This is a mom-n-pop Yamaha dealership. Just the two of them (Husband and Wife) that work there. Well, when I went to pick it up, she hands me the bill and it's SIX HUNDRED FREAKING DOLLARS!!! Well, I had valve checks done here before that weren't near that expensive. I am staying quiet, trying to control the impulse that wants me to scream at her, "What the **** You *******s!!!" I think I managed something benign like, "Wow, that's not what I was expecting". Well, I start reading the repair order, and I see something about some doo-hickey being repaired. When I ask, she says 'he will be right out to talk to you about it.'
You see, this is where my story gets interesting.
Now let me say this. Ol mom-n-pop, though they can be a PITA to deal with at times, well, he does excellent work. Always has. On ALL my bikes, no matter the brand. Where I used to be 5 miles from his shop. I am now 75 miles. So it's now a major PITA to get my FJR there.
Well, he comes out and begins to tell me what went wrong. :angry2:
Any of you remember back in late July/early August of last year when I had a cam chain replaced? The Iron Butt Rally was quickly approaching so I didn't have time to take it to this mom-n-pop Yammie dealer. So I asked around and eventually took it to Apache Yamaha, a Yamaha 5 Star Certified dealer. Meaning they are supposed to be the cat's meow when it comes to service. I wasn't completely satisfied with the way they performed the repair, but they got it done, and they got it covered under the extended warranty.
Now one thing of concern immediately after the cam chain/tensioner/guides replacement was the new high pitched buzzing sound I was hearing. I go into more detail about the whole Cam Chain repair in THIS POST. Well, the final determination from consultations between the tech and Yamaha corporate technical assistance was that the noise was from the new cam chain mating to the old sprocket.
Turns out, THAT WAS NOT THE FREAKING CASE!!!
This is what pop told me about who had been in my engine previously:
The engine crankcase cover on the right side which accesses the cam chain uses many bolts to secure it to the crankcase, but a couple of them are different sizes. Seems boy-wonder tech from Apache Yamaha used one of the shorter bolts where one of the longer ones was required. So, he ended up stripping some of the female threads in the crankcase for that one spot. Well, did boy-wonder repair it properly with a helicoil, or time-sert? Of course not. Crack mechanic's solution was to use a REALLY long bolt to get it deeper to some still good threads. Well, that did work. Sort of.
You see, what boy-wonder didn't realize was in this specific location the bolt goes straight through the female threaded area in the crankcase. In other words, it's an open threaded hole. Can anybody guess where this is going?
That ******* high pitched buzzing I heard right after cam chain replacement? Well, that was the now too long bolt that boy-wonder used rubbing against the new cam chain!!!
Fuke me! :***: :grrr: :madsmiley:
And here, humble readers, are photos of said bolt for your perusal. (Along with the orignal shims from the valve adjustment) Now 30,000 miles after the repair, and worn down enough from the cam chain that at least it no longer makes any noise.
Well, pop properly repaired stripped crankcase threads with a time-sert, and then used the right sized bolt. That is primarily where the extra cost came from above a typcial 'valve adjustment'.
I asked, and Pop said who knows if the bolt rubbing against the new chain weakend the chain at all. He said the chain is pretty solid, so there's a good chance it didn't damage it. Interestingly, he told me that more than likely the original chain wasn't stretched at all, but it was just a bad cam chain tensioner on the original problem - which is what I had always thought the problem to be. No doubt he would have measured the old cam chain and determined that one way or another. Not just guess and replace everything like the *bad place* did.
So here's an extremy high recommendation for The Cycle Center - the small mom-n-pop Yamaha dealership in Casa Grande, Arizona. Quality work done here. Word.
As for Apache Yamaha in Phoenix........not such good things to say. And I will be contacting Yamaha about this. I won't go into all of the other details of how they disappointed me on this repair, but I will add that my FJR was returned with a minor scratch/rub on the right headlight and right fairing. Normally I would have raised hell about that, but since the FJR had 110,000 on the clock and can no longer be considered 'fresh' I didn't say anything. I needed the FJR back ASAP as I was leaving for the IBR in a matter of days.
Asshats!
So why is it so difficult to find competent work from an authorized Yamaha dealership? Even a 5 Star certified one?
Why is it so frigging difficult to find an honest and competent wrench at a Yamaha (or any other make for that matter) dealership? My apologies to those dealers that have good wrenches, and that do try to do the best that they can, but it sure seems like they are the minority and that when it comes to performing service on our motorcycles, DEALERS SUCK!!!
Recently, I took my dirty ol whore of an FJR in for a valve check. Read about that HERE.
This is a mom-n-pop Yamaha dealership. Just the two of them (Husband and Wife) that work there. Well, when I went to pick it up, she hands me the bill and it's SIX HUNDRED FREAKING DOLLARS!!! Well, I had valve checks done here before that weren't near that expensive. I am staying quiet, trying to control the impulse that wants me to scream at her, "What the **** You *******s!!!" I think I managed something benign like, "Wow, that's not what I was expecting". Well, I start reading the repair order, and I see something about some doo-hickey being repaired. When I ask, she says 'he will be right out to talk to you about it.'
You see, this is where my story gets interesting.
Now let me say this. Ol mom-n-pop, though they can be a PITA to deal with at times, well, he does excellent work. Always has. On ALL my bikes, no matter the brand. Where I used to be 5 miles from his shop. I am now 75 miles. So it's now a major PITA to get my FJR there.
Well, he comes out and begins to tell me what went wrong. :angry2:
Any of you remember back in late July/early August of last year when I had a cam chain replaced? The Iron Butt Rally was quickly approaching so I didn't have time to take it to this mom-n-pop Yammie dealer. So I asked around and eventually took it to Apache Yamaha, a Yamaha 5 Star Certified dealer. Meaning they are supposed to be the cat's meow when it comes to service. I wasn't completely satisfied with the way they performed the repair, but they got it done, and they got it covered under the extended warranty.
Now one thing of concern immediately after the cam chain/tensioner/guides replacement was the new high pitched buzzing sound I was hearing. I go into more detail about the whole Cam Chain repair in THIS POST. Well, the final determination from consultations between the tech and Yamaha corporate technical assistance was that the noise was from the new cam chain mating to the old sprocket.
Turns out, THAT WAS NOT THE FREAKING CASE!!!
This is what pop told me about who had been in my engine previously:
The engine crankcase cover on the right side which accesses the cam chain uses many bolts to secure it to the crankcase, but a couple of them are different sizes. Seems boy-wonder tech from Apache Yamaha used one of the shorter bolts where one of the longer ones was required. So, he ended up stripping some of the female threads in the crankcase for that one spot. Well, did boy-wonder repair it properly with a helicoil, or time-sert? Of course not. Crack mechanic's solution was to use a REALLY long bolt to get it deeper to some still good threads. Well, that did work. Sort of.
You see, what boy-wonder didn't realize was in this specific location the bolt goes straight through the female threaded area in the crankcase. In other words, it's an open threaded hole. Can anybody guess where this is going?
That ******* high pitched buzzing I heard right after cam chain replacement? Well, that was the now too long bolt that boy-wonder used rubbing against the new cam chain!!!
Fuke me! :***: :grrr: :madsmiley:
And here, humble readers, are photos of said bolt for your perusal. (Along with the orignal shims from the valve adjustment) Now 30,000 miles after the repair, and worn down enough from the cam chain that at least it no longer makes any noise.
Well, pop properly repaired stripped crankcase threads with a time-sert, and then used the right sized bolt. That is primarily where the extra cost came from above a typcial 'valve adjustment'.
I asked, and Pop said who knows if the bolt rubbing against the new chain weakend the chain at all. He said the chain is pretty solid, so there's a good chance it didn't damage it. Interestingly, he told me that more than likely the original chain wasn't stretched at all, but it was just a bad cam chain tensioner on the original problem - which is what I had always thought the problem to be. No doubt he would have measured the old cam chain and determined that one way or another. Not just guess and replace everything like the *bad place* did.
So here's an extremy high recommendation for The Cycle Center - the small mom-n-pop Yamaha dealership in Casa Grande, Arizona. Quality work done here. Word.
As for Apache Yamaha in Phoenix........not such good things to say. And I will be contacting Yamaha about this. I won't go into all of the other details of how they disappointed me on this repair, but I will add that my FJR was returned with a minor scratch/rub on the right headlight and right fairing. Normally I would have raised hell about that, but since the FJR had 110,000 on the clock and can no longer be considered 'fresh' I didn't say anything. I needed the FJR back ASAP as I was leaving for the IBR in a matter of days.
Asshats!
So why is it so difficult to find competent work from an authorized Yamaha dealership? Even a 5 Star certified one?
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