posted May 04, 2004 01:47 PM
broke in and broke d$#k well, bad news. hit 1000 miles on sunday and decided to wick it up. at 12,000 rpm in third, i heard a whoosh sound and the motor died. roadside attempt to restart/repair didnt work. trucked the bike home and could not find anything obvious. took the bike to the dealer monday. first look showed plugs were fouled, so they replaced the plugs only to find they were getting no spark. in trying to solve the spark, or lack of dilemna, they pulled the cover off the timing rotor. seems kawi deemed my bike worthy of extra parts as they left a spare washer in there. one about the size of a head bolt. needless to say, said washer sheared all the teeth off the timing rotor. a few of the teeth were still in that little compartment, but it appears the majority of them flowed into the motor. kawi told them to pull the oil sump prior to completely tearing down motor to look for the teeth. my dilemna is how can i be assured all metal pieces are out before running the engine? do I demand a new motor, or let them fix it their way and hope for the best? either way it looks as if im bikeless for at least a couple weeks, so those hoping to see a dyno run of the arrow/pcIII will have to wait a little longer. Please chime in with your opinions of what i should do. I plan on calling kawi tomorrow morning.
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posted May 04, 2004 01:58 PM
holee chit!!!!...tell them you want...no, DEMAND a new engine, nothing less!!!!
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posted May 04, 2004 02:02 PM
Edited By: Michael Lee on 4 May 2004 15:02
Hard call for me man, If me I would not probably demand anything until they pull the pan and look around. Sit down with your service manager and get his recommendation (if ya know him good especially). Let the GM know your concerns, which you probably have already. Hate ta hear - mike.
posted May 04, 2004 02:16 PM
That's what warranties are for I guess?..........but sure sounds weird, where is that washer? How do we know that was left in there during mfging? Sounds like a complete teardown is in the works etc. Those are the breaks sometimes I guess. What a piss off! Good Luck, keep us posted!
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posted May 04, 2004 02:29 PM
Isnt the timing rotor ferous metal?
Id demand a teardown of the oil pan and clutch at the least.
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posted May 04, 2004 03:54 PM
Generally shitty situation. I'd push for a complete new motor, or at least a free, extended warranty to cover the possibility of shrapnel turning up later.
Reminds me of my adventure with a 916 Ducati that I bought new in 1994. The first time I hit 7000 rpm (following the breakin routine to the letter), a bolt holding the cam belt tensioner to the front head backed out and the washer got between the intake cam pulley and the belt. The cam jumped a tooth, causing the intake valve to hang open. No big time damage, but six weeks without a bike waiting for the powers that be to decide whether to admit it was a product quality problem.
posted May 04, 2004 04:19 PM
WHOWza...BumMER!!!
Since it shut itself off...I doubt any metal got PUMPED through anything...
Let them do it however they want...make SURE you have records of this ordeeel for future reference...in case you DO have trouble later...
posted May 04, 2004 06:39 PM
Edited By: Erich on 4 May 2004 19:40
Well, your best bet to get what you want is to kiss your dealers ass. Smooz em, buy the guys six packs, and be nice at all times. The last thing you want to do at this stage is going in demanding anything. Save that when there is no other option.
Kawi will not give you a new motor, or at least you have about the same chance of winning the lottery. They are not in the business to go the most expensive route for themselves.
However, you dealer can make a case to warrent a new motor based on what they report. Any reports anyone sees of a dealer giving someone a new bike or what not was all dealer, not the maker.
If they like you, they will likely see what you wan them to see.
Sorry for the bad luck. Hope it works out well for you.
posted May 04, 2004 06:41 PM
Hey there,I just went around with kawi about my bent rim from the tank slap and mis matched orange panels(just to let you know this is the 3rd kawi in 2 years I have bought new).They basicaly told me to get F@CKED on the rim and told me "no mass produced vehicle on the road has matching panels" So I said "if you go buy a 04 vette,the panels will be different colors" he said yes they would be. I told him, (nathan from kawi customer service) to be exact, You are the most ignorant piece of work I have ever delt with!
Good luck geting a new motor,They are just going to schmoodule that think back together and give it back to you.
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k1
posted May 04, 2004 07:16 PM
I was a GM at a Kawasaki dealership for 13 years many years ago. I would agree with Erich about attempting to establish a good relationship with your dealer. Yes, KMC does set the policy but most of the time they have to depend on what the dealer tells them. If the dealer gets strongly behind your case and fights for your cause, you are much more likely to get what you want. If you and your dealer do not get along, your warranty problems might not be presented to Kawasaki in a favorable way.
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posted May 04, 2004 08:06 PM
quote:if you go buy a 04 vette,the panels will be different colors
Umm...Actually, different panels are slightly different shades, due to being made of different materials. Maybe not evident in every color, but my '03 Z06's tail piece is a slightly different shade than the body panels, like the doors and fenders. That being said, the orange ones I haven't noticed any different colors panels on the 10s I've seen, but that's only black and green. My '00 red 12R had a slight difference in color between the upper and lower fairings.
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posted May 04, 2004 11:04 PM
Krazy, the vette may be expensive as American cars go, but expense and quality can be independant of one another. They are one of the most hit and miss examples of build quality that Chevy produces. So though I know your point, that is one car you can almost bet money on if you want to find a flaw. The guy was right, even if he didn't know it happened to be true.
Next time you see a silver vette, either the new machine silver or the prior years bright silver, you will notice the metallic pooling spots creating a mottled appearance. Some worse than others, but they all have it. And their tendency to orange peel is well known. Many will say its due to the composite body, but one only need look at a Saturn to do away with that reasoning. Or the inconsistency when 1 unit could be almost perfect and the next be severely peeled.
In this case, its the buyers that made that car so hit and miss QC wise. They are so over the moon to have them, they accept bad build quality at Bowling Green for the sake of the icon and its performance. They continue to over rate the car to JD powers, though partly due to them conducting the survey in the honey moon period.
That said, its all about being a good consumer. You have to decide if the performance is worth the flaws of a given unit. You could always wait for another. But it seems the need to have one is a bigger driver for some. At least you know next time what to watch for.
Honestly, I dont think you will get a matching set by continuing to order new ones. Orange will be hard for folks to guage as some may not perceive the color as well as others. So someone else can look at it and think its fine though you see quite a difference. Yellow, red, and orange have pretty wide ranges of hue sensativity that some just wont see.
You may actually consider a different color, since none of the others I have ever seen are anything less then perfect when it comes to paint.
posted May 05, 2004 12:53 PM
new motor DONOT!settle for anything less than a new engine.ther is no excuse for something like that to happen to a new ENGINE .
dont let kawasaki screw with you on this...
posted May 05, 2004 08:08 PM
Don't worry, they are looking for the other parts. In any case when something like this happens, the first thing you want to do is put the piece that broke back together, like a clutch basket, one all of the pieces are accounted then they will remove your oil pickup strainer. They will check for any extra pieces of metal and remove them. They might replace your strainer or clean it up. If they find all of the pieces and clean/replace your strainer your bike will be fine. I hope that you purchased the extended waranty. If you haven't please do so. This is not saying that something else will go wrong, but you never know. It seems that you have a Monday or a Friday bike. That washer might have come off during assymbly and that head bolt is without one. It might have just sit on the head and worked it's way down via the cam chain area and gotton lunged, worned your ignition trigger down or broke the teeth. I am sure KMC will take care of the situation.
posted May 05, 2004 08:13 PM
YUP!!! Muh momma always told me you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
Not sure what I would want with those flies after I caught, them, though.
quote:I was a GM at a Kawasaki dealership for 13 years many years ago. I would agree with Erich about attempting to establish a good relationship with your dealer. Yes, KMC does set the policy but most of the time they have to depend on what the dealer tells them. If the dealer gets strongly behind your case and fights for your cause, you are much more likely to get what you want. If you and your dealer do not get along, your warranty problems might not be presented to Kawasaki in a favorable way.
posted May 06, 2004 07:03 AM
i am kissin the dealers but hopin to get the bike back quick, and i did get the extended warranty when i bought it. sounds like kawi is going to fix the prob their own way, which is fine. i will document and file everything just in case of future probs internal to the engine. Ill keep y'all posted as to what happens. thanks to everyone who tossed out sound advice.
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