Lost Bolts

Was washing the bike today and noticed that I had lost a front fender bolt. I had also lost the nut from the other side, so there was only a loose bolt keeping the fender from rotating and scraping the tire.



This bike has about 800 miles on it and recently went to the dealer for it's 600 mile service where they were supposed to check all bolts and retighten. I paid 3 hours labor at that joint, but this leads me to believe they did a slip-shod job.

If I were you, Clint, I'd show up at the dealer's, slowly flip my poncho to the side and let'em take a good look at the .45 Peacemaker with the rattlesnake on its butt. h34r:

Seriously, the quality of the dealers' maintenance work sucks at a global level.

Before I decided to service the bike on my own, this happened to me.

I picked up the bike from my dealer's after a service and I left on a weekend's roadtrip. When I reached my destination I saw that my rear rim was specked with

oil. Turns out that my final drive oil filler bolt is only finger tight.

There were maybe 2 oz. of oil left on the bottom of the pumpkin. :blink:

Stef

Seriously, the quality of the dealers' maintenance work sucks at a global level

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If you think that's bad, I took a perfectly good running 1980 Z1 Classic Fuel Injected bike to have tires changed and maintenance to only get it back stalling out when accelerating, the shop now states that since most of the replacement parts are no longer available, that I am pretty much on my own.

I will love to only have a missing bolt and nut on my fender.

If I were you, Clint, I'd show up at the dealer's, slowly flip my poncho to the side and let'em take a good look at the .45 Peacemaker with the rattlesnake on its butt. h34r:

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That will be accompanied by a big wad of tobacco spit in the forehead.

Seriously, dealers suck major ass. I only took it there under the notion I need the records to maintain the warranty. But I also depended on them to do the work...friggin A-holes!

Checking bolt tightness is something that is almost never done at the delaership level. I'm not defending the omission, but to do it right takes at least an hour or so of work with a torque wrench and customers simply won't pay for it - they'd raise holy hell about the bill and take their business elsewhere.

- Mark

Looking at that pic it doesn't seem that the surrounding screws/nuts/bolts have been marked with a marker (duh!) as being torqued checked. It that the case? If so, I'd stop riding that puppy, get yourself a service manual and torque check everything yourself. Keep track of your time and then hand the dealer a bill.

I had the same problem on my 05. one bolt (back) was missing and the others...all 3 were loose. I found it while washing the bike and the 1 remaining back bolt seemed WAY to long. I took it to the dealer and he told me that he replaces the back bolts with a shorter ones. check yours out it may not be the same.

Checking bolt tightness is something that is almost never done at the delaership level. I'm not defending the omission, but to do it right takes at least an hour or so of work with a torque wrench and customers simply won't pay for it - they'd raise holy hell about the bill and take their business elsewhere.
- Mark

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I hear ya Mark, but it says right on the invoice "Inspect/tighten misc nuts, botls and body fasteners". Plus, they charged me 3 hours labor! So I assumed they were being thorough...bad assumption

I just got my tires changed by a dealer today and the first thing I did was to bring it home and check everything with a torque wrench. The axle pinch bolts were a tad loose.

BTW, I found that fender bolt a bit loose on mine when I did a little once over at 3000 miles. You'd think that 3 hours would have given them a little spare time after changing the fluids and synching the throttle bodies to at at it with a torque wrench for a while.

Cheers,

Jim

Sunnyside Yamaha, Sunnyside, Wa.

Home of FJR Goodies.com

I like their work, and I dont have a loose bolt anywhere! Cept the BIG one between the seat and handlebars! :blink:

I'm sure you have all heard this before, but the only way lousy dealer service is ever going to change is to STOP USING THOSE DEALERS FOR SERVICE. Sorry to electronically be yelling, but I have been riding for more than 20 years and have been hearing the same story. Only when dealers feel an econimic "pinch" will they change their ways. Also, let the manufacturer's USA importers know about it. It may not do anything, but it will give you the satisfaction that you did not take it laying down. One last thing, don't just walk away and complain on a forum. Go to the dealer, try to get satisfaction by talking to them respectfully and trying to work the issue out. If that doesn't work, escalate to Better Business Bureas, newpapers, state agencies, and any other avenue you have available. I have done this oon a number of occasions and it really does work. I know it takes time and effort, but until motorcyclists as a group start taking these kind of actions, nothing will change and we as a group then do not have a right to bitch.

I hear ya buddy, but I truly believe nobody will do a better job on routine maintenance on my bike than me. So I'll just give up on being a chump and paying boocoo bucks for easy maintenance work and do it myself.

I'll use the dealer for big stuff/warranty work, etc. If they f**k that up I'll be all over 'em.

Nobody takes care of your bike the same way you do.

I have had bad experience with almost every dealership (maintanance dept.) I dealt with. :angry: I try to do most of the stuff myself or at least the basics. For major maintanance (getting into the engines interior), however, I am not adequately equipped.

For every post complaining of a dealer not doing everything they should or doing poor work, there's at least one saying that they charge too much. If ths situation is going to change, owners need to stop paying so much attention to the bill and start paying attention to the quality of work.

A 4K inspection, really done carefully to the book may take four hours of work. At $80/hour, that's $320 + parts + tax + disposal fees, etc. Are many owners willing to pay $400 for a routine 4K inspection, even if done very carefully and well? Not in my experience.

I think we're our own worst enemy in this area.

- Mark

Jetmaker,

I agree and do most maintenance myself. I have been very fortunate to never have had any major issues with motorcycles I have owned, so I have not experienced any of the dealer issues I have heard so much about over the years. But I have plenty of friends who have, either with new bikes or bringing old ones in for service (and mostly not major mechanical things).

I was making an effort to get the readers of this thread (and ultimately the forum) to realize they have the most powerful tool on the planet at their immediate disposal to get a dealership to change and become customer focused - their wallets. It really is that simple, and yet generally people will continue to patronize a substandard merchant even when it is know there are customer issues.

For every post complaining of a dealer not doing everything they should or doing poor work, there's at least one saying that they charge too much. If ths situation is going to change, owners need to stop paying so much attention to the bill and start paying attention to the quality of work.

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What quality of work?
I once paid a dealer over $1200 for a new set of tires and a tune-up with fluid changes performed. I never even asked them for a quote, or mentioned price during the transaction. Rode the bike home and there was oil all over the side of the bike, cuz they had overfilled the oil by almost 2 quarts! :dribble: I had at least a quart on the bike and had to drain another to get the correct level. And that's just one experience I've had, there are plenty of other stories I could tell about several dealers.

Markjenn, if they were doing the little things right and making the occasional error on the complex issues, I'd tend to be more understanding. But too often they overlook or make major goofs on basic maintenance items. In my experience. this happens because they are charging top rates but not paying the wages for quality mechanics. They make more money that way.

There's WAY more to this than people complaining about the bill. And I have to say, I have not seen many posts complaining about service prices, and the few I have seen were similar to Jet's, in that the price complaint was associated with poor service, i.e. "I paid them all this $ and they screwed it up." :butcher:

As for me, I elected to do my own service some time ago. If you want it done right, do it yerself. At least there's only you to blame if it's screwed up. And HEY! There's these great internet forums where you can get help from others with more experience, with little pictures and arrows and everything!!

Hey Jet, why did the dealer leave an allen wrench in the hole where that bolt is supposed to be?! :jester:

Hey Jet, why did the dealer leave an allen wrench in the hole where that bolt is supposed to be?! :jester:

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LOL...he did that to call my attention to the area where he F'd up...very considerate. :thumbup:

My Brother had worse problems than you. The rear end went out on his RT in 4 corners WI. Once rescued back to the dealer new final drive. Rides the slab home 75 / 80. Just as his Lucky A$$ pulls in the driveway the never had a drop of oil rear end locks up. :butcher:

one of the first things to do with your new bike is to remove bolts and replace with loctite. The vibrations from riding loosen the fasteners over time, loctite or equivalent will prevent lost external bolts and nuts