Bad experience

[newf10]

Took my ride to Xtreme Motorsports here in Sackville, Halifax to have the valves adjusted and was quoted $100 plus taxes over the phone. When I went to pick it up I was told that they didn't work on it yet. This was a waste of time and gas when they could have called me before the end of day. The next day when I got there they told me the bill was $230. When I asked why the price had changed the manager told me that they had not recollection of the quote; "convenient". I washed my ride this weekend and found a missing bolt out of the lower cowl, which explains the rattle! I also noticed engine oil seeping from the head gasket area. I wasn't going to bother returning to speak to them but this is not cool!
What would you do?

[The CyberPoet]

(A) Contact the service manager and inform him that you are displeased by the service. Explain why. Do not get angry, confrontational or rude (at least at this time). See how he wants to address it.

(B) Ask if they did the valve adjustment check at the time of the service. Unless their shop rate is very low, at that price, they probably didn't do it. It should have been done, according to Suzuki, who says one out of every twenty valves coming off their assembly lines ends up out of spec by the 600 mile service (a large part of why that service is mandatory).

(C) Contact Suzuki America (or Suzuki Canada, as the case may be) and tell them of your displeasure at the service, as well as of the weeping oil issue. They may recommend another dealer and cover the bill...

(D) Ask whatever Suzuki dealer you want to deal with that they fix or replace the weeping head gasket under warrantee. Your bike is new enough that it is under warrantee. The shop gets reimbursed by Suzuki for the work, so it's a no-bill visit.

Finally, get a factory manual, tools and learn to do your own mechanical work in the future. The engine is an extremely simple one and there is nothing in the standard maintenance list that an average person can't learn to handle on their own with a reasonable set of tools and the factory manual.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[kiba]

Only $100 to $230? When I took mine in I was quoted for $250 which included the valves, but the final bill was almost $500!! Dam stealers.

/kiba

[The CyberPoet]

Only $100 to $230? When I took mine in I was quoted for $250 which included the valves, but the final bill was almost $500!! Dam stealers.

/kiba

You got ripped unless they did something above and beyond the standard 7.5k or 15k service (such as a chain replacement) or rang it up as separate items instead of the combined service (which takes into account that the fairings only come off once). A shop with a $65-$80/hr shop rate should get around $300 - $320 for the standard 15k service with the oil and filter included.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPeot

[newf10]

Stike two

Asked the manager politely to take a second look. They replaced the missing bolt, charged me $8.50 for the missing liter of engine oil and said that this leak wasn't related to what they did.
Off course they would say this but the bike still has seepage from the headgasket area. Looks like I cannot trust someone at $47 hr. If they cleaned it, it shouldn't still be leaking a day latter. If they didn't clean it off they weren't worth $47/hr. The local Suzi dealer assures me that Kat's would not leak a headgasket at 8,400kms and is most likely lousy work at xteme motorsports. I will remove the tank and necessary gear clean and inspect the exterior of the engine myself this weekend. I'm not really interested in working on it myself till the waranty is gone But I will latter on unless things go even more wrong. I will keep all interested posted.

[woobie]

Sounds like they did a shit job putting it back together , unless the gasket is bad or they undertorqued a bolt you should not be leaking oil from that area.

To do the valves they have to remove the head, so unless the Gasket was bad before hand (and you would have noticed the smell of buring oil) they buggered it up putting it back together.

I wonder how they can say it wasn't them? if it's a bad Gasket they should have caught it when they did the adjustment,

I agree with CP, get a service manual. If you ride alot your suppose to get the adjustment every 12K and that can add up very fast.

At the very least if they won't fix it, and you don't have the cash to get another shop to do it. Loosen your fairings and pop off the Gas tank and check the torque on all your head bolts and oil lines.

BTW when you get this resolved, If it were me, I'd hit every Bike forum I frequent and post about the poor service. Sportbikes.ca seems to have a lot of Maritimers.

Edit
I see your already on that site

[The CyberPoet]

Just to make sure we're all on the same page with this leak, is the leak coming from Gasket #2 in this fiche file (valve cover gasket) or Gasket #6 in this fiche file (upper cylinder head gasket) or yet lower down: Gasket #4 in this file, which sits at the bottom of the cylinder head castings (lower cylinder head gasket)?

The two actual cylinder head gaskets really wouldn't be the dealer's fault (as verses to the valve cover gasket), but should have still instantly been addressed under warrantee by the service manager on the spot (as in "Hey, it wasn't our doing, but we'll get it squared away under warrantee for you as soon as we can get the gasket in -- let's schedule you for next Wednesday morning"). It really also should have been spotted by the mechanic and written up as a standard precaution, especially in light of the fact that you are still under warrantee (the dealer gets paid by Suzuki for such work and should never turn it down). In a worst case scenario, the cylinder block itself is warped, and should be replaced (again, under warrantee).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[SweetLou]

Theywouldn't need to do anything with the head gasket for a valve adjustment. The head gasket is well below (middle of the engine), and the valves are on top. Do you mean the valve gasket is leaking?