HELP! what would you do?

[coloradoman25]

What would you do if you were in this situation. A local shop opened up that had a great bike tech and a certified sled tech. The tech came highly recommended from a large shop in Colorado, and has shown in the past in working on your sleds that he knows his stuff well. You personally had used the shop for bikes and sled work.

You then refer the mechanic roughly 10k in work over the following months. Including tune up work and a complete motor overhaul. The guys you have referred to him are basically helpless when it comes to motors so they are at the mechanics mercy. You go to take your ride and half the freshly set up and tuned sleds are fouling plugs and or not even starting. So you being the one guy in the know resets some carbs and does some cleaning and chalks it up to bad gas.

Then your buddies sled with a brand new motor melts down within the first 5 or so miles. You take the sled to the mechanics first shop, the shop that recommended him and they say well the head bolts are loose then back pedal and say it could be anything. Then 5 days later you get a call from the mechanic that rebuilt the sled and he states its rider error and you should have known it was overheating. Mind you the temperature sensor never kicked on as an overheat and when looked at by me was broken in the head. Upon your initial inspection you can see that the coolant is extremely low but was not blown all over the engine compartment and was also not pungently burning through the exhaust.

To go with this you know that he once before sent a sled out with a new motor that was “heat cycled” 4 or 5 times but then burps and the coolant drops a considerable amount within the first 10 minutes you ride it.

Would you pay for a second opinion on the :cause: of the burn down? Would you put another motor in at your expense? Would you look into options for getting this taken care of legally? What would you do in these shoes? Right now I feel like an ******* that recommended what I thought was a great shop and have seen problems with 8 sleds from there out of this group of 13…

The sled is a 700 viper mtn

 

[spring snow hero]

yikes! first thing to do is stop refering work to him right now. talk to who ever runs the joint and let them know how you feel and that you know whats up. they are likely gonna say tough.......but you never know. the super bummer is the yammys are typically so reliable that its just pull and go. a second opinion is gonna make you feel better, posibly give you a leg to stand on in court and cost you more money........start at the owner of the store. tell him to read this post. there are only 125k sledders that will see it.

 

[NoCoastNesse]

Yikes......please say this isn't Vickey.........


Does anyone at the shop know you reffered all this work? If so, I would talk to that person. If not....I would goto the store manager...calmly and collected with the facts......

 

[coloradoman25]

I presented it to the manager already, and they know me and what I have done. Its not Vickery. This is a very small shop. We will see what happens.

 

[mod03rmk800]

I think people should have a little mechanical knowledge before they own out-of-warranty or modified performance machine of any type.
There could have been operator damage for sure done to the sled like continuing to operate it during an overheat situation from an air bubble still in system or not properly jetted. Anytime a motor has been tore down things need to be addressed within the first few miles of riding that can't be totally done in a shop. This isn't saying that the said mechanic didn't do spotty work.
These situations are what I believe are the leading cause of performance shops closing there doors. Who really knows what the heck went down from the time during the rebuild to the failure? If the head was leaking I think there would have been some kind of sign that a problem was there and needed addressed.

 

[coloradoman25]

I can respect that but the machine was bone stock and was originally purchased new by the same guy. The first meltdown happened at about 470 miles due to leaning out and a bad fuel pump. This we can recognize, unfortunately for most of the warranty period was pretty much exhausted while the owner was deployed in Afghanistan. Yamaha wasnt willing to help out so we went this route. The sled was then rebuilt and entrusted to the mechanic. I was not there when it melted down, I arrived about 3 hours later, and I have not seen the sled yet since it was re torn down so I am torn. What sticks to me is the other problems that were had with all these freshly tuned sleds that came from the same shop. I as well as Wiley Coyote from the forum spent a solid 3 hours getting these recently tuned sleds to even run.

Could this be coincidental sure, but the sled was not run over 30mph and lasted only 5 miles. The temp light never came on and there is no residue in the engine compartement that I can see other than around the head bolts themselves. I have not seen the sled since the head was reopened, but I still think that there should be some liability on the mechanic, I would consider them doing the labor for free if he paid for the parts as fair.

As for jetting it was properly jetted this sled has always been a Colorado sled and is getted for altitude. The mechanics words were take it out and rip it its ready to ride. It never went above 30 and barely made it to the trail head.

 

[mod03rmk800]

If the shop is worth anything they should be able to tell somewhat what the probable cause was and fix it at there cost if any fault is theres. No question on that. If they are putting out that many bad jobs I would have nothing more to do with them. Might be taking on too much work and losing there quality for quantity. I feel for you being the sort of middle man in this hole thing.

 

[coloradoman25]

thats exactly it I didnt do the build because A. I just dont have the time, B. I just had shoulder surgery, and C. I had never done a yamahammer before.

I reccomended this guy and now I feel like an azz for doing so and not finding the time to do it for him instead.

 

[m_beeson]

They need to be called to the floor on the head bolts.

This is a case when "Dales Rule" needs to be put in place. It states that my feelings are just as important to me as yours are to you. If anybodys feelings are going to be hurt, then I'd rather it be yours.