Outranked by Major Engine Damage - the sequel

["Rick Damiani" <rickd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<cross-posted from rec.motorcycles>

"Bitmasher" <bismasher@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Lean on em Rick!
> Seems there's a question as to if the repair is covered by
>warranty. If the warranty was in force when you gave the bike to
>the dealer, it don't matter when the work is finished, they took
>the job and need to do the work.  Dunno, what'd be the best course
>of action? I think I'd be asking to talk to a factory rep if the
>dealer don't have any answers.

The warrantee has about 11 months left to run. If it's in the shop
even half of that long I'll likely already have gotten a lawyer
involved.

>I'm guessing the dealer is the only one with the question of
>coverage, You took it in to the dealer expecting it to be fixed
>under warranty... Dealer can stall you time wise, but it's gotta
>be covered I would think...  If you talk to the manager of the
>dealership or a factory rep, you might even get a loaner bike...
>don't hurt to ask.. You've waited two weeks (I'm assuming
>patiently) and dealers laggin if they haven't yet resolved order
>status... Im guessing the dealership's manager or owner is unaware
>of your plight. Im guessing that if you approached him with the
>story so far, he would kick it in gear and expedite things or
>maybe give you a loaner (so as to avoid bad karma vibes at his
>dealership)  Time to lean on them just a little though, two weeks
>deserves some PR treatment from the dealership or the factory...
>Hope you get it.

While the bike was at Pro-Italia I tried to get someone to cough up a
loaner bike. Triumph of North America says they don't provide such
things, and Pro-Italia wouldn't do it without Triumph's OK.

As for the dealer - every time I call, I get a different story: many
of them centering around how I may have 'abused' the bike by following
the service recommendations or a preposterous claim that my replacing
a valve shim with my own hands may have somehow caused a rod bearing
to fail. Making it worse is the fact that I am essentially at their
mercy at this point, so I pretty much have to make polite noises while
being talked down to.

I'd love to point out, for example, that the Navy entrusted several
million dollars worth of high-performance propulsion machinery to my
engineering skills and even asked me to teach some of those skills to
younger engineers. But that would only antagonize the dealer
(something that they cautioned me about on Friday [more on that in a
moment]) and wouldn't get the work done any faster.

The latest word:

Last Thursday I called and spoke with the service manager at South Bay
Triumph who assured me that they wouldn't be able to look at the bike
before next Wednesday, despite what the owner of the shop told me the
previous week. Crap. The next day Matt (the shop owner) called and
told me that they had gone out to take a look at it. They dropped the
oil pan for a look-see. The cam chain appeared to be intact (bad - not
a simple diagnosis) and they found no debris in the oil pan (more bad,
same reason). Then they tried cranking it over to see what it sounded
like. Much to their surprise, it started right up. Since it had no
oil, they shut it off right away [0]. They were planning further
investigation either later that day or first thing Saturday.

I spent the weekend with Steve, so I was not able to get back to them
until this past Tuesday. When I called, they told me that a rod
bearing had failed, but they weren't sure which one it was. When I
enquired how they could be so positive *and* uncertain at the same
time [1], they said that they put the pan back in, dumped the old oil
back in, and started it up. They heard a loud banging noise low in the
motor. Then they took the oil filter off and found a bunch of bronze
[2] in it when they cut it open. They were in the process of getting
warrantee approval from Triumph to continue with the investigation.

On Thursday, late in the afternoon (after TofA was closed), they asked
me to supply them with receipts for the oil I purchased, as they were
not having any luck getting those records from the 'other dealership
[3]'. To hasten the process as much as I could, I called Pro-Italia
myself and asked them for re-prints of my receipts - something they
were happy to do for me [3a]. I even got a receipt from North County
Yamaha (who also sells Triumphs) as they were the ones that inspected
the bike after it's the oil filter incident in Camp Pendelton [3b]. I
faxed those receipts to them the next morning and called to make sure
that they were clear enough to read. Fine, no problem with them - take
care of this right away.

When I called back in the afternoon to find out what the word from
TofA was, I was told that they *mailed* the paperwork to Triumph. In
Georgia. Over a three-day weekend. Using Priority Mail [4]. They said
it was 'too complicated' and that there were 'too many pages.' I
pointed out that my company routinely receives $100,000.00+ requests
for bids containing 20 or 30 pages via fax without difficulty, and
that we also receive purchase orders for such things via fax, also
without difficulty. I asked why, if my company could deal with such
large orders via fax, they were having so much trouble with paperwork
supporting a piddling little $2,000.00 in engine work they said 'I
don't know. That's how Triumph wanted to do it.' I said that adding
another week's delay while waiting for the mail was unacceptable, and
that I would be calling Triumph of North America on Tuesday to find
out why they wanted the papers mailed rather than faxed. I was told
that I shouldn't 'antagonize' them 'cause I was asking for a favor,
and that I 'should just be patent and wait'.

Do I sound pissed? It's probably because I am pissed.

I bought a Triumph because I heard great things about their
reliability and because they have the best warrantee for my kind of
riding in the industry: 2-years, unlimited miles. Even BMW couldn't
match that. I fully expected to have 60,000 miles on that Sprint
before the original warrantee was up. I expected to have way more than
100,000 before I started looking for a replacement. I use it for my
primary transportation because, as a consultant, time is money. I
ain't making no money if all my time is spent crawling along I-5 at
.2MPH in a cage.

I did *not* buy a Triumph so I could experience the unique joys of a
wiped rod bearing at 80MPH. I did *not* buy a Triumph so I could
listen to some pompous windbag tell me how his still wet behind the
ears, fumble fingered grease monkeys oughta be changing my oil and
adjusting my valves (at $60.00 an hour) so that I stood a better
chance of having the bike worked on quickly after experiencing the
particular joy of munching a rod bearing [5]. I did *not* buy a
Triumph so I could spend my weekends applying chewing gum and bailing
wire to a 15-year old Yamaha [6] so it will run for another week while
I wait for someone to get around to doing basic (and seemingly
incompetent [0]) diagnostic work. I most especially did not buy a
Triumph so that I could be told not to 'antagonize' anyone and that
they were 'doing me a favor'. No properly assembled and designed
engine should chew up a rod bearing at 32,000 miles, even if I did use
cheap, crappy oil [7]. No properly assembled or designed engine should
*ever* chew up a rod bearing, for that matter. Certainly not a
massively over engineered and near bullet-proof engine like one o'them
Triumph triples.

Maybe I'm over reacting. Maybe I am simply expecting too much. I don't
know - it's kinda hard to be objective when I just got my registration
back and am getting ready to pay for another year's insurance on a
bike I ain't gonna ride for another month at best. All I know is that
when I go out to my parking space, my Triumph still ain't there.


[0] One wonders why they didn't disconnect the fuel pump first - it's
not like pulling the connecter is difficult or anything. Takes
something like a whole extra minute. Less if the bodywork is already
off [1].

[1] Guess it's that top-notch factory training in action, huh?

[2] The service manager called it 'gold' until I asked him if he meant
bronze [1]. Most motorcycles don't have any gold in them.

[3] Pro-Italia - they love to talk bad about Pro-Italia for some
reason.

[3a] I guess that either South Bay was telling me a story *or*
Pro-Italia doesn't like them very much either.

[3b] I figured getting re-prints of the receipts would be a little
faster than me looking for them - especially since I was originally
storing them under the seat of the bike until I found out that the
storage compartment leaked, with predictable results...

[4] You know - that scam service from the US Postal Service that is
not traceable, trackable, and doesn't get there any faster than
regular mail. Nice pretty envelope, though.

[5] If, in fact, that is what it did. To date, no one has bothered to
check the cam timing or the tensioner - even though they claim to have
removed all the necessary covers [1].

[6] Don't misunderstand me here: I *like* this Radian. I just wish I
could take the time to really get it working right all over rather
than the 'patch it up and ride the hell out of it' mode it's currently
in. The fork seal and steering head issues need resolving, but I can't
take the chance of taking it to parade rest and finding more serious
issues if it's my only way of getting around.

[7] Which I didn't - I used Triumph own specially formulated Mobil 1,
even though the price is usurious and I am not entirely convinced that
it's any different than regular Mobil 1.



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