Cameron's Build Thread

[cameronc56]

The dealer investigated, and found chunks of metal in the small amount of oil left in the bike. Engine's fucked.

Hopefully I'll get to ride her again sometime this summer.

 

[isaac_]

The dealer investigated, and found chunks of metal in the small amount of oil left in the bike. Engine's fucked.

Hopefully I'll get to ride her again sometime this summer.

Did you punch a hole in the case? The engine ate up that much oil? Wonder if the oil rings didn’t seat properly?

 

[cameronc56]

No hole, the engine doesn't leak oil when its sitting there. No leaks in the external gaskets.

Something was dumping the oil into the exhaust when it was running, I'm guessing piston rings weren't installed properly. Was dumping enough to dry out the engine in a <5 mile ride. Kind of surprised I didn't notice all the white fumes that were coming out.

 

[gsx750r93]

How is this acceptable for a company to do this? You would think there would be a recall. I keep on reading these horror stories. If a car manufacturer did this there is no way there wouldn't be a recall or something. Sucks because I am in the market for a RC390 and now I just don't know what to do.

 

[cameronc56]

They should be taking care of me (knock on wood), theres just been some back and forth with my dealership and the KTM warranty department.

They are taking the engine apart today, and will report the damage back to KTM for them to determine whether to send new parts or an entire engine.

I'm more dissapointed with my dealership than with KTM, its been a full 26 days from the time I dropped it off and the time the dealership got to take it apart. KTM seems to be replying to them extremely quickly, I think they are just hesitant or putting it off in favor of servicing their ducatis and BMW's, since they just became a KTM dealership some months ago.

 

[cameronc56]

Alright so they took the engine apart yesterday, they said it was a bad rod bearing.

 

[cameronc56]

KTM said they'd cover it, but they are sending parts, not a complete engine.

The shop says they think they can get all of the parts and put it together in another month. : (

 

[isaac_]

KTM said they'd cover it, but they are sending parts, not a complete engine.

The shop says they think they can get all of the parts and put it together in another month. : (

That doesn’t surprise me that they’re only sending parts. Which isn’t an issue. Just sucks you have to wait.

 

[Fangfactor]

Did they explain how the bad rod bearing caused the massive oil loss?

 

[cameronc56]

They did not

 

[antarius]

That's ridiculous. It spun a bearing because it lost all of it's oil; It didn't lose all of it's oil because it lost a bearing.

I haven't even picked up my 2017 yet and I bought it knowing the issues were out there -- just hoping not to have to go through this too soon. Pretty ridiculous.

 

[cameronc56]

Update: Just got back from my two week trip, the shop said it would be done by the time I got back. Unfortunately they still haven't even started on it. I got my bike on Jan 24, it blew up on april 20, and its still not fixed yet. So now they have had the bike significantly longer than I have.


Apparently they are only waiting for one more part to come in...


I am beyond pissed, especially since they are implying that if I push them or complain to KTM they will drop the warranty coverage.

 

[m3hl]

I had a different dealer do my warranty work. you should see if thats an option. I would start complaining more. What a shitty situation.

 

[Chuditch]

Update: Just got back from my two week trip, the shop said it would be done by the time I got back. Unfortunately they still haven't even started on it. I got my bike on Jan 24, it blew up on april 20, and its still not fixed yet. So now they have had the bike significantly longer than I have.


Apparently they are only waiting for one more part to come in...


I am beyond pissed, especially since they are implying that if I push them or complain to KTM they will drop the warranty coverage.

That is bullshit man, the shop is taking the piss at your expense, their reasons for the bike shitting itself etc don't make any sense (Bike running but lost oil before service, after service severely broken...) air cleaner covers don't break chunks off and come off by themselves in normal use. I mean what the hell can go wrong in there unless they didn't put everything back together properly? Which is what I suspect is what has happened.

Here are a few alarm bells going off for me.

-Bike loses massive amounts of oil, you take it in and they simply top the oil up and you drive it off? They should have done a compression test at the very least and a thorough test run at the minimum after topping it up, not wave you goodbye off into the sunset.
-Air cleaner cover and air cleaner is damaged badly chunks missing and copious amounts of filter oil everywhere? That's no mystery, that's obviously their bad, left something in there that shouldn't have been in there or didn't do everything up properly etc etc That shit is on them.
- Two weeks of the bike sitting in the shop and nothing has been done? "Waiting on one more part"? Standard op for dodgy mechanics. the old "waiting on one more part" story.... because they can't strip it down until that one part comes ..... ok then
- Icing on the cake, implying that they will not cover the warranty!!!!!! It's either covered or it isn't! If they really are saying this then just tell them you will contact KTM directly to inform them of their (the shops) dodgy shit.

As others have advised, get your bike and get it out of there and find another dealer/shop who won't treat you like this. It's not Ok man.

 

[m3hl]

Try contacting Gray Area KTM in Springfield, OR. It's far but they made my warranty process completely painless. My bike came from Hilsboro but Gray Area was happy to take my bike in, handled everything and were really quick on turn around. It's worth a call even though its pretty far away.

 

[cameronc56]

Yeah, I definitely won't be going back to this shop for any future work. I'll be going down to noble rush auburn.

Just gonna stick with it for now, since the last part they needed came in, and they have my bike scheduled for the 19th and 20th. If all goes well I will have my bike back next saturday.

 

[neonmarine]

Any luck getting some progress on the motor? Sucks big time...

 

[Tom]

Can you get any pictures of the motor? I'm interested if there's any pitting on the head or cylinder walls from detonation.

If it truely is a bad rod bearing that could be disasterous for the cylinder bore, as it could have allowed the piston carve the bore into an oblonge cylinder.

 

[cameronc56]

SO quick update: The bike is STILL not done

I called the owner of the shop (KTM of Seattle) for answers, and he said the delay was a mix of 2 shop managers getting fired while my bike was there, KTM doing a service audit, and someone telling the mechanics not to work on it. Plus a 2 month service backlog. They then admitted to me that they aren't able to perform the work because they don't know how.

So after months of back and forth, they shipped the bike in pieces to a different KTM dealership (noble rush auburn) that says they can get it done.

They've been working on my bike starting yesterday. Rainy season has started so it'll probably be a full year without being able to ride this bike.

 

[Tom]

Riding in the rain is fun. Just make sure you get a plastic safe version of rain-x for your visor. Get a good helmet specific antifog for the inside as well.