Let me start off by saying that, up until now, I've generally had a very good experience with this dealership and gladly referred people there. I don't want to name names, as they've otherwise been quite good to me...
However, my girlfriend recently picked up my old Ninja 250R off me, and we had noticed a clicking/rattling sound earlier in the year. Asked at the dealership about it, they said it was just a cold engine sound, as it went away after the bike warmed up a bit. (But said this without actually checking it, as they'd have wanted the bike left there for upwards of 2 weeks at the time before even inspecting it...)
Since then, the rattling/clicking sound got significantly worse, and the bike seemed to be a bit sluggish at times, so we took the 250R in to another shop I've since been dealing with, and he's had to dismantle the entire engine, flush it out, and found some metal chips etc that had gotten into the engine and were circulating in there somehow. That's all pretty much said and done, but what we found out at that point was that all 4 of my valves are outside of factory specs, way too tight, to the point where they may have done some serious damage to the engine.
As part of a previous service inspection, the dealership was supposed to have checked valve clearances; the shop I now go to has informed me that the valve cover has never even been removed before, even still has the factory gasket/glue etc on it, and considering the bike was only there for about an hour during this service checkup (which included an oil change, coolant top-up, and some other stuff), there is no way they could possibly have even looked at the valves let alone adjusted them -- there wouldn't have been time to let the bike cool down enough for an accurate reading.
My question is now: that inspection was performed several months ago, and there is a significant amount of mileage on the bike since then... is there any course of action I should pursue with/against them, or am I pretty much SOL? It strikes me that this valve clearance issue/possible damage was at least indirectly caused by them, but I am well aware of the fact that with the time and mileage involved since then, they can just as easily say it happened since then. What I'm wondering is if there's any way they can be held accoutable with the fact the valve cover was never even touched?
I'm by no means mechanically-inclined, so if any of this sounds strange to you guys please let me know. Would appreciate any useful advice that can be shared.
Thanks!
However, my girlfriend recently picked up my old Ninja 250R off me, and we had noticed a clicking/rattling sound earlier in the year. Asked at the dealership about it, they said it was just a cold engine sound, as it went away after the bike warmed up a bit. (But said this without actually checking it, as they'd have wanted the bike left there for upwards of 2 weeks at the time before even inspecting it...)
Since then, the rattling/clicking sound got significantly worse, and the bike seemed to be a bit sluggish at times, so we took the 250R in to another shop I've since been dealing with, and he's had to dismantle the entire engine, flush it out, and found some metal chips etc that had gotten into the engine and were circulating in there somehow. That's all pretty much said and done, but what we found out at that point was that all 4 of my valves are outside of factory specs, way too tight, to the point where they may have done some serious damage to the engine.
As part of a previous service inspection, the dealership was supposed to have checked valve clearances; the shop I now go to has informed me that the valve cover has never even been removed before, even still has the factory gasket/glue etc on it, and considering the bike was only there for about an hour during this service checkup (which included an oil change, coolant top-up, and some other stuff), there is no way they could possibly have even looked at the valves let alone adjusted them -- there wouldn't have been time to let the bike cool down enough for an accurate reading.
My question is now: that inspection was performed several months ago, and there is a significant amount of mileage on the bike since then... is there any course of action I should pursue with/against them, or am I pretty much SOL? It strikes me that this valve clearance issue/possible damage was at least indirectly caused by them, but I am well aware of the fact that with the time and mileage involved since then, they can just as easily say it happened since then. What I'm wondering is if there's any way they can be held accoutable with the fact the valve cover was never even touched?
I'm by no means mechanically-inclined, so if any of this sounds strange to you guys please let me know. Would appreciate any useful advice that can be shared.
Thanks!
