| Author | Message | ||
     Jwnsc |
Parts-oil/filter/clutch cover gasket=$50 Labor-3 hours at $90/hour = $270 Total = $320 Nothing was wrong with the bike. Nothing leaked. The clutch cable was a little loose, hence the "need" to take the clutch cover off to adjust the clutch(?) It would have been even more had I gone with synthetic. Looking back at some earlier posts, depending on the dealer, the first service was either free or somewhere around the $190 -$300 range. I bought the bike used and not from Low Country, so that may have been a factor. I wanted the dealer to do the first service and stamp the manual for future documentation against possible warranty work. The good news is that they have a dedicated Buell service tech who just bought an 1125. BTW, after I told him I was using this forum to gain some knowledge about my new Uly, the service manager told me to be wary of internet forums. He said there was a lot of misinformation on them. Say it ain't so, Joe! | ||
| Davolous |
Everyone has been really helpful to me here. I worry more about the BS the HD dealers feed me. | ||
| Jwnsc |
Yes, this site has been very informative. I was being a little disingenuous. Of course, the free, unfiltered flow of information, disseminated without a profit motive, makes it hard to run a line of BS on the customer. | ||
| Jb2607 |
Document your maintenance and that should suffice in case of warranty work. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Jim, Lowcountry seems to do OK with Buells despite themselves. Service prices are fairly obscene but they do have at least one good Buell mechanic. BTW, check in over at the SC Bueller's forum at: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/37/ 130123.html? | ||
| Jwnsc |
Thanks Hugh, I will. | ||
| Gsilvernale |
The clutch cover casket is a required change item when you change the transmission/final drive fluid. Note that when I was in there on Wednesday, they were out of stock on these items. So when I changed my oil, I did not replace this gasket. The one that was already in there was in very good condition. I will just keep an eye for oil leaks around this cover. The 3 hours of service is a lot for the few things that get done. I just did my 1000 mile service on my own. Its pretty easy. But by the time I ride the bike for 10 minutes to warm it up, then do the fluid changes, it takes about an hour. The only hard part is to check the drive chain slack. But the rest of the stuff is just inspections. If/when you decide to change your oil yourself, let me know. I live in Summerville and could help out on doing this. | ||
| Ulywife |
Say it ain't so It ain't so. You will find a wealth of information here on BadWeB. You may find a difference of opinion sometimes, but if there are issues, I would lay money that it was discussed here way before it was discussed at a dealership. | ||
| Jwnsc |
Thanks, Gsilvernale, I figured 3 hours was a stretch, since the only real labor is changing the oil and filter. The previous owner had the engine and transmission oil changed at 250 miles and the dealer in West Palm Beach took .39 hour. 2.61 hours is a lot of inspecting! As I mentioned earlier, any warranty work that might need to be done will most likely be handled by Low Country, so I wanted the first service to be done by them to facilitate any claim I might make. I did all the periodic maintenance on my Beemers and hope to continue the tradition with the Uly. I'm in Summerville too, off Trolley Road, so we'll have to get together for a ride and I'm sure I'll have some maintenance questions when I start doing it myself. | ||
| Towjam |
That price is in line with what the dealers here in the D/FW area charge for the 1k service. One thing I plan to ask when I take my XT in for its 1k service is why the '08 service isn't cheaper than the '07 since the '08 doesn't require a TPS reset. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Have you looked at the checklist in the back of your owners' manual? The 1k service is MUCH more than "just" an oil change. The clutch adjustment is specified as one of the adjustments made at the 1k service, as are throttle/idle cable adjustments, primary chain adjustment, etc. Cables and chains stretch when they're new; the 1k is the time to adjust for the stretch. Also, to echo posts above, you will not void your warranty if you perform your own services...as long as you document, document, document, and can verify you did them according to the factory requirements. Although....we all want Buell dealers to get better, and in order to do that they probably need to work on some of our bikes to gain experience...just food for thought. If Buell owners are a "zero market"...why would they want to try harder to make us happier? Good for you, and kudos for supporting your local dealer! | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
I consider dealer service a "Black Hole". Once your bike gets's sucked in you have absolutely no idea what happens to it until it gets pooped out at the other end of the worm hole. At the very least you should of asked what the bill is going to be before handing over your bike. When they tell you $320 you could have just said syanara. And the thing about check lists is that they can go down that list and say, that looks good, to 95 percent of the list. So you pay 320 to have your oil changed, tps reset, and primary chain adjusted. Could of done that yourself. Or do everything yourself and just have them do the tps reset. That'd be about 40 bucks tops. Sure, you'd have to buy your oils and filter but you aren't going to write on BadWeb about getting bent over for those purchases. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
I consider dealer service a "Black Hole". Once your bike gets's sucked in you have absolutely no idea what happens to it until it gets pooped out at the other end of the worm hole. At the very least you should of asked what the bill is going to be before handing over your bike. When they tell you $320 you could have just said syanara. And the thing about check lists is that they can go down that list and say, that looks good, to 95 percent of the list. So you pay 320 to have your oil changed, tps reset, and primary chain adjusted. Could of done that yourself. Or do everything yourself and just have them do the tps reset. That'd be about 40 bucks tops. Sure, you'd have to buy your oils and filter but you aren't going to write on BadWeb about getting bent over for those purchases. Don't feel too bad though. Most of us, me included, have gotten bunged by dealer service. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice though, shame on me. | ||
| Jwnsc |
I see your point Ratbuell, if everything on the list was out of adjustment. Nothing except maybe the play at the clutch lever was, (close enough to be a matter of opinion) and if so, could have been taken up at the lever. Instead of charging for actual work done, a "set" 1K service fee (which mysteriously varies from dealer to dealer) is charged. Hughlysses says he did his 1K service in one hour. Why does it take a dealer (arguably more practiced at it) three times as long? Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. I have learned something in 38 years of riding and dealing with BMW service depts, and I wanted the dealer to do the first service on my Uly. My point is that this padding routine is short-sighted. Now that I know how they operate, what are the chances I'm coming back for the 5K, 10K, 15K, etc. services? And since an experienced Buell tech will no longer have the opportunity to go over the machine every 5K miles, what are the chances a possible warranty issue, (like a bad wheel bearing) will be caught before it causes major problems and $$$. | ||
| Gsilvernale |
I agree that the costs of service are too high. $90/hour for a competent mechanic is too much. But I could live with that if it was not a 3 hour charge. If it was a 1 hour charge and $35 for the fluids, then I would go ahead and get it done by the dealer. My guess is that the dealer has enough captive business that they can charge those rates and hours and keep their shop busy. It just simple business. However, this Buell machine is different than my 20+ previous bikes. Adjusting the clutch cable was easy on Japanese and BMW machines. Have not figured out the way that Buell does its adjustments yet - the owner's manual says to buy a service manual. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
There is an adjustment under the rubber boot in front of the engine. That's how you adjust the slack in the cable. It would also appear that it is best way of getting water in your tranny case if the boot isn't on right  | ||
| Jwnsc |
Thanks, I'll check the boot. This must be an example of the dangerous information found on forums the service manager warned me about. | ||
| Gotj |
Jwnsc wrote: "This must be an example of the dangerous information found on forums the service manager warned me about." Don't be TOO cynical about the service manager's comments. There is more than a grain of truth in them. The most egregious example to me was a post alleging to document the "RIGHT" (emphasis in the original) way to change the fork oil. If you knew anything about the forks, you would have realized that he hadn't even read the service manual, let alone performed the task. If you had acted on his info, you would have been in a royal mess. I don't consider this a "difference of opinion". Of course, other BadWebers stepped in to correct things but he presented himself as such an authority that it would have been easy to start the project before the other postings. So just be careful in jumping into something too fast based on a single post. | ||
| Arcticktm |
Hopefully they only charged you for the little gasket that goes over the inspection cover (3 bolts) for the clutch, and not the primary case gasket. The clutch adjust is very simple to do with a screwdriver, and takes about 10 minutes if you take your time. That includes the time to adjust the in-line cable slack adjuster as described in the manual. My recommendation: Buy the factory service manual, even if you do not intend to work on the bike yourself. You can then pre-read on the procedures, and be better educated before walking into the dealer. If you only save 1 hour of dealer mechanic time, the book will have paid for itself and more. Do not assume the dealer is following all the book recommendations. This is no different than dealing with a car dealer. Some do, some don't. Some create their own lists of "recommended" service. I have seen these mostly at car dealers. Always ask for a detailed list of all the items they will be checking or adjusting in advance. If they will not provide a list - watch out. You need to be extra aware when dealing with an odd brand bike like we have chosen. The dealers just don't make enough money v. the H-D's to give them the same time and training. | ||
| Honu |
Like others have said, buy the service manual. If you decide to do your own oil change on the Uly, do not tighten the drain plug to the recomended torque thats in the manual(unless it has been updated since the 06 version) it could strip the threads out of the swingarm. Do a search on that topic for more info. | ||
| Jwnsc |
I realize this forum, like all others is a collective effort and self-correcting. Any erroneous info is usually unintentional at best or plain ignorance at worst. What's great is that the info is almost always untainted by someone's desire to make a profit. I plan to get the service and parts manual. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between Service Manuals 99490-08Y and 99490-08Y-A (Besides the "A"!) | ||
| Gsilvernale |
99490-08Y is the 2008 XB Models Service Manual. I do not have a listing for this with the letter A appended, but my guess is that this is a supplement to the service manual. | ||
| Jwnsc |
The parts guy at Chicago HD said I should get the "A" as in Amended version, but he didn't know what had been changed from the original. Maybe the oil drain bolt torque spec? Both are the same price. | ||
| Nav18tor |
I just had my Jeep Grand Cherokee serviced here in the UK The hourly labour rate is £120.00 per hour, or $240.00 USD at a franchised Jeep Dealer Now that seems expensive..... After that, I will never complain about bike shop costs | ||
| Court |
XT was added. | ||
| Gotj |
Jwnsc wrote: "...the service manager told me to be wary of internet forums. He said there was a lot of misinformation on them." and "What's great is that the info is almost always untainted by someone's desire to make a profit." Still seems pretty cynical. He may have just been warning you to be wary to save you some grief and a trip to the dealer to fix a problem caused by your following some "ignorance at the worst". That's not the worst. Ignorance combined with arrogance IS, which has blossomed on this board from time to time. | ||
| Jwnsc |
Arrogance? I thought humility was a prerequisite for owning a bike almost no one out of motorcycling has heard of, has an engine based on 1950's technology and is the red-headed stepchild at the only dealer network to support it. But yes, "Pride goeth before the fall." I guess you had to be there, Gotj. In my opinion, he was being a little unfair, at least based on my 10-year experience with the Airhead and GS forums and my year of lurking here. His exact comments seemed a blanket condemnation. But I guess it's a little unrealistic to expect a service manager to say, "You know Jim, you can save yourself some bucks if you do these 5K routine maintenance checks yourself. We'll still honor your warranty if you document your work, and if you have a question the friendly folks on the Big, Bad & Dirty forum can be very helpful most of the time." Me cynical? Naw, as you can see I live in a dream world. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Jwnsc, Do yourself a favor and buy the service manual and do whatever maintenance you feel you can handle. If you feel you got raped by your dealer then let them know it and avoid them in the future if you are able. Some don't agree but owning a motorcycle requires some familiarity with wrenching. Those that say they don't have time to work on their own bike are spending that same time slaving to pay someone to wrench on their bike. Then more time on BadWeb bi.tching about how the dealer screwed up the wrenching. It's funny how that works. The way I figure it, you can spend an hour and 1/2 changing your own oil ( time includes getting oil and filter and disposal of oil at auto parts store ). Or you can spend twice that amount of time letting a dealer do it for you. Then beyatch about how they bunged up the job. BadWeb is chocked full of reports of overfilled oil changes, botched TPS resets, an on and on. Working on someone else's bike all day has got to be pretty thankless, so mistakes are made. | ||
| Jwnsc |
2008 Uly repair and parts manuals ordered yesterday. | ||
| Court |
There is also, new for 2008, a WONDERFUL Electronic Diagnostics Manual. It's about 1-1/2" thick and plum, chucked full of good stuff. | ||
| Gotj |
"I guess you had to be there, Gotj." Point well taken and one that occurred to me shortly after may last post. My comments have been based on the limited info in your posts and I should have acknowledged that. I would have done it earlier, perhaps before your response, but had an obligation I had to meet. I accept your understanding of a blanket condemnation by the service manager and would have balked at it too. | ||
| 1313 |
XT was added. That is an accurate statement! When I picked up my XT on 2-23-08 I purchased, from the shelves of the dealer I bought the bike from, Buell XB Models (Service) Manual Official Factory Manual - 99490-08YA. Had it not included the XT, I wouldn't have bought it. Read the book - it's in there! 1313  P.S. Now if there is just something we could do about the parts manual for the XT - I'd be a HAPPY Bueller! Correction - make that an ECSTATIC Bueller! (Message edited by 1313 on March 11, 2008) |
