It started as love at first sight, but now it feels like a lemon not just a bike, but Yamaha as a whole. And your experience may vary of course. Between a broken clutch spring, incompetent dealer in the form of Action yamaha in Metuchen, NJ who were supposed to be one of the top, incompetent corporate employees who know of the only solution is to go back to the dealer which mechanics do not follow service manual, incorrectly run wiring, incorrectly route breather hoses, over tighten bolts, under tighten bolts, lose bolts and strip threads and whose manager think that his crew did an awesome job. This is the kind of shit the Yamaha come up with as a solution. Now lemme ask you, if this dealer performed an engine rebuild for you, how much confidence would you have? Sounds like a scam to me. You buy a product, it breaks, you take it to the product support center and they cant get the job done, so you are stuck with the fucking thing? Is that how it works?
Thinking about ditching the Tenere, may have to take it to court
- Thread starter 528Hz
- Start date
greg the pole
There are no stupid questions, only stupid people
So is it an issue with the bike? or the incompetent dealer?
Experience will vary from bike to bike, and service center to service center.
For me, and the hell I put this bike through, it's been faultless. I do my own maintenance, and have had a few blunders learning on this bike. That said, I only blame myself, and learn from it.
Overall, it's an easy bike to work on (except that gdammed valve cover), and required little maintenance.
The basket design left a bit to be desired, and so did the original cct. Both have since been replaced, and I have had zero issues with the new items.
Hope it turns around for you. What ever you do, do not buy a KTM, it will make your current tenere look like a perfect picture of reliablity
Experience will vary from bike to bike, and service center to service center.
For me, and the hell I put this bike through, it's been faultless. I do my own maintenance, and have had a few blunders learning on this bike. That said, I only blame myself, and learn from it.
Overall, it's an easy bike to work on (except that gdammed valve cover), and required little maintenance.
The basket design left a bit to be desired, and so did the original cct. Both have since been replaced, and I have had zero issues with the new items.
Hope it turns around for you. What ever you do, do not buy a KTM, it will make your current tenere look like a perfect picture of reliablity
Other than some threads about CCT failure, I don't recall seeing any other Tenere with such a catastrophic failure as your clutch basket. A job like that should be left to the "professionals" especially since it was under warranty and it's not something that can be fixed at home like regular maintenance. Even if others do not have issues, that doesn't discount your experience with the bike and Yamaha. After reading about your experience, I won't be going to Metuchen for service. I've had a good experience at the Yamaha dealer in Hicksville NY, but those were smaller jobs for the headlight harness recall, clutch cover dowel pin replacement, and rear brake cleaning.
Since they did such as "awesome" job at fixing up the bike, they shouldn't have a problem giving you full value if you wanted to do a trade in or anything right?
Since they did such as "awesome" job at fixing up the bike, they shouldn't have a problem giving you full value if you wanted to do a trade in or anything right?
Squibb
Well-Known Member
Your guys in NJ sound like angels to me.
Just try BMW if you really want to get frustrated with a bike & dealer - my K16 was in the shop getting on for 3 months last summer, needed around £6k in warranty work. Even then they still didn't sort out the fuel leak, & no loan bike either due to the RT recall. Sh.. happens, even with an S10, but at least Yamaha don't seem to launch bikes on an unsuspecting public, without completing the beta testing programme - it's not nice having a £19k bike & finding you are acting as a factory test dummy.
Can't you get to another Yam franchise & get things checked out?
I am lucky, in having a Yam dealer capable of building race bikes nearby. They might not be the most efficient/timely, but are utterly reliable techs who have worked in the racing scene (Isle of Man/WSB for years). I accept many are not &, given that they don't get to do many rebuilds these days, I would need to choose carefully before letting anyone spanner my bike.
Hope you get the thing sorted ............ KEN
Just try BMW if you really want to get frustrated with a bike & dealer - my K16 was in the shop getting on for 3 months last summer, needed around £6k in warranty work. Even then they still didn't sort out the fuel leak, & no loan bike either due to the RT recall. Sh.. happens, even with an S10, but at least Yamaha don't seem to launch bikes on an unsuspecting public, without completing the beta testing programme - it's not nice having a £19k bike & finding you are acting as a factory test dummy.
Can't you get to another Yam franchise & get things checked out?
I am lucky, in having a Yam dealer capable of building race bikes nearby. They might not be the most efficient/timely, but are utterly reliable techs who have worked in the racing scene (Isle of Man/WSB for years). I accept many are not &, given that they don't get to do many rebuilds these days, I would need to choose carefully before letting anyone spanner my bike.
Hope you get the thing sorted ............ KEN
Well, the issue is as follows.
Last year I went to colorado and the bike broke (clutch spring broke in half, came out of the basket and scarred away at the engine case). Luckily I was less then 35 miles from Davis at Montrose. They seem to be great guys there. With a great sense of humor. When this happened, I ended up having to stay a week at Montrose. It was a labor day weekend, they needed time to get parts in and install them.
Okay, fcuk it. What did I do? I rented a bike and went about, made many passes, yada yada. Great times.
At the same time, all the reservations I had made fell through, nobody wanted to refund money because it was too close and these were luxury retreats, so who wants to refund money on that, and I ended up staying a week in a hotel next to the dealer. So this nifty little clutch spring cost me just what over 4 grand. And all I get back from yamaha jokers is a whopping 250 dollars. Okay well the hell with them and their 250. I get the bike from Davis a week later and ride to NY. Because Action Yamaha allegedly actually performed valve check on the bike before the trip and I thought that perhaps they screwed something up and it turned out that they didn't I figured as a sign of no hard feelings I will let them make some money and bring the bike to them to do the approved engine case swap. East coast regional rep Eric I believe, said that they were good. Okay. I bring the bike to them, leave it there. They call me a week or so later with an update saying they ordered parts and it was busy after season, bla bla. I said Rich, he is a service manager there, take your time, don't rush, i have other bikes i can ride and its getting cold anyway, take as long as you need and ONLY WORK ON THE BIKE WHEN THE ENVIRONMENT IS RELAXED AND CALM. And I ran that phrase by many times. He said okay many times. I also said I will take good care of them, so do the damn job properly. He said okay.
2 months go by, I get a call, bike is ready. I go to pick it up. First paperwork. They give me parts list of what was replaced. I asked them if everything was torqued down to spec as listed the manual, specifically, because that is what I do and I am very precise about that. So I expect them to do same. Rich jokes at me something along the lines of no, they did it by hand or something like that, which I did not find funny, but I let it slide. So paperwork done, I give Mark mechanic 100 bucks for the work I thought was well done. Then I give Rich, service manager 100 bucks so he can throw a little party for the crew there, you know pizza, shmizza, 20 minute stripper or whatever.
We go outside, they wheel the bike out from a container or something. I crank it up, it don't start. I cranked again, it barely started, coughing first. I says wtf and notice there is no gas in it. I says, hey Rich, you guys couldn't put some gas in there? I mean you are supposedly test riding the bike with an empty tank? He says, well I can put some gas in now. I said well, I can put gas in it now myself. You should have put it in before. That was a moment when I wanted to ask for all the tips back and I should have. If you are thorough, you are thorough with everything. If you ride a bike with such empty tank that it barely starts, you have no business riding a bike, let alone being a mechanic. This is not dempster, there is gas a quarter mile away in any direction.
Okay, so I ride it home. It had new pistons and rings, so it's like a break in again. I get home, about 25 miles, dump the oil. As the oil was draining, I noticed a clutch line was not secured to the frame. So I secure the clutch line. I'm thinking, first, empty tank, now clutch line, these jokers are now approaching shit list. I decided to pull the fairings off. Well, what do you know, I notice that the wiring is incorrectly routed. I notice OEM zip tie clips that secure to the frame cut completely off. Why? All they had to do is just open them. I then start looking at the lower part of the bike and notice a breather hose on rider right side resting against the header instead of being secured in a designated clip. Next day I call these jokers and I basically get I don't know, I don't remember, maybe from Rich the service manager and the last but not least that they were very busy at the time so they weren't taking any notes. So I say, Rich, what did I tell you when I dropped off the bike? I asked to only work on it when mechanic is in a state of mind where he can follow through with what he is doing, did I not say that? At that point he starts mumbling bullshit about how he can't remember anything and why I am arguing with him when they are the greatest jokers in the world. Typical loser recation.
Later I have a conversation with Mark, the joker mechanic that worked on the bike, who can not recall if he did valve clearances for me or not. When I dropped off the bike, I had asked them to set valves to the highest possible value, since they are going to be moving components from old case to the new case, which they wrote down on the work order as well.
This was november, approaching december when I picked it up, weather getting shitty, so I couldn't do much distance riding. After about a week of on and off, one evening bike starts misfiring and stalling as I ride and downshift. This went on for about 5 minutes that it took me to get back to the garage. I called them next day, they say maybe bad gas. Okay, maybe bad gas. I put seafoam in there, seemed to have gone away, although occasional misfiring remained to this day in July 2015. I also found a loose lower sub frame bolt (riders left). Missing gas tank mount bolt (left side). Mount was secured to the tank with 2 screws, but the mount itself was not secured to the frame. Right side mount bolt was 1/4 way out. This would not have happened with properly torqued/thread locked bolts. Radiator support mounting bolts were loose, with no fresh thread locker on them, just distant remnants of the old thread locker faded away. Left side firewall (where radiator sits against) - ALL screws were loose. Altrider crash bar left side bolt that is closer to the rider, treads in the nut that is welded to the frame from the factory where mounting bolt goes in were totally stripped. I pulled out the entire thread as a spiral. Coolant overflow hose was not secured in the clip and was pinched by the spring.
And that brings me to today. I am about to embark on a month long ride. And I am contemplating on which bike to take.
So I call yamaha, because the sub frame bolt and the coolant overflow hose I found yesterday. Yesterday I figured that I will go over every bolt that the dealer had to touch for engine removal and install. I only put about 2000 miles since I picked up the bike, so the sub frame bolt should not have loosened like that if it was properly torqued down. I should have checked it when I picked it up last winter. And so I wanted to let yamaha know about what the situation is and that i have no confidence in the bike because i have no confidence in the dealer who performed joke work on it. Even if I go over the bolts on the outside, i am not going to remove the engine and sift through it verifying what they had done everything from bearings, to all the shit that's inside. And that leaves me with something that is potentially unreliable that could translate into more expense then its really worth.
So I told the customer service joker that a solution would be that they find a responsible dealer in the area, where I can bring the bike, they can go over it in front of me while I watch with a manual. Isn't the idea of warranty work is to bring the bike to OEM spec, especially if OEM part failed? Of course the response I got was that she will try to contact regional rep and get back to me as soon as possible. Who talks like that I say to her? You want to help resolve this? You say I will get in touch with him and I will speak to you, not I'll see if i can get in touch with him. What a joker.
So it feels like a scam to me. Dealers are privately owned and operated. Yamaha is not willing to do anything. All they give back is shitty $250. Well, what the fcuk is that if its not a scam? Sure other brands may or may not be better in that regard, but its more of an issue for me in a sense that it broke, questionably "fixed", customer service is a joke. If the clutch spring haven't broken, I would not be going through this now. And so it feels like a scam and item should be fully refunded if they cant arrange for proper check up.
Last year I went to colorado and the bike broke (clutch spring broke in half, came out of the basket and scarred away at the engine case). Luckily I was less then 35 miles from Davis at Montrose. They seem to be great guys there. With a great sense of humor. When this happened, I ended up having to stay a week at Montrose. It was a labor day weekend, they needed time to get parts in and install them.
Okay, fcuk it. What did I do? I rented a bike and went about, made many passes, yada yada. Great times.
At the same time, all the reservations I had made fell through, nobody wanted to refund money because it was too close and these were luxury retreats, so who wants to refund money on that, and I ended up staying a week in a hotel next to the dealer. So this nifty little clutch spring cost me just what over 4 grand. And all I get back from yamaha jokers is a whopping 250 dollars. Okay well the hell with them and their 250. I get the bike from Davis a week later and ride to NY. Because Action Yamaha allegedly actually performed valve check on the bike before the trip and I thought that perhaps they screwed something up and it turned out that they didn't I figured as a sign of no hard feelings I will let them make some money and bring the bike to them to do the approved engine case swap. East coast regional rep Eric I believe, said that they were good. Okay. I bring the bike to them, leave it there. They call me a week or so later with an update saying they ordered parts and it was busy after season, bla bla. I said Rich, he is a service manager there, take your time, don't rush, i have other bikes i can ride and its getting cold anyway, take as long as you need and ONLY WORK ON THE BIKE WHEN THE ENVIRONMENT IS RELAXED AND CALM. And I ran that phrase by many times. He said okay many times. I also said I will take good care of them, so do the damn job properly. He said okay.
2 months go by, I get a call, bike is ready. I go to pick it up. First paperwork. They give me parts list of what was replaced. I asked them if everything was torqued down to spec as listed the manual, specifically, because that is what I do and I am very precise about that. So I expect them to do same. Rich jokes at me something along the lines of no, they did it by hand or something like that, which I did not find funny, but I let it slide. So paperwork done, I give Mark mechanic 100 bucks for the work I thought was well done. Then I give Rich, service manager 100 bucks so he can throw a little party for the crew there, you know pizza, shmizza, 20 minute stripper or whatever.
We go outside, they wheel the bike out from a container or something. I crank it up, it don't start. I cranked again, it barely started, coughing first. I says wtf and notice there is no gas in it. I says, hey Rich, you guys couldn't put some gas in there? I mean you are supposedly test riding the bike with an empty tank? He says, well I can put some gas in now. I said well, I can put gas in it now myself. You should have put it in before. That was a moment when I wanted to ask for all the tips back and I should have. If you are thorough, you are thorough with everything. If you ride a bike with such empty tank that it barely starts, you have no business riding a bike, let alone being a mechanic. This is not dempster, there is gas a quarter mile away in any direction.
Okay, so I ride it home. It had new pistons and rings, so it's like a break in again. I get home, about 25 miles, dump the oil. As the oil was draining, I noticed a clutch line was not secured to the frame. So I secure the clutch line. I'm thinking, first, empty tank, now clutch line, these jokers are now approaching shit list. I decided to pull the fairings off. Well, what do you know, I notice that the wiring is incorrectly routed. I notice OEM zip tie clips that secure to the frame cut completely off. Why? All they had to do is just open them. I then start looking at the lower part of the bike and notice a breather hose on rider right side resting against the header instead of being secured in a designated clip. Next day I call these jokers and I basically get I don't know, I don't remember, maybe from Rich the service manager and the last but not least that they were very busy at the time so they weren't taking any notes. So I say, Rich, what did I tell you when I dropped off the bike? I asked to only work on it when mechanic is in a state of mind where he can follow through with what he is doing, did I not say that? At that point he starts mumbling bullshit about how he can't remember anything and why I am arguing with him when they are the greatest jokers in the world. Typical loser recation.
Later I have a conversation with Mark, the joker mechanic that worked on the bike, who can not recall if he did valve clearances for me or not. When I dropped off the bike, I had asked them to set valves to the highest possible value, since they are going to be moving components from old case to the new case, which they wrote down on the work order as well.
This was november, approaching december when I picked it up, weather getting shitty, so I couldn't do much distance riding. After about a week of on and off, one evening bike starts misfiring and stalling as I ride and downshift. This went on for about 5 minutes that it took me to get back to the garage. I called them next day, they say maybe bad gas. Okay, maybe bad gas. I put seafoam in there, seemed to have gone away, although occasional misfiring remained to this day in July 2015. I also found a loose lower sub frame bolt (riders left). Missing gas tank mount bolt (left side). Mount was secured to the tank with 2 screws, but the mount itself was not secured to the frame. Right side mount bolt was 1/4 way out. This would not have happened with properly torqued/thread locked bolts. Radiator support mounting bolts were loose, with no fresh thread locker on them, just distant remnants of the old thread locker faded away. Left side firewall (where radiator sits against) - ALL screws were loose. Altrider crash bar left side bolt that is closer to the rider, treads in the nut that is welded to the frame from the factory where mounting bolt goes in were totally stripped. I pulled out the entire thread as a spiral. Coolant overflow hose was not secured in the clip and was pinched by the spring.
And that brings me to today. I am about to embark on a month long ride. And I am contemplating on which bike to take.
So I call yamaha, because the sub frame bolt and the coolant overflow hose I found yesterday. Yesterday I figured that I will go over every bolt that the dealer had to touch for engine removal and install. I only put about 2000 miles since I picked up the bike, so the sub frame bolt should not have loosened like that if it was properly torqued down. I should have checked it when I picked it up last winter. And so I wanted to let yamaha know about what the situation is and that i have no confidence in the bike because i have no confidence in the dealer who performed joke work on it. Even if I go over the bolts on the outside, i am not going to remove the engine and sift through it verifying what they had done everything from bearings, to all the shit that's inside. And that leaves me with something that is potentially unreliable that could translate into more expense then its really worth.
So I told the customer service joker that a solution would be that they find a responsible dealer in the area, where I can bring the bike, they can go over it in front of me while I watch with a manual. Isn't the idea of warranty work is to bring the bike to OEM spec, especially if OEM part failed? Of course the response I got was that she will try to contact regional rep and get back to me as soon as possible. Who talks like that I say to her? You want to help resolve this? You say I will get in touch with him and I will speak to you, not I'll see if i can get in touch with him. What a joker.
So it feels like a scam to me. Dealers are privately owned and operated. Yamaha is not willing to do anything. All they give back is shitty $250. Well, what the fcuk is that if its not a scam? Sure other brands may or may not be better in that regard, but its more of an issue for me in a sense that it broke, questionably "fixed", customer service is a joke. If the clutch spring haven't broken, I would not be going through this now. And so it feels like a scam and item should be fully refunded if they cant arrange for proper check up.
shrekonwheels
New Member
Dealers have their own Yamaha Rep, I do not know how large of an area he covers.
Usually Mechanics are fairly anal about internals and often slap together the rest. Honestly I rarely ever torque anything other than critical components, No I am not a Yamaha Mechanic just for clarification
I can also understand your overall frustration with the simple things such as wiring harness and hose. Clipping ties is nothing unusual, time is money and sitting around trying to loosen everything takes far more time than a pair of snips.
Anyhow, not saying these guys are not clowns, just saying to relax a bit, take the Tenere for a ride, and if something happens, then you will have a case, until then nothing will be done.
I also had my problems with fork seals on my Tenere and two dearerships, whom I had purchased other bikes from completely snubbing me, I was livid with Yamaha overall.
Then two weeks later the Toyota Dealership managed to strip the drain plug bolt and stiff me with a leaking oil pan having to change it out myself Grrr.
The main problem with America in general is the lack of caring, very few people give a shit.
Go over what you have to on the bike, ride and enjoy yourself. Oh yea, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING that has happened, and will happen or may not down the line.
Usually Mechanics are fairly anal about internals and often slap together the rest. Honestly I rarely ever torque anything other than critical components, No I am not a Yamaha Mechanic just for clarification
I can also understand your overall frustration with the simple things such as wiring harness and hose. Clipping ties is nothing unusual, time is money and sitting around trying to loosen everything takes far more time than a pair of snips.
Anyhow, not saying these guys are not clowns, just saying to relax a bit, take the Tenere for a ride, and if something happens, then you will have a case, until then nothing will be done.
I also had my problems with fork seals on my Tenere and two dearerships, whom I had purchased other bikes from completely snubbing me, I was livid with Yamaha overall.
Then two weeks later the Toyota Dealership managed to strip the drain plug bolt and stiff me with a leaking oil pan having to change it out myself Grrr.
The main problem with America in general is the lack of caring, very few people give a shit.
Go over what you have to on the bike, ride and enjoy yourself. Oh yea, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING that has happened, and will happen or may not down the line.
KevinFH
New Member
I just bought my ST. 1350 miles. rides like a dream. I sold my 1977 XS750. I was used to doing most of the work, but items I was not tooled for I took to Precision Cycle in Sarasota. They have the best mechanics and customer service anywhere. They did not pay me to say this. The love motorcycles.
I took my ST to the dealer for 600 mile checkup. I was not impressed with the professionalism. They looked like young kids just starting out. I'll go back to Precision from now on. You guys have scared the b'jeepers out of me.
I took my ST to the dealer for 600 mile checkup. I was not impressed with the professionalism. They looked like young kids just starting out. I'll go back to Precision from now on. You guys have scared the b'jeepers out of me.
it does ride like dream, especially with ecu reprogrammed. yamaha and the rest of manufacturers are not able to dictate to dealers on what to do when their warranty work is not in spec with OEM requirements. Well, what kind of crap is that? I think its gona take a collective boycott or something for these manufacturers to start taking care of those who buy their product, all brands. This goes for the rest of the industries. Human beings really need to get off their knees in every department. These corporations are running wild.
scott123007
Well-Known Member
432, I may have misunderstood your post but it sounded like the first dealership installed a new clutch basket and you rode the bike back to NY?
greg the pole
There are no stupid questions, only stupid people
hi 432,
read your entire write up.
Shitty deal man, plain and simple.
You're dealing with people that are not solid, caring, or quite frankly give a rats ass. Hope you get it sorted out, not really sure how, but I hope it goes well for you.
If I'm not mistaken, Yamaha dealers are privately owned that need to follow Yamaha's rules in order to keep their franchise.
But it sounds to me that if this crap dealer is multi franchise, that's their approach to everything
I've been happy with my dealer, and he's 6 hours away in the states. Never an issue, helpful guy. But I wrench myself on my bike. That's it. I follow the manual for torque specs (wheels, brakes, engine, shaft etc), and bolts that are not super critical, get blue loc tite, get tighten down, plus a quarter for good measure. Never any issues.
read your entire write up.
Shitty deal man, plain and simple.
You're dealing with people that are not solid, caring, or quite frankly give a rats ass. Hope you get it sorted out, not really sure how, but I hope it goes well for you.
If I'm not mistaken, Yamaha dealers are privately owned that need to follow Yamaha's rules in order to keep their franchise.
But it sounds to me that if this crap dealer is multi franchise, that's their approach to everything
I've been happy with my dealer, and he's 6 hours away in the states. Never an issue, helpful guy. But I wrench myself on my bike. That's it. I follow the manual for torque specs (wheels, brakes, engine, shaft etc), and bolts that are not super critical, get blue loc tite, get tighten down, plus a quarter for good measure. Never any issues.
I went over engine mounting bolts yesterday. The 2 front bottom bolts and 1 top right bolt were loose. No thread locker on them either. Bottom right I undid by hand. Top right bolt was overtightened and had some kind of white substance on it. The 2 rear bolts I didn't even bother measuring approximate current torque, I just undid them and re-torqued them.
I called the dealer today and had asked them to mail back the 200 dollars in tips that I have given them. This is criminal negligence. They deserve no tips at the very least. No solution from Yamaha as of yet.
I called the dealer today and had asked them to mail back the 200 dollars in tips that I have given them. This is criminal negligence. They deserve no tips at the very least. No solution from Yamaha as of yet.
Just want to say I am sorry for all your frustrations and troubles with the dealer. Hope the best for you and your bike. I know it doesn't help with your troubles, but I have been there a few times over the last 45 years. I have had dealings with great dealers, and lying cheating criminally negligent dealers. There are good and bad people in this world, hope you can get some help from some of the good ones soon.