Today would be the end of my vacation, which is always disappointing. Darcy and I went for breakfast, and then he headed off to work and made my way across town to the Harley dealer where I had an appointment for my 8000km service job. I got there too early, and ended up going for a coffee with another biker who was also waiting for the dealer to open.
I did a little shopping and reading while they serviced my bike, which ended up taking longer than expected. It was 12:30pm when I got on the bike and began to make my way back home. I was expecting a quick trip home, probably arriving right around supper time.
I kept noticing that the oil dipstick was popping up, and wasn't sure why. About 45 minutes out of Grande Prairie, as I entered a right hand curve, the dipstick blew out of the tank, soaking my leg and the back of my bike with hot oil. There was a big rig right behind me, and there was nothing left of my dipstick by the time I had pulled over and went to see if I could find it.
I called the dealer in GP, and they assured me they would come to my aid. It took them 2 hours to drive the 70km, and I was quite surprised to see that it wasn't even a technician that came out. Their solution was to install a new dipstick, and not knowing anything about engines, I decided to rely on them.
Fairview isn't too far from where I broke down, and the new dipstick seemed to be doing the trick. I ate lunch, hoping that I was good to go now. I constantly checked my dipstick, and for some reason the thing held up until I got about 40km north of Manning. It was after 6pm now, and the dealership was closed, so it figures that's when I would begin to have issues again.
The dipstick was now doing the exact same thing as before, and although I'm no mechanic, it didn't seem right to have as much pressure in my oil tank. After doing some searches on Google, I thought that maybe the whole problem was just an over filled oil tank. I was able to get a guy to help me tip my bike over at a rest stop to drain a little oil and see if that would solve my problems.
It was only 2km or so down the road when my bike lost power, and I coasted to a stop on the side of the road. By now I was at a complete loss for what to do, and thankfully a vehicle pulled over. By now I had a feeling that there was a breather or something that was plugged, causing the back pressure in my oil tank. After not being able to find any solution to the problem, I ended up pulling the dipstick out far enough to vent the pressure, and just slowly rode home.
It was 10:30 by the time I got home, the trip taking about 4 hours longer than expected. It was a terrible end to a great vacation, and not knowing how serious the problem with my bike was really sucked. I was tired, and it was too late anyway to figure anything out, so I had a shower and went to sleep.
*Resolution*
I talked with the dealer the next day, and they really didn't have a clue, which is no surprise. Grande Prairie Harley Davidson should be avoided at all costs, the staff is totally incompetent, and even worse doesn't seem to care. They had another bike on their lot with the same problem, and yet they never bothered to tell me this when I called in after breaking down. The way they handled this situation just confirmed to me that they will never touch another bike I own.
Nothing was figured out on the first day back home, and after finding nothing after going through my oil system, I decided to look through the air system in my service manual. Right away I saw that there are two little vent hoses that send excess oil vapor back into the air intake. I removed my air cleaner, and immediately saw that those two hoses were bent over and pinched off completely. As soon as I unfolded the hoses, they defaulted to a position that looked like it would be normal. I knew right then that I had figured out the problem.
As I was gearing up to take a test ride, the dealer called and asked if that was something I would be able to check. The tech sounded miffed when I told him that I had already done that, and was ready to test ride. I was told to call them after the ride to let them know if everything was okay, which I did. I was only able to leave a message, and have never heard from them again. Terrible customer service, seeing as how it was their tech that caused the problem by pinching off the hoses, and then not even getting a proper apology from them.
The best part is that my bike was fixed and running awesome once again, which is the most important part of all of this.
No comments:
Post a Comment