One of the most stressful things for me about owning vehicles, Harley-Davidson® or cars, is what might happen with things go wrong during the warranty period. I've written about a couple of things, here and here that have resulted in positive experiences at the local dealership, albeit taking a while to get there, but I am in the process of a new claim.
A while back I noticed a small oil leak on my Road King® that was evidenced by oil landing on one of the exhaust brackets that after some riding got hot and smokey. This is something I first noticed immediately after the fitting of the 103 Big Bore Kit and mentioned to one of the staff at the dealership. I was thinking at the time it might have just been some residue left on the bracket after the work they did.
Sadly it wasn't and staring down the face of 5000ks or so of riding coming up in a couple of weeks I though I'd better get it checked out. My initial contact, about a week and a half ago was with someone in the service centre I hadn't met before. The advice provided was that I should clean all the oil off the bike, take it for a ride and bring it in so they could see where the oil was coming from. Despite the fact that I'm not at all mechanically inclined, logic told me that it didn't make sense for me to set the benchmark, so I told him I'd bring the Harley in, they could clean the oil off and either they or I could ride it for their assessment. So last week I did that.
Without me having to ride, it was determined that there was oil seeping from one of the engine plugs near where the oil filter is attached. An attempt to remove the plug, or tighten it, resulted in the tool breaking off and the need to contact Harley Davidson about an appropriate way to address it. Fair enough. I did see that there was a tiny amount of oil seeping from it but I couldn't really see the connection to the oil that was getting on to the bracket in question. The path from the plug to the bracket was convoluted and unnatural.
On Monday I got a new front tyre fitted by the Guru (after 19,700kms) and on examination of the oil on the bracket the Guru offered the opinion it was a leaking gasket in the area of the transmission (my words, under the cover that says "Six Speed"). I'm sure it's got a proper name! I'd been invited to take the Road King back to the Harley-Davidson dealership to have another crack at the plug so I took it back on Tuesday to leave it with them and when dropping it off brought up the gasket leak.
Yesterday afternoon I got a call and was told the gasket was replaced, the plug couldn't be fixed at that point, but the change in it had diminished the issue there anyway. So the bike was approved by them as long trip ready and the outstanding issue would be addressed when I returned.
I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, my only opportunity today was spoilt by rain, but there wasn't a suggestion that there was a cost involved and I'm a happy customer again. I guess you hear lots of stories about warranty nightmares but at the end of the day you just need to judge service on your own experience, stay calm and be frank or earnest in your dealings with the dealer, not wombattle.
Update Sadly the oil leak is not resolved, more here.
