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Late Transmission Recall Failure!

8K views 20 replies 18 participants last post by  Obijack 
#1 · (Edited)
Well, my worst nightmare has come true.... I thought the whole transmission recall thing was behind me after a good 500 miles of riding after completion of the recall. Everything was running great.

But then, on mile 512, on a late night ride home my rear brake started to feel slippery. I figured my rear brake disk and pads got a little wet, condensation or something... I ignored it. After a fairly high speed ride home on freeway, I get off on my exit and stop at a red light. That is when I started to see and smell smoke. Oh great...

When I got it home, my bike was dripping oil. The oil had splattered all across the bottom right side of my bike, all the way back to my rear brakes, covering the disk and getting the pads oily. Oil covered the right side of my rear rim and tire (thank God I didn't low side any of the somewhat high speed right turns I made on the way home)...

That night, I just locked my bike in the garage and went to bed depressed. The pictures below were taken the next day. The oil on the tires dried up a little but you can still see it.

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You know, I always prefer buying new bikes instead of used ones because I worry less about stuff like this; mechanical failures. Because of this stupid recall, my bike feels like a used bike... I can't trust it anymore. I love the bike, but I want my 20k back. I want an untouched bike.

Let this be a warning to you all, don't trust your bike just yet. This issue / failure may not have presented itself to you yet. You may need to have > 500 miles after the recall, and open the bike up above speeds > 140 MPH multiple times before the failure occurs.

...and FFS inspect your bike before you ride! I know it's easy to think "its a new bike, 2015, I don't need to inspect it, its fine" but you can't trust it after the recall. This could have gone bad for me real quick since oil got all over my rear tire. Also who really knows what damage may have been done to the engine when oil started to spew out while under load and high RPM... What a disaster.


I circled areas were oil was dripping / collecting. Not sure where the oil is coming from. I already took the bike back to the shop that did the recall... Berts Mega Mall in Covina... just waiting for answers at this point.

Pics:













Not chicken strips... thats oil.
 
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#4 ·
hey , that looks like mine did after i put some oil in it and pinched the o-ring on the fill cap, when i pulled the cap it was actually missing about 1/8" of the o-ring
i couldnt believe how much oil splattered out of it in about 5miles
its worth a look, they had to refill the bike with oil when they were finished, i imagine one of the last things to do
glad it didnt go down
-i still wonder if the traction control saved my life when i saw all that oil on the tire- there was so much on my foot that i nearly slipped and dropped the bike when i stopped in my driveway
 
#9 ·
Ouch. Im glad mine is good so far. Ive put in about 1k miles since the recall and ive taken it to about 160 a few times and its good there.

Keep us posted and Im glad to see that nothing happened to you.
 
#13 ·
see, this is why so many of us were btchn, it wasnt that we were whining, it is because we all know this kind thing happens more often then it should and that this could be anyone of us as op. We all have had experience with useless techs tht are lazy bums too buzy copping attitudes then studying the service manual before doing their work. We all have had experience with dealership techs leaving with shoddy work, you add the complexity of a tranny recall and you end up pulling your hair out of your head worrying about what could happen.

Now for the few good professional techs out there, god bless you guys - you guys should get paid a lot of money and keep up the good work we all appreciate you more then you think

I lucked out, this recall was a disaster period, sorry to hear this story and sorry for the poor op,
good luck man
 
#14 ·
Got an update from the service advisor the other day, the oil was leaking from the right side of the oil cooler, some issue with an o-ring (or something). Not much more info than that. They are throwing in new brake pads, and cleaning up my rear tire, and offered free motorcycle delivery. Still haven't gotten it back yet because they had to order the brake pads, and get it shipped. I should get it tomorrow.

I could probably throw more of a tantrum, and push some buttons, but I know shit happens... nobody was hurt, so... I guess ill just put it behind me when I get my bike back. I don't mind if they have the bike a long time, its just more days to add to my possible lemon law claim (i think 30 days in the shop is the tipping point).

Now that I see the exhaust clamps a little out of place, maybe I should be a bit more worried about the state of my bike. Seems like a rush job.
 
#16 ·
I agree with OP 1000% about not trusting the machine, after seeing my motor(oil burner)slung on a bench like this I aquired an attorney and got my money back..

Sorry guys, but your bikes will never be the same and the resale value is null...
 

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#19 · (Edited)
Bart, check your private messages. Sorry for the late reply.

Also I wanted to update this topic. I am really upset over this recall...

After getting the oil leak I mention in the first post fixed, on my very first actual ride after, oil started leaking again!!! It got all over my right boot, and over my back tire again, luckily I caught it before it got on my rear brakes this time. The culprit? The dealer f**king forgot to put the o-ring back on the oil filler cap!!

I called the service advisor I usually work with at the dealer and told him what happened, and he arranged for me to pick up a free o-ring after hours (service department closes earlier than the parts store). So this incident didn't get documented anywhere (I doubt the service advisor documented this to save his tech's ass). But I just put the ring on my self, and cleaned up everything that was just cleaned from the last leak.

After that, all the leaks have stopped. However, my bike is running super hot now. I don't know why yet. Not sure I should take it in yet. I did notice they didn't bother to clean any oil off of the oil-cooler, and now grime and road dirt is stuck on the cooler fins, maybe reducing heat transfer.

Also, I went to install some custom rear turn signals, and while unbolting the seat (they didn't torque down), I found a bunch of other bolts on the plastic cover under the seat that wasn't torqued down either. Who knows what other bolts they just didn't bother to tighten at all... it scares me.

Then a few days later I decide to wash my bike really well for the first time after recall (I keep my bike garage kept) and I notice one of the two bolts directly under the oil cooler that not only holds the cowlings on, but also one of the main bolts that fastens the oil cooler is complete gone.... I don't know how I didn't notice it earlier. The dealer simply lost one of my bolts...............

This scares the crap out of me, and I don't trust my bike AT ALL anymore. I am tempted to strip the whole thing down and rebuild it myself to be sure they torqued everything. Add that to the fact they didn't even put the exhaust clamps on right (as another poster pointed out). WTF.

What can I do about this? Take it back to the same dealer and tell them to give me a free bolt. Its actually been a few weeks before I even noticed these things, they might just think I lost the bolt and want a free replacement. They wont believe me. Also, what do I tell them about the lose fasteners I found other places on the bike, should I request they rebuild and go over my bike?

Should I contact Yamaha and have them oversee this? Or just go to a lawyer? At this point, I am really considering selling my bike and just getting a 2016 model. But I will loose out on this deal, because the value is less. So I will end up paying for this mess.

I am really upset. I didn't want any of this mess when I bought my brand new bike... now I got a p.o.s. that I am afraid is going to fall apart on my on the freeway...
 
#20 ·
hi this happened to me with the high temp issue, well ill did the recall myself heres what happens, after refilling coolant i bled the water pump bleed screw, to my suprise i did not hear any air escape, so i started and let engine idle all of a sudden temp is up around 230, shut it down and thought what the frig, i then thougt try bleeding the water pump and sure enough , i heard the woosh of air escaping, what happend is air is in the water pump blades or vains and essentially the pump is spinning trapped air, no fluid is being moved. also make sure you refill the coolant reservoir because all of the cavities in the engine and passages get filled.
 
#21 ·
I just changed my coolant to engine ice yesterday. Bike only got up to 212 before it started to come back down. I couldn't believe it! The bleeder screw makes things very nice!
 
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