New bike, almost no oil

[m in sc]

I'm going to assume you never worked in a dealership? or shop?
Ive seen a tech forget to tighten lugnuts on a car, have the customer drive off. wheel come off, get in a wreck & trash the car. thats the customers fault for not checking the lugnuts? incorrect. Not how it works, sorry. last hand on it for service or prep is liable. How many motors has jiffy lube or the like had to replace because they have underfilled a car, as in zero, or put the wrong filter on, or forgotten to tighten a drain bolt? lots. Especially on a new vehicle they paid for prep on.

 

[Tex68w]

I'm going to assume you never worked in a dealership? or shop?
Ive seen a tech forget to tighten lugnuts on a car, have the customer drive off. wheel come off, get in a wreck & trash the car. thats the customers fault for not checking the lugnuts? incorrect. Not how it works, sorry. last hand on it for service or prep is liable. How many motors has jiffy lube or the like had to replace because they have underfilled a car, as in zero, or put the wrong filter on, or forgotten to tighten a drain bolt? lots. Especially on a new vehicle they paid for prep on.

I understand where he's coming from and while I don't agree in the grand scheme of things, at least in how it pertains to this particular issue, he isn't wrong. His approach is no different than for someone behind a gun or in command of a plane or vessel, at the end of the day it's the operators responsibility to verify and insure the proper working order of his vessel as PIC. That doesn't detach the ultimate liability from the one who last worked on it in the event of a failure, but it is simply yet another fail-safe in terms of checks and balances.

Dealerships are the worst and sadly those in make-ready are likely the greenest of the green and the lowest paid as it is seen as busy work not worthy of a well seasoned Master Tech. This is no different than getting minimum wage service for minimum wage pay, it's sad and unacceptable but often times the case. Be diligent, check your bike before taking it home or riding away from the dealer. While we shouldn't have to do this, it's too easy not to.

 

[KYtrailfan]

When I picked up my bike the manager personally took me back to the shop area and put the bike back up on a lift(after the service man had it ready), He showed me how to check the oil, remove the cowlings, open the gas tank, gauged the air in the tires, checked the chain tension, and gave me a free Honda T-shirt for out the door $4300. Couldn't ask for better. The kind of dealer that built the brand. Sounds like there are some that ought to be peddling Bud Light instead of Honda's.

 

[oldskool]

I understand where he's coming from and while I don't agree in the grand scheme of things, at least in how it pertains to this particular issue, he isn't wrong. His approach is no different than for someone behind a gun or in command of a plane or vessel, at the end of the day it's the operators responsibility to verify and insure the proper working order of his vessel as PIC. That doesn't detach the ultimate liability from the one who last worked on it in the event of a failure, but it is simply yet another fail-safe in terms of checks and balances.

Dealerships are the worst and sadly those in make-ready are likely the greenest of the green and the lowest paid as it is seen as busy work not worthy of a well seasoned Master Tech. This is no different than getting minimum wage service for minimum wage pay, it's sad and unacceptable but often times the case. Be diligent, check your bike before taking it home or riding away from the dealer. While we shouldn't have to do this, it's too easy not to.

And the owner is responsible for the mistakes of his employees just as the captain of a vessel will be held responsible for the actions of his crew. If he doesn't hire competent people or take time to train them properly the buck stops on him, as it well should. Is a person supposed to go through a 50 point check on the new truck he just paid for before he drives it home? Absurd....

 

[Tex68w]

And the owner is responsible for the mistakes of his employees just as the caption of a vessel will be held responsible for the actions of his crew. If he doesn't hire competent people or take time to train them properly the buck stops on him, as it well should. Is a person supposed to go through a 50 point check on the new truck he just paid for before he drives it home? Absurd....

I agree that it's absurd, but it's no longer the exception, it's becoming the norm. Don't shoot the messenger here, I just don't think that one should scream victim and get upset when the inevitable happens, hedge your bets and cover your own a$$. I always expect the worst and hope for the best, I am less disappointed when things don't go my way, that applies here.

 

[George]

I do not agree that the responsibility for driving a new vehicle is entirely on the driver. As a newly purchased vehicle, I have paid the inspection preparation fee. What is the difference between a motorcycle and a car?
It is unimaginable to ask a customer who does not understand mechanics and has never opened the hood. When buying a new car (motorcycle), he has to check the oil, brake cables, wheel bolts, glue on the windshield, and whether the airbag will explode. ......
Customers who go to restaurants to eat have to check whether the food is poisonous? Because it is the responsibility of an adult to eat safe food?
Sleeping in a new house purchased requiring the owner to climb on the roof to check if the roof is going to collapse (after paying for the inspection)?

where is the end

I pay for mechanical inspection because I'm not a mechanic.
You get paid to inspect mechanics because you are the mechanic.
It's that simple.

 

[m in sc]

magnuson-moss act & lemon laws, look them up.

 

[Tex68w]

I think those arguing against double checking the bike are missing the point. It's simply a fail safe to hopefully catch whether or not your bike is low on oil or if they possibly missed something else at make-ready. If you feel like you're too good to do something as basic and simple as checking a dip stick for proper oil levels then I personally wouldn't want to ride with you. No one is arguing the fact that you shouldn't "have to" double check the dealers work, we are simply saying that it's too easy not to, especially when it comes to the dependability of your brand new bike and possibly even your personal safety. If that's too much to consider then you probably shouldn't be riding in the first place, after all, you should be doing pre-ride routine checks like that on your bike every time you roll it out of the garage to ride.

 

[oldskool]

I think those arguing against double checking the bike are missing the point. It's simply a fail safe to hopefully catch whether or not your bike is low on oil or if they possibly missed something else at make-ready. If you feel like you're too good to do something as basic and simple as checking a dip stick for proper oil levels then I personally wouldn't want to ride with you. No one is arguing the fact that you shouldn't "have to" double check the dealers work, we are simply saying that it's too easy not to, especially when it comes to the dependability of your brand new bike and possibly even your personal safety. If that's too much to consider then you probably shouldn't be riding in the first place, after all, you should be doing pre-ride routine checks like that on your bike every time you roll it out of the garage to ride.

Nobody said anything about not checking your oil. You are missing the point. When you have paid someone $650 to put on the mirrors and check the oil it is not unreasonable expect that they actually checked the oil.

 

[Shoot870p]

When I picked up my bike the manager personally took me back to the shop area and put the bike back up on a lift(after the service man had it ready), He showed me how to check the oil, remove the cowlings, open the gas tank, gauged the air in the tires, checked the chain tension, and gave me a free Honda T-shirt for out the door $4300. Couldn't ask for better. The kind of dealer that built the brand. Sounds like there are some that ought to be peddling Bud Light instead of Honda's.

That’s a great manager! I would bet most would not invest the time to learn the specifics on a model they “may” only get 2 or 3 units of. Even the sales person on the floor that may specialize in certain models. That’s an awesome dealership.

 

[m in sc]

Back up here. It was a new motorcycle from the dealership, look at the context of the original statement. Before you go spouting off about how much better a motorcyclist, you are then anyone that disagrees with you, I would love to compare vehicle maintenance and care notes as most of my 14 bikes are in the 50 year old range, and all get ridden very regularly. today I was on a 56 year old bike commuting to work. guess what? didn't need to check the oil because I -know- it was serviced correctly, by me, a few mos & a couple of hundred miles ago. if there isn't a huge puddle under the bike, where would it go if it wasn't filled correctly? seriously? this was a failure both at the factory AND at the dealership. the reason to buy new is that you aren't inheriting past issues, its supposed to be perfect out the door, that's what we pay for when we buy new, and is absolutely the agreement.

for what its worth, i don't trust any dealerhip mechanic around here to even do assembly, and as I've stated here before, I get my new bikes untouched, thats the agreement i have with the dealerhip, current owner and the past one. But most people do not think the way I do NOR do they have the ability to make such a demand. The point is for those (majority of) people that want to buy one and just -go-. Hell, some new cars don't even have dipsticks in the transmission or motor any more. who's fault then would it be if it blew up on the way home from the dealership if it was out of oil?

 

[cyb3rbyte]

So I called my dealer today, and explained how I found it wasn't even touching the dipstick before I added some. He said that Honda (and the training video he watched while on the phone with me) instructs that you have to thread the dipstick all the way into the bike to read the oil level correctly.

I found this odd as the owners manual and service guide says not to thread it in. Gonna send this to my dealer and see what they can come up with.

 

[Backwoods]

When I was hired on to work as a mechanic at a Polaris dealership my mechanical knowledge was shade tree apprentice at best. They put me right on the setups for all the new stuff, watercraft and atv. The guy that had been there for about a year would look the bikes over after I setup, ask if I filled with oil, etc. He was busy all day fixing stuff that I had no clue on. just because they work the shop, don’t mean they a mechanic.

 

[NMCoyote]

I'm going to assume you never worked in a dealership? or shop?
Ive seen a tech forget to tighten lugnuts on a car, have the customer drive off. wheel come off, get in a wreck & trash the car. thats the customers fault for not checking the lugnuts? incorrect. Not how it works, sorry. last hand on it for service or prep is liable. How many motors has jiffy lube or the like had to replace because they have underfilled a car, as in zero, or put the wrong filter on, or forgotten to tighten a drain bolt? lots. Especially on a new vehicle they paid for prep on.

I disagree with you, no matter who did what to what ever, it is the responsibility of the operator to assure it's safe, and mechanically ready to run. You can't argue this point. So you buy gas for your airplane and want a full tank. They don't fill it up completely, but it's their responsibility so you don't check it, take off, run out of fuel and crash and die, who's fault is it that you're dead? Yeah, it may be their fault, for not filling the tank, but you're fucking dead now, how'd that work out for you? Just sayin!

 

[m in sc]

bad analogy, the maintenance crew actually IS responsible in a situation like that. I know that for a fact. But, that's also apples and oranges.

 

[dimag]

Hello! I get some oil on the tip on the dipstick only if I have the dipstick with white dot on it towards the front of the bike. All other attempts /directions dipstick is dry. I checked with zip tie - at least there was some oil in it.
Does anyone know more about the white dot on dipstick?

 

[NMCoyote]

How are you still responding? You just died in a plane crash! Doesn't matter who's fault it is.

 

[m in sc]

apparently not. sorry to disappoint

 

[AZ7000']

Agree to disagree??

 

[TrailSnot]

Hello! I get some oil on the tip on the dipstick only if I have the dipstick with white dot on it towards the front of the bike. All other attempts /directions dipstick is dry. I checked with zip tie - at least there was some oil in it.
Does anyone know more about the white dot on dipstick?

Can't speak to the dot, I saw it and ignored it. It isnt referenced in the owners manual that I saw. If you ran the bike, put it on the center stand and then checked oil a few mins later, with dipstick seated but not screwed in and the hashmarks were void of oil then the oil level is low.