[dsiegfried]

Hi,


Merry Christmas to everyone! I have posted before about my trials and tribulations and now I'm on my 2nd new machine. So yesterday afternoon I cleared snow from my driveway. Parked the kodi in the garage. Come out this am and do pre ride check and I find a oil spot under the vehicle. Now I am thinking W.T.F. Yamaha after going through all the B.S. with my other machine. I pull the center skid plate to find out where the oil is coming from. It seems to be leaking from the bolt that holds the hose clamp/hose hanger coming from the bottom of the water pump. It also looks like it is a bolt that holds the case together? Also is that hose just supposed to be loose? When I pulled the skid plate, there was a couple small drips of radiator fluid that came out of the hose. Oil level is normal.

Does anyone have any torque specs on those bolts? The heads are 8mm. I don't want to go cranking the crap out of them to see if it will stop the leak. If torquing it to spec doesn't stop the leak, does anyone have any suggestions before I go hauling this P.O.S. back into the dealership? Cracked block?? Hopefully not!! Only 6 miles on this one, the first one made it 9 miles before I had issues!!! Thanks!!

 

[JimP]

You are having all types of fun aren't you.....

If the bolt is a M8 the torque is 19 ftlb

If it is a M6 then it is 7.2 ftlb.

 

[dsiegfried]

I figured you would be the first to chime in! I saw the specs somewhere but I was trying to figure out which one was a M8 and M6? It looks like there are only a few of the M8 bolts. I just crawled under it a bit ago and it seems like the leak is coming from the bolt that holds the breather tube clip. I backed it out some and tightened it up again and we will see what it looks like in the A.M. I am beginning to think Yamaha and I don't get along. I would rather walk than buy a Can Am, but I might be walking if this machine doesn't straighten out!! I am about ready to put this machine in the bottom of Lake Granby.

 

[Nomad]

This is just further testament as to how bad your dealership is. All of your issues should have been caught and remedied during pre-delivery inspection by dealership.

 

[Primethious]

Your machine is so new it shouldn't be having issues like that.
On anyone else I would recommend taking it back to the dealership, but yours sounds completely incompetent.


Once a gasket leaks it needs to be replaced IMO.
The bolts on the bike are so lightly torqued that cleaning out the bolt holes, bolts, surfaces with brake cleaner is just good SOP. So is getting a new tiny click style torque wrench from Harbor Freight for about ten bucks.

When you put stuff back together use a drop of medium Loctite, and you'll never have to deal with them again.

 

[dsiegfried]

After a nice Christmas morning with my wife, I decided to go out in the garage and crawl under the machine. There were only a few tiny drips from the night before. I re-torqued the crank case bolts which actually felt fine. Fired it up and got it to running temp, went up and down the driveway a few times and pulled it back into the garage. It was still leaking. So I got it up on a jack so I could get a better look at it. There's actually is a fine hair line crack in the crank case! The leak that I was seeing the other day looked like it was coming from the bolt and collecting on the gasket seam, but that is just where it was pooling. I took my chalk line filler and puffed it where I thought the leak was. The oils is so new and clean I couldn't see it with the naked eye. You can see where the chalk slowly dripped away.

This one is all on Yamaha. Only 6 miles and 3hrs on it. I'm definitely not taking it back to the stealership I got it from and that joke of a service department. I am taking it to another Yamaha dealership for warranty work.

 

[Nomad]

Holy crap, you can't win man!

 

[Primethious]

So is that a 2018, or the new 2019?

 

[dsiegfried]

It's a 2018, just picked it up at the beginning of the month. I've spent more time working on "new" machines that actually riding and enjoying one!

 

[Den]

dsiegried, I bought my 16 from Vickery motorsports in Denver and haven't had a single issue with it so far. They seem to be reliable people to deal with and didn't double talk or BS about anything. I know you are quite a ways from Denver but I thought I would throw them out there as an option.

 

[TRW]

I will list my issues when I find them all, but I did notice that I have an oil leak where the drive shaft goes into the rear differential. I am not very concerned because while the seal is wet, it does not seem to actually leak. I also found my left brake lever lose, and saw the threads were stripped by the dealer or whoever puts those on. I ran a new bolt and put a nut on it. This was the top bolt. My 18 is 5 weeks old

 

[JimP]

I found that those threads on the brake handles were very weak and quite easy to strip.

When I put my grizzly handle bars on I found that out. It seamed that when the dealer put the winch control on their either stripped it or it started to strip and they put some kind of thread locking compound on it to fix their problem. When I went to tighten things up on the new bars it stripped completely but I was able to just go with a longer bolt on the winch mount.

I think that the problem is that there really is no real quality control anymore. But on my 16 base model the only real problem that I found after I brought it home was the rear brake light switch was stuck. I just pulled it out to where it would work but it appears that it is stuck again. I just need a warm day to fix it again.

 

[TRW]

It is hard to get good help and the real problem might have been because the bolt they used could have been longer and that likely would have prevented the issue. Soft threads need more surface area.

 

[dsiegfried]

Den, I looked at going to Vickery, but that is also close to 2hrs from my house. I took it to G-Force in Lakewood since that is only about an hr and 20 min. Hopefully Yamaha will step up and see that the machine is brand new and there's been no damage to it from impact. **** you can eat off of it since is is so clean. Next question will be is if G-force will do the work on it in the next 6 months ! (lol!) since I didn't buy it from there. I don't get it though, you buy a ford, chevy, toyo, etc, you take it to a dealer near you for service. I don't know why the motosport industry is weird about if you bought it from them? If I'm from out of state, am I supposed to drag it back to where I bought it from?

TRW, On my brake handle the threads go all the way through. I would assume it does on yours. I went to the hardware store and got longer ones because I didn't like the additional handlebar clip that came with my Warn kit. I set it up so I used a longer bolt. Apparently the " Yamaha" Warn kits from the factory use a similar set up for the winch control. I think the bolt is a M8 20 pitch? They probably used a cordless on it and stripped it. No way you could consciously hand tighten those to the point of stripping unless you were a complete a**hole. (or worked at the place I bought mine from!!!) I don't know if I wouldn't be too happy with a leak from the differential. Didn't you mention in another post that your rear brakes were damaged from sitting on the ground in the crate? You might have something going on with the drive line? Could it all be connected from the damage that you saw with the brakes? Idiots dropping it off the forklift when they put it together or something like that. Or I am also beginning to wonder if they had a bunch of 18' duds come out of the factory since I'm on my 2 one and the issues you are seeing.

Getting good help in my opinion is also a little due to owner's not wanting to pay their help crap. You get a good employee, take care of them!! 20 years ago, my boss wasn't paying me crap, so I thought if I am going to be poor and work my butt off, I might as well work for myself! She did me a favor because I opened my own business and it has been going strong for 20 yrs. If she would of taken care of me, I would of stayed and never had any interest in leaving. Instead I became a competitor and she is no longer in business! Unfortunately there is little to no work ethic or pride in your work with the younger generation. I'm not even that old and I say to myself WTF with some of the work I see.

 

[TRW]

I did exactly what you said, I did get a new longer bolt and did thread it in, but then I tightened it slowly while I threaded a nut on it. So I have some threads holding it and the nut on the outside. It should be good.

Yes the dust cover plates on the machine are bent from sitting on the ground or some surface before I got it. I intend to confront the dealer when I get these flaws figured out. I did buy the longest extra warranty I could get, so I am not to nervous. Quality control is not what it should be.

I am old, I had a 1964 Yamaha 80 motor cycle, my cousin sold my dad when he was sent to Vietnam. I took excellent care of it, and it lasted for years, it died shortly after I sold it because the new buyer forgot to mix the oil in the gas. That was made with quality control!

Glad you went to work for yourself, the world needs and needed quality businesses! And yes the young people can make far more than I ever did for mediocre work, nowadays.

 

[Den]

dsiegfried, any update on your Kodiak?

 

[dsiegfried]

I dropped it off to Gforce and they have submitted to Yamaha. Just waiting for Yamaha to them to give the go-ahead to do the work. Unfortunately we had 2 holidays that fell in the middle of the week, motorcycle dealership being closed on sun/mon so hopefully I will hear sometime next week what will happen. I was setting myself up to not have it back for 4-6wks so we shall see! I will update the post when I hear more!

 

[TRW]

Be sure to mention that you have 27,000 people following the link on the forum, just to give them a good attitude, and speed up the job a bit!

 

[dsiegfried]

LOL!! Heck I will be happy that they do a good job, and I have no more issues with my machine!! I might get to use it sometime....

 

[TRW]

All the Green Bay Packer fans are watching the link, we have nothing else to watch!