Dealer Service/ Tach problem 03 Busa

[busabrent]

Delivery day 03 Ann.Edition Tachometer not working at all.

Told dealer to keep bike until it's fixed. After I called 3 hours later they said come get it. Was a loose wire.(BS) I was'nt buying the loose wire bit??

On the way home tach jumping all over and eratic. Brought back to dealer. Come get it they said it was a bent pin connector and they went through all the wiring. Tach works but reads 12k when going 30mph in 3rd.STILL NOT FIXED!! Rode all last season with a screwed up tach.

Last week I bring it in again only to hear that it needs a dash circuit board but its back ordered with no est for arrival. Then 4 days later they have the dash.WHATS UP?

I had the bike apart for some mods so I picked up the dash and exchanged them for mine and installed the part myself.Free part of course under warranty. Tach now not working at all. I call the dealer he wants to order another dash cluster.

I then wiggle the connector in back of the dash cluster while running to find I can get the Tach to work bu moving wires around. Needs a new wire harness maybe pinched wire. I call the service manager to tell him this and he says he does'nt want to replace the whole harness.

Bring it in and he will try replacing the pins in the connector.

So basically i had to diagnose my own problem to get anywhere. Why could they not figure this out?

Sucks when you have to do warranty work on your own bike and some mechanic will get paid from Suzuki to close the repair order for the warranty and they did nothing.

Gonna talk to the owner tomorrow and see about getting harness.

Anybody have any ideas or experience this tach problem before??

 

[BA BUSA]

Call Suzuki customer service and see what they say.

 

[NearDeath]

I hate having any buddy work on my bike if I don't know them personally... They will never treat your stuff like its their stuff... If they did, it would have been fixed by now and they would have looked more closely...

Cloud

 

[mzrsq]

They don't want to offer up a harness cause they'd be looking at a major amount of work to replace the entire wiring harness. I don't believe there's any shortcut to just replace the speedo cluster plug.

 

[HeliBusa]

I can't offer any specific help dealing with Suzuki from a warranty perspective, but when I first started reading your post I was thinking about your connector.

Aside from working on my own motorcycles, I am a certified aircraft mechanic with most of my experience is on helicopters and heavy jets.  One thing that is VERY common in aircraft that would carry over to your bike, is the pinned connectors.

Chances are that your wiring harness is fine, but that one or more pins where the wires go into the connector, are either improperly attached or one or more of the pins are not seating properly.

Since your goal is to have your bike running properly and you are mechanically inclined, before bringing it back to the dealer, I would recommend disconnecting the connector from the dash, check all the wires right where they go into the connector.  Then thoroughly clean both the male and female portion of the connector with an electronic cleaner spray.  Don't be shy about how much you spray on.  When spraying the connector attached to the wiring harness, spray the connector at the mating surface and from the wiring harness side toward the mating part of the connector.

We have found that even with brand new components (like your new dash) that the surfaces of the connector can look fine but still have contamination that can either increase resistance or provide a full or partial open condition in the connector.

One other point to keep in mind, a lot of mechanics, regardless of what they work on, tend to be weak in the areas of electrical systems.  Most dealers will have one or two people who are strong in that area and those guys get most of the electrical troubleshooting jobs.

Hope this helps,

John

 

[ike]

As a tech for dealers over 20 years I know for a fact good tech's are hard to find. Most dealers are lucky to have any good tech's that could really diagnose and not just hit or miss on your dime or the manufactures.

 

[ike]

When I think of all the people that get taken very badly it pisses me off. I see it everyday. My dealer will screw you everytime.

 

[Johnnycheese]

you will not get a harness under warranty, you will get the repair of the bad wire.

 

[busabrent]

Went to the dealer today and he did'nt have the connector pins for inside the connector. I plugged in the new dash cluster and no tach at all.

Moved the connector plug around where it plugs into the back of the dash and can get the tach to work fine if i wiggle the black wire with the green stripe.

I singled that wire out by opening up the tape so I could seperate the wires and wiggle them one by one to see where the problem is.

Took all the pins out one by one and all look good and seat tight.

It is driving me nuts. I called the dealer to tell him what i found and he says maybe he can get the plug in connector seperate from the harness?

Bottom line is I wanted him to order the damn harness and we would use what we need. This is the second year i'm putting up with this.


I NEED THE PLUG FOR THE BACK OF THE DASH

Anybody have a harness around? let me know. I'll splice it in and replace the whole connector and solder and shrink wrap then tape wires and it should hold up fine.

PM me if you have a plug for me with about 6 inches of the wires also.

 

[ike]

I've found wires that were broken inside.Rare but it could happen. If the crimp and pin drag is good and you are sure that is the wire thats causing your problem ohm that circuit out from end to end to make absolute that that wire is the problem. If it is, do whats easiest. You sound like you know what you are doing. I'm just tryin to help. good luck bro.

 

[The Big Red One]

When I think of all the people that get taken very badly it pisses me off. I see it everyday. My dealer will screw you everytime.

For the most part unless your extremely lucky and find someone who actaully cares about their work, you can count on lousy service whether its your bike, car, house, dishwasher ect getting worked on. Pride in workmanship died with the last generation....people nowadays don't feel they're getting paid enough to care. If you truly want something done right....especially on your bike, you're gonna have to start doing more of you own work or at LEAST learn enough to know when you're getting bs'd...nothings better than diagnosing the prob yourself....removing all the plastic and other stuff they can/will damage BEFORE you take it to them....and saying "this seems to be the issue here....can we get this fixed?" In a perfect world shops would do their job.....but as you know this worlds pretty far from perfect

 

[Glamisman]

What you will probobly find is that the connector is attached to the insulation and the wire is broken right at the connector. It is not a difficult job, just a thankless one.

 

[busabrent]

I would gladly go through each wire that the connector holds and cut each back and install new pins and reinstall them into the connector.

If only I had the pins to do so. Pins and a new connector would be great. Suzuki doesnt offer the parts seperate.

I told the dealer to order the harness and i'll take it and use the new connector.They said they will look into it?

?

?

They guesses at the almost $500.00 dash cluster why not get me the harness $375.00 WARRANTY SUZUKI

I checked radio shack for the pins but no luck

 

[ike]

I had big trouble with warranty from suzuki. I love there bikes but there warranty sux. I never didn't have trouble with them and that was at 2 different dealers. In febuary my starter gear assembly took a dump (gears blew apart) . Suzuki said no problem, fully covered, bring it to any dealer,ok so i did. When it was time to get my bike the dealer gave me a bill for$200. I said hell no. They said suzuki wouldn't pay the extra time they took for the repair. I said "I don't give a fug it aint my problem you guys went over the alotted time (srt)." They said take it up with suzuki. so I did. Fuggin suzuki said "thats between you and the dealer" I said FUG YOU I AINT PAYIN IT, I have a contract right here that says no out of pocket expense for parts and labor. period.
I also let them know what I do for a living and that what they said was BS. In short, I had to call suzuki about 4 times till I finally got them to make the dealer release my bike. And to top it off they stole something from my bike that was of personal value.
I went fuggin nuts. They will never see me again AND I'M SURE THEY DON'T WANT TO.

 

[ike]

PS. I talked to my boss who is the service manager for my dealer and told him what they were trying to do. He said, " Yeah, don't pay it , they're trying to double dip, we do it all the time till either we give in or the customer". Now aint that some ####!

 

[Glamisman]

I thought about your warranty problem overnight and asked myself if this was me, what would I do... it is a drawn out process but you WILL get your bike fixed the way you want to.

I noticed that you live in New York State. The State of New York is one of the most consumer friendly states there is when it comes to big business versus the consumer.

I am assuming the bike is still under warranty and that you have kept all of the R/O's (repair orders) for all service both warranty and customer pay. If not, you will need to get them or copies from the dealership. Paperwork is the most important thing here.

Do some research on small claims court in the jurisdiction of the dealer where the bike was/is serviced. This sounds harder than it is, Nolo Press (a publishing company) is a great place to start.

Do not get mad or abusive at the dealership with any of the personel. Bring the bike back and file another warranty claim and keep the paperwork. When they tell you the bike is fixed, pick it up and if it still is not repaired, wait 1 day and return it for repairs, get NEW paperwork and when you leave the service deartment ask to see the owner of the dealership, if he/she is not there, ask to make an appointment and if they want to know why tell them it is a matter of a problem with the service department. Dont take a phone interview if at all possible. If a phone interview is all that they will give you, be prepared to take notes on who it is you are talking to, his position at the dealership and contact information, phone number, mailing address, etc. Be prepared to say exactly how you will be satisified, you want either a NEW harness and/or a speedo assembly. Immediatly after the conversation, write down who said what to who, date it and put this in a formal letter of confirmation of conversation and keep a copy for yourself and send a copy to the person you were talking to and to Suzuki customer service. Send the letters Registerd - Return Receipt Requested... this way you have proof that they received your letter. Now comes the fun part.

Either they will ignore you or fix your bike. If they ignore you, follow the proceedures for the small claims court in the jurisdiction of the dealership. Name the owner of the dealership as the defendant and Suzuki of America as the Co-defendant, this is small claims court, NO lawyers allowed, either for you, the dealership or Suzuki. The proceedure in court is simple, you tell your side, they tell theres. Usually in a manufacter/dealership versus consumer, the consumer wins. If you are financing your bike bring that paperwork with you as well as a copy of the warranty agreement. The Judge is usually an temporary sit in Judge, that is an attorney who wants to be a Judge but isnt yet.
Phrases like "Specific Performance" ( contract talk for do what you agreed to do warranty wise) and "Warranty of Merchantability" ( you cant sell an item that dosnt work ) usually let the Judge know that you have some knowledge of the law, but you will have to let the situation dictate when and if to use them.
I have used the small claims court 3 times and have gotten satisfaction all three times, on the last one, the interest incurred on the judgement was more that the inital amount that I was asking for... that guy was a real idiot.

Sorry for the long post ...



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[busabrent]

Thanks for the input, all is appreciated. Here is the thing. I have no record from day one on delivery there was no work order. Then when I brought it back the second time aa repair order was generated and kept open while they tried to fix it.
I installed the new dash cluster and I have the old one now also. The dealer service manager let me take it to try to find connector pins from Radio Shack on my own.Tried the old one and it works fine also when I play with the wire harness and hold the wires and connector that go into the bak of the dash so the dash cluster was fine to begin with.

I am going to see the owner Monday and see where it gets me. I do alot of business there he knows me by name since I'm always in for parts for street and dirt bikes.

I'll keep ya informed.

I bought the extended warranty also. Maybe I should take it to another dealer since Suzuki probably has no record yet of warranty work being completed and see what another dealer would find to fix my problem??

 

[HeliBusa]

BusaBrent,

Based on what you wrote about finding the one wire that you could move and get the tack to work, I would STRONGLY advise you not to cutting off the existing connector and then splicing a new one on. If you do that you will open yourself to TONS of potential problems down the road.

As was written above, the problem is most likely either a broken wire on the black wire, or even more likely it was crimped onto a portion of the insulation.

It seems highly unlikely that they can not get a pin to replace on that one wire. If that really is the case and your only option is in using a new harness, I would make them replace the whole harness with NO splicing anywhere in it. You have a lot of wires in that harness that are carrying variable loads and splicing can effect resistance and continuity, not to mention the potential corrosion problems.

 

[busabrent]

Now the service manager is afraid to just order a harness. He says they really need the bike back in the shop.

I told him I will bring it in and I want the repair order closed for the dash replacement and start a new order with the same complaint before anything.

Then I want to know exactly what was repaired and how because I will pull it apart just to inspect the work as soon as I get the bike home.

All the guessing games they did and now they want to finally get technical and diagnose it the right way.

Could have done that last year and we would'nt be doing this now!!

Thanks guys, just blowing off steam.

 

[busabrent]

Yep, I was thinking about that also Heli. If it comes to it I think I will fight for a all new harness.

Damn, they are a dealer and should not be afraid of installing a wire harness. I dont care if it takes them a week to do, I just want the bike fixed so I can enjoy it and stop taking it apart all the time.

Thanks.