This is terrible service. A newish bike with a major mechanical breakdown should be a priority . I would be shouting , in a polite way, to Ducati by now.
I spoke to Ducati UK the other day and the super friendly Italian lady at the other end of the phone was shocked that I've been waiting nearly 5 weeks without much in the way of feedback so she's off to kick some ass. Spoke to Ian Murray motorcycles half an hour ago and they've finally managed to strip the bike and engine down. Feedback was practically non existent - he was more concerned about his overspent hours than providing me with any confidence that they understand the failure. All I got initially was "it's knackered" which pissed me right off. Probed a bit deeper to be told that it has fairly substantial top and bottom end damage including bent valves, a damaged crank etc. They then switched back to moaning that they have already spent too long on the bike and that they will only be paid for 1 day by Ducati UK. Didn't bother reminding them that that really isn't my problem as I want my bike back this year. Apparently they will be strongly pushing for a complete new engine as they can't afford to spend the time rebuilding this one with new parts. Overall, a pretty crappy response from a Ducati service shop so I'm heading down tomorrow to make my own assessment and just I've requested a quick conversation with one of Ducati UK's technical specialists to hear their opinion as to why it locked up and smashed itself to bits. Will post some pics tomorrow. TL;DR: 5 weeks in, Ian Murray have no idea why it failed and no idea how long it'll take to get it back on the road.
That's total shite service that,at least give you another bikes use,hope mine stays intact,may have to rebuild my trust bandit 12 as a backup just in case.
I agree with all the comments above about the shit service - maybe if you had one of their demo bikes they would pull their finger out to fix yours. What are Ducati UK saying about it? Remarkable how calm you seem!
There's no point stressing about these things. It doesn't make them go any faster... The weather up here is still pretty poop and my helmet liner is away being custom fitted in Ireland so it's not like I'd be riding the bike if I had it... Saying that, the weather is getting better and I should be able to put my new lid back together soon so it won't be long before this starts pissing me off allot more than it is now. Ducati UK are going to attempt to find me a bike and have agreed to get someone to speak to me about why the engine failed after so few miles. Beyond that, they've apologized for the length of time it's taking to sort and have assured me that they're on the case. Like I said, i'll be heading down to Edinburgh (from Aberdeen) tomorrow to have a proper look and will be able to have a better conversation with the garage then. Hopefully they are more accommodating face to face than they are over the phone!
Ducati were equally shocking in my case. Engine snapped a cam at about 7.5k miles and had a full rebuild, then snapped a crank about 11 months later at 26k miles. No explanation as to why. Got a sorry the first time, got told where to go the second time so had to get my money back from the finance company. If your bike is on finance, they can help A LOT! If you can demonstrate the bike is faulty, you can get them involved as it's their bike until you make last payment and it's up to them to ensure it's working. They paid for mine to be stripped and determined to be manufacturers defective parts. They paid off the finance and gave me back my deposit, over a year into the agreement. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If the damage is that severe I would decline anything other than a new engine personally, soinds like it's not salvagable anyway. The shop shouldn't have taken the job on if they had issues with the flat rate Ducati pay for it (which will always be in their favour).
I didn't get a say in the matter. When you look at the itemised bill for my first repair, it goes way over a new engine. Turns it they don't make or stock new engines and only deal in spare parts. Second time round they were trying to wriggle out of repair altogether. I really get the impression some of these Ducati main bearings aren't up to scratch. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've now seen my engine so I know how to failed. I just don't know why... The big end bearings have spun in their location and then picked up and chewed themselves down to about half their original thickness. The crank is pretty heavily scored at the bearing locations and a small spring came loose from the gear selector assy (presumably when the wheel locked). The bearing failure gave the pistons a load of rotational play which is why the knock sounded so horrific. On the plus side, the bike is definitely getting a new engine and apparently they have found one lying about at the factory so it should be over and ready to fit in the next few days (read: weeks). :tearsofjoy: Ian at Ian Murray has taken a heap of pics which i'll post up when he sends them through but in the meantime, here's the brunt of the damage.
At least they've found an engine for you, rebuilding that one would give you nothing but trouble. The noise is normally the piston top smacking the head..
Yeah, the pistons were definitely topping out which was making the typical knocking noise but the rattle the whole way through their stroke is what was making the bike sound like it was completely destroyed.
Would be interesting to see the pistons and cylinders, sounds like one has possibly partially seized in the bore causing the back wheel to lock up?. Normally when main bearings fail you can limp it to the side of the road (as long as the rod hasn't snapped!).
This model uses shell type main bearings not rollers like MTS, and they appear not to have failed, but the con rod shells have
Here's the rotational play on the first piston. It isn't hard to see why it sounded so horrible. The pistons didn't seize so to be honest, I'm not actually sure what locked the back wheel. Possibly the bearing picking up after spinning in location but who knows.
Bearings spun and locked the crank. That's the normal cause if a seized motor. Hopefully back on road ASAP.
My new engine arrived at Ian Murray Motorcycles yesterday so I should be able to go collect my bike on Saturday. :sunglasses:
