Luca, is correct. 10 years ago a friend mine picked up his 748 after a belt service by a quite well known main dealer in the the SW. On his journey home a belt let go and the result was around £1400 worth of damage. To make matters worse the main dealer thought it was acceptable to only fix the resulting destroyed top end if they were paid for the labour. Many on this forum will know which dealer I am talikng about as such behaviuor was not uncommon by them at that time. Barrels as well as a new head assembly required I have always suspected the most common reason for belt failures is not the belts themselves but the quality of the installation with incorrect tensioning.
Yep my last snapped belt was 2 valves (2V motor) and one valve guide. Lucky as it happened when accelerating to max to join m-way.
any component will deteriorate faster if its laid up, I'd want to change the belts on anything that's not tuned for that long. same goes for things like fork seal. ride the bike once a year and they will fail far quicker than a bike that's ridden once a month or more. Idle time kills vehicles faster than mileage. I'd rather buy a 20,000 mile two year old bike than a 2000 mile 20 year old bike.
this is also very true. Another reason I wont let anyone work on my bikes except me, or my mate who is an employee of triumph designs. I've never really had an unreliable bike, so touch wood, the system works.
I agree, just because its low miles, almost new etc you dont indeed know what the dealer or anyone else might have done to it. Its a pre existing condition and the dealers responsibility to fix. If they want to take it up under warranty with Ducati thats their issue. If you are in the RAC / AA they will advise on Pre existing. A friend of mine got a 10 year old toyota lucida replaced by his local supplying garage although he had had it for a few months when it ran dry of oil. RAC argued that it should have gotten to the next service regardless and was therefore Pre existing fault !
The issue with stale belts is that they take the shape. Then they are prone to jumping some teeth when used, not necessarily snap. Obviously the resulting strain on valve train then creates havoc on the belts and the rest. Ducati are well alright with warranty but there is a time or mileage servicing schedule. After 2 years regardless of mileage you should have had it serviced. Ducati could rightlyopposed this to you.
quick update. my local ducati dealer has the bike, it was indeed a snapped belt, it has been opened up and it needs all 4 valves, a new head and some cams i think he said, so basically the whole lot on one cylinder. eeep. on a plus note he sounds confident that ducati will if not pay for the whole job, will definately help cover a some of the costs. which i think is pretty decent of them to say the bike has no service history. will call back when i have more info.
Ouch!...Hope Ducati come up with goods, what about the dealer you bought it from, can you get them to pay the balance?
That's tough luck mate; sounds as if you should get it repaired at no cost by the dealer you bought from. It's worth remembering that even though the belts have only done 350 miles and they're less than 2 years old, if the bike's not being run regularly then the belts will go 'brittle'. The engine should be turned over once every 2 weeks if the bike is stored unused..... Good luck getting it sorted
Can't see too much of a problem here. You say (in post 29) that the bike was sold to you by the dealer with "remaining Ducati warranty" so surely if Ducati won't pay the whole lot the dealer has misrepresented the bike when selling it and you are entitled to a full refund or they pick up the bill for all necessary repairs?
