Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[HebrewHarley]

Upon return from an extended stay in America, I took my motorcycle for a journey. About 15 minutes from home as I accelerated from stopped, my bike started chugging. About thirty feet later I heard a loud click, and the motor stopped. OK so I try to push the bike to the side the road, but it is very heavy going up hill. I get some help and as we are pushing it I observe the bike has oil coming out of it. I get it towed to the Harley dealership and am told that there is a whole in the case.

How does this happen? Is it a common cvo ultra issue that I was unaware of? Because I have a US motorcycle there is no warranty in Israel so I am not sure what to do. My motorcycle has only 2000 KM on it and already seems very broken. I need advice on best way to handle this.

Shalom from Israel!

[grc]

Is this a bike you bought while in the USA and then had shipped back to Israel?  If it's a new bike that would still be covered by the manufacturer's warranty here in the US, I'd suggest contacting the corporate office in Milwaukee and ask them how to proceed.  The dealer in Israel could also do some checking for you through his channels, but I'd also suggest that you call H-D yourself.

What you described isn't a common thing.  It appears from your description that an internal part broke and caused the case to be cracked or broken.  Until the dealer starts tearing it down it's hard to say what happened.

Good luck.

Jerry

[sadunbar]

I get it towed to the Harley dealership and am told that there is a whole in the case.

Is it a common cvo ultra issue that I was unaware of?

Shalom from Israel!

A hole in the case of a Twin Cam motor would be an extremely uncommon occurrence.   Extraordinary uncommon, actually. 

I would be very interested in follow up information as this failure is further investigated.  I am curious as to what happened.

As Jerry (GRC) mentioned, I would follow up with your dealer or the MOCO itself with regards to warranty.  Hopefully this works out for you, as you seem to have experienced a bad run of luck lately.  Has your wife Naori recovered well from her unfortunate fall and broken leg while visiting Colorado? 

Best wishes and good luck with your motorcycle repair...

[DCFIREMANN]

WOW!!!!! If it wasn't for bad luck you would have no luck. Having the case broken is not good. You had some type of internal failure in that motor. This is a first for me twin cam motor. Please keep us posted.

How is your wife feeling?

Be Safe

THE DAWG

[Sarhan]

Unfortunately we are facing such attitude from most of the dealers in middle east, earlier I imported street glide from USA and it was under warranty according to the seller, later on I faced an issue with voltage regulator.

After visiting the deale they advised me that the bike is not under the local warranty Due it's imported bike, I have claim this to the middle east hub which is in Dubai and USA unfortunately no reply from them and I was totally ignored ...

Now specially in Bahrain and rest of Arabian gulf most of the bikers are focusing on Japanese and European bikes.

Sudunbar, good luck with your dealer

Sarhan

[Twolanerider]

Any idea if the hole was from some internal failure causing something to break through the engine cases or if it was from an external object hitting the cases and breaking from the outside.

I have never seen a Twin Cam engine fail so catastrophically that something broke through the cases from the inside.  I have seen a small number over the years that struck something that then broke the cases from the outside.  Sadly that is perhaps the more likely option.  One potential positive that could come from this being the cause is that such an incident is likely covered by your personal vehicle insurance.

[HebrewHarley]

Is this a bike you bought while in the USA and then had shipped back to Israel?  If it's a new bike that would still be covered by the manufacturer's warranty here in the US, I'd suggest contacting the corporate office in Milwaukee and ask them how to proceed.  The dealer in Israel could also do some checking for you through his channels, but I'd also suggest that you call H-D yourself.

What you described isn't a common thing.  It appears from your description that an internal part broke and caused the case to be cracked or broken.  Until the dealer starts tearing it down it's hard to say what happened.

Good luck.

Jerry

Thank you for your words of assistance. This is regarding the bike bought in the US and then shipped to Israel. Because the bike has been exported, it has no warranty. No warranty in Israel, and as I have been told, no warranty stateside, even if I shipped it back for repair. Once a bike has left the country, the warranty is over.

I will contact the HD Central Office, but I am not optimistic that this is going to be an easy repair to arrange through warranty.

[HebrewHarley]

A hole in the case of a Twin Cam motor would be an extremely uncommon occurrence.   Extraordinary uncommon, actually. 

I would be very interested in follow up information as this failure is further investigated.  I am curious as to what happened.

As Jerry (GRC) mentioned, I would follow up with your dealer or the MOCO itself with regards to warranty.  Hopefully this works out for you, as you seem to have experienced a bad run of luck lately.  Has your wife Naori recovered well from her unfortunate fall and broken leg while visiting Colorado? 

Best wishes and good luck with your motorcycle repair...

We appreciate your polite words about Naori. She has not healed fully, but she became well enough to travel back home the other week. We are now back in Israel as she heals and we reassemble our lives for a few more months until she is totally healed.

[HebrewHarley]

Any idea if the hole was from some internal failure causing something to break through the engine cases or if it was from an external object hitting the cases and breaking from the outside.

I have never seen a Twin Cam engine fail so catastrophically that something broke through the cases from the inside.  I have seen a small number over the years that struck something that then broke the cases from the outside.  Sadly that is perhaps the more likely option.  One potential positive that could come from this being the cause is that such an incident is likely covered by your personal vehicle insurance.

My best assumption is that the hole was from an internal failure. You see, I was stopped, and when I accelerated, increased RPMs, that is when the trouble began. There is no sign of hitting anything externally causing this failure.

I am not mechanical, but my dealer has said that he found evidence of at least one bent rod, which he feels is the cause of the hole in the case. Does that make some sense? How does a rod bend?

Sadly, I am not too sure that a hole in the case will be covered by insurance here in Israel.

[Road Dad]

Well if the bike leave the country, but keeps the original countries registration and license plate, with the intention to get back to the original country then the warranty will be valid in any country.

If the bike is on the other hand exported as what the branch call "grey market" and the plates / registration changed to another country then the warranty is not valid.

This is common by most manufacturers to prevent grey market import - one global price.

If it's the later in your case you will most likely have to pay for the repair. Sorry, that's sucks I know.

[HebrewHarley]

Well if the bike leave the country, but keeps the original countries registration and license plate, with the intention to get back to the original country then the warranty will be valid in any country.

If the bike is on the other hand exported as what the branch call "grey market" and the plates / registration changed to another country then the warranty is not valid.

This is common by most manufacturers to prevent grey market import - one global price.

If it's the later in your case you will most likely have to pay for the repair. Sorry, that's sucks I know.

Thank you for taking the time to write. I had to register the motorcycle in Israel, as it is the law.

For me, I am very fortunate that I can repair the bike at whatever price it may be. However, I am of the opinion that a mechanical failure at 2000 KM is unacceptable. This is supposed to be a premium version, and premium motorcycles should not fail when brand new in a catastrophic way. I can not be the only one this has happened to, could I?

[grc]

While H-D can legally weasel out of taking care of this, they should handle it as a customer goodwill adjustment if nothing else.  I guess we will see if H-D is that wonderful bunch of fine folks that some on this site try to make them out to be, and not just the money grubbing azzholes many of us know them to be from personal experience.

HebrewHarley, even if you are sure they won't honor the warranty, I would still suggest you contact them and plead  your case.  It would be a drop in the proverbial bucket to them if they just shipped a new engine to that dealership for your bike (with the correct VIN).  If they want to punish you for exporting the bike, then offer to pay the remove and replace labor to the dealer if Harley will supply the engine.

Just a thought.

Jerry

[CVOStreetglide]

My best assumption is that the hole was from an internal failure. You see, I was stopped, and when I accelerated, increased RPMs, that is when the trouble began. There is no sign of hitting anything externally causing this failure.

I am not mechanical, but my dealer has said that he found evidence of at least one bent rod, which he feels is the cause of the hole in the case. Does that make some sense? How does a rod bend?

Sadly, I am not too sure that a hole in the case will be covered by insurance here in Israel.

I suggest you move on to Plan "B" and "C".

Option 1. See if the dealer will ship your motor back to the Harley engine manufacturing area.

They can do a rebuild at possibly a reasonable price.  Warranty is provided in the US but your local dealer would have to see if it would apply.

Option 2. Get your dealer to order you a new motor  $5-6k US.  It would come with a warranty.

Yes I know you could have the dealer split the cases and go through all of the parts to save the good from the bad and build you a new motor by replacing only what they see a damaged. But the cost would be real close to buying a new motor.

Best of luck in your decision.

Jerry
 

[SDCVO]

Very unfortunate but sounds like a appropriate TIME TO UPGRADE THE MOTOR...

[HebrewHarley]

HebrewHarley, even if you are sure they won't honor the warranty, I would still suggest you contact them and plead  your case.  It would be a drop in the proverbial bucket to them if they just shipped a new engine to that dealership for your bike (with the correct VIN).  If they want to punish you for exporting the bike, then offer to pay the remove and replace labor to the dealer if Harley will supply the engine.

Absolutely I plan to contact and plead my case! And I will work with them, including me cover SOME of the cost, and still would be a happy customer. However, if they deny any warranty on a bike with 2000 KM, which is 1200 miles, that is only a few months old, and completely stock, I will be very sad and put off by the brand.