Print

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

[brassspike]

I am posting here because this involves both brakes and tires. I was at the dealer yesterday. My front brake rotors are warped and the front tire is cupped. Dealer called Harley and they would not warrant the tire and said it must be underinflated. Dealer checked it at 42psi. They told the dealer that the rotors would not be replaced unless there was more than .008 runout. One was .011 and the other was .008 sooo they will not replace the .008! On a bike that cost this much! As for the tire, the bike was aligned because of pulling left, so I figure that could be the tire problem.
My question is this; Since some of you are getting warranty on the same things, How/What are you using to get Harley to fix their product? I'll be calling customer relations Tuesday and would like to have some good argument and facts to get this fixed and I think that others would benefit as well.
Thanks, Bill

[UFO_HOG]

I am posting here because this involves both brakes and tires. I was at the dealer yesterday. My front brake rotors are warped and the front tire is cupped. Dealer called Harley and they would not warrant the tire and said it must be underinflated. Dealer checked it at 42psi. They told the dealer that the rotors would not be replaced unless there was more than .008 runout. One was .011 and the other was .008 sooo they will not replace the .008! On a bike that cost this much! As for the tire, the bike was aligned because of pulling left, so I figure that could be the tire problem.
My question is this; Since some of you are getting warranty on the same things, How/What are you using to get Harley to fix their product? I'll be calling customer relations Tuesday and would like to have some good argument and facts to get this fixed and I think that others would benefit as well.
Thanks, Bill

I can't tell by your avatar what bike you are riding, but if you have an 09 with the Dunlap D407 tire, they should warranty that tire for the cupping problem. How do I know, I just got home from having mine done under warranty, the new tire is now a D408F. I ride an 09 SERG. They also just replaced my buddies tire on is SEUC for the same thing. Don't let them get away with the tire pressure BS. That tire has issues and they (HD) received a bulletin telling them that a new design tire was coming on later 09 bikes.

Hope all this helps.......

[grc]

I am posting here because this involves both brakes and tires. I was at the dealer yesterday. My front brake rotors are warped and the front tire is cupped. Dealer called Harley and they would not warrant the tire and said it must be underinflated. Dealer checked it at 42psi. They told the dealer that the rotors would not be replaced unless there was more than .008 runout. One was .011 and the other was .008 sooo they will not replace the .008! On a bike that cost this much! As for the tire, the bike was aligned because of pulling left, so I figure that could be the tire problem.
My question is this; Since some of you are getting warranty on the same things, How/What are you using to get Harley to fix their product? I'll be calling customer relations Tuesday and would like to have some good argument and facts to get this fixed and I think that others would benefit as well.
Thanks, Bill

Bill, if you look through or search the threads in the SERK section you will find many others have reported brake rotor issues and tire cupping issues.  No matter what your dealer and/or the MoCo may be saying, these are not rare problems that they don't know anything about.

H-D has found a new way to "fix" defective parts, and that is to change the specs until the majority of the parts are deemed acceptable.  They did it with crankshaft runout, and obviously they have done the same thing with rotor runout.  The industry standard for max runout in the auto industry is .002".  I wonder what Harley knows that the big boys don't about proper brake dynamics?  I bet they don't know chit, but then they also don't care.  Folks on the receiving end of the Harley Customer Disservice policies need to remember all this crap when it comes time to buy their next accessories or new bikes.

BTW, have your dealer check runout on the actual wheel hubs where the rotors mount.  There have been issues with wheels that will cause excessive runout no matter how good the actual rotors might be.  Some wheels were reported to be so poorly machined that they also caused vibrations and tire cupping along with the brake shudder.

Good luck.  All I can suggest is to document everything, and keep escalating the complaints up the corporate ladder.  Don't accept what the dealer tells you, what the dealer tells you that Harley told them, or what the person on the customer disservice desk reads to you from his computer script.  Find a manager at H-D to talk to, and if he/she won't help, buck it up to the next level.  Become the squeaky wheel and then invite the MoCo to apply the grease (fix it or replace it).

Jerry

[brassspike]

Thanks, UFO and Jerry. I appreciate your replies. Tuesday will tell. I love the part where no one at the dealer knows about the problems. You'd think they would be beyond all of that by now. I'm hoping that someone will reply that has had to call them and can tell me what they are going to use as an excuse. Just would like to know how they will handle the conversation and what it took to get them to have the dealer do the fix.

[Gecko]

Ride up and down the street with the brake on until the rotors are REALLY hot, then hit them with water; you might find they are just a skosh out of spec then.