Bike warranty and the credit card

Hi all,

Just looking for some quick advice from anyone who's ever had to claim
on a second-hand bike warranty.

I bought a 2002 CBR600F in late July. My receipt shows a 12 month
warranty and I paid the difference between the part-ex on my old bike
and the price of the new bike on a Mastercard credit card (Lloyds
TSB). I've done about 3000 miles since buying the bike.

Lately, I've had some problems with changing gears and took it into
Chiswick Honda to get looked at today. They reckon that there are
internal issues in the gearbox and I'm looking at around 1500 quid to
get it sorted.

The dealer I bought the bike from says that because I've had work done
on the bike elsewhere (new chain and sprockets, and idle adjusted) the
warranty is no longer valid. His primary claim is around the chain as
this is part of the drive system.

Do I have a leg to stand on here, and will the fact that I bought the
bike on a credit card be of any use?

Or should I just give Honda the money and hope that nothing else goes
wrong with the bike ?

 

Tell the dealer to FRO, unless he has been told this by the warranty
company, and that I really doubt, as chain adjustment is routine
maintenance.

Important question: is this a dealer's own warranty, or is it an
aftermarket one? Do you have any paperwork? You should have,
especially if it's an aftermarket one.

Yes. Contact the CC company *now*. Their liability is the same as the
dealer's.

Absolutely not.

What's the problem? Getting from first to second? Jumping out of
second? If anything goes wrong with a CBR6 gearbox, that's the usual
one.

 

Dealers love aftermarket warranties, because the margins are so high
(typically, 100%) and because it's one 'accessory' that they don't
actually have to buy before they re-sell it.

They just sign up the punter, take half the cost for themselves, and
send off the paperwork. Great cashflow.

And as you say, some have really appalling terms.

In this instance, I'd have a crack under the SOGA, but a lot would
depend on how many miles the bike has actually covered. A few thousand
miles in four months: claim. 20,000 miles? Probably not. 10,000 miles:
tricky.

 

Presumably the issue is whether or not the particular damage to the
gearbox could have been caused by an over-tight chain.

 

From the original post :-
"I've done about 3000 miles since buying the bike"

 

Well, it was a new chain and sprockets, so not an adjustment.

I believe it was the dealer's own warranty, not a 3rd party one. I
didn't pay anything for it as part of the transaction. I'll double
check the paperwork when I get home this evening.

Mainly it's klunky as hell most of the time, and I'm struggling from
1st to second and also from 3rd down to second.

Thanks for the advice - I'll post the results here

 

Yes, which is why I asked what the problem was.

 

Doh

 

Remember that the fact that you didn't put all, only some, of the
price on the CC does not mean that the CC company isn't liable under
the CCA. It is.

Who fitted the chain and sprox? From your description, it isn't a case
of a chain that's too tight as that usually kills the output shaft
bearing, behind the sprocket. Yours sounds like a plain vanilla CBR600
second gear gremlin.

 

Ah - that was one of my big worries. Because we only used the CC for
the difference. That's a relief at least.

Chain and sprockets were fitted by Essential Rubber in London about 5
weeks after I got the bike - I got the bike knowing that it needed a
new chain.

What's normally the cause of the second gear gremlin on a CBR600 ?

I've got the bike booked in a van up to the dealer tomorrow so we'll
see what he says when it arrives there. Hopefully I'll be able to get
an answer quickly and know where I stand.

Regards,

 

As long as it was over £100, you're OK.

Heavy-footed gear changing, usually, plus a tendency to pull too many
wheelies....

They're incredibly tough bikes, but if they have an Achilles heel,
it's second gear. The other is the camchain tensioner (dead easy fix).
And, of the electrics, I suppose, the regulator/rectifier (ditto).

What usually happens with second is that it can be a pig to get into
from first, or it jumps out of gear under acceleration, or both. And
yes, it can quite easily cost £1500 to fix if several components need
replacing. If I were in the position of having to pay for it myself,
I'd be hunting out another engine (assuming it's OK, of course).

 

The heavy footed gear changing might be part of the issue. Although,
I'm always careful about clutch all the way in, change, clutch out.

The problem with hunting out another engine is having it fitted. By
the time I've paid labour and the engine, I figure I'll be close to
what I would have had to pay as the difference for a part exchange on
a different bike.

This thing is becoming a money pit

 

In communiqué

DIY. An engine out isn't that big a deal on many bikes, other than
needing a bit of help with the weight. A faff with the bodywork and care
is needed with sensor connections and the like, but your time is free
(unless self employed naturally).

Opening up crankcases and gearboxes is another bowl of rice altogether.


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It doesn't work like that, unfortunately. A friend had a similar
problem on his ZX9R recently. I told him to break the bike, or out it
with the fault disclosed, because it was going to cost a fortune. He
said his local dealer was going to do it for a special rate -
something like £800-850 all in, IIRC. I said I was *sure* it would
come in higher than that.

You hardly ever end up replacing just the offending cogs. There's
invariably damage done to other things, like the shafts themselves or
(especially) the selector forks. Then there's oil seals, gaskets,
coolant, oil, odds and sods that you'd be stupid not to replace while
the thing is apart, and God knows what else.

In his case, I think it came to just under £1400 in the end, and he
admitted that had he known it was going to be that pricey, he'd have
done as I originally suggested.

It *always* costs more than you think it will.

 

DIY

 

That's easier when you have access to a garage.

Lack of a garage is the one thing that sucks about living in London -
I can't and probably never will be able to afford a place with one.
This hurts for DIY work, insurance, lifespan of the bike, the lot.

 

Crikey. How poor are you?

 

Even Bangladeshis have houses with garages FFS