Rip off

[Clemski]

Hi ya,



The only extra was the front pads,





Cheers Clemski :P

[Jim S]

Ok, mine was in today. I put it to my local bike shop, not the Triumph dealer, unfortunately the bill wasn't ready so I'm going back at the weekend to pay so no clues there yet, but it'll be better than Triumph!



Both the owner and the mechanic spoke to me about the bike, they were not too impressed. Far too much work to get to the top end for valve clearance checking. 12,000 miles and no sign of wear at all. They reckoned it was the most awkward bike they have ever worked on, even the radiator was in the way!



Here's a question for the more technical, is it true when you remove the power from the battery, (this and the battery box had to be removed during the service) this will automatically light the EFI warning light on the dash, which I've been informed will cost over £80 to put off by a Triumph dealer? (they were informed this by Shirlaws Triumph Aberdeen)



The mechanic said he had connected a second battery to the terminals with wires to allow him to remove the original one. He said it took around six hours to change oil, oil filter, plugs, air filter and grease and check all moving parts, includung the calipers then check valve clearances. I reckon this will cost me between £200 and £250, better than Triumph main dealer but still a lot of money. I normally do these jobs myself but needed service history stamped. The bike shop know this but advised me not to service it myself next time round as there's a lot to go wrong, e.g. the battery becomes disconnected and costs a round trip of 150 miles to Aberdeen and £80 + VAT to get it resolved.



I was a mechanic a good few years back so have the knowledge and my Varadero wasn't a problem to service. I clock up a lot of miles as a commuter and usually around 12.000 miles a year so service costs are important to me. The Varadero service cost me around £50 for the parts. Compared to possibly £250? I'm feeling a bit dissappointed with Triumph tonight, sorry guys.

[greg]

The stuff about the battery is complete bollocks.

All you have to readjust is the clock! I have taken my battery off to put on another bike (Needed the extra oomph for my Thunderbird for cold starts in Bavaria mid January) then refitted it, absolutely no problems, have done this twice now. The only problem encountered was in resetting the clock, first time round I set it am when it was actually pm.

I sincerely hoped you are not going to be charged for the garages 'extra' time spent with all that mucking about!

[Jim S]

I'm going to speak to Shirlaws regarding this as it's something I've never heard of? But I've known the local shop for over 20yrs and I believe them if they say they're going on information received from a Triumph dealer. It was definitely Shirlaws as he said he had spoken to Mark, he's the guy who remapped my Tiger a couple of months ago.



As an older mechanic, I understand the workings of the things but the new electronics side is leaps and bounds ahead of me. I do know a guy in Aberdeen lost a warranty claim on a Daytona because engine failure was void due to the ECU showing he had exceeded 110mph during break in period. If you were told a customers bike you were working on would need resetting on the computer at £80 + VAT if you removed the battery would you do it?



I'll keep everyone updated. I've never disconnected the battery on my Tiger, has anyone with an 04 tried it? Would anyone like to try it?  :lol:

[greg]

Mine is an 04.

[iansoady]

Just fitted a new battery to mine & off for a ride later. I'll let you know whether the light comes on. That is if the battery has sorted it.......

[kevm]

One of the fault codes in the ECU is a low voltage.  Let your battery go flat and the MIL light may come on.  I can't see how disconnecting the battery would do it - the ECU is not powered when the ignition is off after all.



Even if the light does come on, after 3 heat cycles, as long as the fault that caused it is no longer present,  it'll go off.



A dealer can reset it but it's a literally 5 minute job and any dealer asking £80 to do it is a crook and you should complain to Triumph about them.  Update - I just disconnected/connected/started the battery on my 04 Tiger and the MIL does NOT come on.  Draw your own conclusions but someone is trying to rip you off.

[iansoady]

Just fitted a new battery to mine & off for a ride later. I'll let you know whether the light comes on. That is if the battery has sorted it.......

No the light went off as soon as I started it. That was after having the battery disconnected for about an hour.



Mind you, the fuel gauge / light have started misbehaving again (although not till I filled it with petrol). I'm sure there's something strange about UK fuel.

[Jim S]

ok, further to this, I've spoken to Triumph. When you remove the air filter you disconnect the air metering unit (density meter) this causes the ECU to show a fault code. Contrary to my last statement of £80 to put it out the mechanic said "don't tell the boss" but the light should go out after three heat cycles. I believe he means three runs with no issues and the ecu shrugs it off. I'll dig about more but think I need to start a new thread for this as I see it as a major issue with Triumph. The main dealer has told my bike shop they must return the bike to them to have the fault code removed at great expense. Going by the 10 miles on my speedo I reckon they just ran the bike three times with no error showing and put the light out This is a marketing ploy first introduced by BMW, the service light. You had to take Beemers to the dealer to have the service light put out. There was a box made available on the market to put these out eventually. Triumph have a similar policy to try and stop you doing home services I'll dig up some more and report my findings later in a new thread.

[iansoady]

ok, further to this, I've spoken to Triumph. When you remove the air filter you disconnect the air metering unit (density meter) this causes the ECU to show a fault code.

I can't see how this could possibly happen unless the bike was powered up at the time. I've disconnected and reconnected the multi plugs from the ECU several times (ignition off) with no problems. If you did this first, especially with the battery disconnected, there's no way the ECU could ever know the metering unit had been disconnected.



IMO this falls into the same category as the service manager from my Triumph dealer who told me the low fuel light had a different sensor to the fuel gauge - which a cursory look in the manual shows is absolute tosh. And it's yet another reason to do my/your own servicing. I know there are good dealers out there but it isn't easy to find them - and personnel changes often mean that what was a good dealer becomes an average or poor one.