Are Ducati taking us for numpties?
 

I know I'm moaning a bit, but it's supposed to good therapy isn't it?
I bought my first Ducati new at the start of 2004 and paid £9000 for the privilege. All was well until it was one week before the two year warranty ran out. It let me down and had to be recovered. This turned out to be the fuel pump relay. I've only done about 2500 miles this year but in July and August it would mysteriously cut out, but normally restart. In October it got worse and would stop every journey I made. I bought a new crank sensor which seemed to cure it. I used it to go to work 3 times and it then wouldn't start when I wanted to go home. It was flashing the fuel pump relay fault codes at me again. I ordered a new relay again and then noticed a had a screw in my back tyre- just to make things worse.
Yesterday just after I plugged the fuel pump relay in, I started it up and believe it or not after a couple of minutes running I noticed a small pool of water on the floor. I could not believe my luck, the radiator has decided to leak.
I took it to get it repaired today but the radiator man said it was aluminium and he might not manage a long term cure. So I decided to ring the dealers to get a price on a new one-just for in case. Would you believe how much a new one costs?
£900, yes that's right £900. To make matters worse when I collected the radiator the man said that there was about two inches of weld that were really bad quality and it had been filled with some sealant spread on the outside before it was painted to make up for the rubbish welding. Quality or what.
So, moan over, Ducati- unreliable and we have to pay ridiculous prices for their rubbish workmanship. I'm now taking deep breaths and thinking nice thoughts.

try a breakers for a replacement, should save some cash!

or try ebay
 

I know it gets some stick on here but i am sure i saw a rad on ebay the other day :-)

Just had a look on ebay, unfortunately nowt on at the moment, but it'll be worth my time to keep looking. I still can't beleive they're so much, new. Nightmare!

Wrong place to post but . . .
 

. . . that's why I sold the 999R and 916, cos things like that were bound to happen. . . eventually. Admittedly they could also happen to my Jap inline four ,(queue responses from Jap four owners) - but to date (many years) - none have, (queue many issues with my Jap fours hereafter). :)

This is what frightens me with Ducati. We all know of certain reliability issues regarding components that live in peril from being doused by a poorly routed coolant hose and other general electrical failings and we buy these bikes in the full knowledge that they MAY let us down.........BUT when an issue is discovered and the manufacturer doesn't either organise a recall OR take the appropriate steps when you have a warranty issue which exposes aspects of poor workmanship then IMHO that is just not good enough. Sort it out Ducati or shame on you!!!

we don't even know from the info above if Ducati are actually aware of any of this .....

also Ducati will not have fabricated the radiator, it would have been supplied like many other components, ready to fit, it will have been unwrapped, given a once over and fitted, all new and shiney, the guy fitting the rad won't have known the supplier had sent a poorly constructed rad, it would have looked like the other 100 or so on the pile ...

as bad as I feel for you
my 1st thought was why did you not take it back to the dealer at the first opportunity

I hate paying for stuff I can do myself basically. It's 11 months out of warranty and I was 35 miles from the dealer with no immediate means of getting there. I had planned on a rad specialist being able to resolder it for a few quid. He has done his best but is not sure if it will be okay long term.
I can accept that Ducati probably just buy the rads in but I feel that over £900 for a radiator is just trying to take us for a ride- so to speak!
This is the first bike I've owned for as long as 3 years and I planned on keeping it for much longer. But right now sense is telling me to get rid, as are all my workmates.

get the rad guy to document a report on the rad and the condtion he found it to be in, and the flaws in its initial construction and then contact Ducati UK, they may want to see the rad as well, but worth a shot ....