Suppose it had to break ..2nd update....
 

Ah well,
as the titles suggests the dark one broke down today.
Bike had just been for service and not ridden since.

So basically had ridden about 100 miles, bike suddenly locked the back wheel up on the brakes, and felt like it locked under engine braking. Any pulled over to the side of the road. Bike had stalled, fired her back up and it stalled again. Tried again and a huuuuuuge cloud of smoke from the exhaust and then from the left hand side of the engine.
I limped over to a nearby macdonalds car park and left it for a bit hoping it was like a spontaneous mis fire of the like, but the clouds of smoke kept coming so mr aa man had to come get me.

As i say the bike had just been serviced and i'd not done any miles on it till now since, does any body have nay idea what i could have been? Gasket? Valve?

It was a 1 yr service at 5k miles with valves done.

There does appear to be some oil sprayed toward the back but not excessively and no leaks from the bike overall it seems.

Thanks ppl

[Edited on 4-10-2005 by fab]

[Edited on 5-10-2005 by fab]

what model / year is it?

Don't know what it might be, but it doesn't sound too good!

Hope its not serious mate.

Sorry its a k4 749 dark,
Its under warranty so hopefully wil be sorted without too much problems (read cost to me .:lol:)

Locked the back wheel, big cloud of smoke, it is something serious!

Get it into your dealer, if its under warranty use the ducati assist service, they will recover it to the nearest official dealer.

Wilf

Cheers again wilf, i senta u2u but not used it before so not sure if i have used it correctly.

will have to get Cobb and Jaggers on the phone 1st thing as that is where the service was done last week (Ducati Leeds).

Got it recovered home today as everywhere was closed.

Could also be that it was overfilled with oil and you first experienced a hydrostatic lock. When you tried it again you could have blown a ring or a engine seal. Either way it should be cover under warranty.

Cheers for the help and suggestions guys, will see how things develop over the course of the week
:D

Ring the assistance and get them to agree in advance a time to recover the bike to the dealers. Usually they will agree a half hour slot of time to come and pick it up.
I managed to give them three days notice and they were spot on time wise.
Best of luck with it and at least it's not at the start of summer.

Well, the first report was back from the garage today.

They suspected diesel! !

I felt " shock horror"!

i cannot have put diesel in, positively could not!

However curiosity had me thinking what if.. however i went to the petrol station today where i had fueled up.

I most definately had not put diesel, should have trusted my judgement.

the bike had been running on reserve light for approx 20 miles whereupon i then filed up.

it then ran for over 10 miles before the incident happened, however it consistently started and reved up the rev range whilst i was checking it for smoke before the aa man arrived.

From experience i dont think it would do this ith diesel in and idle over?

Anyway waiting for the garage to call me back again and see what is said.

what do you guys reckon?

[Edited on 4-10-2005 by fab]

...mmm...not BP was it???? common problem for them, if it is try and claim off them, I know they have paid out on some mis-fuellings because the unleaded and diesel ultimate are easily mistaken

the bikes in the garage so i cant check it, however the pump was green i ve been back up and checked photographed the thing aswell, and its the right hand side pump, the diesel one is black and the petrol unusually was a penny dearer than the diesel, which was strange but correct at this particular place, again double checked tonight and million percent that it was not disel that was put in.

[Edited on 5-10-2005 by fab]

Sounds very fishy to me. If you say you were empty and then filled up, supposedly with diesel, I doubt whether you would have got 1 mile down the road.
Aren't petrol taps a different size from diesel in the UK? They are in Germany. That means you can't fit the diesel tap in a petrol tank.

Have you smelt the fuel filter from the bike? If the dealer fooked up then maybe they are trying to hide something.

Well this is what im concerned of whether someone is trying to hide their tracks but i dont know? im always very suspicious about things like this..

Will have to see what the 2nd upate results in today..

Re the nozzles, i guess they may be different sizes here, however with the 749 the hole is so large that you could probably get a firemans hose down there (oo err)!

Its stressing me out a bit is this now, i just want my baby back without it costing me, and why should it thru no fault of my own?

100% with Crunchy on this one.

Oldest trick in the book teflon shoulder the problem onto something/someone else.

You would not have got anymore than a mile with diesel so that is a complete load of staines.

You are running around trying to disprove the diesel theory while the real culprit is watching you wasting your energy.

Best thing to do is tell them you are paying for an independant engineers report to be done, watch them turn a funny shade of white. Ask for the fuel filter as you want to send it off for analysis (They will go a nice clammy blue colour) and finish your sentence by making clear in no uncertain terms that if it turns out to be there fault they will be picking up the tab for your time and outlays.

Without delay speak to your Local trading standards and get them onside, they are a fairly approachable bunch as i had the pleasure of finding out a few years ago when i bought a duffer 748R which lasted a day before dying.

They may well help organise the above for you.

I can't make clear enough how important it is to not accept liability for what has happened, if you do you are knackered!

If all that fails do what i did and tip up at the garage with a fellow DSC'er and threaten to pull the manager and his brother who co owned the garage over the counter for a good kicking, it worked for me!

Most important of all keep your sense of humour, you are going to need it!

Regards

ScottyB

Theres absolutely no way im accepting any liability over this, as you say scotty, allegedly the garage have said they have sent the fuel for analysis and that they cleared it all out and put new fuel in to see if it was ok, the concern is that my friend has used the same fuel and hasnt broken down.

I have to say i agree with you guys that the bike coule not have run with the diesel fuel and performed as it was doing up until the point where it broke down.

I must advise that after it did break down it continued to run, its just that it was smoking like as bar stuard and i didnt want to risk any catastrophic failure by riding it.

Can any one categorically state this the engine would not run? if this is the case i can simply say that its knack*rs. convinced it must be dodgy petrol and not diesel.

Again just to reiterate - it would run and tick over, rev up and down the rev range ok, just didnt feel quite right and smoked llike no ones business.

[Edited on 6-10-2005 by fab]

Agree with ScottyB, but don't ask for the filter over the phone. Do it all at the dealers.

Another point, what was the AA man's diagnostic. Surely he must have smelt diesel. Try ringing him and ask what he thinks to the dealers claim. If he's with you, you might need him as a witness

If there was a very small amount of diesel in the tank then it would run as you said. But you said that you filled her up. In that case what was being burned would have been almost pure diesel and while the duc's have a high compression I don't think it is high enough for diesel.

Well the garage called me back today and have said they are convinced it was diesel I didnt want to say anything further at this stage to them, i have agreed to pick it back up tommorow at the cost of £140.....

Basically i have spoken to the garage and they have confirmed that the transaction as paid in cash cant be re traced and the pumps themselves cant confirm what fuel was pumped from it. Only the amount for the day not individual transaction.

I guess i will have to await the results of sample test, but this hasnt gone my way it seems and going to have to put it down to an expensive learning curve, ( i could take this is if wasnt the fact that im so positive that i didnt put the fccking diesel in it). Im going to do a little more investigation pending the results of the test on the fuel and then see if i try and take it any further.

The thing that makes it even harder to swallow, AA man didnt run a diag on the bike, and the fact that hte advice on here and from 2 ducati and other engineers have confirmed to me that this bike could not run with that amount of diesel onboard. :mad: (again to clarify, which makes me think the fuel itself is dodgy and contaminated)

[Edited on 6-10-2005 by fab]

just a thought but could you get hold of the CCTV from the petrol station? That would prove you used the unleaded pump? and did they make you take your helmet off?

fab - u2u me your reg and I'll check out what the diagnostic was at the time of breakdown.
bradders

Ask for the filter. Sounds like there mess up, which your going to pay for. Did your mate use the same pump to fill up as you?

Thanks again for your efforts guys.

CCTV - asked the staion doesnt have any, was a little sh*tty station and was only used becuase i wasnt sure how far a "branded" station would be.

The filters have allegedly been cleaned and put back on, so im fccuked by the sounds of things really...

bradders u have u2u..

can you clean a fuel filter???

I'm confused...either the bike will run as you describe (idle to free revving) with diesel in or it won't???

If it won't...then you couldn't have put diesel in it:puzzled:

If it does...then maybe you/other did by mistake:puzzled:

But it seems to me you need to confirm without question if it will run with diesel in it or not before you go any further...surely something DUK can answer?

If diesel had been though my filter I would want a new one. If fact I would have thought they would have changed it as standard. That means the old fuel filter should be available :puzzled:

I would also question 100% ANOTHER Ducati dealer whether and how far it would run on diesel.

have you any record of payment??? a receipt would be good - how did you pay? cash/card ? most stations (even small ones) have a copy of till receipts - correct me if i am wrong but they will need it for tax reasons??? anyway i think the best way of proving/disproving the diesel notion is by confirming what you purchased.

ok.

Unfortunately i paid cash and the station say as i didint specifically request a receipt they cant confirm what fuel i put in, all they have is a transaction of the sale but not what was sold. Bloody old petrol station, from now on i will be buying all fuel on card with mileage and vat receipt.

I have to say that Cobb and Jaggers have been very good throught this. They took the bike at short notice, diagnosed and got the bike back to me very quickly.

Whilst i am pi$$ed off at this having happened, i must stress that this was nothing to do with what had happened in the service preceeding this.

If it had come across in any of my posts that i thought jaggers could have been responsible then i aplogise. My queries regarding the fuel have really been down to wondering if the fuel itself from the petrol station could have been contaminated.

i think i should post a seperate post for jaggers so if anyone misconstrued what has been said to clear it up.

Any way expensive lesson learnt. Could definately have been worse...
Always look on the bright side....