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 ....

If all else fails you should be able to get a new radiator custom built for you, copying the original, for around half that cost or less. Speak to Marchisini perhaps?

Who quoted you that price as there are two types of rad fitted and retail prices are shown at £767 and £781 including VAT (still bloody expensive but not £900)

Ducati's responsibility
 

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

Ok agreed, I now see it that Ducati are apparently not aware of this particular problem but they must be aware of the other issues surrounding the "earlier 749's" which they declare themselves they have sorted on the 05 model.

As for "Ducati don't make the radiators they contract it out" it doesn't make them any less responsible for them. Few manufacturers manufacture complete products but they DO take a responsible attitude and monitor the quality of their suppliers as lets face it it's their name on the finished job!

And as for the price....... well! I'd be p*ssed at having to replace a radiator on my ford escort (and I never had to due to good quality control) at £100 a pop but at £760-900 a go???

its worth looking at the Sale of Goods act, under English legislation ( Scotland is different being 5 years) a consumer has 6 years to report a defect inherent at the time of manufacture to the seller ( not the manufacturer) , it doesn't mean goods should last 6 years but if its reasonable to assume that a faulty rad was caused by as manufacturing defect ( more than likely it was there if other bikes last much longer) then you may have a claim with your dealer. There are cases where items are portrayed or described as being suitable for a purpose these be included or where its reasonable to assume an time should last a specific time.


Ducati offer a warranty of 2 years in addition to your statutory rights , reason its 2 years is to comply with an EU directive on consumer goods but your contract lies with the supplying dealer and their sale of goods contract lies with the manufacturer.
The DTI provide a guide for traders in pdf format which is a useful guide to understand your rights and what remedies they can offer.

Ducati have helped out some on here with bikes well out of warranty, if you have a good working relationship with a dealer they might well help you as well. Personally I would have tried that route first before attempting repair, give Ducati a chance to see for themselves what has happened.

The rads on these bikes are curved and ally, most car stuff is a lot cheaper, flat, and on older stuff easier to repair.

If ya dont' get anywhere and need to a new rad it might be worth joining up to get ya 10% off:)



Ray.

Jim at Bike Enders is quite often putting Rads from the bikes he breaks on Ebay, always worth gicing him a shout especially as your talking around £125 from him
01708 455530

Sorry I exagerated that then, I thought it was £780 plus vat!

That seems to be a favoured route at the moment. Cheers. As I say, It has been repaired, but it remains to be seen if it's been done well enough to last. I'm gonna take it out for a couple of hours in the morning and see what develops. Fingers crossed.

Ally radiators can be repaired too. Try:-

http://www.gmxradiators.co.uk/cgi-bi...sp&s=49&id=gmx

I've no idea if it'll work out cheaper, but at least you'll know you're not buying another poorly constructed rad from a breakers

Bugger
 

Just saw this and it had ended already....... sorry - touch of the Jim Bowens there!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...ADME:B:SS:UK:1

Wow, you've really depressed me with that one, guess where I live ? Yes that's right about five minutes from where that was sold, I could have even saved the postage costs!
Any way I took it out for about 40 miles yesterday and the repair has held fine so far

to late now but a bit of advice if any one has a radiator with a hole in it.
I had some special liquid metal but if you check the the packs are labelled to what temperature they'll take, my one was 300c which is more than enough, I have repaired many a radiator, but the alloy ones are not supposed to be repaired but I have done this many times and never had one come back,
but do make the repair goes right round the core,
:flame: :burn: :burn:

I think that's whats been done to mine. Fingers crossed and it's okay so far. At my lowest point I went to look at a Suzuki and Ducati dealer the other day to see if I could afford to change to a gixer for reliability etc, trouble is, all I could do is look at the Ducatis! So I might try to carry on with the love/hate relationship I have with what I've got. It's a bit like being married!!!

try going to a moto cross specailist to find out how much they will make/repair one for?.

Greetings !

If its of any help, and yes I know its a long way from Audicdl, but there are a couple of places that are very very good when it comes to radiator repairs,

Aaron Radiator Co Ltd
54 Whitehorse Lane
London
SE25 6RQ

These people have been around for ages and used to repair Noah`s radiators, there were the early wooden type!

Can I also suggest you contac Serk Marston, they have lots of outlets so you will have to hunt around a bit, they did a Nissan radiator for me in a day and when I got it back it was like new.

Good luck.

Thanks chaps I'll bear the above contacts in mind if the worst comes to the worst. Now has anyone got any idea how I can get my missus to let me off my spending ban???