Rockers and servicing in general
 

Some good news and some not so good news,had my 1st year 6k service just done. (748R)
No rockers needed at all. GREAT !
Bit upset that a £450 quote turned into £700 bill though.
A general question.. when you have shims swapped out on a service, do you ask for the old ones back?

If you have paid full rrp for the shims then I guess you have every right to have the old ones. IMO.
Personally, I charge them out at 50% rrp on an exchange basis.
If the customer understands that then there isn't usually a problem. I haven't had any. If the customer wanted the old shims, then I'd charge full rrp and they would be welcome to them.

That sounds to much like common sense to me Nelly!

:o

Thats the way i would have expected it to be done as well.
I demanded my shims back as i had paid for them full retail. All 8 closers and 5 openers.
keith

For what its worth, I recently spoke to a dealer and asked him if he had any chrome/rocker problems on the Testastretta engines and he said he had not seen one defective rocker at all.

Would be nice to think that Ducati have cracked the problem and can it be applied to 916 type engines.

How come the service came to £700?

How many shims needed changing?

Hi Nigel.
I asked for a quote before i booked the bike in and was told £400-450. I checked what this included and was told all filters, belts etc and VAT. Price was "all in" You would expect a couple of shims at a normal service so it would seem reasonable that a couple would be built into this "all in " figure.
I actually needed all 8 closers and 5 openers, but this in no way explains the vast difference in what i was "quoted " and what they actually wanted. Needless to say i won't be going back. Hacketts next time.
keith

I see you are in Hertfordshire.. wasnt a dealers in Hertford by any chance?

Im in Herts as well, just off the A10 north of Hertford

cheers,
Ben

Hi RCGBOB44
Nothing that they do with the testastretta head will help the older engines. Theres a more efficient oil path in the new engines and thats it.
My original post was just to say that its not all doom and gloom with rockers. I did not need any. Perhaps i don't rev it high enough. I do use Ester based oil and change it every 1500 miles though.
keith

Hi Ben 998
No, if you are thinking of who i think you probably are. There is no way on earth i would buy a bike from that idiot. I travelled 90 miles to buy the bike and to get it serviced, when the man you are talking about is only 12 miles away.
Does that tell you what you need to know?
keith

Yep, that says enough. I bought my 998 from Ducati Ashford - about 100 miles each way.

Keith,
Never heard of that many shims needing to be changed at a 6K service.

As the 748R is as close to a race engine on the road as you can get are the tolerances tighter?


On my 1997 model 748bip I only ever had a couple of closing shims in 21K and the 996bip has covered 12K and never needed any changing.

Perhaps I don't give it enough stick, or just lucky.

Hi Nigel
I don't think the tolerances are tighter, an expert might know better than me. I think the girls on that shift in Bologna that day just shimmed it loose. Perhaps my dealer likes to shim them tighter than modern service spec's expect. They do race a lot themselves.
I don't understand why the modern engines can't be shimmed with a zero closing clearance like the good old days. Thats a large part of the benefit of a positive closing mechanism anyway.

Should I be expecting to have this problem on mine then?

its going into JH in 10 days for its 2 year service, but dont recall any of this for its first year service.

Hoping they will check it all out before the warranty ends to make sure rockers etc are ok. Is this standard?

my 748bip had shims changed at 6000 ml service i thought that was part of the 6000ml service

I wouldn't expect JH to skimp on checking rockers, wish i had taken mine there instead. Checking shims is part of the 6k service( and therefore 12k as well) and would need to be done i think if the cams were removed to check the rockers anyway.
I had my rockers checked this way and happily did not need any. I paid for the labour to do this work so its not all roses.
I would expect that once all shims are set correctly then they would not need doing at each service.
i dont see the need to change a lot of shims at a service as a problem in itself, and i am confident that (although i have paid more than i was quoted for the service) they have done a good job.
Roll on the warm weather, lets get revvin'
keith

Keith have you asked them to justify the 250 pound price hike?

I think its time to name and shame mate, as far as I know they have to contact you before any work is done that raises the agreed price :)

[Edited on 9-2-2004 by DJTera]

I did question it on the day. I was led through each line item and got the feeling that they were saving the grand total until they had shown me every thing they had done.
Unfortunately i didn't get the quote in writing from the person i spoke to when i booked it in. Lesson learned.
The have a good reputation and have looked after my bike well but i won't go back.
The reason i bought from them in the first place was because of the time their man rob spent talking through the various models and options with me on a day when i just dropped in. He was busy but still spent 45 minutes chatting.
Shame really.
The clued up among you will know who they are.

Yeah but what about those who aren't so clued up, we don't wanna make the same mistake you did - U2U me and I''ll name n shame for ya if you're scared ;)

No problem with naming them
Pro Twins

I will pretend to be surprised :

:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o















;)


Can't see how the shims would cost that much, people have had mixed results with Pro-Twins, I personally wouldnt use them, would prefer to use OnYerBike (excellent customer service) or for out of warranty bikes and general advice I'd go to Tecmoto (soon to become Ducati Essex so I've been told)

[Edited on 9-2-2004 by DJTera]

The shims themselves added up to about £80. I would expect a few to need doing at each service and therefore its reasonable i think to expect the cost of a few to be built into my quoted price of £450 all in.
They seemed surprised that i asked for the replaced ones that i had paid full retail for though.
I am more interested that you say you will "pretend to be surprised" Tell me more.

A few people on here have had problems with them, the fact they hiked the service price up is an example - poor customer service is another, and then there's poor value for money too.

The real shame is, it was a close thing whether i booked into JH in Coventry or took it back to where i bought it.
The £450 "quote " swung it their way.
They have lost 3 customers at once by this action though. My sister bought a monster on the same day i bought mine. She got a free first service from Pro twins and still won't use them when its due. Her boyfriend was looking for another toy on the same day and took a dislike to the attitude he recieved. He vows he will never buy anything from them.
Like i said , shame really

Ben,
care to enlighten me as to who you are talking about ? (via email if you wish)
Just wondered if this is the same place you got the 996 from Ben ??

I'll probably not get it serviced up that way, but just so I know.

Cheers,
John.

You have mail mate