austin
Well-Known Member
A few weeks ago we planned a few days away in the North East so off we set in my Ford Kuga. It’s oldish -2008 and highish mileage -112000miles but a full Ford service history and generally it’s brilliant. But just off the M6 at Carlisle and it suddenly stopped. 6 hours later the recovery driver helped me push it onto the forecourt of the workshop I use and I dashed home to pack even more lightly and pick up the other car (MX5) with its tiny boot and raced up to Cullercoats near Tynemouth. The workshop phoned me next day to say we think the cam belt has broken. Brace yourself!!! No rush I said. Long story short I got the car back 3weeks later on Monday just gone. A couple of rockers had been snapped - they are designed to - but all 16 replaced as a precaution plus a belt kit and 6 hours labour. Kerching kerching. I will get the actual bill in a week or two but expecting it to be £700ish. ouch. Just before Christmas too.
At the beginning of October Teasdale motorcycles phoned to say we’ve got all your bits, bring your bike in for that insurance repair. I fell off it on spilled oil in June if you didn’t know. They loaned me a Guzzi V7 850. A charming bike but I wouldn’t bother with one. A few days later they said my bike also needed a swing arm as that was also damaged in the off which could take a while to arrive from Italy, and their diagnostics had picked up a fault with the Throttle body - its fly by wire throttle so a new electronic doo-dah needed. That explained the iffy cruise control apparently and a touch of snatchiness at low speed. Don’t worry it’s warranty they said but that may take a while to arrive too.
Fast forward 8 weeks (it felt like forever) and they phoned to say all done come and pick it up. I was expecting to pay for the annual service they also did and my insurance excess of £400 but they wanted to charge for the throttle body too as it was outside warranty. After very very clearly and a tad loudly at times expressing my dissatisfaction with this as the bike was about 3weeks past its warranty date - 2 years from new plus a bonus 3months due to covid - the manager /owner relented and said he’d sort it with Moto Guzzi. It was still a big bill to pay though.
I haven’t finished yet….it’s about 90miles back to mine from Thirsk it was a dull cold wet day and I left about 2.30 clad in heated jacket, heated gloves, heated grips and all lights on. All was good and it was nice to be back on my bike. It felt great. Until just past Skipton when the dash went dark, headlights went off but the bike kept running. Dash back on a second or two later and lights and everything back. This repeated itself with increasing frequency until an alarm light came on and as it was quite dark by now I called it quits and pulled into the services at Clitheroe. After cycling the ignition a couple of times thinking it might be the key and checking the battery connections and fuses the bike eventually refused to come into life at all. Teasdales were suitably embarrassed but it was too late and too far for them to rescue me that day so my breakdown card came out again and the bike was very efficiently recovered home. Teasdales were adamant they had seen the problem before and said it was either a duff battery or the charging system wasn’t doing it’s thing with all my electric consumption. They wanted it back. I said not until I’ve looked at it.
The Battery had 12.8volts in it so not discharged or duff. Nevertheless I cleaned the connections and checked anything I could find around the battery. I then removed the windscreen, the back of clocks and the multi-way electronic connector to the tft screen just about fell out with the cover. Ah-ha. That seems to be the likely problem I thought. And it was. Pushed back in and boosh everything back on like normal. With engine now running I had 14.2 to 14.5 volts indicating all good on the charging side. While I was pretty peeved at the mechanic who hadn’t refitted it properly I understand why as it took ages and a lot of effort to get it to latch properly, in fact I had to completely remove the tft screen to get the right purchase to latch it. Teasdales were adamant that couldn’t have been the problem but i am 100% convinced it was as it’s all good now, although I’ve yet to ride it properly. I think Teasdales just wanted to cover up their cock up and claim it was a bike problem that they magically could fix.
Anyway it’s nice to have all my vehicles back and working properly, but it’s been an expensive week.
At the beginning of October Teasdale motorcycles phoned to say we’ve got all your bits, bring your bike in for that insurance repair. I fell off it on spilled oil in June if you didn’t know. They loaned me a Guzzi V7 850. A charming bike but I wouldn’t bother with one. A few days later they said my bike also needed a swing arm as that was also damaged in the off which could take a while to arrive from Italy, and their diagnostics had picked up a fault with the Throttle body - its fly by wire throttle so a new electronic doo-dah needed. That explained the iffy cruise control apparently and a touch of snatchiness at low speed. Don’t worry it’s warranty they said but that may take a while to arrive too.
Fast forward 8 weeks (it felt like forever) and they phoned to say all done come and pick it up. I was expecting to pay for the annual service they also did and my insurance excess of £400 but they wanted to charge for the throttle body too as it was outside warranty. After very very clearly and a tad loudly at times expressing my dissatisfaction with this as the bike was about 3weeks past its warranty date - 2 years from new plus a bonus 3months due to covid - the manager /owner relented and said he’d sort it with Moto Guzzi. It was still a big bill to pay though.
I haven’t finished yet….it’s about 90miles back to mine from Thirsk it was a dull cold wet day and I left about 2.30 clad in heated jacket, heated gloves, heated grips and all lights on. All was good and it was nice to be back on my bike. It felt great. Until just past Skipton when the dash went dark, headlights went off but the bike kept running. Dash back on a second or two later and lights and everything back. This repeated itself with increasing frequency until an alarm light came on and as it was quite dark by now I called it quits and pulled into the services at Clitheroe. After cycling the ignition a couple of times thinking it might be the key and checking the battery connections and fuses the bike eventually refused to come into life at all. Teasdales were suitably embarrassed but it was too late and too far for them to rescue me that day so my breakdown card came out again and the bike was very efficiently recovered home. Teasdales were adamant they had seen the problem before and said it was either a duff battery or the charging system wasn’t doing it’s thing with all my electric consumption. They wanted it back. I said not until I’ve looked at it.
The Battery had 12.8volts in it so not discharged or duff. Nevertheless I cleaned the connections and checked anything I could find around the battery. I then removed the windscreen, the back of clocks and the multi-way electronic connector to the tft screen just about fell out with the cover. Ah-ha. That seems to be the likely problem I thought. And it was. Pushed back in and boosh everything back on like normal. With engine now running I had 14.2 to 14.5 volts indicating all good on the charging side. While I was pretty peeved at the mechanic who hadn’t refitted it properly I understand why as it took ages and a lot of effort to get it to latch properly, in fact I had to completely remove the tft screen to get the right purchase to latch it. Teasdales were adamant that couldn’t have been the problem but i am 100% convinced it was as it’s all good now, although I’ve yet to ride it properly. I think Teasdales just wanted to cover up their cock up and claim it was a bike problem that they magically could fix.
Anyway it’s nice to have all my vehicles back and working properly, but it’s been an expensive week.
but at least you've now got all your wheels back & working 
. Best to you and Anne. Have a great Christmas.