2 year service

[MrP_Lon 89]

Hi all,

 

So my bike is due for the 2Y service. It has 11.5k miles on the clock.

 

I rang the dealer I bought the bike from, which is down at Southampton (Crescent Honda). I live in London but fancied the ride out and maybe a stay overnight at the New Forest.

 

They quoted something in the region of £600, which was surprising to say the least. I asked why it's so different to the 1 year service, which was around £150 and they said it's the valve check, which will take a lot of labour work.

 

I then contacted 1st Line Motorcycles in London. They said it'd cost £150 if brakes etc are fine and that there is no need to check the valves as too early mileage wise. If they were to check them (i.e. if I insist), they'd charge another £140. 

 

Guess who I booked the service with...

 

 

Cheers,

 

Panos

[DaveM59 1,605]

The valve check is quite likely to be unnecessary but it's only an hours work and apart from coolant has no parts cost and I bet most dealers put the old coolant back in and only top up as required.

Crescent are shooting themselves in the foot with that price. 1st Line are more on the ball and in any case you wouldn't take a bike in for any service knowing it needed things like brake pads would you? A dealer service is purely to keep warranty and not to actually do any work other than an oil change as they have to do something don't they?

[Guest dentonlad]

Valves don't need to be checked on the 750 until 16,000 miles. That's the best part of another years mileage for you.

Even with a valve check, at £600 they're really taking the p**s. What's their labour rate, £150 per hour?

[Spindizzy 7,109]

I popped in there to ask about service costs for first year. Needles to say I didn't want a second mortgage so went elsewhere.

[CFB 4,601]

You can get the cam cover off without draining the coolant and taking the rad off.

It's a bit of a fiddle doing it solo but I've done it.

[Guest Hants73]

I have used crescent Southampton for my servicing and they have always quoted me a fixed price . I'm shocked at that quote seems very expensive but there hourly rate is a eye watering £79 a hour my car is cheaper to service .

[bikerbampi 542]

I have my Vauxhall Astra GTC CDTI is booked in for a 2nd year service with similar mileage at £268.  What are Crescent playing at?  A valve check and adjustment on an NC is dead easy even for an apprentice mechanic.  I don't suppose Honda would be interested to know that Crescent are trying to rob their customers.   

[embee 7,288]

They're either complete amateurs and don't know what they're talking about, or they're utter charlatans and should be ashamed (as if). As the others say, a valve clearance check on an NC is a relatively minor job, an hour tops, I doubt Honda rate it at that even. I've done mine twice, nothing difficult.

 

I hate this sort of thing.

[MrP_Lon 89]

To be fair I was very surprised at their quote as they gave a fair price for the 1st year service (i.e. the usual £150 - a bit pricey but well within the rate others were quoting). I kept asking them why it's more than £400 more expensive than the first service when all is going to get changed is the oil, filters and a spark plug. The rest items are to be checked. The mechanic said it's the valves and take too much time as the bike would need to be stripped down completely.

I wrote to my contact in their sales team to complain about this. He always was very helpful and attentive. Hopefully he'll have a word with them about their practice, but they definitely lost a future customer.

[Guest dentonlad]

Spark plug doesn't need changing either. That's either 24 or 32K.

[DaveM59 1,605]

Some dealers love changing spark plugs they do it at every opportunity. Now iridium or multi electrode metal core types are fitted as standard they only need inspection at 16,000 miles as they do not need adjustment, and last easily twice as long and still work fine even when they look knackered! Some dealers are sports bike experts and some of those high revving machines will eat plugs a bit sooner, but the NC is like a car, low revving and so will last much longer and they forget that.

 

When I first got the X9 back in 2004 brand new I used to have it dealer serviced for warranty and it always amused me to see their rows of workshop manuals for every bike in the Piaggio range all neatly shelved in the workshop, and not one of them had a dirty fingerprint on them. They never used them but just applied basic oil/filter/plug/belt/pads on everything they did. I think I had 3 spark plugs in 16,000 miles. When a fault occurred in the wiring they had it for a week and not a clue how to fix it, so I fixed it myself and never crossed their doorstep again.

Warranty is useless if the dealers haven't a clue.

[steve916s 11]

Some dealers love changing spark plugs they do it at every opportunity. Now iridium or multi electrode metal core types are fitted as standard they only need inspection at 16,000 miles as they do not need adjustment, and last easily twice as long and still work fine even when they look knackered! Some dealers are sports bike experts and some of those high revving machines will eat plugs a bit sooner, but the NC is like a car, low revving and so will last much longer and they forget that.

The iridiums in my ER5 have been in there for 90k, and I've only had them out about 3 times. Re-gapped them once! 

[Guest sykospain]

Panos - I think at the very least you should tell the Service guy at Crescent Honda that you got a much lower quote from the other garage, for exactly the same job.  And try to hint that you might be contacting Honda Dealer Network about the issue if they turn nasty.

 

Such pricing attitudes should be outlawed.  They're relying on bikers who want everything done for them, those who prefer not to do any DIY servicing and just aren't knowledgeable enough about servicing to identify when they're being ripped-off.

 

Even if you yourself or the 'other' garage were to follow the service manual sequence to the letter, removing the radiator, etc., the valve-check & adjust job should take no more than an hour including 2 cups of tea and an Eccles Cake.

 

Alright then, 2 Eccles Cakes.....

Edited September 30, 2016 by sykospain

[MrP_Lon 89]

Many thanks for all the replies.

 

Was waiting for a rather apologetic reply to my email from the sales guy down at Crescent but that never came. Might give them a ring and ask for some explanation as Alan suggested.

 

In the meantime, I'll be dropping the bike for a 2 year service tomorrow morning.

 

Bike is marginally out of warranty (10 days or so) but I think that if something is found then I could ask them to put a warranty claim in. Decided to postpone the valve check for when it'll reach 16k miles (probably next spring).

 

Is there anything you think might be worth me mentioning to the mechanic to run a check on?

 

I was thinking of:

 

- wheel bearings and tyre seal (I usually get 3-4 psi loss over a week or so - might be due to speed bumps all over london)

- grease the center stand

- check for rust as the bike is used all year round

- chain condition (although that's pretty much a standard check).

 

Anything else you guys would advise? Thanks a lot for the knowledge sharing.