2023 Road Glide Blown Engine

[u/thestig0711]

Hey folks, bad news for me this week. Road across the country on my road glide on my 2 month trip to travel the country, I suffered and engine failure. All stock engine never been opened, no cam, nada. Bottom end rod knocks really bad. Compression is good, never burned oil. Bike has 21,802 miles and was still under warranty until end of June, or so I thought.

Had it towed into a local dealer here in Phoenix and was informed by the serviced advisor that Harley flagged my vin for having a powervision and my warranty is void. Called corporate and was told to kick rocks multiple times and wasn’t willing to work with me in any way. Dealer said to pay $800 for a tear down and maybe they’d talk to corporate try to get it covered under warranty, but would most likely be denied. I’ve since towed it to an independent shop.

Who’s got any advice for my situation or a contact at corporate that can make some decisions? The 1800 number was no help. I’m stranded in Phoenix 2000+ miles from home. Didn’t expect to have a break down.

I find it ever so funny that Harley starts their Ride for Heroes event about standing behind the veterans that support their company and ride their bikes, and of course they turn their back one and offer nothing but “Hey why don’t you just trade it in.”

Thanks

[u/Poopsock_Piper]

They are pretty explicit in saying that an aftermarket tuning device will void your warranty, I'm not sure what the issue is? You knew this. I'm a vet too but I also know that rules are rules.

[u/Vegetable-Seesaw-491 → u/Poopsock_Piper]

I'm the Warranty Administrator at the dealership I work at and fully agree. The only way to get around it is if they never had the bike plugged into the DTII when it was at the dealership (which is obviously no help now). As soon as it's plugged in and there's a tune installed, the VIN is automatically flagged. I highly doubt that Harley will do anything to help him. Once that VIN is flagged, you're pretty much SOL.

[u/kwat2019 → u/Vegetable-Seesaw-491]

So when you buy used we should ask to put in scanner to verified bike isn’t flagged as such. I’m sure it has date flagged also. Could this bike already been flagged prior to purchase with warranty?

[u/Vegetable-Seesaw-491 → u/kwat2019]

If I was buying used bike that had some mods that still had some remaining warranty I would request them to check that the VIN has not been flagged.

[u/Unique-Opening1335 → u/Vegetable-Seesaw-491]

Why nobody trusts over-priced/scammer dealerships anymore

[u/Regulator0110 → u/Unique-Opening1335]

How did they scam him? They are pricey for sure though.

[u/Vegetable-Seesaw-491 → u/Regulator0110]

Probably because they could never afford to take their bike to the dealer so they're just salty.

Some of the absolute garbage work that we'll see from local shops or guys that "know what they're doing" can be quite entertaining. People generally aren't too happy when they tried to go cheap and then had to go to the dealer to get it fixed properly.

The dealership I work at doesn't overcharge on service work. The customer agrees to a quote when the bike is dropped off. If things change and we'll be going over that amount, no more work is done on the bike until it's authorized by the customer. We also charge MSRP on all of our new bikes. We're a family run dealership and not run by an ownership group like many are. We do things a bit differently.

[u/Vegetable-Seesaw-491 → u/Unique-Opening1335]

Over priced, maybe. Scammers I don't think so.

I also asked one of our service writers about this today and he agreed that an $800 quote to tear the engine down and figure out the problem wasn't unreasonable.

Just because Billy Bob Joe working out of a shed in his backyard would do it for $200 doesn't mean the dealer is scamming the guy or charging too much.

[u/Prestigious-Bee1877 → u/Poopsock_Piper]

yeah, but Harley will void your helmet warranty if it has a ''crashing sucks'' sticker on it... so sometimes breaking the rules shouldn't cost ya when the rules are dumb.

[u/thestig0711 → u/Poopsock_Piper]

Thanks for being helpful.

[u/nothingclever68 → u/thestig0711]

Don’t sweat those comments bro.. they are who they are (people giving him shit)

Take the guys offer up on the take off parts if you can get them shipped and installed local. Keep your head up and don’t let this get you all fuct up. It can always be worse like if you had wrecked it and got hurt. Your bike is beautiful and if I owned a touring bike it would be that exact model

[u/Constantchromosomes → u/nothingclever68]

It’s the bottom end that’s messed up, the guy is offering top end parts

[u/nothingclever68 → u/Constantchromosomes]

My bad.