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4/15/2016
Location
Bethlehem, GA
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Tsnail25
6/3/2016 9:14pm
6/3/2016 9:14pm
Edited Date/Time
6/4/2016 1:56pm
I was going to buy a 2017 yz250f when it came out but I'm not so sure about it now because I've seen several threads where the 14-16 yz four strokes have been cracking along the head tube weld seam. People have been saying that it's cracked with as little as 5 hours on the frame and that Yamaha won't fix it because it's "normal wear" I don't think that's normal. Someone also said it was 3 out of 4 bikes with this defect. I realize that all frames crack eventually but 5-20 hours is way too soon
Should I get a yz and risk my 7500 or play it safe and get a KX ?
Should I get a yz and risk my 7500 or play it safe and get a KX ?
However if those threads have killed your confidence in Yamaha, then buy something else.
The Kawasaki is a great bike.
The Shop
If you have a problem just catch it quick and head to the dealer.
I know of two other cracked frames and both persons did not have a single problem with YAMAHA in having their frames replaced.
My 2015 250f had water issues from day one I bought it. The bike would run weird and when I washed it, it would not start, not 100 kicks, not 100 bumps, it took half a morning to get that thing to fire. Now.. if you are a stranger to yamaha issues, this about like the frame cracks. Their wiring harness is straight out of the 1980s along with their terribly grounded kill switch and if it senses water it's enough to bring it to its knees.
3 attempts at sealing the harness and disconnecting the killswitch and nothing was working. It was becoming obvious to me it was something wrong internal somewhere and it's not something from me.
So I went to my dealer and called Yamaha. I got their un-enthused rep. that got lack luster answers. He calls me a week later after I explained my problem.. "That's really weird we know nothing about water issues.. must be your problem then." NO mention of helping me find the problem, no request to have it torn down, nothing. Dealer and rep failed.. on to my next only hope, call Yamaha support.
I'll give you shortened opinion of this support line. THE. WORST. EVER. If I could somehow get past the 30 minutes of being on hold with out being hung up on, I would get some clueless secretary that would transfer me to the "woman in charge" who seems to NEVER work. Would always get some sorry excuse that she was out the office. I called multiple times a day!
This all in a course over a couple weeks, this is my only bike I own, and I'm missing spring time riding. So Yamaha support was useless, I think I had maybe 2 minutes on the phone with the lady in charge out of the 20 times I called, and I only talked to her twice. The rest I was told she would call me back because she was not in the office, not once did I get a call back. 2 weeks pass with no useful information or help.
On to my last and final resort, Rock River. RR is in Wisconsin and I'm from Iowa it's around a 4 hour drive for me but they are the Midwest Yamaha dealer to go to. I take my bike up there (we could no longer get the thing to fire and under our own inspection by our dealer and ourselves water was getting into the motor from somewhere) and have them see if they can find the problem. Keep in mind, I needed Yamaha to find this issue, because if I did it, there was no way in hell they would replace it. They told me that on the phone.
A MONTH goes by, I get a phone call if I want to pick my bike up. Turns out they washed the bike, couldn't get it fire and never tore it apart they just put it in the corner, which locked the motor up. They said it was my Twin Air cage not sealing and it was my air filter cages fault...... but when I asked how they could know they couldn't answer. They didn't know that when I wash my bikes I stick paper towels in the airbox incase anything gets past the wash cover and I never had a issue with getting those towels wet. Long story short and a couple of unproffesional phone arguments later and we find out they did no work to it and where trying to fit me the bill for their failed service and the entire motor to be replaced because it subsequently seized from the mass a mount of dirt and water it ingested and sat there with, inside the motor.
I was all out of options. Yamaha had completely burned me. I told RR, don't put it together I want to come up there and talk to the mechanic and have him explain their reasoning because I know it's all bullshit. They agreed to do so. I get up there and talk to the mechanic for about 20 minutes, he gave me his reasons (he was the one who was supposed to work on the bike, he admitted he never touched it) and gave my reasons back why it was bullshit. He agreed with me, and was starting to question their decision. We brainstormed for 5 minutes on what it could actually be, and by some stroke of luck I asked him to start taking apart the throttle body. We talked to him for 20 minutes.. and my dad and I FOUND THIS ISSUE. When he disconnected the fuel injector the problem was clear as day. They O-Ring that seals your injector into the throttle body was crushed on side compromising the seal, this happened at the factory. IT WAS ON.
Even after all this, Yamaha was hesitant to replace everything. It was a fight.. they wanted to just replace that dumb o-ring and not the entire motor that their little mishap destroyed. My bike had barely 8 hours for crying out loud! After a whole day of phone wars with the japs directly, RR said that Yamaha was going to be rebuilding it but my bike had to stay because they were the ones doing the warranty. I was immediately sketched out. These people just tried screwing me and I'm letting them do my warranty work?! Hell no, I tell them get back on the phone and tell them to ship a crate motor to my dealer at home because I'm not driving back 4 hours. They explained to me that Yamaha does not do that and I'm lucky I'm getting what I am getting, it was very rare of Yamaha to do this.
3 weeks go by and I get a call to pick my bike up and it's running. I go up there and my bike was sitting there with pieces still not put on and no one would talk to me. I was like they were mad I got the best of them or something. I asked if I could see the warranty parts as I'm wantingto do it for documentation purposes. They showed me.. but I couldn't take any pictures because Yamaha wanted to keep my story on the down low. F*ck that!
I get my bike home and immediately start to go over it. I'm a meticulous kid, I take care of my bikes and I want something done right. Well.. they must of given this job to the highschool kid that has never worked on a bike. I had bolts mismatched around (my seat bolts were holding me engine brackets it in) numerous bolts were loose, they over filled the bike with WAY to much oil (seriously it was puking out the valve cover vent house). Used the old oil filter, and they thought it was okay to put adhesive glue on the back side of my filter cage that was never the issue in the first place. It was a complete shit show. I was just happy to get my bike back and finally have one running.. only took all of spring and half of summer.
I tried calling the support about all this, because I had finally reached my limit. I tried my best the entire time to keep my cool, play their game, and be polite but enough was enough. They wouldn't take my call, never got to talk to anyone and I never got a call back. So I get this survey in the mail and I rated Yamaha and RR's service terribly. It was the only way I could vent my frustration, not like it matters right? Oh was I wrong... I get a voicemail the NEXT DAY from the owner of RR completely pissed off questioning my ability to comprehend what the survey was about and that I needed to call Yamaha (hah good joke) and change my rating because after all HE was the one that helped me and HE was the one that found AND fixed my issue. All with out getting paid by Yamaha. I am completely serious. I won't talk about my return call... I had finally lost my cool.
Despite all of this, my dad bought a 2016 yz450. My dealer supports me really well on pricing and I absolutely love the Yamaha and so does my dad, no matter how shitty they are as a company, they are a great bike. We got another one... 21 hours on it and the frame is cracked...... here we go again.
You can form your own opinion or just not read my book I just typed and keep your own opinion on them but this is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with. Like I said, great bikes, despite their common issues they seem to ignore. I will update this week if what Yamaha has to say about my frame.
Sorry for the long read, but I wanted to cover all aspects of my experience, kinda hard to fit 3 months into a post without typing a book!
So I bought another GYT-R piston (and stock cyilnder) and had the dealership install it. Blew up at 6 hours. The dealership covered the repair and put in another GYT-R piston, blew up at 5 hours. Yamaha shipped a brand new motor in crate to my dealership and refunded all of the money for my first rebuild too. They would not sell me another GYT-R piston, and just a bit later they were discontinued for a while.
We ride these machines hard, things will break...
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