Hey Guys,

So yesterday I had a great dealer experience: Mike's Famous in New Castle, DE really saved my bacon. I live about an hour and 45 minutes from work and drive my '10 FXDWG to work quite often, as I did yesterday. Well when I came out to go home - no go. Lights and fuel pump worked just fine, but nothing when I hit the starter. I mean NOTHING. No crank. Zip. Long story short it was a system relay.

So here are the details: I get my insurance company's roadside assistance (free tow) to Mike's. We didn't get to the dealership until about 5:45 - and they close @ 6:00. They ask if I have a ride coming and I inform them I live too far away and if they can't get it going in short order I'd just appreciate a ride to the hotel across the highway. They say they'll take a look. Now it took 'em a while because I had informed them that the system relay had been replaced about three weeks ago, and I had looked at it and it "looked " OK by virtue of plenty of dielectric grease - no visible corrosion etc. So I figure they were looking for the cause elsewhere. But after a while I heard the familiar sound of my bike starting up. And it was the relay. Then Doug, the mechanic in charge says he wants to look for the cause since it is the second in a very short time (first was replaced at the dealer near home).

Although he didn't find a deeper electrical problem - he told me when he was test driving he noticed the rear brake lever was sticking. Well I knew about that because it had started on the way in to work. I told him not to bother as it was getting late (probably 6:20 by that time and they were technically closed. I'd limp it home and get it fixed this weekend. He wouldn't LET me leave. Doug, insisted on getting it handled. So at about 7:00 PM - I left for home with a running bike, fixed brake pedal and NO BILL!

Man those guys know how to win a customer. I had my 10K check scheduled for Saturday at home - but I am bringing it up to them as a way of saying thanks.

So anyone have any idea why a system relay would crap out a couple times in such a short time?

Thanks for reading - I think it is good to get some positive dealer experiences out here since we hear about the negative ones all the time.

USMAMule

 

Nice to hear a positive dealer experience on here, they are in short supply, not because there are not many, but the old rule about people tend to bitch louder than praise.

Electrical components most often fail due to a bad connection somewhere, a slightly frayed wire, a pin not fully seated in a connector causing an intermittent issue, all these things are damn hard to find and can lead to premature failure of an electrical component.

Only way to find it is trace and inspect everything electrical.

 

Nice to hear they took care of you. That kind of service is really how they all should be. Hope you find the culprit in your electrical snafu.

 

It's great to hear of good dealer experiences. Hope you figure out what caused the relay to blow. I've seen brand new electrical parts fail in a short time, so it's possible the unit was bad to begin with.