Anybody else have this problem? I have an '06 Wideglide with V&H 2-1 Big Radius pipes. Saturday the rear heat shield (the 1) fell off and went clanging down the road. I picked it up and of course it was all beat up. It turns out the welds holding the heat-shield to the hose clamps broke and off came the chrome heat shield.

Of course the dealer that installed it says it a V&H problem and I should talk to them. Vance & Hines says the dealer probably overtightened the clamps when I asked them why their welds failed. The old "pass the buck double take".

Neither willing to help me out beyond selling the part at full price (V&H) and charging me full labor to install (dealer) ($140 for the part, 1/2 hour labor to install)

What do you all think? I know I've had these on since 2007 so it's out of warranty, but shouldn't somebody be willing to give me a break here or am I being unreasonable.

 

since its officially the 2012 model year its been 5 years plus on that part. I think you are out of luck on this one.

 

Chit happens. My advice is to buy the new shield from whoever is cheapest and then save the cost of having the dealer install shield and do it yourself. Then you can be sure it's done right.

 

I am not one to bash manufacturers, but in this case, I would go back to V&H and escalate it, they should at least meet you halfway. No way over-tightening the clamps would cause the weld to fail. They should be willing to sell you one at cost.
I do enough welding to know a weld should last much longer than that.

I would not get nasty, but I would sure let them know it would be the last product I would buy from them if that is how they stand behind their product, that should be considered a defect.

 

I had exactly the same thing happen and called V&H on it, they refused to have anything to do with it. Must admit that the pipe was two years old but considerably less than what I expected for the money I spent on it.

The brackets that hold the pipe clamps broke at the welds, am assuming that's what happened to you too. I took all the pieces down to a Midas Muffler shop and asked them if they could do anything with it. The guy did a fantastic job. You can barely see a white-ish streak on the outside of teh pipe where he wire arced the brackets back on, this time the weld covers every bit of bracket that touches the inside of the heat shield.

Good luck, it's repareable, not happy about it but rather ride than wait for V&H to do something for me.

t

 

Yup, had to re-weld the brackets on my longshots also, as they too broke at the welds (looked to be cold welds, as it let go right at the shield itself). Mine were just over a year old with 24,000 miles on them, I marked it off to the shake at idle due, to the cams I installed.

 

your bike is rejecting the pipe...LOL.

 

Thanks...Yes clamps broke at the welds. V&H wont budge but dealer is willing to sell me the part at their cost and no charge to put it on. I did consider having the clamps welded back to the heatshield, but since it fell off at highway speed it is pretty scratched up and would probably look like $hit no matter how well the weld marks didn't show.

Looks like I'll get out of this at a little over $100....Still disappointed, who knows how long this will last, but guess I have to accept capitalism as a great way of life!

 

That is fair since it is out of warranty, good on the dealer since it was not really their problem.

 

vance and hines services suck, they dont want to help anyone any more. in warrenty or out they still should be curteous.