Last Wednesday the oil light came on on my 2017 Tri Glide. After reading the manual to get a recommended course of action, I hit this site to see what other people were experiencing. Checked the oil and it was on the "Add more oil" line so I added half a quart and rode it for 5 miles...all seemed well. Since I was planning a 1.5k ride on Oct 27th, I figured I should call my dealer to get their opinion on the matter before heading out. They recommend that I bring the bike in so they could check the oil pressure. Rode the 45 miles there, they checked it and all seemed well. Then rode the 35 mile highway portion home and at the first stop, bam, oil light on. At every stop for the next 10 miles it came on at idle. Revving the engine to 2k rpms would cause the light to go out so needless to say I kept her revving at every stop. Got home, called the dealer and they trailered the bike back to the dealership. Latest report is that moco has shipped out a new oil pump in case it's needed and dealership is taking apart the engine to investigate the problem. Will post an update when I have one. Oh, and I do have 2100 miles on her.

 

Did you have the 1k service done? Sounds as though there was some debris still in the case that got sucked into the pump causing the relief valve to stick. I change my oil at 1 k and then again at 2k. Kinda wished I did it at 50 miles too

 

Yes, I had the 1k service done. I'm thinking that changing oil every 1k for the first 5k might not be such a bad idea.

 

One would think that by now (at a minimum) there would be a dealer service bulletin telling them to change the oil after the 10 mile break-in dealers are required to do.

 

If I ever buy one, that will get done right in the dealer's lot. I'll bring my wrenches, filter, etc along with a throw a way drain pan from Walmart. This is getting ridiculous.

 

With all the data we have to date, anyone going to buy one should just ask that it be part of the deal. Ride it 20-50 miles, come back, dealer changes the oil. No dealer is going to squawk over that small cost.

 

There shouldn't be ANY debris in a new motor. Where are these being assembled? In some dark, dimly lit, dirty filthy third world factory with no QC or in a high tech American "Motor Company" factory?

Wash and flush the parts, inspect them, make sure they are clean and meet QC before assembling!!! Oh but wait, the CEO will loose some of his stock options and bonus if the bike costs $15.00 more to build.

Good thing they don't build automatic transmissions....

 

5,100 on mine. 1K at 1,200 miles, 5K at 5,100 miles. Mineral at 1K and Rotella T6 at 5K.

Strong oil pressure. It's the oil cooled RGS with stage I. It was an early build. Zero issues of any kind. From day one the mpg was never below 50 and high was 56. HD states combined mpg is 45.

The tracking of pump failures is meaningless. First no data on total number of bikes on the road. Then most HD owners are not on this forum. So what does the failed pump number mean? 25 per cent of those on the road or a fraction of one per cent?

It appears to be to be a fools errand without any factual numbers.

 

I wouldn't put money on that. None of them give anything away for free ............Unless it's a certifiable tax write off.

 

Yep. No doubt. But it's all the information a "fool" such as myself, or you for that matter, will be able to compile. Well maybe I more than you as I was willing to look far beyond this single forum.

I've scoured every post on every forum I can find. I've sent private messages to most of the people reporting problems. The vast majority of posts turn out to be people restating someone else's problem. Most of the bikes with problems are reported several times on most forums. Sometimes the same bike is posted by different people at different times on the same thread. Many people read these as multiple bikes. That's one of the major problems when counting third party incidents of any kind.

Near as I can tell, there are about a dozen or so bikes with problems. Keep in mind that several of these "major problems" have turned out to be oil sending units. These are "major problems" since the bikes were brand new, first year engine designs that were generally towed to the dealer, and the owners were understandably upset. These were "major problems" since many members of these forums were very happy to jump on a perceived problem with an american corporate icon for it's melodramatic, entertainment value. These were anything but "major problems" in that the problem turned out to be a $50 part covered under warranty.

Then there was a handful of actual oil pump failures. These were solved with brand new engines shipped from HD and installed under warranty. These owners are now enjoying their bikes and most are posting glowing comments of their performance.

There was one cracked engine case (this one was reported third party as several bikes).

There were several third party reports of "smoking bikes", but I can find no verifiable owner making such a case. There is a single video of what appears to be a smoking M8 in a vendor's ad. Who knows what to make of that?

Maybe a bigger "fools errand" is blindly reading post after post and coming to the conclusion that there are systemic problems with the engine that the available data simply doesn't show?

There have been a handful of verifiable catastrophic problems with the M8, and a few smaller problems that occur in virtually every manufactured product. There are many more happy buyers than unhappy buyers reporting on this single forum. Take that for whatever you wish it to mean in your personal quest to buy, or not buy, the new engine. This issue quit bothering me a few weeks ago. And I have about $26K invested in mine.

I love it. I wasn't even in the market for a new bike, but damn I glad I bought it.

Enjoy the ride...