Yesterday I stopped at a dealership to respond to some missed calls and warm up a bit from my ride. Remembered a question I had about the K services and what it would cost to do all the "inspection" work, but not the fluids so I hit up the service writer. (save the buy a service manual responses, I have one, but was just curious what they would charge). He asked me why I wouldn't want the oils changed and I told him that I don't use Harley oils anymore in the tranny or primary for either of my bikes.

After hearing that he said that if anything fails my warranty will be void unless I can prove that the failure wasn't caused by the oil I use

Assuming he saw the look on my face he asked me what I was thinking so I said that i'm surprised because in all the years i've been buying new vehicles from many different manufacturers and changing my own oil i've never been told this. Sounds like it would violate the Magnusson-Moss act to me. I asked him how all those quick oil change places exist for cars and trucks if that's the case? He said that Harley does tests on their oils and can guarantee their effectiveness.

I'm still laughing about this and the stuff they teach their personnel.

Anyone else hear this spiel from a dealership?

 

A service writer is about as low as you can get on the "Totem Pole" in regards to HD personnel. I've never heard of such a "requirement" in regards to a lubricant.

 

I do believe he's got it flipped around. In order to void your warranty, THEY would have to prove that the failure was caused by the oil you use.

 

That, and they can only require you to use only their oil, if they give you said oil for free, otherwise as long as you are doing the specified intervals and using oils of equivalent weight and specs, then they would have to Prove what you did caused the failure. They love to bluff folks

 

Yea what yuall said

 

Sounds like he has been drinking the HD Kool-Aid

 

Here is HD corporate's stance on using oil other than HD. BTW have fun trying to wave MM around like a gun threatening HD to get them to pay for warranty repairs when they have engineers that will prove that inferior oil did cause the damage, whether or not they actually did.

 

Yup. Idiots. I've had this discussion numerous times in a dealer. None of them agreed to give me the parts and labor for free....

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...l-be-void.html

 

in looking at that policy letter, i don't see how they don't have to provide their 'superior' oil for free, iaw magnusson-moss. i guess technically, they don't specifically state that all other oil is inferior.

that being said, i haven't heard of an oil related engine failure in decades.

 

What was the dealership's name?


Why post stuff like this if you aren't going to help others avoid a hassle.