DryRider said:
I took my S 10 into the shop last week I ask them for a valve check coolant flush oil change air filter change and spark plug change they called today and said they had 18 hours in this work alone? They said they had to drop the motor from its engine mounts in front to perform the service. I was very surprised. I also asked for brake fluid and clutch fuild...check the steering head bearing and the pivot arm bushing. They said that would be about 12 more hours if they needed to pull the triple tree to get at it? Can you help me understand how much this should cost? Remember I’m at a dealership and I can’t do this work myself.
Thanks guys!
Dan
You asked for a lot to be done. The valve check usually runs around $400 and it's not really much different if they have to re-shim or not, as most of the work labor wise is getting to the point where they can check things. The extra time to pull the cams and swap shims isn't really huge, everything is accessible at that point.
Coolant flush - That's one to check on. On the FJR, they had to drain the coolant to do the valve check, so it added nothing. On the Super Ten, I don't think this is the case and it would be an extra charge plus some minor parts. Gasket and coolant. Now, if they really did a flush, not just a drain and fill, I would expect additional charges. A real flush takes time and has waste charges involved.
The air box is coming out to get to the valve cover, so installing a new air filter should only be the cost of the filter if the shop is honest. Dishonest, it adds "book time" in labor to the job.
Head bearing and swingarm pivot bearings - if they just "checked" them, that's really minor time. If they actually re-greased them, that's major labor time. Flush and bleed of the brake and clutch is probably significant 'book time' but not really that time consuming with the small volumes and normal shop tools like a vacuum bleeder.
There is no reason to have dropped the motor out of the frame unless the tech damaged the valve cover gasket or didn't read the Yamaha service manual and didn't 'think' he/she could get it off w/o dropping the motor.
The real question is how many miles on the bike and why did you think all of these things needed to be done at this time?
Brake/clutch fluids should be changed every couple of years max. Better still, every year. It's an easy job with some basic tools.
Coolant flush or at least change is a good thing too. It's no big deal for me to wait until the valve adjustment period because I usually cover that many miles in a year or less. Not so for everyone though.
The head bearings do need to be checked, but it's pretty easy to do if you have the correct tool and a torque wrench. There is a specific procedure and it's outlined in the Factory Service Manual. If the bearings need to be re-greased, it's more involved, but not hugely so. I bet 'book time' is huge on this though.
Swingarm pivot. Whatever. Yes, they eventually need attention. I never checked mine in over 100k miles and the swingarm never fell off. :
They are needle bearings and you typically need to replace them, not re-grease them, when you eventually get to them.