FrenchieHero

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Click To Redeem Dino Ride

The Dino Ride is down :( (KTM RC390)



It was a beautiful day out. Hopped on the bike and cruised down the highway. As I cruised, I noticed

specks of water shooting up and hitting my face shield. I thought, it's sunny out, what's going on?



As I looked down, the coolant reservoir had puked coolant up through the cap and now was all over the bike and my helmet :(



I got home as soon as I could to assess the situation. Something with the bike was not right. I called the service shops and they were all busy for the next couple weeks, but offered some suggestions to trouble shoot why the bike did what it did.



I tried a few things, but new something was still not right. I finally was able to book a spot into the shop after a month of waiting. The news that came next was unexpected.



The techs had said through diagnosis; the head gasket and water seal gasket would need to be replaced, and potentially something else.



Needless to say, I was in utter disbelief. The bike was at low kms @ 11,000kms. I'm just an intermediate rider, so ripping on it hard at full speed was just out of the question.



The tech spoke that the bill may be close to 2000$ or more and that really bummed me out. I'd be without a bike for potentially a month and a half. I went ahead with the repair because I have full confidence in the techs making it become better and stronger than before!



So here I am, going down avenues to build up the cash for the repair. I got a month and a half to get it all together and I'm going to find a way.



I set up this go fund me, to provide some enjoyable content on this platform and in return hopefully get a donation or two to go towards the bike repair. Even an encouraging comment will help keep the positivity up.



So please enjoy, and hopefully one day soon, the Dino ride will be back on the road :)

Started a go fund me, because yolo.



-Big E
 

FrenchieHero

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How many Go-fund-me projects have you reached out to so far?
Zero at the moment. It's a bit of a shot in the dark for me. At least i'll be posting what I'm doing to get to my goal. Probably work some extra hours, sell some parts, cash in some pop cans, ask KTM to help, who knows! Gotta try something!
 

Formula390

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Head gasket failures occur on the earlier model bikes easier than the later models as KTM made a change to the head. You should ask the shop to submit for a warranty repair. It might not get approved, but I've seen some get authorized that long out of warranty.
 

FrenchieHero

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Head gasket failures occur on the earlier model bikes easier than the later models as KTM made a change to the head. You should ask the shop to submit for a warranty repair. It might not get approved, but I've seen some get authorized that long out of warranty.B
Bike has a stock tune power commander on it too though, which I know doesn't void warranty but it would have to be mentioned. It's not even the parts that are expensive, it's just all the labour sadly.
 

Formula390

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"stock tune" power commander??? What's THAT?! That would be a "0 map" with no values in it.

In any event, again, you need to press the dealership to get this covered under warranty. head gasket failures are ROUTINELY covered well outside of the warranty period. You have to get your dealer to do it tho. They aren't going to necessarily volunteer to do it. Head gasket failures with the v1 version of the head and cylinder were prone to failure. This will be covered because the alternative would have been a recall, which would have been FAR more costly... so get them to submit the warranty claim to KTM and get it covered.
 

FrenchieHero

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"stock tune" power commander??? What's THAT?! That would be a "0 map" with no values in it.

In any event, again, you need to press the dealership to get this covered under warranty. head gasket failures are ROUTINELY covered well outside of the warranty period. You have to get your dealer to do it tho. They aren't going to necessarily volunteer to do it. Head gasket failures with the v1 version of the head and cylinder were prone to failure. This will be covered because the alternative would have been a recall, which would have been FAR more costly... so get them to submit the warranty claim to KTM and get it covered.
Thanks for the advice. i'll reach out to the service manager again. I've been talking with KTM customer service and they are looking into it for me too.
 

FrenchieHero

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Thanks for the advice. i'll reach out to the service manager again. I've been talking with KTM customer service and they are looking into it for me too.
Welp this is what I got back from KTM.



Good morning,

We've been in contact with Action.

They will probably works on your unit in August, no specific date provided for the moment. It will depends of their appointment's schedule alreay planned in the last weeks.

If delaer think something could be cover, they will provide information requested by our Technical department.

Issue experienced could happened but not at 11,000km. Usually it will appears at 2,000km and less.

For this reason, with the information provided, we don't see how we could cover this unit as warranty is over since 2017.

Also, we have no idea how many owners had the bike before you, either the type of maintenance and the type of riding this unit had.

We will let Action taking the decision once they will work on your unit later in the summer.
 

Formula390

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That's where you have to get the dealership to fight for you. They don't cover bikes out of warranty just because, but it DOES happen.
 

FrenchieHero

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I’m curious as how did everything turn out?
It is not going to well. The head had to go out for testing and it tested good and they re planed the head to make sure their were no imperfections. It has been determined a head gasket failure. The bill is going to be close to 3000$.

Bit bummed they couldn't figure out before when they took it apart. But it was sent out because the head gasket was full intact when they took it apart. So I'm a little confused.

Anywho. Parts are ordered and it'll be put back together. I'm most likely going to list the bike for 4500$ when it comes back and get it gone. Its worth probably 6000 with all the extra goods on it but I dunno. I took it to a dealer because I thought it would be a familiar repair and would be done quickly. 3000$ repair on a single cylinder and no help from KTM to provide any honorary warranty. I feel a tad robbed. I won't see the bike probably not until end of December or January due to part wait times. I'm riding a pedal bike to work instead of my motorcycle. Putting extra money aside every cheque to cover the bill when it comes. So you could say that im about done with ktm.
 

FrenchieHero

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It doesn't cost $3k to replace a head gasket! That's ***** crazy!
Yeah. Diagnostic, tear down, pressure test, and parts and rebuild. I was thinking maybe 1500 tops, going to be interesting to see the detailed invoice. I'm going to mail it straight to KTM. Bikes been in the shop since the summer.
 

SWdragon

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I grew up about 20 miles away from there USA headquarters, here's there info.


KTM North America Inc.

East

1119 Milan Avenue
Amherst, Ohio 44001
Customer Service Phone: 1-855-215-6360
Phone calls made to the Customer Service line may be monitored and recorded for quality assurance purposes
 

FrenchieHero

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Nice. yeah im going to send the usa one and the canada one, one.

It will be my last hurrah, as I give up and sell my bike.
 

FrenchieHero

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Got my bike finally back. Shop manager tried to help me out a bit and the bill ended up being around 2800$. I've posted the bike up for sale. Not too sure if KTM would do anything for me if I mailed them the invoice.
I guess it's time to move forward. Parts are getting extremely bad for KTM now too. I felt bad for the local dealer shop. Multiple bikes taken apart and parts have been backed up for over 4-8 months.
 

Formula390

Supporting Vendor
Vendor
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Got my bike finally back. Shop manager tried to help me out a bit and the bill ended up being around 2800$. I've posted the bike up for sale. Not too sure if KTM would do anything for me if I mailed them the invoice.
I guess it's time to move forward. Parts are getting extremely bad for KTM now too. I felt bad for the local dealer shop. Multiple bikes taken apart and parts have been backed up for over 4-8 months.
Ugh! For a ******* head gasket?! What parts were replaced?! It's all they did was replace the head gasket, that's criminal.
 

FrenchieHero

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They did a full tear down. Sent it out for head testing and machining- $270 , results came back head was good.

Sparkplug, oil seal output shaft, oil seal, gasket clutch cover, oil seal ringx2, balancer shaft, sleeve balancer driven, gasket cylinder block, piston rings cpl, ring snap, o-ring 19, copper gasket, water pump repair kit, new model fan(as old model blows up easy), valve stem seal, o ring 10, gasket chain adjuster, gasket valve cover, gasket spark plug shaft, more o rings, o ring 29, oil filter service, hh collar screw, more o rings, gasket ignition cover, bush starter shaft, gear starter counter cpl, exhaust flange gasket, muffler clamp, gasket muffler, new coolant, new oil, gasket cylinder head, more o rings.

So basically a full engine rebuild kit. Hard life fam.
 

Boardinfourlife

New Member
Country flag
Click To Redeem Dino Ride

The Dino Ride is down :( (KTM RC390)



It was a beautiful day out. Hopped on the bike and cruised down the highway. As I cruised, I noticed

specks of water shooting up and hitting my face shield. I thought, it's sunny out, what's going on?



As I looked down, the coolant reservoir had puked coolant up through the cap and now was all over the bike and my helmet :(



I got home as soon as I could to assess the situation. Something with the bike was not right. I called the service shops and they were all busy for the next couple weeks, but offered some suggestions to trouble shoot why the bike did what it did.



I tried a few things, but new something was still not right. I finally was able to book a spot into the shop after a month of waiting. The news that came next was unexpected.



The techs had said through diagnosis; the head gasket and water seal gasket would need to be replaced, and potentially something else.



Needless to say, I was in utter disbelief. The bike was at low kms @ 11,000kms. I'm just an intermediate rider, so ripping on it hard at full speed was just out of the question.



The tech spoke that the bill may be close to 2000$ or more and that really bummed me out. I'd be without a bike for potentially a month and a half. I went ahead with the repair because I have full confidence in the techs making it become better and stronger than before!



So here I am, going down avenues to build up the cash for the repair. I got a month and a half to get it all together and I'm going to find a way.



I set up this go fund me, to provide some enjoyable content on this platform and in return hopefully get a donation or two to go towards the bike repair. Even an encouraging comment will help keep the positivity up.



So please enjoy, and hopefully one day soon, the Dino ride will be back on the road :)

Started a go fund me,

Click To Redeem Dino Ride

The Dino Ride is down :( (KTM RC390)



It was a beautiful day out. Hopped on the bike and cruised down the highway. As I cruised, I noticed

specks of water shooting up and hitting my face shield. I thought, it's sunny out, what's going on?



As I looked down, the coolant reservoir had puked coolant up through the cap and now was all over the bike and my helmet :(



I got home as soon as I could to assess the situation. Something with the bike was not right. I called the service shops and they were all busy for the next couple weeks, but offered some suggestions to trouble shoot why the bike did what it did.



I tried a few things, but new something was still not right. I finally was able to book a spot into the shop after a month of waiting. The news that came next was unexpected.



The techs had said through diagnosis; the head gasket and water seal gasket would need to be replaced, and potentially something else.



Needless to say, I was in utter disbelief. The bike was at low kms @ 11,000kms. I'm just an intermediate rider, so ripping on it hard at full speed was just out of the question.



The tech spoke that the bill may be close to 2000$ or more and that really bummed me out. I'd be without a bike for potentially a month and a half. I went ahead with the repair because I have full confidence in the techs making it become better and stronger than before!



So here I am, going down avenues to build up the cash for the repair. I got a month and a half to get it all together and I'm going to find a way.



I set up this go fund me, to provide some enjoyable content on this platform and in return hopefully get a donation or two to go towards the bike repair. Even an encouraging comment will help keep the positivity up.



So please enjoy, and hopefully one day soon, the Dino ride will be back on the road :)

Started a go fund me, because yolo.



-Big E
 
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