Over 20 years without having a dealer touch my bikes and late fall I get new rotors under warrenty.

Fast forward to the present and tonight I go to pull the front wheel off to put on new tires for a trip I'm headed out on in a week. Go to turn off the front brake caliper bolts and their rock solid over torqued. Gently apply preasure with the hex socket fully inserted and it wont budge. Thinking it will break free with a little more counter torque and it begins to turn...but NOOOOO! It's rounding the hex out!

Check the other three and their all waaaay too tight also....

Yeah, yeah....I should have not torqued it to failure, but I've changed tires and worked on my own bikes for years, including this one, and it was NOT just tightened to the 25 ft. lbs. spec'ed for these bolts.

Now I have to:
- Get these bolts out, with one nicely rounded
- Get at least one replacement bolt, and
- STILL change the d*mn tire!!

SOB Dealer Shop Monkeys!

I feel for ya man, most of those dealers have young kids or know nothings back in the shop, they don't want to pay for the good help. Good luck with the bolts.


If you want something done right........

Well.......  Get some GOOD drills, preferably cobalt, and a sharp ***** / center punch.  Take your time & drill the heads off.....
p.s. I'd give the dealer a call & let the service manager know what happened, even though it happened awhile back.

That really sucks......although too typical it seems. I fear that a tech would over-torque on my bike too, and I will drive it into their heads that they had better torque to factory specs or else.

Part of the reason the shop monkeys suck is because they don't get paid s**t.

Who wants a job like that?

There are some good mechanics out there, but as you said the shops regress them. It's like that in any industry that pays by the peice or job. The more you produce or quicker you fix something, it's on to the next job, torqueing takes time Have had so many bad experiences with my vehicles it is pathetic, wish I were alittle more mechanically adept like Mr Harmon. His maintenance video rocks.

I changed out my brakes over the weekend and torqued both the mounting bolts and caliper pins.   This doesn't help the OP but it makes me feel better.

I suspect the bolts are in with Lock Tite. Try heating the heads with a solder gun before you remove them. I've had a number of the factory allen bolts start to round of because of this.

I suspect the bolts are in with Lock Tite. Try heating the heads with a solder gun before you remove them. I've had a number of the factory allen bolts start to round of because of this.

Did just that - heated the caliper mounting bracket that the bolt threads into with a propane torch, gave the socket a rap with a hammer to break the locktite bond and got the three good bolts out. Took a torx head socket and tapped it into the rounded out hex bolt head and again with the heat and a hammer pop got enought grip to remove that bolt.

BASTARDS!!! All four bolts had RED locktite on them! No wonder they didn't want to come out. Called the service manager and he agreed, shouldn't have used red locktite. New bolts should be in Friday so life goes on again.

Note to self: Do your own work, and when you can't because it's under warrenty always double check any work done by others!

Its a shame... the whole stealership thing.  As someone said they don't get paid sh***. 

The good mechanics do, but not the monkies that remove plastics, change oil, "replace rotors" and such trivial tasks.

It's hard to find the balls to work your way up into a senior position when the first fifteen years are at 10-15 bucks an hour.

red loctite rules! i use it on everything!

red loctite rules! i use it on everything!

hmm..if thats the cure for stealership's crappy service during warranty repairs, I'll dip my bike in it (if it ever breaks)

oh if something breaks, you use duct tape or zip ties...if they can't help, use a dremel and cut it off.

Did just that - heated the caliper mounting bracket that the bolt threads into with a propane torch, gave the socket a rap with a hammer to break the locktite bond and got the three good bolts out. Took a torx head socket and tapped it into the rounded out hex bolt head and again with the heat and a hammer pop got enought grip to remove that bolt.

BASTARDS!!! All four bolts had RED locktite on them! No wonder they didn't want to come out. Called the service manager and he agreed, shouldn't have used red locktite. New bolts should be in Friday so life goes on again.

Note to self: Do your own work, and when you can't because it's under warrenty always double check any work done by others!

Are they replacing the bolts free of charge?

Are they replacing the bolts free of charge?

When my dealer replaced my 'old spec' front tire with the correct "U"
suffix front tire on my 2010, they doubled the torque on every bolt
they touched.  I was checking the torque when I got home when I
found this.  Sent the owner an Email and asked him to order all the
bolts, they sent them free of charge.  No Loc-tite on mine, just stretched
bolts.

Mick

Are they replacing the bolts free of charge?

Yes...

Posted this on the old forum, might as well post it here. A couple years ago I took my bike to the local Kawi dealer for the 7500 mile service. Picked it up and rode it home, everything seemed fine. When I got home I popped the glove box open and found a zip-lock baggie with a few screws and bolts in it. Naturally, this concerned me. The bolts were from the upper mounts for the air deflectors on the fairing, as both of the well nuts were missing. The screws were from a couple places around the dash and fairing, apparently they didn't have time to put them all back.

I then checked over every inch of the bike. I ended up draining an extra quart    of oil out of the crankcase, which came out black, despite being less than 50 miles old. My suspicion is that their "experienced" mechanic changed the oil while the bike was on the kickstand, which resulted in some old oil staying in the case. They must have then poured in the 4 quarts and called it good. The final drive oil level was also a bit low, probably because the bike would be leaned toward the filler cap when on the kickstand.

I called the dealer to let them know what had happened, and the guy who answered told me that their mechanic had 25 years of experience. Experience with what, he didn't specify. Maybe the guy spent 24 years and 8 months as a fry chef at McDonalds before deciding to try his hand at being a mechanic. To their credit, they did replace the well nuts at no charge, but it was more than a month before they came in. In that time I had a several-hundred mile trip planned, so I ended up going to the hardware store and grabbing a couple short allen-head bolts to secure the fairings without the deflectors. Going in to pick up the well nuts was the last time I've set foot in there.

I picked up a bike once, from the yamaha shop, that had every bolt in the triple clamps finger tight. The front axle was as well.

I bougt a manual and some tools and have never taken a bike back to the shop for anything since.  The c14 might be the exception, but I hope not.

brake disc bolts are notorious for freezing up so  I wouldnt blame the shop ,you want those bolts tight .
Buy an impact driver ,its a handy tool to have around  for just these kinds of bolts.
BTW ,nobody removes brake discs to change tires.