I read about the VROD motor?

2746 Views 24 Replies 17 Participants Last post by SKIROD, Jun 12, 2004

uncledee2

Discussion Starter · Jan 27, 2004

In the "Dealer Magazine" (a local magazine issued only to local dealers here in Westchester) made a statement that the V-ROD motor is known to blow or go bad.
The article stated "it was unwilling to take a typical abuse from the track on stock settings"????
Whatever that means!!
Has anyone heard of this before? If so, where else?

I've only owned my V-ROD for 2 years, but I have never had a problem with the motor. Only just recently with the alarm.

On a different note: Does anyone know if the V-ROD has a “rev cutoff” on it to prevent over throttling?

Thanks
dee

1 - 20 of 25 Posts

Max

· #2 · Jan 27, 2004

I have never heard any thing like that about the motor and sounds more like an opinion than a fact. As a matter of fact one local dealer told me that the V-Rod is the most trouble free HD ever made and that out of the hundred or so they had sold they only had one engine go bad with a pickup tube that came loose from the oil pump. The engine still ran fine but the owner was in for low oil pressure and they replaced the engine when they found the tube loose.

The rev limiter kicks in at 9k when the engine is fully warm, some place just above 8k when cold.

Max

uncledee2

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 27, 2004

THATS why your the best MAX!
ill try to make a copy adn post it somewhere with a link so you can read the artical yourself.
thanks again

TBAG809

· #4 · Jan 27, 2004

Hey uncledee2,

Register for the NY riders here...

http://www.v-rodforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1252

vrodhill

· #5 · Jan 30, 2004

I have not heard of "bad motors". But I did hear about one that had to be replaced and the cost was about $8,000.00. So I went down and purchased the Harley extended warranty for 7 years with unlimited milage. You can purchase for less years at cheaper price or maybe you can talk your dealer into a discount (my dealer gave $200.00 off).

Vrodalex

· #6 · Jan 30, 2004

I can personally attest to what happens when they forget to locktite the two bolts that hold the oil pick-up tube in place. I think they had some isolated problems on the assembly line. Mine blew on a busy street at high speeds, but I managed to keep her upright. New motor and $1500 for my inconvience was the end result. Harley took care of me once I got into contact with the right person.

Vrodalex

uncledee2

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jan 30, 2004

how much are the extended warranties? Does it cover all ?

Super Kaz

· #8 · Jan 30, 2004

NOT NOS! :hmm:

vrodhill

· #9 · Jan 30, 2004

uncledee2 said:
how much are the extended warranties? Does it cover all ?

I think it was $1,600. + $200.00 for not buying it with the bike. The dealer makes some money and you may be able to get him to discount some of that if you are a good customer and bought your bike from him.
The warranty covers a lot of shit (not normal maintenance items, clutches, plugs, etc.) and is transferable. If an engine is $8,000. it makes the price look cheap.[/FONT]

ihringert

· #10 · Jan 30, 2004

We had one engine blow here in Reno on an '02. The owner is on the hefty side (300 + lbs) and he also likes to run the crap out of it mostly to pi$$ of the neighbors.

BobT

· #11 · Jan 30, 2004

I thought after the first year it was all the dealer.......
Here is an example............
I went to Indian of Oshkosh and they said that they were waiting to see what happened with the company because they had a bike that had a warranty issue and it was not covered under the ext warr. until after the manufacturers warranty expired. Now I worded this just as he said it to me. Did I miss something ? It sounded like the guy who owns the bike is going to have to wait until the "dealer" warranty takes effect after one year. Right ?
Just my 2 cents. (yeah, I'd be p.o.ed too-but what can anyone do?)

BobT

Max

· #12 · Jan 30, 2004

uncledee2 the problem that I had with the extended warranty is my dealer preached that any change at all to the bike would void the warranty. Of course they stated this after I had purchased the warranty. I have since canceled the warranty and now do whatever I want.

Max

ElrodontheV-Rod

· #13 · Jan 31, 2004

I heard tail that a few dyno engines that were pretty well beat had been installed on a few Rods by mistake and some owners had failures.Heard that Harley found all the engines and immiediatly installed virgin engines.Some of the parts people I know say that the Samson pipe when first introed for the V-Rod caused a lean piston burn problem and harley would not honor the repair under warrany provisions.Maybe not so much the pipes,as for possible lack of mapp settings on the bike back in 02.

Elrod on the V-Rod

mjw930

· #14 · Jan 31, 2004

ElrodontheV-Rod said:
I heard tail that a few dyno engines that were pretty well beat had been installed on a few Rods by mistake and some owners had failures.Heard that Harley found all the engines and immiediatly installed virgin engines.Some of the parts people I know say that the Samson pipe when first introed for the V-Rod caused a lean piston burn problem and harley would not honor the repair under warrany provisions.Maybe not so much the pipes,as for possible lack of mapp settings on the bike back in 02.

Elrod on the V-Rod

I don't buy that story on the dyno engines. Harley's manufacturing is far too sophisticated to allow that to happen. Regardless of the perceived quality of their products HD's manufacturing processes are best in class benchmarks in the manufacturing world.

As for the Sampson pipe story, that's believable.

Personally, I think the whole premise that V-Rod engines are prone to failure is :bs:. If that was published it wasn't from a reputable journalist and I'm 99.99% positive that there was no scientific study done to back up the statements. It's probably the result of someone bolting on some aftermarket pipes, not taking the time to dial in the fuel injection and blowing a motor drag racing it. It sounds more like national inquirer quality journalism that anything else.

I personally would like to see any other engine in the Harley lineup or any of the Japanese v-twin offerings do the 500 hour autobahn loop on the Porsche dyno.

vroddrew

· #15 · Jan 31, 2004

mjw930 said:
I don't buy that story on the dyno engines. Harley's manufacturing is far too sophisticated to allow that to happen.

Actually, there WAS a recall of a few (~100) bikes. As part of the final roll-out testing, each bike is put on a dyno and run in for a few miles to check that everything on the bike is working correctly. In the case of the recalled bikes, the control parameters on the test exceeded specification (i.e. the engine temps. got higher than the engineers recommended.) I don't know if there were any field failures as a result - but Harley did step up and correct the problem. It was limited to a few early '02 bikes. There is link to the story here.

Personally, I think that the professional way Harley handled this problem says a lot about the quality of their product.

uncledee2

Discussion Starter · #16 · Feb 11, 2004

besides the dealer; can i go anywhere else to see if my bike is on a recall list?

Ketsugo

· #17 · Feb 11, 2004

uncledee2 said:
besides the dealer; can i go anywhere else to see if my bike is on a recall list?

Call HD and be sure to have your VIN handy. (414) 343-4056

John

Zijspan

· #18 · Feb 16, 2004

vroddrew said:
Actually, there WAS a recall of a few (~100) bikes. As part of the final roll-out testing, each bike is put on a dyno and run in for a few miles to check that everything on the bike is working correctly. In the case of the recalled bikes, the control parameters on the test exceeded specification (i.e. the engine temps. got higher than the engineers recommended.) I don't know if there were any field failures as a result - but Harley did step up and correct the problem. It was limited to a few early '02 bikes. There is link to the story here.
Personally, I think that the professional way Harley handled this problem says a lot about the quality of their product.

The two used engines Harley donated to my racing are supposedly from that batch of ~100. So far I've only run one of them, but it's pushing around 1200 pounds of men and machine through the nastiest terrain any V-Rod has ever been through. They told me there "may" be a problem with these two motors, but they would not tell me what the problem was.

I found something (not to be divulged), and it would indeed reduce horsepower a bit. It was a fairly easy fix. Both motors had the same problem, which is now fixed. So far no problems with the motor in lots of off-road stress testing. :thumb: :thumb:

Hog Wild Racing

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daveyrocket

· #19 · Feb 18, 2004

Talk about taking a V-Rod where it's never been before! Great to see this engine holds it's own in environments it was never really designed to endure.

Vrod-tlam

· #20 · Feb 19, 2004

Zijspan said:
... I found something (not to be divulged), and it would indeed reduce horsepower a bit. It was a fairly easy fix. Both motors had the same problem, which is now fixed. So far no problems with the motor in lots of off-road stress testing. :thumb: :thumb:

Come on, you can't tease us like that :whack: what was the problem you found ??? :hmm:

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