CMIKE

In 2007 my wife purchased one of them 4 door Jeep wranglers with the hard top. Good looking rig...4x4 v6. It has turned out to be a mess. 45000 miles uses a quart of oil every 1000 miles. Don't smoke that I can catch it...and does not leak on the garage floor. I have no idea where it is going. Rattles like a pulpwood truck. If it is raining...and you open the door to get in it...the drip rail pours about 16 ozs of water into the front floor board and on your head and will drowned you as you get in. Does not have enough power to turn the 4 wheel drive if you get in just a little bit of mud. I have about a dozen recalls on it...about an assortment of things. I was very disappointed in it. I used to LOVE them dodge power wagons...77-79 and had quite a few of them. Dealers says oil consumption is normal... I am afraid I will not buy anything else they make.

Heck...where I live I am not sure you can find any station that does not have 10% ethonol in their gas. I have not had any carb troubles yet...but I do hit it will a dose of Sea Foam once in a while and since the bike sits every other week while I am working...I make sure the tank is topped off and put a little Stabil Marine for Methonol treatment in the tank to hopefully keep it from absorbing so much water. I think maybe part of the reason my gas mileage is fair on this tank and maybe terrible on the next tank... Are they sure it is only 10% ethenol...what if it was 12-15%...gas mileage may go down more. Just incase any of you may not know...Local distributor of the gasoline puts the methonol in the gas... Gasoline is refined at the refinery as pure gasoline...then it is either pumped through a pipeline or on trucks to different locals...one city regulations may require a certian type of gas (for emmissions)...Like Baton Rouge...and another city like Chicago might require another formula of gas. California definitely has a different formula of gas and that is why it is usually higher than most other areas since it takes more to create it. The local distributor then loads it into his tanker truck adds the Exxon additives...then carries it to the EXXON station to fill the gas station tanks. The Chevon distributor then fills up his tanker truck from the same gas and then they add all the Chevron additives and it goes to the Chevron Station. The mom and pop or no name station gets their gas at the same place and may or may not have any additives in it... At this point is where the Ethonol gets added...at the distributor level as it goes out to the stations. The Oil companies do not put ethonol in the gas. All this gas may have orginated in a BP or Shell refinery some where else. Now sometimes the big names have strict standards on quaility of storage and amount of additives that goes in the gas sold under their name. Mom and pop gas stations may or may not care about any of that and they may have a little bit of water in the tank or more than 10% ethonol in thier gas. Ethonol increases the profit for the seller not the oil company. The Ethonol is cheaper than gas...thus they add it to the gas make more money. Also some local regulations require Ethonol to be added to the gas... My question is are they sure it is just 10%...maybe it could be 12-15% for that little extra. Back during the oil spill last year...everybody stopped buying gas from the BP stations...where all there were hurting was the local folks that owned the BP station. The gas might have came from a Shell refinery using Chevron's oil.

I know what you mean about adjusting the long horn pegs...I hauled a wrench around with me for 2-3 months till I finally got them highway pegs in the sweet spot for me. I almost wore the bolts out moving them. I also had to cut a shim our of a beer...i mean Coke can to make the clamps tighter on the 3/4" bars. To cut the lower vents...I taped them up front and back with masking tape then cut what I wanted off with a jig saw really slowly. Filed off the edges and used a little sand paper to smooth it all up. My cut looks as good as the factory cut. Some folks swear the ventse do nothing for the cooling the rider...I am not so sure they do or don't and you would think it would... Either way I like mine, if nothing more than the looks. Not sure if they are cost effective for cooling since most of the heat comes through the radiator anyway. I do believe they keep some of the cold air off you during the winter.

I purchased a set of them from JC whitney several years ago...these were black and made of some kind of thick plastic. I modified it some and it works great for me. I used that peg that helps hold that chrome trim piece on the back of the front fender. No drilling on the stock fender at all. I did not use the rear at all...the shape is kinda funny looking to me. Take a look and see if this is maybe what you are looking for. I also has the Long Horns and love em.

Absolutely agree...mine started at 870 miles while backing it in the shed. Plenty of Moly grease on the drive pins will fix it right up.

I trimmed the bottom off mine...custom I guess you could say... I put the highway pegs where I wanted them...then trimmed the bottom of the vents to fit.

We used to run this water wetter stuff in our race bikes...I am a believer in it for that application for sure. We used infrared thermometers to see the difference in the temps. It did make a difference with smaller cooling systems to save weight. I am not sure if it would benefit the Venture that much since it has a pretty good size radiator anyway... but it definitely cannot hurt on those 100 'F days stuck in traffic.

You misunderstood. As you probably know we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard when we carry... We have to be in control of our emotions at all times. We cannot show any aggression toward other folks while armed. If I got into a shouting match with the owner and managers after they told me "they did not work on the brakes so how could they get brake fluid on the fairing" (they removed the engine and the clutch takes brake fluid also)..."That must have been done before it was delivered to them"..."and they did not break the lower wind vent...I must have done it unloading it from the trailer"...and they called the law...I would be big in trouble. So I knew I had to get out of there before I started SCREAMING AT THEM IDIOTS THAT SCREWED UP MY BIKE and I lost control of my emotions. Nobody thought about shooting anybody yet. You just cannot act like a heathen while armed, you must set an example for all. An armed society is a polite society.

As some of you my remember I had a rear shaft seal go out on my 2007 Midnight Venture and lost a lot of final drive grease before I noticed it. When I went in to investigate I found what looked like the upper pinion bearing gone. I was gonna change it myself but there were several special tools needed to get to that bearing. Plus the Warranty is still good till 2013. I called the dealer and tried to get them to let me bring the final drive but no...no they had the have the entire bike, so I put it back together and borrowed a trailer, then hauled it to the closest dealer. When I dropped it off they told me it would be about a month to fix it. I was sad but left it any way. The next couple of weeks they called and said I had an engine oil leak on the #! cylinder that they were gonna pull the engine to fix it. They said the base gasket was leading? They were gonna replace the drive seal coming out of the engine also. Warranty would cover everything. Ok that sounds good to me. Next week they call and say they waiting on the lower rear pinion bearings cause it came apartt when they removed the pinion to change the front pinion bearing. 4/20 I picked it up after almost 5 weeks at the dealership. Yah:big-grin-emoticon: I hauled it in a short enclosed trailer so I took my windshield off so it would go in it. I also left the rear bags off and after market exhaust (put the stock back on) to keep this stuff from rolloing around in the floor of the repair shop. I carried all the parts, since I was gonna ride it back home. I was putting my windshield back on when I started noticing stuff. Bad stuff.. I inspected the bike... 1. It had a fine coat of oil all over the engine and most of the rest of the bike. 2. The left lower wind vent was cracked. We had some words and they claim that did not happen while it was at the dealership cause they did not work on the brakes. (they pulled the engine and had to disconnect the clutch) I left after they had took some pictures of the "alleged" damage. I had to get out of there as I was heavly armed with lots of ammo and afraid there was gonna be a mass killing if I stayed there much longer. On the way home the bike did not have much power at all (seemed like it had a potato in the exhaust)...the the left floor board seemed to be titled to the left????? The rear end or something is howling..sounds like a 5 ton truck again. Lots of engine noise...maybe valve clicking under hard acceleration. After I got home after 95 miles of hard hard running. I am sick... I cannot not believe this is happening to me. I smell some oil burning some so I immediately get a infrared thermometer to read the temp of the rear end. I read 145 to 165 'F. The exhaust in that area is no more than 120. Oil smell I later learn is coming from the valve covers blowing oil on to the exhaust. I crank up to carry it to a local body shop to see what it is gonna take to get the paint fixed and when I put it into first gear, I notice the entire left floor board moves. I get off and see the bolts about the fall out. That is it...I am scared to ride it now. I inspected the bike again... 4. The left floor board bolts about the fall out. 5. Two bolts missing from the exhaust. 6. Valve cover gaskets leaking at all corners...on even spraying oil on exhaust and left battery cover. 7. Left battery cover got a to the metal scratch about 1 inch long. 8. Clutch seems to be grabbing. Maybe needs bleeding. 9. Chrome clutch over on the right side has a scratch in it like they drug the engine across concrete. . I was scared to ride it now due to all the loose bolts and no telling what else is loose. Pull it in to the shop and start tearing it down. Mainly to get these valve covers to stop leaking and look the timing. 10. The right air filter mounting bolts were finger tight and backed out. 11. Rubber clamp on the air flter housing was loose and spinning, along with the rubber hose that connects it to the intake...these were spinning also. 12. LEft air filter mounting screw was finger tight. 13. clamp on the left front carb missed the carb mount completely and there was a gap you could put your little finger in on the inside of the cab. 14. vaccum line ran through the radiator fan... 15. Found the timing on the rear cylinder off by one tooth front was perfect. I set the float levels in the carbs while I was in there also. I think they might have mixed up the valve shims causing the valve noise, so that is still going on. I did not think to check the valve clearance (since i did not have shims to fix it. and I thinking the timing off was causing the noise...but the valve noise it still there after the timing was corrected. Bike runs a lot better with power now, but still noisy as hell. I tore down the rear end last night and pulled all the exhaust off looking for exhaust leaks. I did the usually grease job on the rear end hoping to quiet it down some. Rear end feels fine and most of the bolts were tight on it... surprise...surprise...it had gear oil in it. Hope to get it back together today to see what the outcome of that is. The dealer wanted me to bring it back to them so they could fix it... and break some more stuff. I think the bike fell off the work stand to the left...left mirror was bad out of adjustment but not damaged. This would explain the broken wind vent and scratches on the edge of the front fairing along with the brake fluid damage. I do not like other folks working on my stuff anyway and I was debating to just swap out the rear end from a VMAX rear end when this happed any way. I may still have to do this to quiet it down anyway. The dealer has agreed to replace the bolts missing as well as the broken lower faring vents but I have not got them yet. What surprised me about all of this...all the mechanics in this shop have gray hair...no kids working back there. I am not sure I can trust this bike any more. I had a trip planned for Colorado but not so sure I can honestly feel secure with it on the road for a week. I believe I will worry about it the entire trip. I am just sick about the bike. So sick I might just sell it to get it out of my shop. I cannot stand to look at it. As you can see in my signature...heavily sedated for your protection, and a certain Yamaha dealer...

BS...

I am really glad to have it back but...been gone almost 5 weeks. Seems they must have splattered some brake fluid on my front fairing causing the paint to curl up in 5 spots. These spots are on the upper left and range from the size of a raisin to the size of a small wart. They also broke the Plexiglass on my left lower fairing vent... I pointed this all out to them before I left the dealership. They said they were gonna work with me on resolving these issues... They are already talking about getting the guy down the street to paint those spots:no-no-no:...I was talking about replace the entire front fairing. They are determined to keep this bike away from me all dang summer. I rode it home about 95 miles...when I got home. I smelled something so I got to looking around. The final drive was hot hot...I got one of them infared thermometers and measured 165'F in the hottest point on the final drive unit. Exhaust was only 115 to 120 back around that area. The dealer said they are not sure how hot these units get...I have yet to check it out to see if it has any oil in it at all. Some of what I was smelling was oil leaking from the valve cover gaskets. 3 of 4 cylinders were seeping oil there. Not a lot but enough you would ruin your Sunday pants if you wiped your finger on them Then I found a bolt missing that clamps the exhaust below the original horn and another one near here about to fall out. Other side same bolt missing. I was going to carry it to the local body shop to see what it was gonna cost to repaint the front fairing...if they are gonna pay to paint it, I want the guy I trust to paint it...then I noticed the left floor board was loose. Both bolts so loose you could tighten them with your hand. I called the dealer back and they said they would send me the missing bolts. I am afraid to ride it till I can go through the entire bike to make sure everything it tight and ready to go. If that floor board would have came off on the interstate at 85 MPH...I could have been killed. You are probably wondering how the valve cover gaskets were involved in a rear end gear warranty work. they said there was an oil leak at the base of the left rear cylinder and removed the engine to change this base gasket. Then they went back in to re time the bike since they said it was ticking. the bike feels to me like it does not have the power it did before...I believe the timing is still off. I will check this soon. They said they would have to talk to the owner before they decide how to handle this. i am expecting a call tomorrow or I am calling them again. I am sure hoping they make this all right...or it will be WAR...full out WAR you hear me. I will call everybody and their brother with Yamaha...I will tell every forum on the internet about their poor work and what they did to me and my bike. I will write and mail letters and send emails till I run out of sent email storage space. Now I am calm, I did not act ugly while I was at the dealership and will maintain that till they try to run over me. I am waiting to see how they try handle this. Fingers crossed...

Update on the Dealer Warranty repair. The dealer called yesterday and said they were gonna have to pull the engine... to fix it. They think the oil was coming from the drive shaft of the engine. Since the oil was dripping off the frame near that area. They want to replace that drive shaft seal coming out of the engine. (it smelled like gear oil and was difinitely gear oil.) They said do not worry about anything warranty was gonna take care of all if it. I never noticed any engine oil missing..always check it before and after riding. They found the tour up seal on the drive shaft on the gear end. I tried to explain that the oil was traveling up the drive shaft tube and spilling out at the engine side of the swing arm. I re-inforced the fact that there was so much slack in the pinion bearing and seems they are not to much worried about that. But I think I convinced them to change both the pinion bearings since we do not know how much oil was in the rearend when I found this issue. Said they were ordering parts Monday and should have it back to me around 4/1/11. One thing ...looks like I will get it back earlier than they first said but...seems they may be working on Yamaha for some shop time. I guess that is not my concern as long as it is fixed on their nickel and back to me in a reasonable time. I have not yet defined the term reasonable yet. I hope I do not have to address the term reasonable...

Yep this is souring on my stomach more and more everyday. They did call me yesterday afternoon late, to ask me what was wrong with the bike and what work was I requesting...??? I guess the service manager did not write what I told him and I guess I should have not wiped the oil off the final drive, exhaust or cleaned all that oil out of the drive shaft tube. I just might wind up in jail over this...

Nope I tried that angle. He said put it all back together and bring the whole bike. Do not bring it in pieces. I got it down there...5 hours of my time...$93.81 of diesel. They said they would try to get it back to me in a MONTH. So April 15 I should be spending another $100 to go get it. I am not sure I am gonna let it stay there much over a month. Tell me again how good this 5 year warranty is?????????????

I put a dial indicator on it...just to see how much slack is in it. I measured 28 thousands...but dang it seems like it is more than that. Same up and down as side to side. Feeling that slack it seems too loose for me...but measuring it...it don't seem like it is too much. Still leaning on the Vmax rear end. $300 exchange and can have it back on the road in 5 days. How long is it gonna take the dealer to look at it...work the warranty issues...get time to work on it...then finally fix it. 3-6 weeks? I dread this already. I generally hate other folks working on my bike also.

Yep it is still under warranty Closest dealer is 2 hours away...figured it was something simple like an oil seal or something...not much worth my trouble of finding a trailer and hauling it so far for a $3 oil seal...unless it is serious. I am afraid this is serious. I talked to a dealer a while ago...and he said he would replace parts in the rear end that is bad... ...I am not so sure I am good with that. With only 22000 miles...if the pinion bearing failed prematurely (what I suspect)...then there may be more that is worn inside that rear end. It has screamed since I got it new. No dealers would pay attention to me about it screaming, so I put loud pipes on it and turn the radio up and ride it. I am hoping for a new rear end. I am about this far from buying a VMAX rear end and be done with it.

Saturday we rode down to Hammond LA to eat some crawfish, It was a spur of the moment day trip, there and back. Crawfish were good but kinda expensive. On the way back...the I noticed the normal SCREAM seemed to get louder. The closer I got to the house, it was almost unbearable...you really need ear plugs now.:puzzled::puzzled: When I got home I parked it outside the shop to let it cool off before putting it in the shed and noticed a puddle of oil about 2" round under it when I moved it into the shop. It smelled like gear oil. Got to looking...oil all over the rear wheel and tire...and some on the frame under the bike. Today I got a chance to tear it down to see what is going on...looks like it was leaking oil at the flange where the pumpkin connects to the drive shaft tube. Yep the seal on the drive shaft is toast but it was replaced not to long ago during a tire change. Pulled the pumpkin off and the cup where the drive shaft slips into seems very loose. Like maybe the outer pinion bearing is gone. It seems it has about 1/8" slack in it. I think on the drawings it is called the gear coupling. About how much slack should be in the Gear Coupling. I do not remember any slack there in the past but maybe I am wrong. I need somebody to tell me what they remember on their final drive. I already called a dealer and he said bring it...but wouldn't you know this would happen in the best time of the year to ride. HELP me out with some advice

Took a drive down to Meridian Yamaha today... They are Closing the doors. Big signs say Store Closing. 40% off all accessories. They still got a lot of stuff to sell. Lots of helmets, leather, and textile jackets. Also they got a lot of bikes that they did not have a month ago. They now have a 2010 Raider S like I was hunting and they said they did not have one and was not gonna order any due to all the 2009 Raiders they had in the show room. They got a 2010 Black Venture, 2011 blue venture, 2007 used midnight venture and another venture gold and red with one of them bolt on trike kits. Got 2 of the new 2011 Strikers and a 2010 stratoliner deluxe. Had 3 Rhinos, Many many 4 wheelers, scooters, and other bikes. Had a couple of used Hardleys in there, Street Glide and a Dana. I never could get a answer about if that 40% counted on the bike prices...so I do not know what they are going for. They always asked me to pay retail plus about $500-800 in fees for the bikes. Shipping, set up, documentation fees. I hate it but I believe they did it to their self. I was looking for a textile jacket once. I found a Tour Master Draft sheer in there I really liked. It was a ventilated jacket with all the liners, rain and cold weather. They were asking $289 for it. Web had them all day long for $159 with all the liners.

If I can catch a warm day when I get back home from work..I might just ride down there to see what is going on. I know the one and only salesman pretty good. I shop the bike models there regularly... I will ask him and report back here.

I have not heard that. I liver 37 miles from them. I have never never been able to buy a bike from them at a good price. Bardwell or Hamilton Ala beat them to death every time. I have an 09 Rhino sport and tried to by it there. I saved almost $2000 buying it at another dealer. Sept last year I was in the market for a 2010 Raider S for my sons graduation. I tried to buy from them. They were $1500 more than the other dealers before they started adding all those shipping, documentation and set up fees. I bought it from a dealer in Alabama. I saved enough money to put some chrome wheels on it... They do a great job putting tires on my wheels. The service guys have gray hair so I trust them a little more. I have never had any other service done there but I think I would trust them a little to touch my bike.

I prefer not to have the GPS audio at all. I know many do it but I do not and I even keep the self contained GPS audio turned down so I cannot hear it. I glance at it once in a while, just like I glance at my mirrors to see when my next turn will be. The screen always reads "next turn xx miles right or left" I choose to do this cause I occasionally see something and take off in that direction to explore...then the audio drives me nuts with "Recalulating" "Recalculating" everytime you turn on a road that is not on your route and does this till you get back on track. Now you are looking for your next turn while trying to turn down the volume of this strange woman telling you that you messed up. When you are finished exploring...just look that the screen to see how far till your next turn to get you back on the path. If I made a mistake and took the wrong turn, I do not need to add to the confusion of some lady I do not even know telling me that she is having to recalculating the route and repeating it constantly. The wife can tell I took a wrong turn if she wants to, but that other lady in the GPS box needs to shut the hell up. I can see the screen and get back on track rather quickly if I want...or not. During all this the Mp3 player, XM or FM never interupted during this time... Works great for me. Try it without it and I think you will like it. Maybe a little less stress on you while in traffic up to your neck. I use the same GPS in the car or Truck without GPS volume and make it just fine.

The WAR would be started due to that sign. There would always be dead grass forming the words X$$ HOLE across their front yard big enough to be seen from space. I would remove the mufflers completely from the bike so make sure they heard me at all hours of the night. I would also vandalize that sign for them. I have little tolerance for stuff like that if you try to be considerate of them.

Just wait till the BMW K1600GTL comes out...160 HP of comfortable touring machine with all the bells and whistles. I cannot wait to see how fast it will go on a demo ride. Somebody may need to get me out of jail...

Why is it all the neat stuff happens when I am at work?

Plus one on the Crossbreed. I swear by them. I have 2 of them....one for my Glock 36 and one for my main carry 1911 45ACP NRA membership gets a discount. Increase the size of you pants by at least 1 inch...that helps also. Remember...carrying is comforting...not comfortable.