• Ciao Guest - You’ve landed at the ultimate Guzzi site. NEW FORUM REGISTRATIONS REQUIRE EMAIL ACTIVATION - CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER - Use the CONTACT above if you need help. New to the forum? For all new members, we require ONE post in the Introductions section at the bottom, in order to post in most of the other sections. ALWAYS TRY A SEARCH BEFORE STARTING A NEW TOPIC - Most questions you may have, have likely been already answered. DON'T BE A DRIVE-BY POSTER: As a common courtesy, check back in and reply within 24 hours, or your post will be deleted. Note there's decades of heavily experienced Guzzi professionals on this site, all whom happily give endless amounts of their VALUABLE time for free; BE COURTEOUS AND RESPECTFUL!
  • Be sure to see the GTM STORE link also above for our 700+ product inventory, including OEM parts and many of our 100% Made-in-SoCal-USA GTM products and engine kits. In SoCal? Click the SERVICE tab above for the best in service, tires, tuning and installation of our products or custom work, and don't miss our GT MotoCycles® (not) art on the BUILDS tab above. WE'RE HERE ONLINE ONLY - NO PHONE CALLS MADE OR RECEIVED - DO NOT EMAIL AND ASK QUESTIONS OR ASK TO CALL YOU.
  • There is ZERO tolerance on personal attacks and ANY HYPERLINKS to PRODUCT(S) or other competing website(s), including personal pages, social media or other Forums. This ALSO INCLUDES ECU DIAGnostic software, questions and mapping. We work very hard to offer commercially supported products and to keep info relevant here. First offense is a note, second is a warning, third time will get you banned from the site. We don't have the time to chase repeat (and ignorant) offenders. This is NOT a social media platform; It's an ad-free, privately funded website, in small help with user donations. Be sure to see the GTM STORE link above; ALL product purchases help support the site, or you can upgrade your Forum profile or DONATE via the link above.

Sad day

Gary wrote:
As the song goes.........."Allway's look on the bright side of life" hehehe... if you know the Monty Python song, bet your singing it all day long now.
Click to expand...

Yea, but i'm stuck on the "lifes a piece of $hit, when you look at it" part. :angry:

I get the 04 EV just as the hydro cam problems hit the fan, now this just as I'm thinking about getting a Stelvio.

I'm not a fan of adding spooge to oil, but I have to wonder if a bit of zinc added, at least during break in, wouln't be a good idea.
 
Once again could I suggest that those who know the step-by-step procedure for checking the valve clearance document it for those of us who dont? it was published on the old site, but got lost...I can handle the spannering but dont know the how to align the timing etc..mine is uk sourced and making me nervous....
 
It seems there is a bad batch of parts that made it into the Stelvios. I'm not saying the adjustment service issue is not relavent or unimportant but if cam followers are disappearing that should be pretty easy sign to detect a trend. Are the UK bikes somehow set up differently from the others?

Also just curious Pete what were the circumstances regarding the 8v Griso's cam launch?
 
I have already rejected one Stelvio as you know, and am a little concerned obviously about my second one, however at the moment at 1222 miles she is sweet without any undue ticking from top end.

I think it might be a good idea to collect vin and engine numbers from the guys who have had failures to see if there is any kind of obvious sequence, which could point to cam batches. The other strange point is that there does not seem to be any kind of given mileage that a failure might occur, which goes against the bad cam batch idea, and more to possible bad maintainance of clearances, and I do stress possible. Gary had a failure at 10000 miles. If the hardening on a cam batch was not up to scratch, then surly they would all fail at around the same mileage, or there abouts given slightly different riding conditions


My motor was wrong within the first mile, I new something was wrong, checked the clearances to find they were sloppy, sorted but still made terrible clacking noise for a further 395 then rejected it. It did not fail at this point but I knew it would at some point. However I think there were more than cams and valves at play in mine ! A Guzzi Technical guy had a listen and a ride, did not say much but I ended up being offered an alternative bike, so something was wrong. The cams were all inspected and the lobes were not showing any scuffing or damage, the rest of the engine is going to be stripped down and checked, at the present I have not heard any more news.

Which number is it best to get an indication of sequence would it be the VIN or the Engine Number
And does anyone know how the VIN breaks down ie what each part of it relates to.

Cheers Nige
 
Loftyjohn Sorry to hear about the second Stelvio, Nige If the cams or followers aren't manufactured or hardened/ heat treated properly, there isn't necessarily any magic time or mileage that they would fail ( if ever) . From my experience over the last twenty years maintaining helicopters, overhauling their drive trains ect. The most common thing to occur when there is a bad batch of something is for a few to fail or cause a problem and for the manufacturer to find the problem area in the manufacturing process and recall the run of the part. Without the majority of the affected parts ever being a problem or failing in service. I have also been wonderin... since I haven't taken possesion of my Stelvio as of yet... What kind of oil do MG recommend be run in their engines? and is this what is commonly being used in the UK or is there a popular flavour of Lubricant that is used instead?

FBC
 
Recommended oil is Agip 10W60.

My mechanic uses French oil Cofran 10W60, which is slightly cheaper and has a higher quality.
 
The Italian paper machines I service use Krytox Dupont Flouride grease at £ 140 per 800g tube. if there ids a bearing failure and the customer has used slightly cheaper Lubricon grease,.........warrenty is invalid.
Just a thought.
 
Yes Gary I agree with that......however I know of a few dealers that do not use the correct oil, maybe the right viscosity but not the correct recommended brand, so how would we the customer stand there, if some kind of failure occured and the oil was checked ?
As our (the customer) responsibilty during warranty period is to present for service at the correct time/mileage to a dealership.

Cheers Nige
 
I would fight the case that I had presented the bike to the dealer for the recommended service. If I did'nt ask for cheaper substitutes then the it would be down to the dealer to fight it out with MG.
After the recent cam follower failures I would have liked a full strip down at least. However if there is a further failure I will be suggesting to the dealer that it could be partly due to the swarf from the initial cam failure being left in the engine.

Let's face it, Stelvio's are not cheap, therefore you would expect some sort of quality for your money. My 2003 Russian Ural did better than the Guzzi, reliability wise. We are now experiencing 70's Honda trouble.
 
Worse — if this persists and gets press, imagine the stories. Guzzi try to bring out another "modern" 4V engine, and fail again ...
 
I'm picking my new stelvio up this week and mentioned to my dealer about the problem. . . . he has had a couple of people say about it and called (what i belived was) the UK importer and asked about the problem. . . . they said they had only heard about a couple of bikes with problems ???? Like you said RJVB if the press gets hold of this it could turn out to be a nightmare for guzzi !!!
 
Remember the CX 500, no one wanted one when they were new. Now sorted and becoming a classic.
That dosen't help the first owners.
At this present time I cant see why peeps are buying Stelvio's, I wouldn't.
 
Well lets hope ive got a good one !!! its a really ugly bike but it some how took my fancy :blink: i read all the mcn and what ever i could on them and all looked so good until i came to this site :S lets just hope its only a small few bikes with problems ?

Any idea how many have been sold in the UK since it was launched ???
 
Craig, reject your bike at least till the spring, you aint going to do many miles. Mine is now in the garage,sleeping, doing a few miles a week,(100). the Pan Euro is doing the winter miles. Dont hope it's a good'un, not for £9k. Guzzi have to address this cam problem.
 
Gary wrote:
Craig, reject your bike at least till the spring, you aint going to do many miles. Mine is now in the garage,sleeping, doing a few miles a week,(100). the Pan Euro is doing the winter miles. Dont hope it's a good'un, not for £9k. Guzzi have to address this cam problem.
Click to expand...

What bloody 'Cam Problem'??? There have been a few reported issues of tappet failure. So far NOBODY has been able to sheet the issue home to any one thing! We don't even know if the bloody bikes have been serviced properly.

People read a couple of messages on an internet board and all of a sudden there is a 'Problem' that means people shouldn't buy the bike. I mean??? Fuck off! How many happy, contented, thrilled 8V owners are ther out there? By now thousands! and six known bikes wth problems?

People seem to like the 'Cachet' of owning an 'Exclusive', low production number bike like a Guzzi but every little problem that appears is blown out of all proportion.

How many BMW's have left their owners stranded with buggered final drives? Hundreds, if not thousands! How many Kawasaki owners have been stranded by porous heads leading to cam failure? How many Suzuki and Yamaha owners have been stranded by failed electrical systems? I hate to think! But a few tappet failures on a few Stelvios and the sky is falling and nobody should buy or ride them.

Guzzi are generally quite good at publicising major issues, I get regular updates through the Service MotoGuzzi site and if i detect something i think needs addressing I give feedback, immediately. My 8V remains a tediously reliable joy and believe me I don't give it an easy life. If there is a problem with some run of parts it will get addressed, there is nothing to my mind fundamentally flawed with the new top end, I'll be the first to bring it to peoples notice if I find there is.

My advice? Choose wisely where you buy your bike from. While it must be frustrating for the company it isn't their fault that many dealers don't have a 'Mechanic' worthy of the name and the bosses are willing to skimp on service.

Yes, before anybody asks I HAVE had a bad day, but I also just get sick of blockheads bad mouthing Guzzi. In 30 years I've NEVER been left stranded by a Guzzi which is more than I can say for just about any other marque I've owned or ridden!

Pete
 
Yes I agree no need to panic folks. I was chatting to Jason at Moto Strada on Friday- he has had one bike with the cam problem so far, and is aware of other failures in the UK and is expecting a bulletin from Guzzi soon on this matter.

If there is an issue, Guzzi will sort it under warranty. I'm going to keep riding mine and enjoy it rather than getting paranoid over what may / may not happen.
 
Let's not get into a shouting match, guys!

Some thoughts about the "stats" above, to help me put them into perspective:

* thousands of Stelvio owners? I don't know if the number sold until now has been published already, but thousands seems very large given the yearly total output of the factory in Mandello!

* Conversely, how many 8Vs have you sold and/or serviced, Pete?

* The issue with the GS final drives is known and talked about on the forums I've come across. You'll always find people who keep swearing by BMW, though, as apparently their attitude of not acknowledging the issue publicly and widely seems to work and keep the masses convinced that BMW makes perfect machines...

What I'm saying is that we now have 3 observations: a sample about 6 bikes with identical problems all coming from one population; Pete's sample of a size unknown to me coming from a different population, of bikes without problems and a sample of the remainder of all Stelvios sold of which we only hear enthusiastic reports. Which we also heard from the owners of the problem bikes, before they played up!

That's all we know. A specific kind of failure observed to date only on a specific market. We don't know as yet the reason for the failure, and it's unlikely that it has been possible to determine the reason from such a small sample (6) not all dissected by the same expert. I'm absolutely not a mechanic, but I think it's safe to say that, because the contrary would I think point to a design failure that would have caused much more wide-spread failure. (Unless the overwhelming majority of Stelvios have been sold to the UK??)

So we can only guess, and I think it's perfectly all right to do so as long as we don't jump to conclusions or start preaching gospel. I think it's also perfectly OK to express concern about one's future or current Stelvio, what an issue like this *could* mean if not addressed, etc. As long as we realise we know hardly anything, that can be done without bad-mouthing anyone or anything but one's bad luck or possible foolishness to be seduced by a "V1.0.0" new design...

And for those who feel like jumping ship after a disappointing experience: let them. There'll always be those who own 5 bikes in 3 years, or even 3 in 5y ... and if there's a Guzzi among those 5 or 3 bikes, it only means that the brand is starting to sell more widely. And that someone can get a (hopefully) sorted 2nd-hand Stelvio for a good price ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top