Short lived Spyder experience

[kep-up]

Looks pretty obvious to me. Either the filter bolts weren't torqued properly or they were overtightened and stripped the threads in the aluminum. Either way, it's a problem for the service department to correct and pay for all expenses.

[Peter Aawen]

Yup, that'd do it!!

The head on that loose stud looks pretty much savaged too, I'd guess someone used a power tool on it but didn't seat the driver properly so they 'thought' it was tight when it was really just stripped! Back to the dealer, & just hope it doesn't take too long to get sorted?!?

[pegasus1300]

Looks to me like whoever did that service,that was his first time ever picking up a wrench or else he needs to find another career.

[Many brands]

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. Put the palels - back. Show them No pictures. It is their doing - let them deal with it, and make it right. (YOU NEVER TOUCHED IT !!)

[oldgoat]

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. Put the palels - back. Show them No pictures. It is their doing - let them deal with it, and make it right. (YOU NEVER TOUCHED IT !!)

But it looks like he has cleaned the oil off.

[zsisk]

But it looks like he has cleaned the oil off.

I did not clean anything. Just can't tell in the pics. But trust me, there is oil all over everything down the left side of the bike from front to back. Including my boot and riding suit.

[Ben Burped]

Yup, that'd do it!!

The head on that loose stud looks pretty much savaged too, I'd guess someone used a power tool on it but didn't seat the driver properly so they 'thought' it was tight when it was really just stripped! Back to the dealer, & just hope it doesn't take too long to get sorted?!?

My dealer's BRP mechanic showed me that he "torques" with his DeWalt . He doesn't use a torque wrench. After he ripped three plastic tabs off of the rear side panel, I haven't ever had them touch my RT.

[bushrat]

Yup, that'd do it!!

The head on that loose stud looks pretty much savaged too, I'd guess someone used a power tool on it but didn't seat the driver properly so they 'thought' it was tight when it was really just stripped! Back to the dealer, & just hope it doesn't take too long to get sorted?!?

... and I'd guess that the work on your Spyder was done by an apprentice or recently-graduated/newly-employed mechanic as opposed to a senior/'old school' type. Too many young guys are tempted to pick up an air gun or powered rachet-drive when a proper torque wrench is called for; they haven't learned that speedy, lazy effort often produces bad results, especially when re-inserting things like oil pan drain plugs or spark plugs. I suffered a similar fate some years back.

I drove a Honda Prelude at the time; only ever had it serviced at the selling dealership, and almost always by one favorite mechanic. That is, until he went on his honeymoon at the same time I came in for service. I needed an oil change, minor tune-up and new plugs. The guy who was assigned was new. Job done, I took my car home (37 miles) on a Friday afternoon, then back into work on Monday morning. Two miles from my office there was a loud bang and I suddenly lost compression and power. A spark plug had blown completely out of the block and hit the hood (bonnet for you Aussies). Luckily, I was only a mile from the dealer, so I limped there.

Long story short, there was a lot of defensive "not our responsibility" from the service manager, but after some to-ing and fro-ing, an agreement of sorts was worked out. The garage would supply parts and I was to pay the labor to fix the motor, which required pulling the block and re-tooling the head. A week's time. So, the re-build began. Meanwhile, my usual mechanic returned, and upon seeing my car (which he knew well), got hold of me and quietly fed me some very interesting background. That very week, the shop had fired the young guy who worked on my car. Seems he had caused several other problems. Someone saw him using an air gun to replace drain plugs in oil pans; he had managed to strip a couple, causing leaks and catastrophic oil losses such as OP has just suffered. It was a safe assumption that he had used the same air gun to install my new spark plugs; obviously he got one cross-threaded. A second one was rather mangled, as well. The work order produced by the garage itself proved to support my case; the mechanic had a number, and his # was on the report as having done all work. With evidence of similar badly-performed work on other vehicles, the service manager soon gave up denying responsibility. It was accepted that stripped threads caused the spark plug to blow out of the block. In the end, the dealer came good for the complete job - parts and labor. The culprit disappeared and my car went back into the care of my favorite mechanic ever after, for as long as I owned it. I later gave it to my kid sister with 225,000 kms on it, and she drove it another 325,000 kms before selling (still going).

So, to the OP: go to the garage and quietly, persistently, politely, but forcefully, raise Hell. The evidence of your Spyder speaks for itself - someone did not do the proper job re-fastening the pieces. Human error on the part of a mechanic, not physical or product deficiency on the part of the machine. Maybe you'll be lucky like me and be able to point to a work order that establishes when and by whom work was done on the misaligned parts. Give the garage an opportunity to work out a satisfactory solution, but stand your ground if or where necessary. If they're good professionals, they'll make it right and get you happily back on the road. We're all capable of making mistakes; the need is to accept responsibility and then put things right. Good luck. And after that, enjoy your Spyder as it should be.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

There is no torque spec for the hydraulic control module oil filter cover screws that I can find in the manual for the 2013 RT I had. That's because of the O-ring. I suspect the tech cross threaded the one screw, or just did not have it in all the way. The oil pressure then pushed the cover back giving space for the pressure to blow the O-ring out of its groove.

To me it's clearly a technician screw up.

[Ccol]

AH....It looks like the retaining bolts have been mixed up with the engine oil filter....the engine filter bolts are longer than the bolts on the transmission filter....looks like one of the bolts on the trans-filter has (bottomed out from being too long) allowing the O ring & the oil to escape under pressure ... blowing the oil up over the hot exhaust causing the smoke...
Lucky it didn't catch fire......

[zsisk]

...

So, to the OP: go to the garage and quietly, persistently, politely, but forcefully, raise Hell. The evidence of your Spyder speaks for itself - someone did not do the proper job re-fastening the pieces. Human error on the part of a mechanic, not physical or product deficiency on the part of the machine. Maybe you'll be lucky like me and be able to point to a work order that establishes when and by whom work was done on the misaligned parts. Give the garage an opportunity to work out a satisfactory solution, but stand your ground if or where necessary. If they're good professionals, they'll make it right and get you happily back on the road. We're all capable of making mistakes; the need is to accept responsibility and then put things right. Good luck. And after that, enjoy your Spyder as it should be.

Should be easy to figure out who did it. Small dealership with only one mechanic!!! Older gentleman and well liked for his work by several people in my area. Many people go to them even though there is a much larger dealership closer. I went there on their recommendations. I am hoping they just take it in and get it done. I figure I am not asking for much. New o-ring and re-install. If it was stripped, fix that as well. Drain any remaining oil and refill. And of course clean everything.

[zsisk]

AH....It looks like the retaining bolts have been mixed up with the engine oil filter....the engine filter bolts are longer than the bolts on the transmission filter....looks like one of the bolts on the trans-filter has (bottomed out from being too long) allowing the O ring & the oil to escape under pressure ... blowing the oil up over the hot exhaust causing the smoke...
Lucky it didn't catch fire......

Where I am really lucky is that I caught it before it dumped all the oil and possibly locked up. Also very lucky that I hit the red light I was at where it started smoking. Another mile and I would have been on highway doing 70 to 80 mph. Good chance of it locking up and possibly a wreck.

[BajaRon]

Another pic from further out showing one of the bolts not in correctly and part of the o-ring poking out.

I would say this is the source of your problem. A common mistake is to tighten one bolt all the way down and then tighten the 2nd bolt. This will not give you an equal pressure seal all the way around the O-Ring and it will blow out on the side last tightened. But I doubt that a skilled mechanic would make this mistake.

Some try to tighten the 2nd bolt enough to get an even seal which usually ends up stripping out the threads on the 2nd bolt.

Or it could be that they simply did not snug up one or both of the bolts. And the suggested (Swapping Engine Filter bolts with the Trans Filter bolts) is also a real possibility. It's good to do one filter at a time to avoid this.

It is very important to snug up the O-Rings evenly by going back and forth turning each bolt just a few turns. It is also not necessary to get these bolts really tight. Just a good snug is fine. Use a tool with very little leverage advantage so you get a good feel when you tighten them. Using a hex head on a wrench with a long handle is inviting disaster.

Hopefully, you don't have a stripped bolt and it will take no more than a properly installed O-Ring to fix.

[Beaudog]

Either that long bolt was not tightened or it is stripped and the oil pressure pushed out the O ring.

[R FUN]

I also had that problem on the very first service done by the BRP selling dealer. The mechanic stripped the trans. filter screw and it let go blowing oil onto the exaust pipe causing lots of smoke and caught on fire. I got the fire out before causing damage. The shop admitted it was not there first time the mechanic did that. Needless to say it has never been back in there shop. When I service the machine I do one filter at a time so do not mix up screws but possibly they got mixed up on the first service. Can someone tell me, is it the long or short screw for the transmission filter.
Roger

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Looks like you missed the pics of what he found. The HCM oil filter cover was not snugged up, was pushed open, and the O-ring blew out.

[Papahoosh]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience, hope things work out for you so you can get back on the saddle.

[murphybrown]

Well I have had my 08 for 2 weeks. The first week it sat. Second week it was in the shop getting serviced. Got it back home last Saturday. Titled and tagged Monday. Rode to work Tuesday and Wednesday 60 miles round trip each day. On the way in this morning sitting at a traffic light it starts billowing smoke. Pull into the gas station at the traffic light and it dumps all the oil on the ground.

I have wanted a Spyder for so long and now not so much. I might be jumping the gun and it may be something easy and a fluke, but I doubt it. Shop said it was in great shape and ran very nice with only 13k miles on it. Definitely has f*ucked my whole day already.

It was a tech error after oil change. I was traveling thru WY...had oil changed about 600 miles before at highway speed all the smoke and I was sure my Spyder was on fire...ever seen an old lady go from 70 mph to side of road and standing a long way away in 10 seconds flat. Yep only the antelope enjoyed the show. Had to call rollback. finally got me to a dealer and yep plug not replaced properly...great dealer in NE owned up to the "oh crap" moment....yep took much $ and time (but hey I'm retired and life is a journey) and eventually all was made good.
If I was you I would be taking a hard look at work done at dealership.