Martins Yamaha

Mr long dropped his unit off with us on 7/20/2019 with the complaint of a loud knocking noise. MR Long at that time was informed of our diagnosis procedure which is as follows: Upon drop off with us you give authorize for our techs to spend 1hr time to doing diagnostic work necessary to find the ... cause of the issue for which you brought the unit in for, we charge a flat fee of 1hr $95.00 for this process. After this first 1hr diagnostics on Mr longs unit we found a very loose cam chain and noted that it was slapping around and probably what was causing the knocking noise. My tech noted that the cam chain tensioner was completely extended and there was still a ton of slack in the chain, in my professional opinion this was a clear indicator that there was more going on than just a worn cam chain since its highly unlikely for a chain to become this loose from just wear & tear without breaking first. At this point we stopped work on the unit and called Mr. long again, to inform him of our diagnosis, discuss his current bill, and to see how he would like to proceed. At this point if he so chose to stop all work he was informed his bill would be $95.00.

Next we informed MR. Long that we would need to do further tear down and Diagnosis in order to give him the more accurate itemized quote that would be needed to repair his unit. But before doing this work we asked that he stop by the dealership (which he did) so that we could show him the damaged parts as this can help the customer sometimes understand and comprehend what we are explaining and how and why certain components cannot be reused, as was the case with his unit. We showed him what we were required to do in order to fix or to correct the problems we had found so far and what options he had. After this meeting he was fully informed, he was given printed quotes (see attached document) and was even advised by me to expect that our next estimate would be much higher as I expected to find much more damage if we went any further, he was also reminded that if found more damage meant more money in repairs.

At the conclusion of this meeting MR. Long authorized us to spend another 2hr diagnostics on top of the already completed 1hr diagnostics in order to do further diagnostic work to see how severe the crankshaft may be worn and if the motor would require removal for the repairs that were going to be needed. We found a worn-out crankshaft gear and a broken cam chain guide both of which would require the complete removal of the cylinder head at the very least. Since this unit is a 12 yr old ATV, was equipped with snorkels, oversized mud tires, a lift kit and a relocated radiator sitting right on top of the motor requiring it all to be removed in order to any of the repair work needed he was quoted a price slightly higher than would be on a completely stock unit as should be expected. His quote was $2584.99.

At this point I called Mr Long again to explain all this to him and gave him his options listed below

1: Pick it up as is 3 hr labor for the tear down and Diagnosis $316.00

2: Fix it for $2584.99 keep in mind this price is to do the top end only not the crank as well which we already found to be very worn and in our opinion not usable as it would be a safety concern however we gave him to option to reuse the crank in order to save him some money on the rebuild but explained it would be his choice and at his own risk as we did not advise this and could not guarantee its safety or integrity if not replaced with new

Prior to Mr. Longs unit go on the bench for diagnostics it malfunctioned and stopped running, which he was notified and explained of the situation. Our professional opinion was that whatever was making the loud knocking noise (the reason he brought it in) broke further and caused it to shut off. At our first 1hr diag. we found the extremely worn cam chain but did not have enough time to diag further and were not sure why It shut off. We obtained an additional authorization from MR long for 2 additional hrs labor for further Diagnostics to find the source of the Knocking noise only, during the 2hr diagnostics we found that some one had incorrectly installed a brand new aftermarket stator in this unit causing the unit to stop running and would cause a safety concern making reassembly of this unit with these broken components not only impossible. As previously mentioned, the unit was just purchased by Mr. Long prior to bringing it to us and he had no knowledge of its condition or any other issues that it may have then what he originally brought it in for.

What do you get from Brad at Martin's Yamaha of Ocala when you take a RUNNING Grizzly 700 in for DIAGNOSIS of a faint top end knock???

1.) A 3 week wait time

2.) A call saying that they think its the timing chain after an 1 hour of diagnosis and need another 2 hours to "totally figure ... it out"

3.) A 2,584.99 quote to fix it

4.) A NON RUNNING ATV and a box of parts when you decline to have it repaired.

Apparently, diagnosis work means "tear down" work. If you want it back together, you gotta pay for that too with no promise it will run like it did when we brought it in. So 316.00 dollars later for 2.5 hours of "diagnostic work" and they brought the 4 wheeler out to the trailer on a fork lift........handed the box of parts over and said "bless your heart".