Melted lower fairing: Replaced under warranty?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : MV Agusta F4 : One Thread

After doing an oil change today, I notice the inside of the lower fairing (where it meets the side fairing is melted), burnt, and cracked. It's not noticeable from the outside but only when you take the lower fairing off.

Anyone know if dealers will replace body panels under warranty for exhaust heat damage?

-- Allan Gibbs (Phoenix, Arizona) (agibbs996@aol.com), December 08, 2002

Answers

I have just had the exact same thing. I've asked my dealer to talk to the importer and get it sorted. The importer is emailing MV in Italy to see what the story is. It's all very well if they replace the lower fairing but they need to address the actual problem.

Slight melting noticed at the 12,000k service and by the 18,000k service it had burnt and cracked. Same as you, can't see it from the outside but take the fairing off to clean it and what a surprise you get !!

-- Matt Thompson (matthewt@nitor.co.nz), December 09, 2002.


Mine was replaced under warranty. When it was Cagiva/MV told my dealers to make some adjustments to the headers (supposedly to put more distance between the pipe and the fairing). But that didn't seem to help much as I'm about to go talk to them about getting it replaced again as it is burnt. A friend found a way to put a spacer between the pipes and the fairing so when (if) they replace mine again I'm going to try that. I'm also going to contact QB Carbon because I remember reading that they created a new fairing mount for their race MVs to get around this problem

-- TP (tpoole@xnet.com), December 09, 2002.

I put on the thermal wrap to get around this and some other problems that ezhaust heat causes. My heat shield was coming off on the inside so I glued it back on. I'm not sure there would be much reason to change your fairing if it's not noticeable from the outside and doesn't otherwise cause a safety problem...

I would be interested to hear in an additional fairing mount. I was kind of disappointed to see that the entire fairing kind of just hangs there and has the opportunity to flop from side to side and rest on the headers (possibly) in a corner.

Anyway, I'm slowly but surely finishing my thermal wrap project. The headers were relatively easy compared to the rest because there were no spring mounts and joints...

-- Andy Ruhl (quadreverb@yahoo.com), December 09, 2002.


Hi Andy. I was thinking of your thermal wraps, as I was changing the oil yesterday. If I had thermal wraps around the headers, wouldn't oil be spilt on it during an oil change? For the oil change, I don't disconnect a header, just unscrew the filter.

Also, maybe a combination of moving the header and thermal wraps would solve the melting. Overall, it's not really a big problem. I'd also like to hear more of the spacer solution as well.

I was just thinking that some day, when the bike's out of warranty, the cracks and melting may split the lower fairing or cause it not to connect to the middle fairing properly. Thanks everyone for your responses! :)

-- Allan Gibbs (Phoenix, Arizona) (Agibbs996@aol.com), December 09, 2002.


At last a reason to live in the UK! My 2000 get's hot and the heat shields need to be glued back on fairly regularly but as it's much cooler over here I guess we don't get the burning problem. Anyone know how to adjust the headlight?

-- Grahame (glm.home@ntlworld.com), December 09, 2002.


Hi Allan. Yeah, the oil filter presents a problem. I decided to just not wrap the pipes near the oil filter for now. I think if I did it would present 2 problems: I may not be able to get my wrench in there as good as before, and oil on the wrap is no good (causes fires). I may do a "dry run" and wrap the pipes there and see what happens. I was thinking that if it works out OK, I would just wrap the pipes with some kind of plastic or something else not likely to get a hole in it while I drain the oil and remove the filter. I think it would be pretty hard to not get it on there though. For now I just have a spot with no wrap. It's about 10 inches long I guess.

To the post above: You adjust the headlight with the two allen head screws to each side of the light from the inside. Tightening makes it go up, but you have to tighten them at the same time or you will get some horizontal adjustment problems. When I say at the same time, I mean put a turn on one, then put a turn on the other and check your results. I shine the light on a wall and make a mark and watch my progress. The top edge of the light seems to have a very hard cutoff (I've complained about this before) so you have a line you can reference very easily. This hard cutoff is quite annoying at night. I needed up adjust my light quite a bit upwards as well so I could get some more range, but now everyone always flashes at me as if I had the brights on. Oh well.

-- Andy Ruhl (quadreverb@yahoo.com), December 09, 2002.


Andy Thanks for the information.

-- Grahame (glm.home@ntlworld.com), December 09, 2002.

Andy, do you warm up the bike before you change or do you do it while the engines been sitting a while and cold?

If you do it cold, you could probably just take some aluminum foil (the type used for food) fold and shape it like a funnel and place it below the oil filter, so it would basically catches the oil and diverts it to the pan. This may be an inexpensive way to avoid getting oil on the thermal wraps. Plastic over the wraps could then be used as a back up.

-- Allan Gibbs (Phoenix, Arizona) (Agibbs996@aol.com), December 09, 2002.


I placed a small diameter (approx 2.5 in) clamp on the back bolt of the rear brake master cylinder. The clamp has a hole to accomodate the bolt and rubber coating to prevent chafing. The effect is to push the right fairing out about a 1/2 inch. This is enough to clear it away from the header and allow some air flow. No more burning, and you don't notice the clamp as it is covered by your pristine fairing.

This was recommended by Eastside Motorsports and it really works.

Scott

-- cott Krane (a56healey@yahoo.com), December 09, 2002.


I had used 3 different methods for the burnt fairing problem. First the clamp solution of the prev. posting. It seems to hold the fairing in place, so when a hot bike is put on the side stand, the fairing (softer when warm) does not flop down on the headers. Second, I got the heat shields from MV-SP and replaced the ones that came with the bike (I 'm not sure how much this has helped btw). And third, I use the MV-SP manifolds and exhaust. These manifold seem to run a bit more inboard and create a better clearence on the side for the plastics.

-- Yannis (ydoganis@rcn.com), December 10, 2002.


Alan, I heard back from my dealer and they have a new lower fairing for me (covered under warranty). They are also going to put some tape/wrap on to prevent the problem from happening again.

-- Matt Thompson (matthewt@nitor.co.nz), December 16, 2002.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ