I bought my first bike ever, 04 GS500F, with 14,xxx miles and before i had a chance to even get my license i realized there was something wrong with the engine. Hauled it to the dealership as Ive never worked on motorcycles before and was slapped with a $1500 top end rebuild. WELL.......I was riding the other day and all of a sudden the bike started losing power no matter how much throttle/gearing i gave it. I pulled the clutch to shift again and it just died on me. I pulled to the side of the highway, tried to start it again and was greeted by a horrific metal-on-metal clicking with every rotation of the crank. It ran out of oil. I forgot to check it before i left my house that time...... :technical: ANYWAYS, ive only put about 300 miles on it since the top end rebuild and there are absolutely no oil leaks whatsoever. where the hell did all of my oil go?? assuming i need to recondition/rebuild the lower end now, how difficult is the actual labor and sourcing the parts for this going to be? im not taking it to another $80-90/hr shop and taking it up the butt again. worthless.
Either you leaked the oil or burned the oil if it is missing that much. I would think you would have seen exhaust smoke if it was burning oil that bad. Are you sure it ran out of oil? There may still be oil in the engine, you'd have to pull the drain plug to find out. The dipstick only measures the top quart of oil, there is still 1.5-2 quarts more it doesn't read. If you do pull the drain plug, filter the oil that comes out through a shop rag to check for metal shavings from the engine (a sign of internal damage).
I'm sorry to hear you spent that much already, with these bikes it is cheaper to pick up a used engine than trying to rebuild your current one, especially if you are paying other people to do the work.
Have you called the shop that worked on the bike?? I would do that before I do anything else (including drain the oil). I don't know how long it has been time wise but 300 miles is not very far. You may be under some warranty coverage with them if it is a fault in their work. An engine burns oil in the top end (valve seals/ piston rings) so if it actually did run out of oil due to burning they should be liable. Good luck!
-Jessie
It'd probally be cheaper to just buy a used motor off of ebay....
yeah thats what i was figuring.... i got it out of the shop in the first week of august. this happened almost a week ago. The shop is closed for the weekend but I will call them first thing monday morning and see what the hell happened. and I didnt know that about the dipstick...damn i need an owners manual. regardless, if I was going to grab a used engine off of ebay or wherever, are any certain year models easier to maintain? I know the 01+ models are slightly more modernized with the carbs/jets/tps and whatever...or are there any other stock engines that would fit the gs frame easily?
Buy one with a warranty. Much cheaper I would guess in your case.
Not a motor with warranty ... no such thang, a bike with a warranty.
Top end rebuild was 1500, man did they see you comming. Its 3-400 max. After which you're supposed to break it in for 300 or so miles.
BTW you ever check the oil after they gave it back to you ? Maybe they forgot to put in any.
Cool.
Buddha.
yeah i know, they completely took advantage of me. also kept my bike for 8 weeks. complete and utter absurdity. and now that i think about it I dont think I checked the oil after I got it back.....and i should have known about the break in period after the work was done but it would have been a lot more convenient had the shop foreman or the d*ckhead working the counter had told me that before i rode off. I dont even know what to do with this thing now. its not worth anything now and ive dumped thousands into it. FML haha the obscenity substitutions are hilarious.
You can't do anything about the money you've already spent, it's a sunk cost. The bike is not "worthless" though, it still has parts value at this point. You have to decide if you want to cut your losses and sell it for a couple hundred as a parts/project bike, dismantle it and sell the parts, or spend the money to fix it and enjoy it. You have nothing to loose by trying to do an engine swap yourself if you find one at a cheap price, it can't run any worse. Good luck!
-Jessie
Ok another question then.... how much *should* a reasonable shop, given about an $85/hr rate charge to do a top end rebuild? Same question for a bottom end job?