Sand damage: second opinion please

[chadsta]

I took my 2014 KTM 250EXC-F to the dealers for its first service and they checked valve clearances etc. after 1hrs use.
Then took it for a 3hr ride at the Sandpit (which is very sandy as the name suggests) and washed the bike afterwards that day.
Just going about installing the fan and once I had the tank off noticed the vent hose from the top of the cylinder head was off.

After about half an hour of freaking out I gave the KTM workshop a call, he said not to worry it only vents air and dirt cant get inside.
Reckons just clean it up and reattach it to the top of the head using the hose clamp.

Common sense tells me that sand anywhere near an engine is bad news and it must be opened up and checked out for damage.
The other concern is this hose normally runs from the engine head to the airbox area, need to have another look but I think it is AFTER the air filter.
So this means that dirt could have been sucked in to the engine via the loose hose without a visit to the filter.
Had a chat to the mechanic at Spectrum motorcycles and he used to work on KTMs and reckons I should be very concerned and it needs to be checked out.

What do you guys reckon?
Take it in and get it checked out before I land up with a scored barrel and basically a crushed engine.
I reckon this is KTMs responsibility because the bike was bought and serviced by ONLY them up until this point.
The bike has 4hrs on it and is about 2 months old.

[Akzle]

burn them.

[nzspokes]

I would be taking the rocker cover off to have a look. I would be worried about that motor now as you can see sand in that area. Sand is bad.

Talk to the owner of the shop. They wouldnt want the shop name getting out on this.

[BigAl]

Agreed, they did the work and should take responsibility for not reattaching breather hose.

I wouldn't touch it but take it back to them and get them to pull it down to look for damage.

If they don't play ball then escalate issue.

[chadsta]

300065

They have finally agreed to look at it again, spoke to a few experts and they reckon it definitely needs to come apart.
Scary thing is if I had not decided to install the fan kit then I would have been riding like this for months until I needed to take the tank off.

[BigAl]

Sweet & hopefully they'll pay more attention next time.

[random rider]

pretty bad that they told you it was ok and you had to get a second opinion......and that is why Spectrum rock - good honest advice.

My partners KTM was new and died in the first run in....7min in! Seems it had plastic wrap sucked into the engine, we had to push to get them to check it out as said fuel was issue! Sometimes I don't understand why companies take such a casual response to issues as NZ is pretty small and most people will provide feedback on said issues.

[gwynfryn]

I wonder if Cyclespot have got to big to quick?

[nzspokes]

pretty bad that they told you it was ok and you had to get a second opinion......and that is why Spectrum rock - good honest advice.



+1 on Spectrum. Good people.

[Jay GTI]

I have heard one story from a mate's mate (met him out riding, so the story came from the source) about Spectrum making a major cock-up on his bike during a service. Won't go into the details, but he took it back and they sorted it out without question.

Everyone makes mistakes, it's how people/companies handle them that proves their true value. A definite +1 for Spectrum on that count.