Dealership broke my bike who pays for what.

So I got swamped with work and dropped my 959 Panigale off at the local Ducati dealer for the 15K service. This is something I should have done but I have been trying to cut back on the work in the garage. Motor has never been touched before except oil changes. 

During the valve job they stripped a bold on the head badly during reassembly, then they drilled and tapped the damage and got a bloody tap stuck in the head of my bike.  They were trying to get the bike out the door as they were slammed. How you break a tap in aluminum I have no idea unless it was something cheap. This means pulling the head and having the tap removed, they apparently think they can get a welder in to weld a nut to the bolt with the head off and get the tap out or ALUM the tap out over time by eating away at it. Both of these services they do not have at the shop. Both would require dumping all the oil and the coolant they just put in the bike to do. Plus a head gasket and retiming. 

I have not had a mechanic touch something outside of warranty in 20 years, I do all my own work. Exactly who pays for what here. They keep quote me 2K for a new head if they cannot fix it. I pointed out you can get a new used head on eBay for like 150$ off a crashed bike. 

My opinion is you broke the bolt and then you damaged the head so you fix it on your dime. I don't see why I am paying for the bolt extraction or the transport or the head removal and reinstall hours on a job with a fresh motor and factory service pricing which is 2x what the independent is charging. 

What am I rationally on the hook for here. 

I cannot imagine a world in which I would be paying a single dime to the shop beyond what the estimate was for the 15k service.

wae said:

I cannot imagine a world in which I would be paying a single dime to the shop beyond what the estimate was for the 15k service.

+1. also, i'd be reading the fine print on whatever you signed when you authorized the service.

They broke it, they fix it in my opinion.     You agreed to a factory service by a competent service professional.  It sounds like a low tier hack was working on it.

Shops have insurance for this

Looks to me like they bought themselves a bike. Go pick a new V4 and have them take this on trade. 

This is how I ended up with a new R1 at a great discount in 2001. 

Sounds good to me. Thanks guys. 

Yeah, this ain't your monkey, this ain't your football, and you ain't the one that berkeleyed it. They should pay for all of it. Is there a factory rep in the dealer Network that you can elevate it to if they even give you the least hint of argument about that?

People when I mention I change my own oil are like; wow, you actually change your own oil?

Then I second guess myself - maybe I.....

If this all started with them stripping a bolt during reassembly, it doesn't seem to me like you would owe them a dime over what the original service would have cost you.

And a used head would be absolutely out of the question. Either they give you a new (or factory reconditioned) head, or they give you an extraordinarily good trade in value toward a new bike.

You may need an attorney for this one, but he shouldn't have to work very hard.

They honestly must return your bike to 100% "perfect"(to the level it was dropped-off at)--which only you can rightfully define.  Don't accept any compromise.

And while not obligated, they should in good conscience, eat your bill for the inconvenience of tying up your bike for what will be a length of time. 

Simple, you pay for nothing, they pay for it all. Any suggestion that differs from that is wrong. 

Ducati DEALER???  How dare they even THINK about suggesting you pay ANYTHING!

berkeley that. 

We have ONE competent Italian bike mechanic in the lower mainland of B.C.

He's swamped. He quit the lousy dealer and went out on his own when he saw how many people were requesting that he be the only one to work on their stuff.

I can see why after one of the other mechanics screwed up my bike.

I work on my own stuff now, always.

They broke it, they own it. As a Ducati shop they should know how to avoid issues like that in the first place, and that's what you pay for. You don't pay for them to get their act together when they berkeley things up.

The shocking thing is that after all this, they actually told you that you would need to pay them anything. 

Sorry to hear this .....

I had my  very rare car painted by a "very good"  shop , looked great but a few months after the job the paint started to crack !

they said "ohh bring it down and we will fix it "

WRONG :  the only way to fix it correctly was to take the whole car  down to bare metal and start again ,  and I know it was not going to be done "with Love"  but a redo and  just patch it ........So I gave up  and it sits with bad paint....

Get in contact with Ducati USA , do you really want these clowns messing with your bike anymore ?

Good Luck

The shop absolutely owes you everything up to, and including, a new engine if they can't repair yours.

Unfortunately you may be looking at hiring a lawyer if they flake out on you. 

I'll repeat, they have insurance for this type of thing. They won't want to make a claim, because their rates will go up, but not your problem.

Like everyone else said, they broke it, they fix it.  You shouldn't have to pay anything other than the initially agreed upon costs for the maintenance.

So went down and talked with the shop and to see what they did. Just like they said a tap is stuck in the valve cover bolt hole. Its a blind hole and the tap broke just below the surface of the head.  Taps in the shop were good quality and they took responsibility for the damage and are getting it repaired on their dime. Funniest thing is the valves were perfectly in spec so it was a 4 hour job all in. 15K of ripping around on a Ducati between three owners and god knows how many track days and it was still in spec. Tech said its not uncommon on the newer bikes. 

They said there was some corrosion on the head threads and book is to clean them each time. Not sure about that the others look fine but they have already been cleaned. Problem is that the tap is below the surface and its going to hard to tig something on it to pull it. A new head is more expensive then I thought and I want the original anyway. So I told them they have till the end of July to fix the bike. I have others so I am fine. 

But it sounds like the whole front end has to come off just to get clean access woooo. 

In reply to wearymicrobe :

That's good. Glad to hear it!

Maybe suggest to them that they get a set of thread chasers for cleaning threads :)

https://mechanicalmalarkey.com/2018/08/16/taps-dies-vs-thread-chasers-whats-the-difference/

We have a guy that does edm machining for broken tool steel here. Fixes exactly this kind of thing!

I didn't know edm was a thing until working in the industrial world. 

I have used EDM for very precise injection molds but never for removing a tap or a stuck part. Its a non issue here it would be way cheaper to just replace the head then send it out but its a cool idea. 

I want to try ALUM for some time to pull one or something like this https://www.chemical-supermarket.com/Tap-X-Broken-Tap-Removal-Kit-p574.html but I have yet to break on in a place I could not get out.  

You don't chase threads with a tap.